Nazarenes

Definition: Nazarenes were early, Jewish adherents of Christianity. The Nazarenes were followers of John the Baptist and then James the Just, brother of Jesus. The word Nazarene comes from a Hebrew word for branch and may be the first term used to describe followers of Jesus. When the split came between Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus by the 3rd-4th century, the Nazarenes fared better than the Ebionites in the estimation of the Gentiles, because the Nazarenes accepted some aspects of the divinity of Jesus.