The attached slide presentation the consolidation of slides discussed over a period of several weeks (hence the reference to “Week 2,” etc., in the presentation). The study shows how Nazarene Judaism would be squeezed from those seeking to squeeze the Judaism out of the followers of Yeshua of Nazareth, and how the religious authorities sought to squeeze the followers of Yeshua of Nazareth out of Judaism.
One of my favorite parts of the study is when we discuss the question: HOW MANY TIMES WAS THE ONE TRUE FAITH GIVEN?
Reading from the translation of the Peshitta Aramaic text of Ephesians 4:4-6 we find: 4 That you be one body and one spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling. 5 For Marya (Master Yah, YHWH) is one and the faith (or trust) is one and the immersion is one: 6 And one Eloah (Elohim) is the Father of all, and above all, and through all, and in us all.
Jude 3 (translation from the Peshitta Aramaic) reads:
3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you, concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting that you should earnestly contend for the Faith (or Trust), which was once for all delivered to the Set-Apart-Ones.
There is only one true faith:
And the one true faith was only given once:
And, according to Paul (or whoever wrote Hebrews 11): Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and David (among others) are counted as faithful.
Thus, the one true faith already existed on the Earth before the events recorded in the gospels took place.
Since the one true faith already existed on the Earth before the events recorded in the gospels happened…..
It may be an anachronism to call the faith of Abraham “the Way” (haderekh) or that of “the sect of the Nazarenes” (Nazarene Judaism), but it is functionally accurate….if the one true faith was only given once, and Abraham had that faith.
Here is the link for the slides to Nazarene 101: Know What You Believe
