or **NAZAREAN**, or **Nazarines**, a term which may signify, 1. One that is of Nazareth, or any native of this city. 2. It was given to Jesus Christ and his disciples, and is commonly taken in a sense of derision and contempt in such authors as have written against Christianity. 3. It has been taken for a sect of heretics called Nazareans. 4. For a Nazarite, a man that has laid himself under the obligation of a vow to observe the rules of Nazariteship, whether it be for his whole life, as Samson and John the Baptist, or only for a time, as those mentioned in Numbers vi. 18, 19, 20. Amos ii. 11, 12. Lastly, The name Nazarite, in some passages of Scripture, denotes a man of particular distinction and great dignity in the court of some prince. But we must speak of these several sorts of Nazarites something more distinctly.

The name of Nazarene belongs to Jesus Christ, not only because of his having lived the greatest part of his life at Nazareth, and because this city has always been considered as his country, but also because the prophets had foretold that he should be called a Nazarene, Matth. ii. 23. "And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene." We find no particular place in the prophets in which it is said that the Messiah should be called a Nazarene; and St Matthew only quotes the prophets in general. Perhaps he would intimate, that the consecration of the Nazarites, and the great purity of which they made profession, was a type and a sort of prophecy of those of our Saviour, or else that the name נזיר Nazir or Nazarite given to the patriarch Joseph, Gen. xlii. 26. Deut. xxxiii. 16. was a prophecy which was to be fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ, of whom Joseph was a figure. Lastly, St Jerome was of opinion, that St Matthew here alludes to that passage of Isaiah xi. 1. and lx. 21. "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch (in Hebrew Nezer) shall grow out of his roots." This branch or Nezer, and this rod, are certainly intended to denote Jesus Christ, by the general consent of all the fathers and interpreters.

When the word Nazarean is put for the heretics known by this name, it denotes Christians converted from Judaism, whose chief error consisted in defending the necessity or expediency of the works of the law, and who obstinately adhered to the practice of the Jewish ceremonies. The name of Nazarenes at first had nothing odious in it, and it was often given to the first Christians. The fathers frequently mention the gospel of the Nazarenes, which differs nothing from that of St Matthew, which was either in Hebrew or Syriac, for the use of the first converts, but was afterwards corrupted by the Ebionites. These Nazareans preserved this first gospel in its primitive purity. Some of them were still in being in the time of St Jerome, who does not reproach them with any error. They were very zealous observers of the law of Moses, but held the traditions of the Pharisees in very great contempt.

Nazarite, when put to signify those under the ancient law who made a vow of observing a more than ordinary degree of purity (Numb. ubi cit.), denotes a man or woman who engage themselves by a vow to abstain from wine and all intoxicating liquors, to let their hair grow without cutting or shaving, not to enter into any house that was polluted by having a dead corpse in it, nor to be present at any funeral. And if by chance any one should have died in their presence, they began again the whole ceremony of their consecration and Nazariteship. This ceremony generally lasted eight days, sometimes a month, and sometimes their whole lives. When the time of their Nazariteship... Nazarite ship was accomplished, the priest brought the person to the door of the temple, who there offered to the Lord a he lamb for a burnt-offering, a he lamb for an expiatory sacrifice, and a ram for a peace-offering. They offered likewise loaves and cakes, with wine neccesary for the libations. After all this was sacrificed and offered to the Lord, the priest or some other shaved the head of the Nazarite at the door of the tabernacle, and burnt his hair, throwing it upon the fire of the altar. Then the priest put into the hand of the Nazarite the shoulder of the ram roasted, with a loaf and a cake, which the Nazarite returning into the hands of the priest, he offered them to the Lord, lifting them up in the presence of the Nazarite. And from this time he might again drink wine, his Nazariteship being now accomplished.

As to those that were perpetual Nazarites, as were Samson and John the Baptist, it appears that they were consecrated to their Nazariteship by their parents, and continued all their lives in this state without drinking wine or cutting their hair.

Those that made a vow of Nazariteship out of Palestine, and could not come to the temple when their vow was expired, contented themselves with observing the abstinence required by the law, and after that cutting their hair in the place where they were: as to the offerings and sacrifices prescribed by Moses, which were to be offered at the temple by themselves, or by others for them, they deferred this till they could have a convenient opportunity. Hence it was, that St Paul being at Corinth, and having made the vow of a Nazarite, he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea, and put off fulfilling the rest of his vow till he should arrive at Jerusalem, Acts xviii., 18. When a person found that he was not in a condition to make a vow of Nazariteship, or had not leisure to perform the ceremonies belonging to it, he contented himself by contributing to the expense of the sacrifice and offerings of those that had made and fulfilled this vow; and by this means he became a partaker in the merit of such Nazariteship.

When St Paul came to Jerusalem, in the year of Christ 58, the apostle St James the Less, with the other brethren, said to him, Acts xxi. 23, 24, that to quiet the minds of the converted Jews, who had been informed that he everywhere preached up the entire abolition of the law of Moses, he ought to join himself to four of the faithful who had a vow of Nazariteship upon them, and contribute to the charge of the ceremony at the shaving of their heads; by which the new converts would perceive that he continued to keep the law, and that what they had heard of him was not true.

The Hebrew word Nazir, or Nazarite, which is made use of to express a man exalted to great dignity, as it is said of the patriarch Joseph, Gen. xlii. 26, and Deut. xxiii. 16, "that he was separated from his brethren," as it is in our translation; or as the Vulgate and others understand the Hebrew, "that he was a Nazarite among his brethren," is variously understood. Some think that the Hebrew word נזיר, Nazir, in these places, signifies one who is crowned, chosen, separated, or distinguished; the word כתר, Nazir, signifies a crown. The Septuagint translate this word a chief, or him that is honoured. Calmet thinks that this was a term of dignity in the courts of eastern princes, and that at this day in the court of Persia the word Nazir signifies the superintendent-general of the king's household, the chief officer of the crown, the high steward of his family, treasurers, and revenues; and that in this sense Joseph was the Nazir of the court of Pharaoh. Le Clerc translates the Nazir, a prince, and calls Joseph "the prince of his brethren," in the two places already quoted. Mr Pool declares in favour of this last translation. See Joseph, Chardin, Chrysost. St Jerome, &c.