WEBVTT 00:01.340 --> 00:02.220 Yeah, that's fine. 00:02.420 --> 00:04.940 And as a matter of fact, do you guys have audio for that too? 00:05.900 --> 00:06.020 Oh, yes. 00:06.440 --> 00:08.460 All of your teaching is going to be recorded. 00:30.000 --> 00:34.820 The subject of today's presentation is who were the original followers of Yeshua and 00:34.820 --> 00:37.880 what did the apostles themselves believe and teach? 00:38.960 --> 00:43.300 So, as we go through this, we're probably going to hear some things that we, 00:43.640 --> 00:47.920 needless to say, were not taught in Sunday school about the doctrines of the 00:47.920 --> 00:48.280 apostles. 00:48.960 --> 00:57.200 And some of this stuff may be difficult to really understand and absorb because it 00:57.200 --> 00:59.080 is, in some respects, radically different. 00:59.520 --> 01:03.340 And so don't think that I'm giving this presentation to anybody and saying, 01:03.560 --> 01:06.860 this is the lifestyle you have to adopt and this is what you have to do to be 01:06.860 --> 01:07.160 saved. 01:08.060 --> 01:13.380 I know a lot of people kind of get that feeling like just talking about some of 01:13.380 --> 01:16.840 this stuff, and we recognize and we realize what it was that Yeshua actually 01:16.840 --> 01:17.740 taught his apostles. 01:18.240 --> 01:22.520 It can give you that feeling like, okay, well, this person is kind of judging 01:22.520 --> 01:23.880 me for bringing this stuff out. 01:23.940 --> 01:27.240 So I just want to right here up front to say, look, we're not saying that you have 01:27.240 --> 01:27.860 to do this. 01:28.820 --> 01:30.900 We're just, this is a historical fact. 01:31.720 --> 01:36.040 This is the historical references and record that we have. 01:36.860 --> 01:42.160 So I would invite anyone to go back and look at the source documents and see what 01:42.160 --> 01:45.940 these historians that lived in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, what they say about the 01:45.940 --> 01:47.540 apostles that lived in the 1st century. 01:47.900 --> 01:50.860 Because that's about as far back as we can possibly get. 01:52.440 --> 01:58.880 So, in early Christianity, we had some divisions that sprang up pretty much right 01:58.880 --> 01:59.200 away. 01:59.860 --> 02:03.360 We had the group known as the Nazarenes. 02:04.280 --> 02:07.480 Scholars refer to these people as the Jewish Christian groups. 02:10.320 --> 02:15.580 They were the groups that kept the same faith and the same understanding that 02:15.580 --> 02:16.960 Yeshua taught to his apostles. 02:18.220 --> 02:20.300 They went by several different names. 02:20.400 --> 02:21.900 We'll go over them in just a moment. 02:21.900 --> 02:26.980 But for now, we will refer to them as the Nazarenes or the Jewish Christians. 02:28.100 --> 02:33.180 Another, the first major, I guess you could call it a heresy, would be the 02:33.180 --> 02:33.700 Gnostics. 02:34.140 --> 02:37.860 They sprang up in the end of the 1st century, beginning of the 2nd century. 02:38.620 --> 02:41.460 And then, of course, you had the Christian or the Gentile church. 02:42.140 --> 02:48.080 Which would be the Gentile converts that followed after the teachings of Paul. 02:48.960 --> 02:53.040 And that, of course, became the Orthodox church. 02:54.280 --> 02:56.620 The Gentile church, as they like to call themselves. 02:56.740 --> 02:58.960 That's what would be the third major division. 03:00.420 --> 03:02.260 So, why were there so many divisions? 03:02.880 --> 03:05.320 Why did they spring up early in the faith? 03:06.580 --> 03:10.560 It was despite the fact that Yeshua lived, died, and resurrected as a Jew, 03:10.720 --> 03:12.840 his Jewishness has been all but lost. 03:13.660 --> 03:17.060 It's probably due to the overwhelming number of Gentile converts that soon 03:17.060 --> 03:19.380 outnumbered the number of Nazarenes. 03:20.340 --> 03:25.980 Now, there was also another major event that caused the original Jerusalem 03:25.980 --> 03:31.180 assembly to lose authority, and that was the destruction of Jerusalem itself. 03:32.700 --> 03:36.920 After the death of Yeshua, about 40 years later, the temple and Jerusalem was 03:36.920 --> 03:37.460 destroyed. 03:38.340 --> 03:45.080 The remnants of the Jerusalem assembly fled from Jerusalem across the Jordan and 03:45.080 --> 03:50.000 they settled at Pella in the land of Damascus. 03:50.080 --> 03:51.160 It was across the Jordan. 03:54.340 --> 04:00.160 So, that would have become the seat of what was known as Jewish Christianity at 04:00.160 --> 04:00.700 that point. 04:02.340 --> 04:08.320 Meanwhile, Paul, of course, was taking his message west and he wound up in Rome. 04:09.080 --> 04:11.020 And that's how he came up with the Roman church. 04:11.020 --> 04:17.600 And eventually Christianity came to the point that it regarded any denomination 04:17.600 --> 04:21.240 that held obedience to the Torah given by Moses as a heresy. 04:21.700 --> 04:23.820 And that in itself is even true today. 04:24.460 --> 04:29.400 If you go to a Christian website and you type in, you know, heresies and you Google 04:29.400 --> 04:34.260 what exactly the Christian church declares to be a heresy, one of the defining 04:34.260 --> 04:39.200 characteristics is any group that believes in Yeshua, or as they call him Jesus, 04:39.580 --> 04:41.600 and continues to keep the Torah. 04:44.880 --> 04:50.520 So, again, Yeshua and all of his disciples were Jews. 04:50.940 --> 04:55.300 Now, we should probably put a disclaimer there that Judaism in the first century 04:55.300 --> 04:59.020 was not the same as Judaism today. 04:59.860 --> 05:05.940 In the first century in Judea, there were three primary groups of Jewish 05:05.940 --> 05:06.360 faith. 05:06.360 --> 05:10.480 There was, of course, we're familiar from the New Testament, the Sadducees and the 05:10.480 --> 05:11.040 Pharisees. 05:11.180 --> 05:16.880 The Sadducees were the group that was primarily in control of the temple. 05:18.840 --> 05:23.580 The Pharisees held more of a political power over the region. 05:23.880 --> 05:26.600 Of course, the region was in the control of the Herods. 05:26.940 --> 05:29.780 The Herods themselves actually appointed the high priests. 05:30.660 --> 05:35.000 And they had been doing that since the first century B.C. 05:35.880 --> 05:39.820 So, a lot of these high priests that you see mentioned in the first century were 05:39.820 --> 05:41.060 not even descendants of Levi. 05:42.100 --> 05:44.400 Many were not even Hebrews. 05:44.560 --> 05:46.020 They were appointed by Herod. 05:46.200 --> 05:48.360 They basically brought their way into that position. 05:49.800 --> 06:01.160 It became almost a position of royalty, similar to the way our Senate and Congress 06:01.160 --> 06:01.760 is today. 06:01.920 --> 06:04.940 We have a lot of people who have, you know, their fathers were senators, 06:05.140 --> 06:08.440 now they're senators, and their children are training to be senators. 06:08.900 --> 06:11.700 So, it really created this subclass of a 06:15.080 --> 06:17.560 portion of the political establishment in Judea. 06:19.060 --> 06:25.380 So, just like today, you have a political establishment that controls the 06:26.920 --> 06:29.960 conversation of the nation, it's the same way within Judea. 06:29.960 --> 06:36.740 It had this political elite at the top, which included the temple and the 06:36.740 --> 06:40.900 Pharisees, the religious leaders that held sway over the people. 06:41.700 --> 06:45.420 And quite often, the people themselves had a very different view of what they 06:45.420 --> 06:46.680 believed to be right and wrong. 06:47.960 --> 06:50.900 In addition to these two groups, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, 06:51.020 --> 06:56.280 you also had the group which we talk about a lot here, and that is the Essenes. 06:56.280 --> 07:00.560 And so, the Essenes were kind of, during the first century, were more or 07:00.560 --> 07:02.200 less an anti-establishment group. 07:02.840 --> 07:09.020 They were also associated with a subgroup within their movement known as the Zealots 07:09.020 --> 07:10.140 or the Saqqari. 07:12.960 --> 07:22.920 Josephus himself, he mentions the Zealots as his fourth theology, and he associates 07:22.920 --> 07:25.860 them with the third theology, which he mentions, which is the Essenes. 07:26.860 --> 07:29.760 So, you had this almost like two different groups of Essenes. 07:29.820 --> 07:36.800 One believed in the violent overthrow of what they believed to be an apostasy in 07:36.800 --> 07:40.940 the temple, and then you had the other group, which was the more peaceful Essenes 07:40.940 --> 07:43.060 that more or less kept to themselves. 07:44.120 --> 07:49.760 And I believe it was out of this movement, the Essene movement was where we had 07:49.760 --> 07:54.100 Yeshua and his disciples kind of came on the scene. 