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Writer's pictureChapman Chen

Jesus the Vegan Nazarene cum Vegan Ebionite. By Dr. Chapman Chen



 

Jesus is a vegan Nazarene and a vegan Ebionite. The Nazarenes and the Ebionites are two early Jewish Christian vegan sects. Per Prof. Robert Eisenman (2024), Nazareth was not a town name for such a place name did not appear in any of the Galilee maps of Jesus’ time (note 1). The term 'Nazarene,' derived from the Hebrew root 'Nazir,' which means 'consecrated' or 'devoted,' refers to an early Jewish Christian movement, as confirmed by Kameron Waters (2024) (note 2), one of the directors of Christspiracy. According to Epiphanius (note 3), the Nazarenes were Jews who kept all the Jewish observances, but they would not offer animal sacrifice or eat animal flesh, because they were adamant that the Pentateuch was fabricated, and none of those anti-vegan customs were really instituted by the fathers (Panarion, Book I, Anacephalaeosis I, 18. Against Nasaraens).  

 

The Gospel of Philip, an early 2nd second century compilation of sayings, explains the origination of the phrase: “The apostles who were before us called (him) thus: Jesus the Nazorean, the Messiah, that is, Jesus the Nazorean, the Christ. The last name is Christ, the first is Jesus, that in the midst is the Nazarene. Messiah has two meanings, both Christ and the measured. Jesus in Hebrew is the redemption. Nazara is the truth. The  Nazarene accordingly is the truth. The Nazarene and Jesus are they who have been measured” (Wilson 1962, The Gospel of Philip, pp. 108-109) (note 4). “I am the Way (of Redemption–Yeshua), the Truth (the Nazarene), and the Life (the anointing–the Christ),” says Jesus (John 14:16; cf. Swords2plowshares 2024) (note 5).

 

Concerning “Ebionite”, when Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor” in his sermon on the mountain, he must be referring to the Ebionites for the Hebrew word for the poor is ebion. Otherwise, the statement does not make sense because not all poor people are righteous people who deserved to be blessed. According to Epiphanius, the Ebionites asserted that they were poor because they sold their possessions in the apostles’ time and laid them at the apostles’ feet, and went over to a life of poverty and renunciation. Like the Nazarenes, they abstained from animal flesh. They also accused Paul of being actually a Greek apostate who began to attack the Jews after being jilted by a Jewish high priest’s daughter in Jerusalem (Panarion, Book I, Anacephalaeosis II, 30. Against Ebionites) (note 6).  

 

It is high time we applied this understanding in our lives. Let us all emulate Jesus as His disciples, accepting His leadership, living as He the Ebionite and Nazarene lived, resisting the systems of cruelty and inequality that He resisted, and carrying forward the mission He began two millennia ago (cf. Swords2plowshares 2024)! Put down your evil knives; follow the Vegan Christ!


 

Notes

 

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