The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1678 page)

 
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Nazarene
.

Term used in various senses.

1 It is an epithet for Jesus, usually understood to mean ‘of Nazareth’ (e.g. Acts 10. 38), but its origin and meaning are obscure.
2 ‘Nazarenes’ (or Heb.,
No
erim
) appears as a Jewish term for Christians in early times.
3 Jewish Christian groups called ‘Nazarenes’, perhaps related to the
Ebionites
, are mentioned by some 4th-cent. writers.
4 The
Mandeans
are described as ‘Nasoreans’ in some of their early writings.

 
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Nazarene, Church of the
.

An international holiness denomination which, in the early 20th cent., united various American groups which taught John
Wesley's
doctrine of ‘perfect love’. In the British Isles the churches formerly associated with the International Holiness Mission were united with the Church of the Nazarene in 1952, whilst in 1955 a further union took place with the Calvary Holiness Church.

 
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(Zulu,
ama-Nazaretha
)
or Shembe's Church
. The largest independent movement among the Zulu, later including other peoples. It is named from the biblical
Nazirites
, and represents an Old Testament form of religion—sabbatarian, and with two main festivals, Tabernacles (see
SUKKOT
) and the
New Year
, focused on their holy city Ekuphakameni, near Durban, and their holy mountain Nhlangakazi, 130 km north. The founder, Isaiah Shembe (1870–1935), a black
Baptist church
member, was a
charismatic
prophethealer who composed a great corpus of hymns in Zulu.

 
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(Heb.,
nazar
, ‘dedicate’). A Jewish ascetic who vows to abstain from grape products, from cutting hair, and from touching a corpse. The rules for Nazirites are described in Numbers 6. 1–21 and in the tractate ‘Nazir’ in the order
N
shim
of the
Mishnah
.

 
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