Yes, he lived and died a Jew but established the Church. The very earliest of his followers continued to worship in the synagogues. He was also buried as a Jew…Question Was Jesus a Christian or did he live and die a Jew ? The Gospels seem to indicate he lived and died a Jew. Are they to be believed ?
If Paul supposedly founded Christianity, what were those who followed James called?Because his followers in Jerusalem, particularly those around James continued, as Jesus had, to follow the Jewish faith alongside the messianic teaching. It was Paul who created the Greek Christ as against the Jewish Jesus and founded Christianity. What is striking about the Letter of James set against those of Paul is its Jewish theology. I believe, and faith is always a matter of belief, that the followers of Jesus practiced a radical Judaism and that Christianity rejected the teachings that Jesus subscribed to. He worshiped in the synagogue not in a church; he claimed he came not to change the Law , not to subvert the Jewish faith, he claimed he was the messiah ( a very Jewish concept) and he had come NOT to establish a new faith but to preach the coming of God’s Kingdom and the Year of Jubilee.
I can see why they would have been called Nazarenes. He was Jesus from Nazareth. Is that how it is said in Aramaic which Catholics know is the language He spoke.The earliest followers of Jesus in Jerusalem were called Nazarenes. This comes from historical sources other than the Gospels. The conflict between Paul and James, the brother of Jesus, has been largely ignored or watered down by Christian writers.
If Jesus founded the Christian Church then why was he never call “the Christ” by his followers ? Anyone who studies the subject will see that the way we pronounce “Jesus Christ” in English is not the way our Saviour would have pronounced his own name when he walked the earth as a human being. The common language of first century Judea and Galilee was Aramaic, a language very similar to ancient Hebrew. Those of us who consider it important to pronounce the Messiah’s name exactly as He say Yeshua rather than “Jesus.” This would sound far closer to the way His name would have been pronounced in first century Aramaic or Hebrew. His followers called him Lord, Master,Rabbi the Messiah or Yeshua. Christ was a Greek term alien to Galileans who spoke Aramaic.
The names in the New Testament have been Latinised, their true nature lost in translation and their faith modified by the language of the Empire into which it spread.
You were an Anglican in England and then became a Nazarene. Okay. And these Jews who followed the teachings of Jesus stayed Jews but recognized Him as the Christ/Messiah. And then, eventually, this became the Church of the Nazarene. Correct? So you still practice the Jewish law and customs. Correct?I was raised an Anglo-Catholic. I was trained an an historian. These two forks carried mr to a cross-roads in belief where I discovered the Nazari ( as the Jews called Messianic followers of Yeshua _ Jesus)
They believed in the Tora, the Law, the dietary Laws and circumcision but they also believed in the Radical Judaism of Yeshua-Jesus teachings and recognised him as the one sent from God - the Messiah. What they did not do was to completely abandon their Jewish roots. They continued to worship in the synagogue as He would have, continued to practice the Jewish faith. There is lots of evidence for this both in the Gospels and the writings of early Christians and Jewish writers.
All of the above except we know of the Jewish feasts but do not celebrate them. Churches do the Passover seder to understand the Last Supper of Christ. We don’t share food but participate in the Eucharist observing it as His Body and His Blood as stated in John 6: 47-53 and by His words at the Last Supper. We may do this at daily Mass remembering the words of the Our Father: “Give us this day our daily Bread.” And in the Magnificat we, of course, say Blessed remembering that Miriam said all nations shall call me blessed.No - the Church of the Nazarene is an entirely different organisation - an evangelical church started in the 19th century.
My religion seeks to combine the radical Judaism of Yeshua with the Messianic message.
