During the period after James's death the revolt of 135 C.E., nascent Christianity in Palestine clearly viewed itself as a Jewish denomination that adhered to the Law of Moses. However, this was a period of increasing tension between the followers of Yashua and other Jews. Abandoning Jerusalem when it was threatened is likely to have caused those who remained behind to defend their city to see the Nazarenes as traitors or cowards.
The Talmud explains that in 90 CE, "Our Rabbis taught: Simeon ha-Pakuli arranged the eighteen benedictions in order before Rabban Gamaliel in Jabneh. Said Rabban Gamaliel {Rabban Gamaliel II, the Nasi', or leader of the rabbis) to the Sages: `Can any one among you frame a benediction relating to the Minim [sects]?' Samuel the Lesser arose and composed it." (b.Berakot 29a).
This benediction, the birkat ha-minnim, a was a "blessing" (a euphemism for "cursing" in this case) of all of the heretics (the minim) among the Jews. This "blessing" was added into the Eighteen Benedictions that were spoken by Jewish congregations during their worship at synagogues. It became the twelfth section of the Eighteen Benedictions (or the shemoneh esreh, which is commonly called the Amida today because they are always recited standing). It invoked divine wrath upon the "heretics". Although modern versions no longer specifically list Christian Jews as a subject of this curse, the older Cairo Genizah version reads this way:
"For the renegades let there be no hope, and may the arrogant kingdom soon be rooted out in our days, and the Nazarenes and the Minim perish as in a moment and be blotted out from the book of life and with the righteous may they not be inscribed. Blessed are you, O L-rd, who humbles the arrogant.
Since Jews who accepted Yahshua as the Messiah were numbered among those viewed by the rabbis as "heretics" (and quite possibly even held to be the prime example of the heretical groups), the inclusion of the birkat ha-minnim in worship at the synagogues had the effect of causing Jewish "Christians" to no longer attend synagogue worship where they would be required to pronounce this curse upon themselves.
The hostility of the rabbis towards Jewish Christianity during this period is also exemplified by two other events that likely occurred around 109 CE. The first is recounted in the Tosephta:
"The case of R. El'azar ben Damah, whom a serpent bit. There came in Jacob, a man of Chephar Sama, to cure him in the name of Jeshua' ben Pandira [a rabbinic euphemism for Jesus], but R[abbi]. Ishmael did not allow it. He said, 'Thou art not permitted, Ben Damah.' He [Rabbi Ben Damah] said, 'I will bring thee a proof that he may heal me.' But he had not finished bringing a proof when he died. R. Ishmael said, 'Happy art though, Ben Damah, for thou hast departed in peace, and hast not broken through the ordinances of the wise; for upon every one who breaks through the fence of the wise, punishment comes at last, as it is written [Eccles. 10:8]: "Whoso breaketh a fence a serpent shall bite him"" (t. Hul. 2.22,23).
Shortly after this event in which Ben Damah was forbidden to accept healing at the hands of Jewish Christians, probably during a general effort by the Romans to arrest Christians during the reign of Trajan, a rabbi named R. Eliezar was arrested on suspicion of being a Christian:
"The case of R. Eliezer, who was arrested for Minuth [i.e., heresy], and they brought him to the tribunal for judgment. The governor said to him, 'Doth an old man like thee occupy himself with such things?' He said to him, 'Faithful is the judge concerning me.' The governor supposed that he only said this of him, but he was not thinking of any but his Father who is in Heaven. He [the governor] said to him, 'Since I am trusted concerning thyself, thus also I will be. I said, perhaps these societies err concerning these things. Dimissus, Behold thou art released.' And when he had been released from the tribunal, he was troubled because he had been arrested for Minuth. His disciples came in to console him, but he would not take comfort. R. Aqiba came in and said to him, 'Rabbi, shall I say to thee why thou art perhaps grieving?' He said to him, 'Say on'. He said to him, 'Perhaps one of the minim has said to thee a word of Minuth and it has pleased thee.' He said, 'By Heaven, thou has reminded me! Once I was walking along the street of Sepphoris, and I met Jacob of Chephar Sichnin, and he said to me a word of Minuth in the name of Jeshu ben Pantiri, and it pleased me. And I was arrested for words of Minuth because I transgressed the words of Torah [Prov. 5:8], "Keep thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house, [7:26] for she hat cast down many wounded"" (t. Hul. 2.24).
