The Netsar, Netsarim, and Fruit

Embracing Yahwéh, Y’shúa, and the Covenant

Clear and Sufficient Witness to Israel his People

The Apostle Kepha (Peter) said to Cornelius the Gentile who sought Yahwéh


The Lord Y’shúa of Natsareth 5 said to his disciples:
“I am the true Vine … (the true Netsar) [6]
and my Father (Yahwéh, “the only true God” … “my God and your God” John 17:3; 20:17)
is the Gardener … and ye are the Branches (the Netsarim, plural of Netsar);
he who abides in me and I (and my words) in him, the same shall bear much fruit …

Disclaimer: Though I have places of overlap with various groups, ancient and modern,
that doesn’t mean I identify with all of their beliefs and practices. Nor do I necessarily accept what each one says about the others.
But I try to learn something from everyone. Maneuvering through everyone’s claims is no small task!
I sort through materials building upon my own path and experiences with Yahwéh. I am always willing to fine-tune!

Bishop Epiphanius, The Panarion (c. 375 AD)
A Nicene Bishop, an enemy of the Netsarim who was on the outside trying to look in and describe them!
Remember the Victors of war write or re-write the story in their own favor.


Welcome to Netsarim.com

The Israeli Netsarim “…were first called, Christians, at Antioch…” in Syria, north of Israel.

  1. We prefer the original Hebrew names over the hybrid European translations of “The LORD”, “God”, and “Jesus Christ” and one should become familiar with them and use them. We prefer them but that doesn’t mean that the other forms are evil or pagan as some erroneously teach. Yahwéh knows your heart and intentions even when we, like children, make mistakes. Yahwéh is good and his mercy and compassion endure forever! ↩︎
  2. The original baptismal command in Matthew 28:20 that Y’shúa gave was to teach all nations and baptize them “in my name”, that is “in the name of Y’shúa the Messiah”. This is clear from the practice described throughout the rest of the New Testament. It is widely known that the formula was changed to “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” to promote a new Trinitarian doctrine. In Yahwéh‘s mercy, it will work, but the original is preferable. See the Book of Acts, chapter two, verses 37 – 42, and 10:48. “Whosoever [in sincerity] will call upon the name of Yahwéh [in prayer] shall be saved.” ↩︎
  3. Why self-immersion?
    In the Hebrew pattern, immersion is not primarily an institutional ceremony performed upon a passive subject, but an embodied act of repentance, cleansing, and covenantal return before Yahwéh. When faithful witnesses or teachers are available, they are valuable; but when a sincere seeker cannot find a non-Trinitarian teacher, self-immersion in the name of Y’shúa is a fitting act of faith and obedience. Yahwéh is merciful, and each soul walks according to the light given in its appointed path. ↩︎
  4. (Acts 11:26) The Book of Acts was finished in about AD 62–about the same time that Ya’aqob (James, the Brother of Y’shúa, and the Leader of the Netsarim) was murdered at the Temple in Jerusalem. The earliest manuscript of a portion of Acts that we now have is about AD 200-250. Obviously, they were called by the Hebrew name, Netsarim (Grk: Nazaraios). They were later, at some point, called by the Greek term for Messiah, Christianos, at Antioch. Notice that neither Paul or any other writer in the NT ever used the name, Christian, except once in 1 Peter; and this may have been changed from Natsri. (The question is, When was the first time and when did it become the dominant term? Was it original to the writing of Acts or was this phrase inserted as a parenthetical note added by a later copyist? And, if so, what was the motivation for inserting it; and, what is the latest date that it could have been inserted? AD 70? 100? 135? The polemical Pseudo-Ignatius Letters? Could it have been polemical, as an effort to disassociate themselves from the original Jewish Netsarim and their continued practices (not of the priestly “bloody-ritual-works of the Law” but of “the righteousness of the Torah-Law”(Rom. 8:4)—its’ moral laws and wisdom, including, Sabbaths, Festivals, Foods, etc.?) Can one find evidence of a split and a broadening gap between Netsarim and Christianos in the 2nd Century? How wide did the gap between them eventually get? We only find in the New Testament the term, Christian, three times: Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16. Were these terms changed from Netsari to Christian as part of an effort to make a distinction and widen the gap? Maybe, maybe not. It may have been synonymous originally. But, it is clear that later “Christians” criticized the “Netsarim” as aberrant & different from themselves. Christian is not at all a bad term and can be a natural progression with the Greek language–Christ & Christians and perhaps was so. But, when and if a designation becomes loaded with specific historic developments, one may not want to be associated with that designation. They were also called “The Way”. The term most used to designate them in the New Testament is Saints or Holy Ones — those consecrated and set apart to follow Y’shúa the Netsar, the Messiah (Christos), and the restored walk the Path of Righteousness and Holiness that he outlined. It was a path that separated one from those on other paths. ↩︎
  5. The name, Jesus, comes from the Biblical Hebrew name, Yahushúa/Yǝhoshúa from whence we also get the form, Joshua/Yoshua. There was originally no “J” sound in English nor is there one in Hebrew or Greek. Yahushúa was abbreviated to, Y’shúa, and Aramaic as, Yeshu, then into Greek & Latin as Iesous, and into Spanish as Hesus. Joshua, Jesus, Iesous, Hesous, Yeshu, Yeshúa, Yahushúa or Yǝhoshúa. All derive from the merger of two words: Yahwéhyeshuat:

    O Yahwéh, I wait for your yeshuat (salvation).Genesis 49:18

    Let us illustrate this further. If we abbreviate the Greek name, Timotheos, to Timothy to Timmy to Tim, we may be talking about the same guy, but we lose the meaning of his name: Timay and Theos: Valued by God. Many Hebrew words have a full form and an abbreviated form.

