After Jesus' departure, a small band of 120 claimed to be the followers of "the way" Acts19:9,23,22:4,24:14,22 and became known as the Nazarenes Acts24:11. The Quran calls them nasara from nusra/help in reference to those few core elements that valliantly stood by him, when he started sensing disbelief among his followers 3:52,61:14. This inner circle are not the cowards presented in the NT as fleeing Jesus when adversity came or unable to understand most if any, of his teachings which is why they abandoned his instructions to abide by the law soon after his death. In the Quran they pray Allah to make them witnesses of the truth, that their life becomes an embodiment, a testimony to Jesus' teachings. "Christian" is a later appellation Acts11:26. In fact the word Christian itself is in reference to the belief that those who hold that qualification are anointed with God's oil, according to the earliest Christians such as Theophilus.
Nasara is phonetically close to the historical Nazarene/Nazoraios (Greek) or Nasraya (Syriac) Acts24. In the region of the Levant from where the Christians of the Hijaz originated, Christians called themselves Kristyane. It is expected that the Quran would address them by that same name just as it addresses Jews and other groups by their own names. Instead it chose to bring back to the spotlight an appellation forgotten by Christians themselves, found in their books, in reference to the first followers of Jesus, so as to illustrate how far they have gone astray. The last revelation this way vindicates Jesus' true followers, the Nazarenes, by bringing them back to the forefront of history after they had been relegated to darkness by the Christian pauline movement.
Another similarly remarkable feature of the Quran, is in its emphatic description of Jesus' mission as exclusively meant for the Israelites. To the Jews of 7th century Arabia, as is the case today, the reason for Jesus' mission and to whom it was directed to, was of no importance. No Jew would have walked around teaching the notion that Jesus was sent to the Jewish tribes. Christians on the other hand, teach that Jesus' mission was meant for all of humanity. The NT itself makes the claim, contradicting itself. It is thus expected for a 7th century Arab who is neither a Jew nor Christian, and who awkwardly decides to reveal Jesus' target audience, to similarly state that Jesus was sent to all people. Or at the very least that he was sent to Christians just as Moses was sent to the Jews.
That appellation of Nazarene which was attached to Jesus Matt26:71,Mk1:24,10:47,14:67,Lk4:34,Jn17:5,Acts2:22 could not have been in reference to his supposed hometown of Nazareth (a fruitless effort by Matthew's writer to make Jesus' birth fulfill an inexistent prophecy of the HB), since his followers, who came from different places were also referred to by that title. It is interesting noting that, besides the total absence of archeological evidence attesting to its existence, Nazareth is never mentioned in the writings of Josephus, nor is it mentioned in any other first-century writings. Josephus even mentions a village close to the present site of Nazareth, yet says nothing about a Nazareth. Even if one goes by the theory that it was an insignificant location hence its absence from all available contemporary records, one would think that by Josephus' time, Christianity would have gained enough fame so as to attract the writers curiosity as to this new movement's origins and that of its founder known by his hometown of Nazareth.
It isn't mentioned in the HB either. The Book of Joshua records 12 towns and 6 villages in that area, but no mention of a "Nazareth". The Talmud lists 63 Galilean towns, but again no mention of a "Nazareth." This total silence could be due to the location being an out-of the-way hamlet of around 50 houses on a patch of about four acres, populated by Jews of modest means as recent archaeological finds point to.
This however causes major problems to the NT fable. Among many such issues one needs to explain how such a rustic and small clan did not hear of the 12 year old prodigy among them Lk2 and that none from outside of the small town has ever come anywhere near his home to inquire of him. It would then necessarily make the village famous and put it on every map. This young Jesus prodigy did not appear in a vacuum either, considering how the NT speaks of the events forecasting the coming of the highly anticipated messiah as happening just a few years earlier. How could this small hamlet not have heard anything of the visiting magis, coming from far to worship the promised king Matt2. How could their expensive gifts have gone unnoticed within this clan of poor relatives and close friends.
Similarly to what the Quran means when it says to obey the prophet, "The way" of Jesus Jn14:6 is outlined in Lk10:25-28 where he commands strict observance of Jewish laws. In that passage from Luke he is asked about the conditions of salvation and the questionner quotes from Lev19 which details certains laws like the observance of the sabbath and admonishes to
"Keep all my decrees and all my laws and follow them. I am the LORD".
The 2nd passage quoted by the questionner is Deut6 which speaks of loving the One God and obeying His commandements
"keep the commands of the LORD your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you. Do what is right and good in the LORD's sight..obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness".
As one can clearly see, one is justified before God, not by faith alone but by deeds too. Consequently the Nazarenes, Jesus' early group of small band of followers, observed all Jewish customs outlined in the Torah but differed from Jews in that they recognized Jesus as the Messiah. The Nazarenes grew among the Israelites but persecutions forced them to go into hiding, with Paul playing a central role in their persecution prior to his conversion. After joining their ranks, he influenced the group leaders, namely Peter and James, to reach out to the Gentiles. With more non-Jews entering the fold, Jewish laws binding on the community were abandoned Acts15:1-29 and so was Jesus' "way". The Nazarenes who were centred in Jerusalem gradually became isolated. It is interesting noting that upon his arrest by the Jews and Romans, Paul was assumed to be Acts24"a ringleader of the Nazarene sect". Paul doesnt confirm the accusation, as it obviously did not conform to reality, and instead claims he follows the original path of Jesus. Paul's missionary activities progressively gained him a following among the gentile population which was more inclined looking up to Paul for leadership, instead of Jesus' brother James, a strict observer of Jewish Law, considered to be Jesus' successor in non-canonical Gospels.
With the establishment of Christianity as a state religion in Rome by Constantine in the 4th century, they definitely fled Jerusalem, into the surrounding deserts. They managed to survive outside Palestine as they are mentioned by Jerome upto 380AD to have lived in the Syrian desert. Among them the Ebionites (who claimed to descend from the original Jewish disciples led by James) and Elchasites who rejected Paul as a charlatan and his teachings as falsehood, as well as the Zadokites, Essenes, Rechabites, Sabeans, Mandaeans etc.
They had their own writing which they considered scripture, composed of an oral tradition attributed to Jesus, and some HB books. Their writings are known, among others as Gospel of the Nazareans, Gospel of the Hebrews and Gospel of the Ebionites. They would later write that Paul was a false apostle who taught heresy based on the fact he was a failed convert who was disappointed with Judaism and therefore motivated to teach against its laws, all the laws that constituted Jesus' "way".
Unfortunately the group that opposed them and their practices gained more converts, obviously as it appealed much more to non-Jews, more particularily the hellenized Romans and Greeks. The Nazarenes and similar groups were inevitably marginalised while the more and more dominant groups decided what the Church’s organizational structure would be, as well as its official creeds, or which books would be accepted as Scripture.
The group that became "orthodox", further sealed its victory, by the pens of early writers like Iraeneus, Justin Martyr and Tertullian, claiming that their "way" had always been the majority opinion of Christianity, going back to Jesus and his apostles.
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