What Samuel the Lesser composed was a prayer that effectively excluded the Nazarenes from worship within the synagogues. This is clearest in an early copy of his Birkat haMinim found at the Cairo Genizah reads: "For the renegades let there be no hope, and may the arrogant kingdom soon be rooted out in our days, and the Nazarenes and the Minim perish as in a moment and be blotted out from the book of life and with the righteous may they not be inscribed. Blessed are you, O L-rd, who humbles the arrogant."
The Nazaraeans continued to be stigmatized by other Jews into the fourth century, when Epiphanius reported about 370 CE that, "Not only do Jewish people have a hatred of them; they even stand up at dawn, at midday, and toward evening, three times a day when they recite their prayers in the synagogues, and curse and anathemize them. Three times a day they say, "G-d curse the Nazarenes." For they harbor an extra grudge against them, if you please, because despite their Jewishness, they proclaim that Y'shua is Messiah. . ." (Panarion, 29).
The Nazaraeans "gathered" especially to Syria, where they endured for some time with their own distinctive style that differed from that of Gentile Christianity elsewhere. Remember that in those days, the church was not unified the way we expect it to be in these days of mass communication and rapid travel around the globe. Rather each community of believers was isolated, a religious assembly of its own. So with the death of the Apostles something interesting happened: the Christian communities in the dominant centers of Roman culture were the ones that played the dominant roles in eventually forming the Church that was unified under the encouragement of Constantine that the Church be united. The Nazaraeans, still predominantly located in the backwaters of Syria, with their more "Jewish" style came to be labelled "heritics" by the Catholic church. They eventually became extinct, but we can read about them in the writings of some of the Apostolic Fathers. In the fourth century, the Church Father Jerome described these Nazaraeans as those "...who accept Messiah in such a way that they do not cease to observe the old Law" (Jerome; On. Is. 8:14).
In the same century, Epiphanius describes them in more detail this way:
But these sectarians... did not call themselves Christians--but "Nazarenes," . . .
However they are simply complete Jews. They use not only the New Testament but the Old Testament as well, as the Jews do. . . They have no different ideas, but confess everything exactly as the Law proclaims it and in the Jewish fashion-- except for their belief in Messiah, if you please! For they acknowledge both the resurrection of the dead and the divine creation of all things, and declare that God is one, and that his son is Y'shua the Messiah. They are trained to a nicety in Hebrew. For among them the entire Law, the Prophets, and the... Writings... are read in Hebrew, as they surely are by the Jews. They are different from the Jews, and different from Christians, only in the following. They disagree with Jews because they have come to faith in Messiah; but since they are still fettered by the Law--circumcision, the Sabbath, and the rest--they are not in accord with Christians.... they are nothing but Jews.... They have the Goodnews according to Matthew in its entirety in Hebrew. For it is clear that they still preserve this, in the Hebrew alphabet, as it was originally written. (Panarion 29)
The Damascus Document of the Qumran sect provides further details about this exodus from Jerusalem by the Nazarenes. It speaks of "... the converts of Israel, who left the land of Judah and lived in the Land of Damascus all of whom God called princes" (DD-VI) and of a faction that "... despised the covenant [of God] and the pact which they established in the land of Damascus, which is the first covenant. And neither for them nor their families shall there be a part in the house of the law.... And from the day of the gathering in [killing] of the Unique Teacher, until the destruction of all the men of war who turned back with the man of lies, there shall be about 40 years.... And in this age the wrath of God will be kindled against Israel" (DD-XX). In other words, some time about 70 CE, a faction developed within the Nazarenes whose loyalties impelled them to return to Jerusalem to defend it against the Roman attack.
Rejection of the Nazaraeans by their fellow Jews was exacerbated by the revolt of the Jews against Rome in 135 CE. This revolt was led by Simon Ben Cosiba, who changed his name to Simon Bar Kochba ("Son of the Star') and declared himself the promised Messiah who would lead the Jews to independence from Roman domination. His status as the Messiah was supported by Rabbi Akiba, whose great prestige led to general support for the cause of the revolt. Nazarenes, who believed that Jesus was the Messiah, were unwilling to participate, so once again they were seen as traitors to their own Judaism.
On the other hand, their loyalty to their own Jewish roots continued to set themselves off from nonPalestinian Christianity, where they were viewed as heretics for not abandoning the Law of Moses. As Jews, the growing anti-Semitism of second century Christianity also attached to them. This marginal position with respect to Christianity continued to exist down to the time of the Council of Nicea, in which Christianity formalized its doctrine of the Trinity. As heretics, the Nazarenes were not allowed to participate in that council, so they remained uninfluential in affecting the course of future Christianity. By 450 CE they disappear from history.