07:56.540 --> 08:01.960 Yeshua, he was loyal to the Torah, but his views of the Torah were radical to 08:01.960 --> 08:02.640 the establishment. 08:03.060 --> 08:06.980 He taught simple living, nonviolence, not a new religion. 08:07.120 --> 08:09.980 He taught a different lifestyle, a different way of serving the Creator. 08:10.740 --> 08:14.980 He revealed the Father as a personal Creator, accessible to all who call upon 08:14.980 --> 08:18.960 His name, whereas the religious establishment was more interested in 08:18.960 --> 08:24.280 presenting the Elohim of Israel as someone that required a priest to access. 08:24.520 --> 08:29.100 And so you go to the temple in order to present an offering to Yehua instead of, 08:29.520 --> 08:32.940 as Yeshua described, going to your prayer closet and meet with him yourself, 08:33.040 --> 08:33.440 personally. 08:36.420 --> 08:39.900 History has not been kind to the original Nazarenes. 08:40.960 --> 08:46.900 You had Paul portray them as narrow-minded legalists, to the point that many people, 08:47.160 --> 08:50.100 when they read the writings of Paul, they think that there was this extreme 08:50.100 --> 08:55.120 reactionary group within the Jerusalem assembly and that they were in opposition 08:55.120 --> 08:55.720 to Paul. 08:56.560 --> 09:00.980 However, when you get into history and you begin to study what the Essenes and the 09:00.980 --> 09:04.520 Nazarenes, what they believed, it's not long before you come to the 09:04.520 --> 09:10.620 understanding that the group that Paul was in opposition to was not just a 09:10.620 --> 09:14.520 reactionary faction within the original Jerusalem assembly, but it was the 09:14.520 --> 09:15.780 Jerusalem assembly itself. 09:17.140 --> 09:19.580 The church condemned them as heretics. 09:20.060 --> 09:24.540 We had modern scholars, even today, largely ignore the Nazarenes. 09:24.600 --> 09:27.060 They ignore what they call the Jewish Christian groups. 09:28.660 --> 09:32.840 The larger Gentile church drove out their teachings and the core of Yeshua's message 09:32.840 --> 09:34.160 was lost in the process. 09:35.530 --> 09:42.020 Even today, I've read books before by men like James Nabor and he believes, 09:42.420 --> 09:46.600 at least what I can gather from his books, he believes that after Yeshua resurrected, 09:47.260 --> 09:51.580 that he came and had a totally different theology and he tried to teach that to his 09:51.580 --> 09:55.020 apostles and they couldn't understand it, so Yeshua had to go to Paul. 09:56.100 --> 09:57.820 Well, that view itself... 09:59.760 --> 10:04.440 gives an extremely lack of foresight to Yeshua. 10:05.620 --> 10:10.180 As does this other belief that you hear a lot in the church, which is that Paul 10:10.180 --> 10:13.100 understood Yeshua better than the apostles did. 10:13.680 --> 10:16.900 Again, that in itself is a lack of foresight by our Messiah. 10:17.480 --> 10:22.840 If the Messiah is who he claims to be, if Paul was the one that was going to 10:22.840 --> 10:25.980 understand his message better than anyone else, why didn't he go up to Antioch and 10:25.980 --> 10:29.420 get Paul instead of going up to the Sea of Galilee and finding his other apostles? 10:33.620 --> 10:38.120 So, let's talk about what the Nazarenes believed about Yeshua. 10:39.880 --> 10:43.200 Personally, it wasn't even until I came into the Hebrew Breakroots Movement that I 10:43.200 --> 10:44.780 ever heard of the Nazarenes. 10:45.240 --> 10:46.800 I was raised in the church. 10:47.020 --> 10:50.080 I was actually educated and went to... 10:50.820 --> 10:58.960 my grade school was a parochial school with the Catholic Church, so I was 10:58.960 --> 11:03.980 essentially indoctrinated fully in church but they never once mentioned this group 11:03.980 --> 11:05.040 called the Nazarenes. 11:07.900 --> 11:11.740 And so, coming into the Breakroots Movement, I heard about the Nazarenes, 11:12.420 --> 11:17.900 but no one ever or very few people actually go back and read their writings, 11:18.220 --> 11:22.580 read what they saw, what they believed, and look at what they actually taught. 11:23.260 --> 11:26.840 The image of the Nazarenes that were taught in the Hebrew Breakroots Movement 11:26.840 --> 11:32.480 is pretty much just that they were like what we call the modern-day Messianic 11:32.480 --> 11:32.740 Jews. 11:32.900 --> 11:38.120 They were Orthodox Jews who believed in Yeshua, and that's who the Nazarenes were. 11:38.120 --> 11:42.280 But I believe that if we go to actual history and look at the testimonies we 11:42.280 --> 11:46.540 have, we'll see that it's actually quite different than what we would think of 11:46.540 --> 11:52.360 today in the Hebrew Breakroots Movement as this Messianic Judaism. 11:53.680 --> 11:59.100 First of all, they saw Yeshua as the true prophet, the Navimet, who would come to 11:59.100 --> 12:01.400 lead them back to the original eternal Torah. 12:02.960 --> 12:08.980 And again, I say that with qualifications there, the original eternal Torah. 12:10.320 --> 12:11.780 And we'll get to that in a minute. 12:12.200 --> 12:16.720 Yeshua taught that this included simple living and nonviolence against others. 12:17.340 --> 12:22.320 I don't believe that his nonviolence included allowing yourself to be made a 12:22.320 --> 12:27.220 victim, but at the same time you were not to go out and seek after violence and this 12:27.220 --> 12:30.380 violent overthrow of the temple that the Zealots were preaching. 12:30.480 --> 12:34.640 I think Yeshua was... a lot of his apostles actually appeared to be members 12:34.640 --> 12:35.680 of this Zealot party. 12:36.320 --> 12:39.620 And I think that what he was doing is he was trying to show them a more peaceful 12:39.620 --> 12:41.000 way to come about a resolution. 12:42.700 --> 12:47.320 But when he talks about nonviolence, I don't believe that that includes the 12:47.320 --> 12:51.960 beliefs of the Amish where they'll let you actually assault them and they won't try 12:51.960 --> 12:52.660 to defend themselves. 12:52.840 --> 12:55.280 I think that we are told to defend ourselves. 12:55.820 --> 13:01.860 In fact, in the Dedeke, which is written by the twelve apostles, it actually tells 13:01.860 --> 13:05.640 you that your belt is not to be without a sword and that you are to use it to defend 13:05.640 --> 13:06.160 your life. 13:07.000 --> 13:12.800 So, if anyone tells you that Yeshua taught you need to be a victim, you can show them 13:12.800 --> 13:15.300 the Dedeke, which actually refutes that. 13:17.240 --> 13:21.520 The original Yeshua movement sought to keep the Torah in a more stringent way 13:21.520 --> 13:23.720 than the Orthodox Judaism of its day. 13:24.300 --> 13:27.540 Which is... that's actually pretty much the exact opposite of what we're taught in 13:27.540 --> 13:28.200 the church, right? 13:28.440 --> 13:33.320 That the Orthodox Jews were being too stringent, and so therefore Yeshua came to 13:33.320 --> 13:38.860 tell them to kind of lighten up and eat pig and keep Sunday church. 13:40.620 --> 13:46.140 But if you read the... especially the Sermon on the Mount, if you read what 13:46.140 --> 13:49.240 Yeshua is saying, he's actually teaching a more stringent view of the Torah. 13:49.940 --> 13:53.060 You've heard it said, do not commit adultery, but I tell you not to even look 13:53.060 --> 13:54.860 at a woman with lust in your heart. 13:55.220 --> 13:59.220 That's a more stringent view than what the Orthodox of this day were teaching. 14:03.480 --> 14:07.200 So, after the death of Yeshua, you had this rise of Gnosticism. 14:08.000 --> 14:12.000 And scholars differ on what exactly constitutes Gnosticism. 14:12.660 --> 14:16.920 It usually involves the belief that the Elohim of the Jews and the Elohim of 14:16.920 --> 14:19.800 Yeshua were two different gods. 14:20.520 --> 14:27.360 They saw the world itself as evil, and the creation was the result of the 14:27.360 --> 14:30.960 interference of either an evil or an incompetent god. 14:31.420 --> 14:36.540 So they didn't believe that the supreme king of the universe created the creation, 14:36.700 --> 14:40.640 that it was actually a lesser being who was either evil or incompetent. 14:41.160 --> 14:44.740 The most famous Gnostic was Marcion. 14:46.060 --> 14:49.580 Now, Marcion was the first to create a canon of Scripture of the New Testament. 14:51.480 --> 14:57.420 His canon consisted of... he used a version of Luke's Gospel that was shorter 14:57.420 --> 14:58.660 than the one we have now. 15:00.200 --> 15:03.880 And Paul's letters, ten of Paul's letters were the other part of the canon. 15:04.880 --> 15:09.340 And that was what the Marcion church believed and taught from. 15:10.520 --> 15:14.060 And in fact, Paul's letters were made popular because of Marcionism. 