I accept the Torah,
I celebrate the Jewish feasts as did Yeshua
I read both the Old Testament and the Gospels
I believe Yeshua is the anointed one of God the Messiah
I believe Miriam (Mary) is blessed among women
I believe in One God - Yaweh
I believe Yeshua was crucified descended into hell and rose from the dead
I believe the Kingdom of God is among us
I believe the words of Yeshua and the words of Miriam (the Magnificat)
I believe in social teachings of the Yeshua in the tradition of radical Judaism
I break bread and share food and drink with my friends as Yeshua did in memory of him
The most important part to Catholics is the Eucharist which is the Body and Blood of Christ. If you do not receive the Eucharist, you do not have life.We are not far apart save in one important respect - Paul teaches individual salvation through simply believing in the Christ - Jesus taught collective salvation through the coming of the Kingdom of God. There is a difference.
The Kingdom of God is within you can also be translated as the Kingdom of God is among you. To find which translation is correct we must view the instruction within the complete context of the messianic tradition and the thrust of Jesus teaching that survives in the Gospels. I also find Yeshua too in texts outside the Christian writings and discovered what they found disturbing about his message and his followers. I doubt Yeshua would recognise the message as it is carried by Christians today as his message - his message was one of love for all but anger at injustice, poverty and abuses, His message was that the Kingdom of God is a thing to be shared rather than hidden away inside us.
" Thus your light will shine before the children of men that they may see your good works, and may glorify your Father who is in Heaven. "
I am sure you are following Yeshua’s teachings but what about what he says in John 6: 47-71?Really Jesus never partook of the Eucharist in Catholic Form but he has Life in abundance neither did his brother James or his friend Peter - when a I break bread and share wine ( or in my case water since I an allergic to alcohol ) with my friends and neighbours I follow Yeshua’s teachings and do this in remembrance of him. Tell me this is not the same as you do ? Tell me this is not what Yeshua taught us ? You say you alone have the path to the Kingdom but who told you this ? Peter not Paul holds the Keys and Peter was a Nazarene - there is NO proof he ever gave up his Jewish faith.
Paul did not abandon his faith. He merely argued not to force it on Gentiles. There are a group of Hebrew Catholics who still follow the Mosaic law. Do a Google search on them. Jesus fufilled all the tenets of the Mosaic Law, which is why Christians do not have to follow them. We still must keep the 10 commandments given on Sinai.Yes of course Peter never denied Yeshua (Jesus) was the Messiah, the anointed one of God, but there is no evidence he followed Paul in abandoning his Jewish faith, rather only that he added to it. I respect Peter as much as I do James (Shimon and Yakov in the Hebrew/Aramaic of their day) . They and not Paul are the true founders of my faith. But I will never abandon my belief in its Jewish origins. Anti-Semitism has always struck me as an attack on the very Messiah Christians claim to love.
The notion that the Kingdom of G-d is within you reminds me of Quaker belief.We are not far apart save in one important respect - Paul teaches individual salvation through simply believing in the Christ - Jesus taught collective salvation through the coming of the Kingdom of God. There is a difference.
The Kingdom of God is within you can also be translated as the Kingdom of God is among you. To find which translation is correct we must view the instruction within the complete context of the messianic tradition and the thrust of Jesus teaching that survives in the Gospels. I also find Yeshua too in texts outside the Christian writings and discovered what they found disturbing about his message and his followers. I doubt Yeshua would recognise the message as it is carried by Christians today as his message - his message was one of love for all but anger at injustice, poverty and abuses, His message was that the Kingdom of God is a thing to be shared rather than hidden away inside us.
" Thus your light will shine before the children of men that they may see your good works, and may glorify your Father who is in Heaven. "
Jesus also told his disciples to go and teach ALL NATIONS. Who am I to deny that? And what abuse have you received?You are a good fellow and an understanding Christian. Others are not so. I have been abused here for my beliefs. But as the Messiah Yeshua said “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Matthew 15:24. Who am I to deny that ?
Read the first chapter of the Gospel of Yeshua’s disciple Yohanan.the Messiah is both the Son of Man and God’s anointed in that sense he is very much God’s Son since God created Man in his own image and since the Messiah has arrived to preach God’s Kingdom to his people.