THE SECTS. THE PEOPLE 201

clearly of interest to our present inquiry to ascertain the real
character of these sectaries and to find out whether they pro-
fessed any special doctrine concerning the realization of the
Messianic hope, and whether they played a part in the shaping
of John the Baptist and of Jesus.1

In this connexion the vital question has been raised whether
we have here actually a pre-Christian sect.2 There are obvious
limits to our reliance on the information, and especially on the
chronology of Epiphanius. Moreover, our distrust is increased
by the fact that, in another passage, the same writer speaks
of a sect of Nazoreans (Na^coQaloi), whom he derives from the
gnostic Cerinthus, an Alexandrian Jew of the second or third
generation after Christ. The two names, viz. Nazorean and
Nazarean, resemble each other so closely that we can scarcely
resist suspecting a confusion, and the pains which Epiphanius
has taken to convince us that he is not guilty in this respect
have not appeared to scholars a sufficient guarantee. Accord-
ingly many authorities take the view that there was no such
thing as a pre-Christian sect of Nazareans.3 But since, on the
contrary, others are prepared to admit it,4 it is permissible to
conclude that our information is at present ambiguous and does
not allow of any definite solution of the problem. Nevertheless,
despite the uncertainty of our sources, the conviction, shared
by their authors, seems to be justified, namely, that at the
beginning of the Christian era there indeed existed in Israel,
and even in Palestine, sundry sects, varying in number and
peculiarity, who claimed at first to be Jewish, inasmuch as
their members were recruited among Jews and remained
attached by various ties to authentic Judaism, but who later

1 This is the view of Friedlander (CCLVH3, 131 ff. ; ISO jflF.; 148 ;
150), who further maintains (ibid., 142) that they derived their name from
the word neser, " offshoot," which denoted the expected Scion of David
(c/. Isa. ii. 1).

2 Haer., xxix, 6 : jjv yag f\ algeaiz i&v Na^aoaiajv rzoo XQLGTOV xal

XoiGTOV QVX Tjdsi.

3 So Bousset, Goguel, Israel Le"vy and several more recent writers.

4 So Juster and Ed. Meyer, who explains the name from the root
tt-s-r, " to guard, observe," so that the Nasoreans would be " the
observant.'* Juster, following Friedlander, bases his view on a passage
in Jerome, Epist., cxii, 13, ad Augustinum, which states that even in his
day there existed in all the synagogues of the East a class of heretics
condemned by the Pharisees under the name of minim^ but popularly
called Nazareans. Jerome adds, however, that these believed in Christ,
desiring to be both Jews and Christians at the same time, when they
were actually neither. It is plain, therefore, that the passage treats
of a post-Christian syncretistic sect, and thus scarcely accords with the
description given by Epiphanius.