15:15.120 --> 15:21.840 Basically, the church of Marcion at one time, it got up to the level of power that 15:21.840 --> 15:24.800 it threatened even the Orthodox Christian establishment. 15:25.200 --> 15:33.240 And it was pretty much a battle of life and death for the church there to root out 15:33.240 --> 15:35.820 Marcionism before it took over the entire church. 15:36.640 --> 15:44.000 In the process, when Marcionism was finally defeated, the people who were 15:44.000 --> 15:49.540 followers of the Marcion religion, they came into the church and they brought 15:49.540 --> 15:51.500 with them Paul's letters. 15:52.540 --> 15:57.800 And so we have this quote from Gerd Luderman that says, without Marcion there 15:57.800 --> 16:02.360 would have been no New Testament, and without this heretic no letters of 16:02.360 --> 16:02.660 Paul. 16:05.360 --> 16:09.000 So what's the difference between Gnosticism and the Nazarenes? 16:09.860 --> 16:13.880 Well, Marcion taught that Paul was a hero who was the only apostle who understood 16:13.880 --> 16:14.480 Yeshua. 16:15.460 --> 16:16.560 Where have we heard that before? 16:17.480 --> 16:21.100 The Nazarenes detested Paul and believed that he was an apostate. 16:21.720 --> 16:25.520 The Nazarenes also believed that Yahuwah was the Elohim of Yeshua. 16:25.680 --> 16:30.700 So they didn't believe that the Creator was different than the Elohim that was the 16:30.700 --> 16:31.480 Father of Yeshua. 16:31.780 --> 16:36.140 The Nazarenes believed that it was the same Elohim in the Old Testament and the 16:36.140 --> 16:36.600 New Testament. 16:37.600 --> 16:42.460 They also believed that Yeshua came to turn the people back to the original Torah 16:42.460 --> 16:46.780 which had been given by Moses, but was corrupted over time by those who 16:46.780 --> 16:47.320 came after. 16:47.780 --> 16:51.400 So earlier when I said that they believed that Yeshua was there to turn them back to 16:51.400 --> 16:54.700 the original eternal Torah that's what I meant. 16:54.840 --> 17:02.080 They had a belief in the Nazarene movement that the Torah had been corrupted over 17:02.080 --> 17:02.440 time. 17:05.780 --> 17:09.420 You might ask yourself, why can't we just read the New Testament and see what the 17:09.420 --> 17:12.900 original faith of the Nazarenes was? 17:13.840 --> 17:20.120 Well, the reason is because the writings themselves are not so much historical 17:20.120 --> 17:24.400 records as they are advocacies for different audiences within the Christian 17:24.400 --> 17:24.900 community. 17:26.280 --> 17:30.780 So there is evidence, there is indication that some things have been added to the 17:30.780 --> 17:33.900 New Testament specifically to lead people to a certain direction. 17:35.540 --> 17:42.640 It of course leaves out viewpoints of certain early ancient Gospels and again, 17:42.800 --> 17:46.540 I think it's the subject of extensive editing and modification. 17:48.040 --> 17:54.740 In the book The Lost Religion of Jesus by Keith Akers he says that on the basis of 17:54.740 --> 17:58.000 the Bible, some Christians are pacifists while others support war. 17:58.420 --> 18:00.840 Some support capital punishment, others oppose it. 18:00.940 --> 18:03.920 Some accept alcohol while others do not. 18:04.380 --> 18:08.920 Some allow divorce, some allow divorce only in cases of adultery, and some do not 18:08.920 --> 18:10.780 allow divorce at all, and so on. 18:10.860 --> 18:14.980 Each viewpoint can cite its favorite verses or interpretations from the 18:14.980 --> 18:15.320 Scripture. 18:16.880 --> 18:22.680 And John Dominic Crossan, the author of several books about Yeshua, point out that 18:22.680 --> 18:27.180 we can construct almost any picture of Yeshua we want by selecting the right 18:28.920 --> 18:29.440 text. 18:29.960 --> 18:34.780 And Yeshua can be shown to be for or against legal observance, for or against 18:36.580 --> 18:41.180 apocalyptic expectation, for or against Gentile mission, for or against temple 18:41.180 --> 18:46.340 worship, for or against titular claim, and for or against political revolt, 18:46.400 --> 18:46.980 and so on. 18:50.660 --> 18:57.540 And Peter himself says in the Nazarene Acts that the Scripture has been corrupted 18:57.540 --> 19:03.140 to a point that you can use the Scripture to derive pretty much any viewpoint that 19:03.140 --> 19:03.540 you want. 19:04.400 --> 19:06.540 And so we see that a lot in modern religion. 19:06.700 --> 19:10.560 People will have a theology and they go through the Scripture and they search out 19:10.560 --> 19:13.900 the verses that support their theology and they skip the ones that don't. 19:16.360 --> 19:21.680 So how can we get to the understanding of what scholars have been on this quest for 19:21.680 --> 19:24.320 what they call the historical Jesus? 19:24.980 --> 19:30.100 So if we can't count on the New Testament to always give us the unbiased truth, 19:30.180 --> 19:32.620 then how are we going to find this answer? 19:35.060 --> 19:37.820 And so I propose that we use one criteria. 19:38.680 --> 19:45.100 And the criteria is, does any particular theory of the historical Yeshua make sense 19:45.100 --> 19:50.360 in light of what we know about the historical Nazarene scenes or the 19:50.360 --> 19:51.800 teachings of the Apostles? 19:52.460 --> 19:57.380 Because if we can go with the understanding that the Apostles believed 19:57.380 --> 20:01.140 and taught what Yeshua believed and taught, then we should be able to define 20:01.140 --> 20:04.800 the historical Yeshua by looking at what the Apostles believed. 20:07.380 --> 20:09.760 So what do we know about the Nazarenes? 20:10.960 --> 20:15.440 Most of what we know about the Nazarenes comes from the writings of church fathers 20:15.440 --> 20:19.900 who called the Nazarenes heretical and wrote about them for the purpose of 20:19.900 --> 20:20.920 attacking them. 20:22.020 --> 20:26.280 We also have two writings of Clement of Rome, the Recognitions and the Homilies. 20:28.100 --> 20:31.420 The Recognitions, of course, in this group we usually refer to them as the Nazarene 20:31.420 --> 20:31.780 Acts. 20:32.420 --> 20:37.260 We've got historical writings of men like Josephus and Philo, and we have some of 20:37.260 --> 20:40.000 the Dead Sea Scrolls which appear to be written by the Nazarenes. 20:43.570 --> 20:46.190 So, first of all, let's define some terms. 20:46.310 --> 20:47.550 So what are these groups called? 20:49.210 --> 20:55.930 These, quote, Jewish Christian groups went by names such as the Nazarenes, 20:56.090 --> 21:00.390 the Ebionites, I believe that they were included in the Essenes. 21:01.050 --> 21:06.610 There was also a group called the Edessenes, the Ossenenes or the Doers, 21:07.450 --> 21:13.970 the Nazarenes, the Nazoreans, and the Circumcision Party by the Christian 21:13.970 --> 21:15.650 historians and heresiologists. 21:16.250 --> 21:20.770 So if you notice, a lot of these names sound really kind of identical almost, 21:20.930 --> 21:23.750 and that's probably due to transliteration between different languages. 21:23.950 --> 21:28.390 Like, you know, the Nazarenes, the Nazareans, the Nazareans, they are 21:28.390 --> 21:29.090 very similar. 21:30.470 --> 21:34.590 The Edessenes, the Essenes, the Ossenenes, you know, again you have these names that 21:34.590 --> 21:36.350 are very similar. 21:37.670 --> 21:42.070 There also appears to be connections to the first century Zealot group known as 21:42.070 --> 21:44.950 the Sicarii, and you can see that in the New Testament. 21:45.130 --> 21:47.070 You know, you have like Judas Iscariot. 21:48.130 --> 21:53.470 Some scholars believe that Iscariot is actually a corruption of Sicarii. 21:54.410 --> 21:59.330 And then we also have the, you know, Apostles with cognaments like the Sons of 21:59.330 --> 22:01.050 Thunder, which is a Zealot term. 22:01.930 --> 22:09.150 And, you know, Simon in the New Testament, I believe it's in Matthew, his name is 22:09.150 --> 22:10.950 translated as Simon the Canaanite. 22:11.750 --> 22:17.070 But, you know, the word that's translated as Canaanite is actually the Hebrew word 22:17.070 --> 22:17.730 for Zealot. 22:17.730 --> 22:21.170 So he was actually Simon the Zealot. 22:24.010 --> 22:28.110 And in the Dead Sea Scrolls, now the Dead Sea Scrolls, the group that wrote the Dead 22:28.110 --> 22:32.250 Sea Scrolls, they refer to themselves as the Sons of Sedok, or Sons of 22:32.250 --> 22:38.970 Righteousness, the Way, Sons of Light, the Poor, or the Ebionim, and the Meek. 22:39.550 --> 22:44.110 And so you can of course compare these to what Yeshua and his Apostles called 22:44.110 --> 22:45.290 themselves in the New Testament. 22:45.290 --> 22:48.290 They use the same terminology to refer to themselves. 22:49.270 --> 22:53.750 Now, I mentioned the Circumcision Party was the actual Jerusalem Assembly itself. 