NAZARENES (Ναζωραῖοι), an obscure Jewish-Christian sect,
existing at the time of Epiphanius (fl. A.D. 370) in Coele-Syria,
Decapolis (Pella) and Basanitis (Cocabe). According to that
authority (Panarion, xxix. 7) they dated their settlement in
Pella from the time of the flight of the Jewish Christians
from Jerusalem, immediately before the siege in A.D. 70; he
characterizes them as neither more nor less than Jews pure and
simple, but adds that they recognized the new covenant as well as
the old, and believed in the resurrection, and in the one God and
His Son Jesus Christ. He cannot say whether their christological
views were identical with those of Cerinthus and his school, or
whether they differed at all from his own. But Jerome (Ep. 79,
to Augustine) says that they believed in Christ the Son of God,
born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, and
rose again, but adds that, “desiring to be both Jews and
Christians, they are neither the one nor the other.” They used
the Aramaic recension of the Gospel according to Matthew,
which they called the Gospel to the Hebrews, but, while adhering
as far as possible to the Mosaic economy as regarded circumcision,
sabbaths, foods and the like, they did not refuse to recognize the
apostolicity of Paul or the rights of heathen Christians (Jer.,
Comm. in Isa., ix. 1). These facts, taken along with the name
(cf. Acts xxiv. 5) and geographical position of the sect, lead
to the conclusion that the Nazarenes of the 4th century are, in
spite of Epiphanius’s distinction, to be identified with the
Ebionites (q.v.).
NAZARETH (mod. en-Nāṣira), a town in Galilee, in a hollow
of the hills on the southern border of the plain of Esdraelon.
It first appears as a village (John i. 46) in which Joseph and Mary
lived (Luke i. 26) and to which they returned from Egypt
(Matt. ii. 23). Here the unrecorded years of Christ’s boyhood
were spent. From the name of the town comes naṣāra (i.e.
“Nazarenes”), the ordinary oriental word for “Christians.”
There was here a synagogue (Matt. xiii. 54) in which Christ
preached the sermon that led to his rejection by his fellow townsmen.
The growth of legends and traditional identifications can
be traced in the writings of the pilgrims who have visited the
town from Jerome’s time till our own. For none of these can
anything be said, save that it is possible that the village spring
(called “St Mary’s Well”) is the same as that used in the time of
Christ. A large basilica stood here about A.D. 600: the crusaders
transferred here the bishopric of Scythopolis. It was taken by
Saladin in 1187. In 1517 it was captured by the Turks. The
population is now estimated at about 3500 Moslems and 6500
Christians; there are numerous schools, hospitals, &c., conducted
by Greeks, Latins and Protestants. Visitors are shown the
“Church of the Annunciation” with caves (including a fragment
of a pillar hanging from the ceiling, and said to be miraculously
supported) which are described as the scene of the annunciation,
the “workshop of Joseph,” the “synagogue,” and a stone table,
said to have been used by Christ.
NAZARITE, or rather Nazirite, the name given by the Hebrews to a peculiar kind of devotee. The characteristic marks of a Nazarite were unshorn locks and abstinence from wine (Judges xiii. 5; 1 Sam. i. 11; Amos ii. 11 seq.); but full regulations for the legal observance of the Nazarite vow are given in Num. vi., where every product of the grape-vine is forbidden, and the Nazarite is enjoined not to approach a dead body, even that of his nearest relative. The law in question is in its present form post-exilic, and is plainly directed to the regulation of a known usage. It contemplates the assumption of the vow for a limited period only, and gives particular details as to the atoning ceremonies at the sanctuary by which the vow must be recommenced if broken by accidental defilement, and the closing sacrifice, at which the Nazarite on the expiry of his vow cuts off his hair and burns it on the altar, thus returning to ordinary life. Among the later Jews the Nazarite vow, of course, corresponded with the legal ordinance, which was further developed by the scribes in their usual manner (Mishna, tractate Nāzīr; cf. 1 Macc. iii. 49; Acts xxi. 23 seq.; Joseph. Ant. xix. 6. 1, Wars ii. 15. 1). On the other hand, in the earliest historical case, that of Samson, and in the similar case of Samuel (who, however, is not called a Nazarite), the head remains unshorn throughout life, and in these times the ceremonial observances as to uncleanness must have been less precise. Samson’s mother is forbidden to eat unclean things during pregnancy, but Samson himself touches the carcass of a lion and is often in contact with the slain, nor does he abstain from giving feasts.[1]