    Yeshu part of his given name, Yeshu-Maryá (Yeshumaryá). Maryá is the emphatic form of Mar and means: The Lord or The Master. It is taken from Psalm 110, which is one of the cornerstones passages of the New Testament. He is thusly identified in King David’s prophetic vision as The Lord to whom Yahwéh (The Eternal One) spoke:

    1Yahwéh said unto my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet‘.

    In the original Hebrew of Isaiah 11:1, he is metaphorically called, a Choter and Netsar (a Shoot and Branch) that will spring-up out of the Shoresh or Root of his Hebrew ancestors, Jesse and King David); He was to be Anointed (Authorized & Empowered) in Isaiah 11:2 & Isaiah 61:1 (compare: Rom. 15:12 ; Luke 4:16-30 ; Rev. 5:5 ; Rev. 22:16). When he says, “I am the true Vine” he is commenting on Isaiah 11:1. In Revelation 5:5, he clarifies that though he is the Root and Branch springing out of Jesse & David, he is more than that—he is actually the Root that precedes all others in time and status! He was ordained by “only true God” before the world began and was manifested in the latter days of the old covenant age. 1 Peter 1:20 ↩︎
  6. (John 15 ; GHT 73) Y’shúa is the Netsar from the root of Jesse; (Isa. 11:1 ; Ruth 4:22). He was a descendent of King David (John 7:42) He is from the Tribe of Judah/Jewdah (Hebrews 7:14) He is the firstborn son of God among “the sons of God” (Job 38:7). He is a Priest in the order of Melchizedek, maybe even Melchizedek himself—in contrast to the later temporary Aharonic priesthood established following the ‘sin of the golden calf (Hebrews 5:6; Gen. 14:18; Ps. 110:4) The nation of Israel was compared to a Vine planted by God also in Isaiah 5. But, Y’shúa says that he is the True Vine. Just as YHWH had threatened to destroy the idolatrous Israelites after the Golden Calf incident and start over with Moses, that is exactly what was happening in Y’shúa with the Jewish “remnant” who united to him, while the Jews as a whole, were mercifully given a temporary partial blindness and hardness of heart toward Y’shúa “until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in”. Rom 11:25 The same happened to the “church” as it distorted the teachings of the New Testament with false doctrines. ↩︎
  7. Was this phrase original to the Book of Acts written about AD 62 or was it added? There is a curious gap with almost no information about the churches between the time of about AD 70 to 110. When information picks back up in the middle of the 2nd century, there is a distinct sect that has taken shape at war with so-called, “Judaizers”. It is one different from the original–a hybrid mixture of scriptural and unscriptural views. Was the phrase inserted “they were first called, Christians, at Antioch” inserted to distinguish and further the separation between the original Netsarians and the new developing hybrid? The term “Christianos” is only used 3-times in the New Testament (Acts 11:26 ; 26:28 ; 1 Peter 4:16). The Apostle Sha’ul (aka, Paul) never uses this word in any of his Epistles nor Ya’aqob (James) nor John nor Jude nor any of the Gospels nor the Book of Revelation nor the Book of Hebrews. It would have been quite easy for a Scribe to insert these. ↩︎

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References

References
1 which some spell as Nazarean, and there are various sects today with that name.
2 Brackets are mine, inserted to clarify, reorder, and simplify his descriptions in various chapters and narrow in on the pertinent statements. We have used the Prophet Isaiah’s Hebrew term, Netsar (Netsarim; Is 11:1), instead of his Greek translation, Nazoreans, which is also confused with the term, Nazirites in the New Testament. Hebrew is the root language of the Scriptures, so we must trace translations back to their root.
3 We have used the Prophet Isaiah’s term, Netsar (Is 11:2), instead of the Bishops’ Greek translation, Nazoreans, a term which is also confused in the New Testament with the similar sounding word, Nazirites.
4 Nasharim or Nasareans comes from the word for Eagle (Nashar) and is rooted in the word, Nasa – to Ascend; Strongs #’s H5404, H5376), from Exodus 19:4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you as if on wings of Eagles (Nasharim) and brought you to Myself.”And Isaiah 40:31, “But those who wait for Yahwéh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like Eagles (Nasharim). They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.”
5 Some of them at some point rejected the Apostle Paul’s writings, which probably meant they, in reality, simply rejected the twisted interpretations of Paul’s letters by later Christians who had distanced themselves from the original faith of the Jewish Apostles. The Netsarian Sha’ul, they had turned into their Roman Catholic Paul. We do not accept the false claims of modern “Ebionites” concerning him. We cover this controversy on this website.
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