22:54.530 --> 22:58.310 And so, you know, many people, if you studied church history at all, 22:58.390 --> 23:02.330 you probably at one point read Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History. 23:03.130 --> 23:10.030 Well, in Book 4, Chapters 5 and 6 of Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius says that 23:10.030 --> 23:15.590 the chronology of the bishops of Jerusalem, their whole church consisted of 23:15.590 --> 23:20.670 believing Hebrews who continued from the days of the Apostles into the siege which 23:20.670 --> 23:22.970 took place in the reign of Adrian. 23:24.030 --> 23:27.790 The bishops of the Circumcision ceased at this time. 23:27.870 --> 23:31.730 So you can see that he is referring to the bishops of the Circumcision as the bishops 23:31.730 --> 23:32.610 of Jerusalem. 23:33.370 --> 23:36.650 It is proper to give here a list of their names from the beginning. 23:36.930 --> 23:41.470 And he starts off, he says, first there was James, the so-called brother of the 23:41.470 --> 23:41.810 Lord. 23:42.270 --> 23:45.230 The second, Simeon, that's Simeon Barcleopas. 23:46.030 --> 23:48.770 The third was Justice, and so forth. 23:48.830 --> 23:52.390 And he says, these are the bishops of Jerusalem that lived between the age of 23:52.390 --> 23:57.830 the Apostles and the time referred to, all of them belonging to the Circumcision. 23:58.550 --> 24:02.090 And thus, when the city had been emptied and the Jewish nation had suffered the 24:02.090 --> 24:06.190 total destruction of its ancient inhabitants, it was colonized by a 24:06.190 --> 24:10.970 different race, meaning that the church in Jerusalem, after the destruction of 24:10.970 --> 24:14.330 Jerusalem, there was a church set up in Jerusalem, but it was a Gentile church. 24:14.390 --> 24:18.210 It was no longer the church of the Circumcision, as Eusebius calls it. 24:18.990 --> 24:24.570 He says that and as the church there was now composed of Gentiles, the first one to 24:24.570 --> 24:29.210 assume the government of it after the bishops of the Circumcision was Marcus. 24:29.730 --> 24:36.830 So, Eusebius, in his ecclesiastical history, he tells you pretty plainly that 24:36.830 --> 24:39.970 the bishops of the Circumcision and the bishops of the Jerusalem Assembly were the 24:39.970 --> 24:40.490 same people. 24:40.950 --> 24:44.090 So, when you read the New Testament, it speaks about the party of the 24:44.090 --> 24:44.730 Circumcision. 24:45.030 --> 24:48.150 That is not a reactionary group within the Jerusalem Assembly. 24:48.250 --> 24:50.070 That is the Jerusalem Assembly itself. 24:55.210 --> 24:59.190 Okay, so the Nazarenes themselves are portrayed in a negative light in the 24:59.190 --> 24:59.490 Scriptures. 25:00.150 --> 25:04.670 In Acts 11-2, Peter is confronted by the Circumcision party for eating with 25:04.670 --> 25:05.290 Gentiles. 25:05.990 --> 25:10.370 In Acts chapter 15, there's a lengthy account started by what they call 25:10.370 --> 25:15.010 believing Pharisees, insisting that the Gentile believers must be circumcised. 25:15.870 --> 25:21.090 In Acts 21-20, James tells Paul that there are many believers in Jerusalem who are 25:21.090 --> 25:25.590 zealous for the Torah and then he sends Paul to the temple to make a sacrifice. 25:26.990 --> 25:30.890 Galatians 1-2 relates several disputes between Paul and the Apostles. 25:30.890 --> 25:34.730 The final dispute ends with a bitter disagreement between Paul and Peter, 25:35.190 --> 25:39.310 a dispute in which James, Peter, Barnabas, and all others present oppose 25:39.310 --> 25:39.810 Paul. 25:39.970 --> 25:42.430 And that's something that people miss when they read that account. 25:42.570 --> 25:45.410 We're reading the account from Paul's point of view. 25:46.250 --> 25:50.850 And so Paul makes out like he's the one that won the argument, but we miss the 25:50.850 --> 25:53.450 point where he says, everybody turned against me. 25:54.770 --> 25:58.990 Well, if everybody turned against one person, then who was it that really got 25:58.990 --> 25:59.510 rebuked? 25:59.590 --> 26:01.150 Was it really Paul rebuking Peter? 26:01.290 --> 26:02.890 I think it might have been the other way around. 26:03.730 --> 26:05.490 You know, we're not told the other side of the story. 26:05.610 --> 26:09.230 All we know is that Peter at first was eating with the Gentiles and then he 26:09.230 --> 26:12.690 withdrew when other people showed up from Jerusalem. 26:14.130 --> 26:17.590 I think there's a good possibility that Peter was sitting with these Gentiles 26:17.590 --> 26:21.430 thinking that they were converts and that they were already baptized and that they 26:21.430 --> 26:26.650 were keeping the Torah and then he learned later after the fact that they were not 26:26.650 --> 26:28.850 and that they were being taught something different by Paul. 26:29.630 --> 26:33.410 And we can read in the Nazarene Acts, Peter actually talks about table 26:33.410 --> 26:37.570 fellowship and he says that if you're keeping table fellowship with someone 26:37.570 --> 26:40.470 who's not converted you're opening yourself up. 26:40.490 --> 26:43.410 If that person has an evil spirit, then you're opening yourself up to that. 26:47.740 --> 26:53.720 So, you know, there are reasons to be suspicious about the way the Nazarenes are 26:53.720 --> 26:56.080 portrayed in the New Testament, especially in the book of Acts. 26:56.600 --> 27:02.240 In Acts 16.3, Paul obediently circumcises Timothy, but in Galatians he indignantly 27:02.240 --> 27:07.900 refuses to yield to what he calls false brethren to circumcise Titus. 27:08.700 --> 27:12.840 And there's a question about whether Titus and Timothy were the same person. 27:13.760 --> 27:16.420 It's basically the same name in two different languages. 27:16.640 --> 27:18.780 One of them is, I think, Greek and the other is Latin. 27:19.360 --> 27:21.360 But Titus and Timothy, I mean, it's the same name. 27:21.620 --> 27:25.080 It's just two different versions from two different languages. 27:25.880 --> 27:31.340 In Acts 15.2, Paul is sent by the church to meet the apostles in Jerusalem, 27:31.720 --> 27:36.340 but in Galatians 2.2, Paul says that he went there because of revelation and he 27:36.340 --> 27:37.460 wasn't sent there by men. 27:38.040 --> 27:40.900 So there's this discrepancy between Acts and Galatians. 27:42.100 --> 27:46.080 And in all his letters, Paul rejects the idea that it's necessary to keep the 27:46.080 --> 27:49.620 Torah, yet in Acts he goes to the temple to make a sacrifice. 27:50.740 --> 27:55.020 So from Paul's letters, now from his letters, we know that he has three... 27:55.020 --> 27:56.120 well, he has opponents. 27:56.640 --> 27:58.500 From Paul's letters, we know that he has opponents. 27:58.960 --> 28:02.520 And his opponents, from what we can tell, they're loyal to the Torah. 28:03.140 --> 28:05.740 They're associated with James, the brother of Yeshua. 28:06.020 --> 28:09.040 You know, every time that Paul has a problem with somebody, it's usually after 28:09.540 --> 28:12.920 somebody shows up from James and there's a disagreement. 28:14.260 --> 28:16.820 They deny Paul the right to be called an apostle. 28:17.220 --> 28:19.600 And they are ethical vegetarians. 28:20.440 --> 28:23.480 So what do we know about the Nazarenes from history? 28:23.640 --> 28:25.080 We know that they're loyal to the Torah. 28:25.340 --> 28:27.580 They were associated with James, the brother of Yeshua. 28:28.080 --> 28:30.320 They denied Paul the right to be called an apostle. 28:30.540 --> 28:32.000 And they were ethical vegetarians. 28:32.160 --> 28:36.680 All four of these bullet points are the same as the group that Paul was dealing 28:36.680 --> 28:37.000 with. 28:38.440 --> 28:43.040 So it's clear from the book of Galatians that Paul's opponents were not just a 28:43.040 --> 28:46.380 reactionary group within the early assembly, but actually included the 28:46.380 --> 28:47.600 leadership within the movement. 28:47.600 --> 28:50.620 James, Peter, John, among others. 28:54.080 --> 28:58.200 So, you know, back to the Ebionites or the Nazarenes themselves. 28:58.440 --> 29:00.640 Our knowledge of them comes from three different sources. 29:00.820 --> 29:04.280 The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis. 29:04.520 --> 29:06.960 It's written around 380 common era. 29:07.300 --> 29:09.940 It was a heresiology, basically. 29:10.300 --> 29:17.080 So, Epiphanius, he was a Palestinian bishop of the church. 29:17.220 --> 29:22.900 He set about to document all these heresies that disagreed with the Orthodox 29:22.900 --> 29:28.140 church, and he put them in a collection he called the Panarion, which is the medicine 29:28.140 --> 29:28.640 chest. 29:28.860 --> 29:33.880 And so he called it that because the medicine chest gave you a cure for every 29:33.880 --> 29:36.120 kind of heresy imaginable. 29:37.080 --> 29:40.160 And he wrote extensively about the Ebionites. 