Nazoraians

"Nazorian" was a label given to early followers of Christ.

Origins

There are two different Greek words which are both said by Strong to mean “of Nazareth”: Ναζαρηνός (3479), always “Nazarene” here, and Ναζωραῖος (3480), always “Nazoraian” here. The A. V. often translates either word “of Nazareth”, and Ναζαρηνός is the more proper of the two forms for that. Thayer does not put “of Nazareth” in his definition for Ναζωραῖος. According to Moulton - Geden, which some mss. may vary from, Ναζαρηνός is found at Mark 1:24, 10:47, 14:67, 16:6; Luke 4:34 and 24:19, and Ναζωραῖος is found at Matt. 2:23 and 26:71; Luke 18:37; John 18:5 and 7, and 19:19; Acts 2:22, 3:6, 4:10, 6:14, 22:8, 24:5, and 26:9.

It is evident that the sect of Christians was called “Nazoraians”, and Josephus writes of the sect about this same time, which Whiston translated “Nazirites”, at Antiquities 19.6.1 (19:294), which can only be referring to Christians. For “Nazirite” in the Old Testament see Numbers chapter 6; Judges. 13:5 and 7, 16:17; Lam. 4:7; and Amos 2:11-12, where in the LXX Greek the word was translated from Hebrew as “consecrated ones”.

Before the Judaean followers of Christ were called “Christians” after Yahshua Christ, they were called “Nazoraians” after Yahshua the Nazoraian, evident at Acts 24:5. Initially the jews would not refer to the followers of Christ as “Christians”, nor would they call Jesus the Christ, because the very use of the name admitted the truth! This is why Paul is called in Acts Chapter 25 “a leader of the sect of the Nazoraians”.

That Christ was to be called a Nazarene, is a literal interpretation of the Hebrew word for branch, which is netzar, Strong's number 5342, which is translated branch at Isaiah 11:1. This word also apparently gave the town of Nazareth its name.