patristic testimonies reconsidered tributaries of the Church and any of its power and stone will pass. Also the
philosophers and every perverse dogma will turn their backs to the sign of
the cross. Because this is the meaning of the Lord that his will take place,
whosefireorlightisinSionandhisoveninJerusalem.
(Comm. Isa. .–; trans. Klijn & Reinink ).The passage reveals a viewpoint that is nothing short of the formative
Catholic view: The Jews are expected to convert and accept the apostolic
faith. In order to do so, they will have to abandon their worship of idols,
which—as was shown above—is the same as following Jewish traditions.
Consequently, the young men of Israel, who earlier had fought with the
devil against the Christians, will become the tributaries of the Church.
Finally,theconclusionofthepassagealsoindicatesthat,despiteitssharp
criticism of the Scribes and the Pharisees, the Nazarenes’ exposition was
also attacking the “philosophers” and other “perverse dogmas.” Thus the
Nazarenes guarded their dogmatic frontiers much like the church fathers
themselves.The Nazarenes’ Interpretation of Isa :–: The Dating of the
Exposition
On the basis of the rabbis named in the quotations, the passages cannot
be dated earlier than the mid-second century. However, the quotation
that deals with Isaiah :– may give us further evidence about the
time of the composition of the Nazarene’s commentary.
What we understood to have been written about the devil and his angels,
theNazoreansbelievetohavebeensaidagainsttheScribesandthePhar-
isees, because theδευτερωτα,passed away, who earlier deceived the peo-
ple with very vicious traditions. And they watch night and day to deceive
the simple ones who made men sin against the Word of God in order that
they should deny that Christ was the Son of God.
(Comm. Isa. .–; trans. Klijn & Reinink ).Since the exposition also indicates that theδευτερωτα—the church
fathers’ standard expression for early rabbis—have passed away and states
that these dead teachers should not be consulted, it is to be assumed that
the writer(s) of the exposition were confronted with Jewish teachers who
already had the Mishnah in their hands, and that the Mishnah had also
been established as authoritative teaching. If this is correct, then the most
likely time of composition for the expositions would be the late third
or early fourth century. Because the comments were written in Hebrew
script and the writer was acquainted with Targumic traditions, the writer
must have been a Jewish convert.