29:40.520 --> 29:44.600 I believe the Ebionites were one of the Jewish Christian groups. 29:44.780 --> 29:46.480 They were associated with the Nazarenes. 29:47.060 --> 29:52.040 And it's actually difficult to tell whether the Ebionites were not the 29:52.040 --> 29:53.060 Nazarenes themselves. 29:53.240 --> 29:57.080 It appears to be just two different names for the same group. 29:58.400 --> 30:02.260 We also have information in the Recognitions of Clement, which we also 30:02.260 --> 30:05.560 call the Nazarene Acts, and in the Clementine Homily. 30:05.680 --> 30:10.460 So both of these documents give us indications that they are actually 30:11.560 --> 30:19.020 Ebionite slash Nazarene documents written by the assembly when they were in Pella. 30:20.500 --> 30:22.540 So the Ebionite beliefs. 30:22.660 --> 30:27.700 They believe that Yeshua was the true prophet the Nabi Ahmed who Moses foretold 30:27.700 --> 30:31.980 would be sent due to the people's reluctance to hear the voice of Yahuwah. 30:34.340 --> 30:38.160 They get this doctrine from Deuteronomy 18.15 31:05.840 --> 31:12.960 where Moses says, So they believe that Yeshua was this prophet predicted by 31:12.960 --> 31:13.360 Moses. 31:13.480 --> 31:14.740 The prophet like unto Moses. 31:15.460 --> 31:19.280 Again, this is not a controversial doctrine. 31:19.420 --> 31:21.520 I think the church itself believes this also. 31:23.220 --> 31:29.600 They also believe that Yahuwah desired a simple lifestyle for his followers. 31:30.400 --> 31:34.320 The name Ebion itself means the poor ones in Hebrew. 31:34.740 --> 31:38.920 So the Ebionites trace their poverty back to the days of the followers of Yeshua 31:39.720 --> 31:41.680 when they held all their property in common. 31:42.160 --> 31:45.760 That's in Acts 4.32-35. 31:46.460 --> 31:54.540 Now, Epiphanius in the Panarion he has the opportunity to actually interview 31:54.540 --> 31:55.220 Ebionites. 31:55.400 --> 31:59.300 He speaks about talking to them directly and he asks them why they call themselves 31:59.300 --> 32:03.760 the poor and they tell him quite plainly that they were the descendants of the 32:05.120 --> 32:08.860 assembly in Acts 4 that laid their possessions at the foot of the apostles. 32:09.400 --> 32:11.900 So there is a direct connection with the apostles. 32:14.900 --> 32:21.620 In the received text in Matthew 19.16 we have this episode where the rich young 32:21.620 --> 32:27.040 ruler comes to Yeshua and he says, Good teacher, what good shall I do to have 32:27.040 --> 32:28.060 everlasting life? 32:28.360 --> 32:30.480 And Yeshua says to him, why do you call me good? 32:30.540 --> 32:32.300 No one is good except one Elohim. 32:32.640 --> 32:35.000 But if you wish to enter into life, guard the commandments. 32:35.740 --> 32:37.800 He then said to him, which? 32:38.100 --> 32:41.340 And Yeshua said, You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, 32:41.440 --> 32:44.700 you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, respect your father and 32:44.700 --> 32:47.280 your mother, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. 32:47.400 --> 32:51.340 The young man then said to Yeshua, all these things I have washed over from 32:51.340 --> 32:52.800 my youth what else do I lack? 32:52.860 --> 32:58.080 And Yeshua said to him, if you wish to be perfect go and sell what you have and give 32:58.080 --> 33:03.360 to the poor, the Ebionites and then you will have treasure in heaven and then come 33:03.360 --> 33:04.080 and follow me. 33:05.240 --> 33:08.920 Now there is a gospel, a lost gospel called the gospel according to the Hebrews 33:08.920 --> 33:15.120 and we don't have it the entire gospel any longer but all we have is quotes by 33:15.120 --> 33:17.860 historians that speak about what the gospel of the Hebrews said. 33:17.960 --> 33:27.100 This was probably the original version of Matthew and in this one quote from origin 33:27.100 --> 33:31.980 on Matthew 19, 16 he says that it continues and it says, But the rich man 33:31.980 --> 33:36.620 began to scratch his head and it pleased him not and the master said to him, 33:36.780 --> 33:39.420 How can you say that I have fulfilled the Torah and the prophets? 33:39.660 --> 33:43.320 For it stands written in the Torah, Love your neighbor as yourself and behold 33:43.320 --> 33:47.640 many of your brothers, the sons of Abraham, are begrimed with dirt and die of 33:47.640 --> 33:52.820 hunger and your house is full of many good things but nothing at all comes forth from 33:52.820 --> 33:53.400 it to them. 33:54.020 --> 33:57.360 And he turned and said to Simon his disciple who was sitting by him, 33:57.800 --> 34:02.240 Simon Bar-Jonah it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a 34:02.240 --> 34:03.860 rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 34:04.080 --> 34:05.960 So there you have the rest of the story. 34:06.860 --> 34:12.020 Why did he say that about the rich man passing through the eye of the needle? 34:12.460 --> 34:16.420 It's because if you're rich and you see other people suffering and dying and 34:16.420 --> 34:22.240 starving and you're not giving your wealth to them, you're not keeping the 34:22.240 --> 34:24.420 commandment that says to love your neighbor as yourself. 34:26.720 --> 34:29.640 So again, it's not that Yeshua was doing away with the Torah. 34:29.780 --> 34:35.580 He was teaching a more stringent version of keeping the Torah in all the references 34:35.580 --> 34:36.400 we can find. 34:37.840 --> 34:41.960 Another Abionite belief they believe that Yeshua condemned the animal sacrifices. 34:43.900 --> 34:47.300 Again, another quote from the Gospel according to the Hebrews. 34:47.540 --> 34:52.920 It says, Yeshua is quoted as saying by Epiphanius that I came to abolish 34:52.920 --> 34:57.560 sacrifices and unless you cease from sacrificing, my anger shall not cease from 34:57.560 --> 34:57.840 you. 34:59.700 --> 35:04.900 So the Nazarenes believed that one of the doctrines or the purposes of the true 35:04.900 --> 35:08.520 prophet was to put an end to the animal sacrifices. 35:09.520 --> 35:15.040 Now, this is kind of an unusual and controversial belief because the Torah 35:15.040 --> 35:20.840 that we have, the first five books of Moses, they actually say that you are to 35:20.840 --> 35:21.220 sacrifice. 35:21.480 --> 35:23.620 It's the commandment that's put forth by Elohim. 35:24.900 --> 35:28.000 You know, many of you have probably read this book, Who Wrote the Bible? 35:28.380 --> 35:35.000 It's one of the books that we recommend and that we talk about in the Vero Yihad. 35:36.100 --> 35:41.540 This book is something that's taught by pretty much any first-year seminary 35:41.540 --> 35:42.840 student reads this book. 35:43.820 --> 35:48.140 If you're going to a Bible college, at some point you're going to be given a 35:48.140 --> 35:49.160 class on this book. 35:49.720 --> 35:56.020 And what this book is, there's a belief well, there's a theory, we'll call it a 35:56.020 --> 36:01.420 theory, that the Torah and much of the Scripture was originally four separate 36:01.420 --> 36:02.000 documents. 36:03.180 --> 36:07.420 And that at some point, probably in the Babylonian captivity, these documents were 36:07.420 --> 36:08.120 all combined. 36:09.000 --> 36:15.900 There's a what they call a J document, which refers to the Creator as Yahweh or 36:15.900 --> 36:17.440 Yahuwah, Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh. 36:17.800 --> 36:21.300 There's an E document that always refers to Him as Elohim. 36:21.820 --> 36:29.700 There is a D document, which is the Deuteronomy document that was primarily 36:29.700 --> 36:33.800 the book of Deuteronomy, and it's got other insertions throughout the 36:33.800 --> 36:34.080 Scriptures. 36:34.260 --> 36:36.940 And the last part was the P document. 36:37.480 --> 36:40.540 And the P document is what they call the priestly document, and it's the one that 36:40.540 --> 36:45.440 has all the sacrifices and the instructions for the temple. 36:46.240 --> 36:49.540 Well, in the Nazarene Acts of the Apostles, Yeshua actually addresses this 36:49.540 --> 36:53.700 issue about the sacrifices not being part of the original Torah, and everything, 36:54.660 --> 37:00.080 just about every criticism that Peter brings forth that says that the Torah has 37:00.080 --> 37:04.200 been tampered with, it all relates back to what the scholars call the P document. 37:05.240 --> 37:11.860 So, you know, we've got this modern doctrine that came forth about a hundred 37:11.860 --> 37:15.580 years ago where they realized that the Torah was made up of these four separate 37:15.580 --> 37:20.060 documents, and then Peter's saying that part of what's written in the Torah was 37:20.060 --> 37:23.860 not there originally, and everything that Peter says, it relates back to this P 37:23.860 --> 37:24.360 document. 