In the cases of Samuel and Samson the unshorn locks are a mark of consecration to God (Judges xiii. 5) for a particular service—in the one case the service of the sanctuary, in the other the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines. Since, moreover, the Hebrew root n-z-r is only dialectically different from n-d-r, “to vow,” both corresponding to the same original Semitic root (Arab. n-dh-r), it would seem that the peculiar marks of the Nazarite are primarily no more than the usual sign that a man is under a vow of some kind. To leave the locks unshorn during an arduous undertaking in which the divine aid was specially implored, and to consecrate the hair after success, was a practice among various ancient nations, but the closest parallel to the Hebrew custom is found in Arabia.[2] There the vow was generally one of war or revenge, and, till it was accomplished, the man who vowed left his hair unshorn and unkempt, and abstained from wine, women, ointment and perfume. Such is the figure of Shanfara as described in his Lāmīya. The observances of the ihrām (period of consecration) belong to the same usage (see Mecca), and we find that at Tāif it was customary to shear the hair at the sanctuary after a journey. The consecration of Samuel has also its Arabic parallel in the dedication of an unborn child by its mother to the service of the Kaʽba (Ibn Hishām, p. 76; Azraḳī, p. 128). The spirit of warlike patriotism that characterized the old religion of Israel could scarcely fail to encourage such vows (cf. 2 Sam. xi. 11, and perhaps 1 Sam. xxi. 4 seq.), and from the allusion in Amos we are led to suppose that at one time the Nazarites had an importance—perhaps even an organization—parallel to that of the prophets, but of a very different religious type from the Canaanite nature-worship.
See Rechabites; Encyc. Bibl. col. 3362 seq.; G. B. Gray, Numbers, pp. 56-61; E. Kautzsch (l.c. n. 1 below); W. R. Harper, Amos and Hosea, p. li. sq., with references. (W. R. S.; S. A. C.)
NAZARIUS (4th century A.D.), Latin rhetorician and panegyrist,
was, according to Ausonius, a professor of rhetoric at
Burdigala (Bordeaux). The extant speech of which he is undoubtedly
the author (in E. Bährens, Panegyrici Latini, No. 10)
was delivered in 321 to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the
accession of Constantine the Great, and the fifth of his son
Constantine’s admission to the rank of Caesar. The preceding
speech (No. 9), celebrating the victory of Constantine over
Maxentius, delivered in 313 at Augusta Trevirorum (Trier),
has often been attributed to Nazarius, but the difference in style
and vocabulary, and the more distinctly Christian colouring of
Nazarius’s speech, are against this.
See M. Schanz, Geschichte der römischen Litteratur, iii. (1896); Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans., 1900), 401. 6.
NEAGH, LOUGH, the largest lake (Irish, “lough”) in the British Isles, situated in the north-east of Ireland, in the province of Ulster, its waters being divided between counties Antrim (N. and E.), Down (S.E.), Armagh (S.), Tyrone and Londonderry (W.). Its shape is an irregular oblong, its extreme measurements being 18 m. from N.E. to S.W., 16 from N. to S., and 11 from E. to W. Its circumference, without including minor indentations, is about 64 m., and its area 98,255 acres or about 153 sq. m. The shores are generally flat and marshy, or very gently sloping, but flat-topped hills rise near the northern shore, where the lake reaches its extreme depth of 102 ft. The mean height above sea-level is 48 ft. Though the lough receives a large number of
- ↑ The prohibition to Samson’s mother to abstain from wine does not appear to belong to the original narrative (see E. Kautzsch, Hastings’s D.B. v. 657 col. b, following Böhme). John the Baptist is a later example of lifelong consecration (Luke i. 15); cf. also the tradition as to James the Just (Euseb. H.E. ii. 23).
- ↑ On consecration of the hair, see Spencer, De Legibus Hebr. iii. 1. 6; I. Goldziher, Rev. Hist. Rel. xiv. 49 sqq. (1886); J. G. Frazer, Golden Bough2, i. 368 sqq.; and W. R. Smith, Rel. Sem.2, Index s.v. “hair.”
