patristic testimonies reconsidered Augustine does, in Jerome’s view), that person is cursed. Therefore, one
should not build any concept of the character of the Nazarenes on this
passage.
The Nazarenes and the Rabbis
A much more reliable source for information about the Nazarenes is the
Nazarenes’ explanation of Isaiah, quoted by Jerome in hisCommentaryon
Isaiah, written around /. Jerome’s commentary contains five quo-
tations from the Nazarenes’ explanation. Three of these are to be found
in one block, at the end of Isaiah and in the beginning of Isaiah . The
remaining two are in Isa :– and :–. All these quotations exem-
plify the Nazarenes’ highly critical attitude towards the early rabbis and
their tradition. Because Jerome does not draw on the Nazarenes’ com-
mentary in any other connection or even refer to the work in any of his
writings, he probably did not have the entire explanation available. More
likely, he was only using a Nazarene collection of prophetic testimonies
against the “scribes and the Pharisees” that he had either received from
the “Nazarenes” or that was connected to them for some other reason.^80
The Nazarenes’ Interpretation of Isa :: The “Scatterer” and the
“Unholy”
At the beginning of the first quotation, Jerome introduces the Nazarenes
as the ones “who accept Christ in such a way that they do not cease
to observe the old law.” The quoted explanation itself concerns the two
houses mentioned in Isaiah :.^81
According to Jerome,
the Nazarenes... explain the two houses as the two families, viz. of
Shammai and Hillel, from whom originated the Scribes and the Pharisees.
Akiba who took over their school is called the master of Aquila the
proselyte and after him came Meir who has been succeeded by Joannes
the son of Zakkai and after him Eliezer and further Telphon, and next
Ioseph Galilaeus and Josua up to the capture of Jerusalem. Shammai then
and Hillel were born not long before the Lord, they originated in Judea.(^80) Schmidtke , – assumed that Jerome had received the information about
the Nazarenes’ Isaiah exegesis from his teacher Apollinaris. The assumption is a part of
Schmidtke’s—generally dismissed—hypothesis that both Jerome and Epiphanius (inPan.
) derived their information about the Nazarenes from Apollinaris.
(^81) Isaiah :: “... but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to
stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap
and a snare.”