37:25.660 --> 37:33.220 So, it's almost like it actually kind of confirms what Peter says in the Nazarene 37:33.220 --> 37:33.580 Acts. 37:33.840 --> 37:37.300 You know, he knew something 2,000 years ago that we just figured out a hundred 37:37.300 --> 37:37.920 years ago. 37:42.880 --> 37:47.360 The Abionites also believe that Yeshua taught his followers vegetarianism. 37:48.580 --> 37:52.560 Epiphanius describes the Abionites as vegetarians, and when he questioned one of 37:52.560 --> 37:57.020 the Abionites about vegetarianism, he simply told him that Christ revealed it 37:57.020 --> 37:57.420 to me. 37:58.440 --> 38:02.400 In the Recognitions and Homilies, vegetarianism is strongly connected to the 38:02.400 --> 38:06.960 rejection of animal sacrifices and is required of all the followers of Yeshua. 38:08.080 --> 38:13.340 Now, we've got also other references from these historians that speak about the 38:13.340 --> 38:14.520 apostles not eating meat. 38:15.300 --> 38:20.200 We've got one from Epiphanius, The Proof of the Gospel, Book 3, 38:20.320 --> 38:21.460 Chapter 5, that says, 38:34.060 --> 38:36.420 That's a reference to the Abionites again, the poor. 38:55.760 --> 38:57.080 Excessive purity, 39:00.120 --> 39:06.140 that again comes back to this Abionite belief that the apostles were daily 39:06.140 --> 39:09.020 immersers, or daily baptizers. 39:10.120 --> 39:15.400 We've also got Epiphanius mentions that James did not eat meat. 39:16.160 --> 39:19.460 In the Nazarene Acts, Peter says that he doesn't eat meat. 39:20.080 --> 39:24.900 There's a number of different quotations where different people are saying that the 39:24.900 --> 39:26.360 apostles did not eat meat. 39:28.030 --> 39:31.020 The Abionites believe that Yehuah had one Torah for everyone. 39:31.560 --> 39:35.660 They believe that the distinction between Jew and Gentile had been abolished for 39:35.660 --> 39:39.600 believers, and that they should all follow the universal and eternal Torah. 39:39.920 --> 39:43.040 You can find that in Homilies, Book 8, Chapter 10. 39:43.480 --> 39:47.400 And it's as revealed to Moses, the Torah as revealed to Moses, 39:47.560 --> 39:52.040 which is mentioned in Recognitions, Book 1, Chapter 35. 39:52.460 --> 39:56.180 So in this respect, the Abionites were similar to traditional Jews who sought to 39:56.180 --> 39:58.300 convert everyone to their understanding of Judaism. 39:58.880 --> 40:02.820 They just had a different understanding about what the Torah required. 40:28.030 --> 40:34.930 Okay, the question is do I believe that we should not eat meat? 40:38.710 --> 40:42.590 From all the evidence I've gathered, the apostles did not eat meat. 40:43.810 --> 40:48.070 I quit eating meat, but as far as... 40:48.070 --> 40:50.930 it's like I said at the beginning, I'm not telling anyone that they need to 40:50.930 --> 40:53.190 follow anything that I'm saying. 40:55.590 --> 41:01.130 I can give you references to all the documents that I've read that indicate 41:01.130 --> 41:05.550 that the apostles did not eat meat, but I really think it's an individual 41:05.550 --> 41:06.150 decision. 41:07.510 --> 41:12.110 From what I've read and from what I understand, I believe that the original 41:12.110 --> 41:16.970 doctrine of the apostles was that believers were not supposed to eat meat, 41:17.570 --> 41:22.190 but again, that's the decision for you to make yourself. 41:39.720 --> 41:42.060 The question was about the bread and the fish. 41:45.810 --> 41:49.550 We have that reference in the Scripture where he gave fish, and then there's also 41:49.550 --> 41:54.610 in the book of Luke, it says that Yeshua, after his resurrection, ate fish. 41:57.090 --> 42:02.050 Again, that comes back to what I was saying before about can we... 42:02.050 --> 42:05.570 is it possible that some of this was inserted, that there were changes made? 42:05.770 --> 42:13.430 If the original gospel was the gospel according to the Hebrews, and according to 42:13.430 --> 42:16.490 the people who believed the gospel according to the Hebrews, Yeshua did not 42:16.490 --> 42:22.510 eat meat, that would be the sort of thing that I would think may have been an 42:22.510 --> 42:24.470 alteration made to the gospels. 42:25.310 --> 42:30.730 Now, Yeshua himself later refers back to that when he's speaking to apostles about 42:30.730 --> 42:35.770 the leaven of the Pharisees, and he doesn't mention the fish. 42:35.870 --> 42:40.370 He goes, you know, don't you remember when I fed the multitude with these loaves, 42:40.470 --> 42:41.730 but he never mentions the fish. 42:42.950 --> 42:48.790 And there is several references outside of Scripture where you'll have people like 42:48.790 --> 42:55.950 church fathers refer back to that story, these early 1st and 2nd century church 42:55.950 --> 43:00.050 fathers, and they refer back to it and mention the bread, but they don't mention 43:00.050 --> 43:01.370 the fish. 43:02.430 --> 43:05.930 So, again, I'm not trying to tell you what to believe. 43:06.130 --> 43:08.210 I'm not trying to tell you you need to give up meat today. 43:08.330 --> 43:11.970 I'm just saying maybe this is something that you might want to look at. 43:12.090 --> 43:13.910 This is something that you're convicted of. 43:14.390 --> 43:19.690 If I'm talking about this, and you have this feeling like maybe I need to look at 43:19.690 --> 43:25.670 that, then that might be the Holy Spirit telling you to research it. 43:26.210 --> 43:27.470 That's what happened with me. 43:27.590 --> 43:31.630 The first time I read it, I was like, no, that's just crazy. 43:38.800 --> 43:42.320 Well, we don't eat meat at my Passover. 43:47.380 --> 43:50.460 Well, where's the temple at to go and sacrifice the lamb? 43:53.340 --> 43:54.060 ... 44:20.670 --> 44:21.390 ... 44:21.390 --> 44:21.950 ... 44:21.950 --> 44:22.190 ... 44:58.130 --> 44:58.850 ... 45:00.190 --> 45:09.010 And honestly, I mean, with regard to that, I understand, but then again, that could 45:09.010 --> 45:14.610 also come back to what the Nazarenes say that they believe was that Yahuwah never 45:15.490 --> 45:16.530 ordained sacrifices. 45:18.030 --> 45:23.270 So if He didn't ordain the other sacrifices, then would it not be possible 45:23.270 --> 45:27.190 that actually slaughtering the lamb was not part of the... 45:27.190 --> 45:28.310 that that was an addition? 45:28.490 --> 45:28.970 I don't know. 45:28.970 --> 45:31.890 But there is... 45:32.900 --> 45:36.730 I've got another presentation that I've been working on which actually goes into 45:36.730 --> 45:44.630 there's quite a bit of text from the prophets in the received version of 45:44.630 --> 45:49.190 Scripture where Yahuwah says that He never ordained sacrifices. 45:49.930 --> 45:58.770 That comes from Jeremiah, from Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, they all in fact, 45:58.850 --> 46:02.670 I think it's in Jeremiah, He says, look, I never commanded sacrifices. 46:03.350 --> 46:06.870 So it's not just something that the Ebionites believed, it was something that 46:06.870 --> 46:09.270 you could go all the way back to the prophets that are in the Scriptures, 46:09.830 --> 46:14.550 that are in the actual King James version of the Bible that says that He never 46:14.550 --> 46:15.550 ordained sacrifices. 46:29.850 --> 46:31.010 In the Temple Scroll. 46:31.970 --> 46:32.150 Right. 46:48.600 --> 46:54.480 Okay, and there are several different reasons that are given. 46:58.520 --> 47:02.860 In the recognitions, like the recognitions and homilies, they're basically two 47:02.860 --> 47:04.300 different versions of the same book. 47:04.900 --> 47:08.120 It would be like comparing the book of Matthew and the book of Mark. 47:08.280 --> 47:12.240 It's two different versions of the same story, but there's things in Mark that's 47:12.240 --> 47:16.000 not in Matthew, there's things in Matthew not in Mark, and even though it's the same 47:16.000 --> 47:18.740 narrative there's differences between the two. 47:19.180 --> 47:21.080 It's the same way with the recognitions and homilies. 47:21.080 --> 47:24.460 There are two different versions of very similar narratives. 47:25.300 --> 47:32.620 In the recognitions, it's said that Moses gave them the commandment for sacrifices 47:32.620 --> 47:39.480 because the people had sacrificing so ingrained in them from their time in Egypt 47:39.480 --> 47:42.220 that he couldn't get that rooted out of them. 47:42.320 --> 47:45.800 So what he did was he allowed them to sacrifice, but only to Yahuwah, 47:46.940 --> 47:50.940 with the understanding at a later time this prophet was going to come that was 47:50.940 --> 47:52.480 going to turn them away from sacrifices. 47:52.760 --> 47:55.700 But now the recognitions gives you a very different story. 47:55.780 --> 48:02.920 It says that Moses never commanded sacrifices, and that it was the people 48:02.920 --> 48:04.860 coming after Moses that corrupted it. 48:05.820 --> 48:10.500 So if Moses ordained sacrifices with the understanding that Yeshua was to do away 48:10.500 --> 48:13.100 with it, that would actually fit with what the temple scroll says. 48:14.860 --> 48:18.760 But again, I'm just I'm putting the information out there. 48:20.500 --> 48:23.540 It's not my opinion that these people said this. 48:23.600 --> 48:26.680 I'm just telling you what was said, and then it's for you. 48:27.060 --> 48:31.380 If it's something that strikes your heart that maybe I need to look at, you have the 48:31.380 --> 48:37.460 opportunity after the boot camp to go out and get some of these books on Amazon, 48:37.800 --> 48:40.200 read them yourself, and get a more thorough understanding of it. 48:40.680 --> 48:44.660 I don't want anyone to change their lifestyle or their beliefs or their 48:44.660 --> 48:47.680 understanding because I made a presentation about something. 48:58.310 --> 49:00.850 Now we're talking about the Ammonite beliefs. 49:01.370 --> 49:04.070 They believe that the Torah had been corrupted with false text. 49:04.750 --> 49:06.390 I'd already touched on that. 49:07.150 --> 49:11.530 Of course this is a controversial belief, heretical to both Orthodox Judaism and 49:11.530 --> 49:12.030 Christianity. 49:12.710 --> 49:16.530 They believe that the Tanakh had been corrupted by additions to the Torah. 49:17.190 --> 49:22.230 These corruptions included animal sacrifices and anything that painted 49:22.230 --> 49:24.050 Yahuwah in a negative light. 49:26.690 --> 49:33.410 I gave a teaching a couple of Shabbats back where we were talking about how the 49:33.410 --> 49:35.630 Scripture says that Yahuwah created evil. 49:38.050 --> 49:44.510 That's one of the examples that Peter brought forth and says that Yahuwah did 49:44.510 --> 49:45.370 not create evil. 49:46.810 --> 49:48.730 First of all, evil is not anything. 49:48.930 --> 49:52.570 Evil is like darkness being an absence of light. 49:52.670 --> 49:54.170 Darkness itself is not anything. 49:54.810 --> 49:59.490 What we see as evil is a removal of good. 49:59.830 --> 50:06.050 So you remove good, the default position of the world itself is evil. 50:06.330 --> 50:10.910 The light comes in, dispels the evil in the same way Yahuwah comes in, 50:11.690 --> 50:13.090 dispels the evil. 50:13.770 --> 50:17.190 Keep in saying that that itself, to say that Yahuwah created evil, 50:17.690 --> 50:19.650 that was an example he used as a false text. 50:19.950 --> 50:26.290 In fact, in the Nazarene Acts he says stuff like that is put in there to convict 50:26.290 --> 50:30.530 those of us that truly love Yahuwah because we'll read that and we won't even 50:30.530 --> 50:35.430 be able to... it'll be so far removed from what we understand about the Creator that 50:35.430 --> 50:37.570 it even hurts us to hear that. 50:39.190 --> 50:44.330 I've heard that from people who are just like I can't believe that the Creator 50:44.330 --> 50:49.770 would create evil and it's fulfilling literally what Kepha says. 50:50.470 --> 50:55.910 People who truly love him and you hear an evil accusation that he created evil, 50:56.070 --> 50:59.450 it's supposed to convict your heart and to make you think there's no way that can be 50:59.450 --> 50:59.730 true. 51:01.990 --> 51:05.310 They believe that acts of violence and aggression is forbidden. 51:06.070 --> 51:08.450 The Nazarene recognition is once... 51:08.450 --> 51:13.870 chapter 71, it says when they were attacked by Paul and the temple the 51:13.870 --> 51:19.410 Nazarenes did not defend themselves with violence and later, in book 3, 51:19.510 --> 51:23.470 chapter 42, Peter shares his opinion or his opposition to war. 51:24.490 --> 51:31.070 Now in the Tedache, chapter 16, verse 1, which of course is written by the 51:31.070 --> 51:34.350 apostles themselves, it says that we're commanded to arm ourselves for protection. 51:35.330 --> 51:38.430 So it's likely that they did not defend themselves in the temple because they were 51:38.430 --> 51:44.030 in the house of Elohim and they didn't want to shed blood inside the temple or it 51:44.030 --> 51:45.410 could possibly have been a Sabbath. 51:45.610 --> 51:49.090 It's something you see in the Maccabees where they would believe that they 51:49.090 --> 51:52.770 shouldn't even defend themselves against attack if it was on the Sabbath. 51:53.330 --> 51:56.850 So it's difficult to really tell what the reason was in the Nazarene Acts why they 51:56.850 --> 51:57.770 didn't defend themselves. 52:00.710 --> 52:04.350 They believed that Messiah had already appeared many times. 52:05.290 --> 52:09.410 The Ebionites felt that Yeshua's life was neither the first nor the last appearance 52:09.410 --> 52:10.090 of the Messiah. 52:10.610 --> 52:14.250 According to Epiphanius, the Ebionites believed the Messiah was Adam and appeared 52:14.250 --> 52:15.690 as Adam to the patriarchs. 52:15.810 --> 52:18.630 Now this is one thing that Epiphanius does. 52:18.950 --> 52:22.410 He's writing about the Ebionites as if they're heretics. 52:22.610 --> 52:28.150 So he'll take their beliefs and kind of skew their theology enough to make it 52:28.150 --> 52:31.450 sound unappealing and crazy. 52:31.690 --> 52:34.410 But then when you actually read the recognitions and you see what they 52:34.410 --> 52:38.330 believe, it's really not that far from what a lot of Christian groups believe. 52:38.490 --> 52:44.470 They believe that Yeshua, that when it says that the angel of Yehua appeared to 52:45.370 --> 52:49.270 Moses in the pillar of fire, that that was Yeshua. 52:49.750 --> 52:53.850 Which I think that's what a lot of Messianic believers believe, is that that 52:53.850 --> 52:56.070 was actually Yeshua that led them out of Egypt. 52:56.790 --> 53:01.330 They also believe that it was Yeshua that appeared to Abraham before the destruction 53:01.330 --> 53:04.310 of Sodom and Gomorrah and had lunch with Abraham. 53:04.450 --> 53:05.490 They believe that that was Yeshua. 53:06.270 --> 53:11.990 And so that in itself, this doctrine which we call the primal Adam, that's actually 53:11.990 --> 53:14.930 very similar to what most Messianic and Christian people believe today. 53:15.070 --> 53:18.930 They believe that it was Yeshua that was walking in the garden in the cool of the 53:18.930 --> 53:19.130 day. 53:19.910 --> 53:25.030 So Epiphanius makes it sound like they had this outrageous belief, but then when you 53:25.030 --> 53:29.870 actually read the Nazarene Acts and hear it from their own words, it doesn't sound 53:29.870 --> 53:32.850 like something that many of us already believe anyway. 53:34.670 --> 53:40.550 And of course they also believe that Messiah actually itself referred to 53:40.550 --> 53:43.710 Yeshua, but it can also refer to any anointed one. 53:44.970 --> 53:51.910 So like in the Recognitions, Book 1, Chapter 43, it implies that when we all 53:51.910 --> 53:56.650 live righteously, we can all become a Messiah, like a type of shadow of the 53:56.650 --> 53:57.470 Messiah himself. 53:58.890 --> 54:02.470 And in fact, Hippolytus, when he's writing about the Ammonites, he plainly states 54:02.470 --> 54:03.270 that they believe that. 54:03.950 --> 54:09.310 So one of the names that we hear about that was given to the Messiah was the 54:09.310 --> 54:10.390 Standing One. 54:10.890 --> 54:15.210 So in the Recognitions, Simon Magus is claiming to be the Standing One, 54:15.750 --> 54:18.270 and Kepha tells us that's another name for the Messiah. 54:19.130 --> 54:26.730 Now in not only the Nazarene writings, but even in the Torah itself, you have 54:26.730 --> 54:31.430 these statements keep coming up where this person stood up. 54:32.610 --> 54:36.970 And so like, it speaks about James standing on the pinnacle of the temple and 54:36.970 --> 54:39.790 declaring that Yeshua was the Messiah right before they killed him. 54:40.090 --> 54:45.810 Well, when it mentions that one of these men, one of these holy ones, stood up and 54:45.810 --> 54:49.710 performed an act of righteousness, that in itself, they're basically saying, 54:49.950 --> 54:54.170 kind of reading between the lines, that this person is acting as that type 54:54.170 --> 54:56.190 and shadow of Messiah by standing up. 54:57.050 --> 54:58.610 I can give you an example from the Torah. 54:58.810 --> 55:04.150 When Moses is fleeing from Pharaoh, and he's at the well, and he sees Zipporah 55:04.150 --> 55:07.990 come up, and then these shepherds come, and they're harassing Zipporah and her 55:07.990 --> 55:10.110 sisters, and Moses defends them. 55:10.150 --> 55:12.110 It doesn't say that Moses defended them. 55:12.150 --> 55:16.290 It says that Moses stood up and then defended the women. 55:16.910 --> 55:20.890 So you even see this doctrine of the standing one all the way back in the 55:20.890 --> 55:21.150 Torah. 55:24.790 --> 55:29.470 When Israel, when Jacob Israel, when he was on his deathbed, and his 55:29.470 --> 55:33.250 grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh come in, and he's going to bless Ephraim and 55:33.250 --> 55:37.870 Manasseh, you know, he's on his deathbed so he can't stand up, so the Torah says he 55:37.870 --> 55:40.330 straightened up and then blessed the men. 55:40.330 --> 55:45.230 And once he straightened up, his name changed from Jacob to Israel, and the text 55:45.230 --> 55:46.270 refers to him as Israel. 55:46.750 --> 55:51.410 It's all this doctrine which has largely been lost today of the standing one, 55:51.550 --> 55:52.730 the standing one doctrine. 55:53.250 --> 55:56.430 And so you'll see that even in the New Testament, it'll mention that the apostles 55:56.430 --> 55:58.850 stood up, or Yeshua was standing. 55:59.110 --> 56:03.830 And it's all referring back to this kind of between the lines saying that this is 56:03.830 --> 56:09.970 this Nazarene belief that we can all be a type and shadow of Messiah when we do acts 56:09.970 --> 56:10.570 of righteousness. 56:12.350 --> 56:18.130 They believe that... and I'm almost done, I've got maybe seven or eight more slides. 56:18.490 --> 56:22.650 They believe that immersion was important for salvation. 56:23.930 --> 56:28.610 The Abinites believed that immersion, or baptism, replaced animal sacrifices. 56:29.870 --> 56:34.210 Sometimes immersion is referred to as a one-time event, and other times it's a 56:34.210 --> 56:35.490 daily ritual like prayer. 56:36.350 --> 56:38.630 They believe that there was only one Elohim. 56:38.990 --> 56:41.550 It's completely different than the beliefs of Marcion. 56:42.530 --> 56:46.030 They were strict monotheists who denied the doctrine of the Trinity. 56:46.590 --> 56:50.570 For the Abinites, Yeshua was the true prophet, the Messiah, the messenger of 56:50.570 --> 56:52.170 Yahuwah, but not equal to Yahuwah. 56:52.870 --> 56:55.930 In the Recognitions, Yeshua is preexistent, the Son of Elohim, 56:56.370 --> 56:58.170 through whom creation took place. 56:59.150 --> 57:01.670 They believe that Paul was an apostate from the Torah. 57:02.430 --> 57:05.810 In the first book of the Recognitions, we're told another version of the attack 57:05.810 --> 57:09.890 on the believers in the temple by the congregation of the freemen, which is 57:09.890 --> 57:12.790 written about in Acts chapter 6. 57:13.270 --> 57:16.450 But in this version, Paul is who is called our enemy. 57:16.690 --> 57:19.290 He's not name by name, he's just referred to as the enemy. 57:20.950 --> 57:25.750 It's not only simply a bystander as he is in the book of Acts, but he is rather the 57:25.750 --> 57:30.030 actual leader of the attack who attacks and attempts to kill James. 57:31.990 --> 57:36.030 And not only is there never any mention of Paul's conversion in the Recognitions and 57:36.030 --> 57:40.690 Homilies, but virtually all the views debated against by Peter are identical to 57:40.690 --> 57:42.010 the doctrine taught by Paul. 57:46.030 --> 57:48.590 Here I have a quote from Epiphanius, it says, 57:57.610 --> 58:01.270 They say that he was a Tarsian, which he admits himself does not deny, 58:01.370 --> 58:05.410 and they suppose that he was of Greek parentage, taking the occasion of this 58:05.410 --> 58:08.550 from the same passage, because of his frank statement, I am a man of Tarsus, 58:08.650 --> 58:09.830 a citizen of no mean city. 58:10.490 --> 58:13.670 They claim that he was a Greek, the son of a Greek mother, a Greek father, 58:13.750 --> 58:17.270 that he had gone up to Jerusalem, stayed there for a while, desired to marry 58:17.270 --> 58:20.210 the daughter of the high priest, and therefore became a proselytite, 58:20.490 --> 58:24.870 and had been circumcised, but since he still could not marry that sort of girl, 58:24.930 --> 58:27.910 he became angry, and wrote against circumcision, and against the Sabbath, 58:28.070 --> 58:28.890 and the legislation. 58:29.370 --> 58:36.050 So that's from Panarion, chapter 16, verses 8 and 9. 58:37.770 --> 58:41.330 The most notable difference between the beliefs held by the Nazarene, the 58:41.330 --> 58:44.730 Evianites versus Christianity, Hebrew roots, and Messianic Judaism, 58:44.990 --> 58:47.310 is the difference in the way the Torah is viewed. 58:47.310 --> 58:51.950 Not only is obedience to the Torah very important for salvation, the Evianites 58:51.950 --> 58:55.670 believe Yeshua taught a more strict observance of Torah, and this stands in 58:55.670 --> 59:00.070 stark contrast to Paul, who views Torah obedience as unnecessary or even harmful. 59:00.690 --> 59:05.070 For the Nazarenes, it was not enough to help the poor, you had to become poor. 59:05.350 --> 59:09.270 You didn't just have to abstain from murder, you had to abstain from killing. 59:10.050 --> 59:13.690 They did not interpret the Torah through the lens of Rabbinic Judaism, they 59:13.690 --> 59:17.750 interpreted the Torah through the eyes of the person who gave the Torah to Moses, 59:18.010 --> 59:18.710 who was Yeshua. 59:20.570 --> 59:23.770 We have more information about the Evianites than any other Jewish Christian 59:23.770 --> 59:24.090 group. 59:24.950 --> 59:28.050 In their earliest writings, the Evianites are mentioned more than any other groups, 59:28.230 --> 59:31.590 and the differences in their doctrines often is unclear. 59:33.010 --> 59:36.090 Epiphanius states, for instance, that many of these groups were of the same 59:36.090 --> 59:40.170 school, that's what he said, the same school, and were vegetarian, kept the 59:40.170 --> 59:42.270 Torah, and rejected the animal sacrifices. 59:42.270 --> 59:46.530 Based on the descriptions of Epiphanius and the statements made by Jerome and 59:46.530 --> 59:50.170 Theodoret, the Nazarenes and Evianites are the same group. 59:50.830 --> 59:55.310 When attempting to uncover what Yeshua taught his apostles, the best source of 59:55.310 --> 59:59.130 information is the records we have on the doctrines of the Nazarene Israelites. 59:59.970 --> 01:00:04.770 So, again, if you're wanting more information, this book is excellent, 01:00:05.090 --> 01:00:10.750 The Lost Religion of Jesus, Simple Living and Nonviolence in Early Christianity by 01:00:10.750 --> 01:00:11.430 Keith Akers. 01:00:13.170 --> 01:00:16.090 He goes into a lot of the same research that I brought up. 01:00:17.310 --> 01:00:22.330 We have this other book, of course, by Robert Eisenman, The Dead Sea Scrolls 01:00:22.330 --> 01:00:23.150 and the First Christians. 01:00:23.510 --> 01:00:32.550 It's kind of a much smaller version of James, the brother of Jesus, and the New 01:00:32.550 --> 01:00:33.230 Testament Code. 01:00:33.330 --> 01:00:34.830 They're both thousand-page books. 01:00:35.010 --> 01:00:40.330 This is, I think, 500 pages, no, 400 pages, and part of it is his 01:00:40.330 --> 01:00:42.790 translations of some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. 01:00:42.810 --> 01:00:46.370 So, it's a much easier read than James, the brother of Jesus. 01:00:47.310 --> 01:00:51.930 Of course, you've got the New Testament Code, also, that you can read for more 01:00:51.930 --> 01:00:52.430 information. 01:00:53.550 --> 01:01:00.190 The Panarion of Epiphanius of Solomus, Book 1, you can buy that on Amazon, 01:01:00.370 --> 01:01:01.890 or you can find that free online. 01:01:02.030 --> 01:01:04.710 Just Google Epiphanius Panarion. 01:01:04.850 --> 01:01:09.650 You can find plenty of PDFs if you want to read what he says about not just the 01:01:09.650 --> 01:01:13.610 Ebionites, but the Nazarenes, the Nazarenes, the Essenes, all that 01:01:13.610 --> 01:01:17.150 information is in there if you want more information about these, you know, 01:01:17.170 --> 01:01:18.430 what he calls these heresies. 01:01:18.810 --> 01:01:21.030 And there's a lot of other good information in there. 01:01:21.090 --> 01:01:23.750 I mean, Epiphanius, he talks about the Nicolaitans. 01:01:24.190 --> 01:01:28.130 You know, we hear that in the Book of Revelation, and people have theories about 01:01:28.130 --> 01:01:28.750 what it is. 01:01:28.850 --> 01:01:33.510 Well, you know, Epiphanius, he lived in the Middle East. 01:01:33.570 --> 01:01:37.070 I mean, he knew what the Nicolaitans were, so if you want to know what they are, 01:01:37.830 --> 01:01:40.330 you know, get a copy of his book and you can read about them. 01:01:41.590 --> 01:01:47.370 And then, of course, there's Jackson Snyder's book, The Nazarene Acts of the 01:01:47.370 --> 01:01:47.930 Apostles. 01:01:48.690 --> 01:01:51.710 If you're listening to this on YouTube, I'll put a link in the description where 01:01:51.710 --> 01:01:53.870 you can download that for free and listen to it. 01:01:56.670 --> 01:01:57.510 And thank you. 01:01:57.590 --> 01:01:59.290 That concludes my presentation. 01:01:59.290 --> 01:02:00.230 Thank you.