The Natsarim, shamar (guard/keep/preserve) the Turah of Yahuah

Isaiah 4:2, 49:6, 56:1-7, 60:21; Jeremiah 4:16, 31:6; Psalm 105, especially 105:1 and 105:45, Malachi 4

See also Matthew 15:2-3, 6; John 7:19, John 15:5-10, Acts 7:53 . . . . and Revelation 12:16-17

Natsarim is the proper name for those following the Way. In the Obara'im shaphah (ancient Hebrew language, see below), natsar means to keep, preserve, or watch (Strong's H #5341, TWOT 1407), and has the same consonants as netser or branch (H #5342, TWOT 1408a). Since He is the vine, all believers would become branches, grafted into His vine. A sect of Judaism, the Natsarim, and likely other groups such as the Essenes, distanced themselves from the "Jews" of that time that followed the oral Torah and rabbinic traditions and those groups that later called themselves Christians (or had accepted that name, and its Greek influences).

Lew White and the Torah Institute produced the YouTube video, Natsarim Documentary: Who Were Yahusha's First Followers (2011, 1 hr 12 min). The first video at YouTube was removed. Personally, I like the below videos better. In his book, The Message of the Natsarim, Lew White writes, "We are the branches of the teachings of Yahusha and the guardians of His Name and Word." (page 319). He has a full page of Who are the Natsarim? (with some ramblings) and also has a Messianic vs Christian page.

Obedience - Evidence of Who We Serve

Lew White

The Book of Acts, written about 70 CE has many references about the Natsarim. Please check your translation of Acts 24:5 and related verses (such as Acts 9:1-2, 22:22-23; 24:14-16, 22; 25:18-19; 26:4-8, 28-29; 28:22). This continues the adversary relationship between the rabbinical leadership of the time of Yahusha, His taught ones, and other followers.

The Romans imposed a Jewish Tax (Fiscus Judaicus, wikipedia) on all those practicing Judaism, or had a similar lifestyle (like the Natsarim would have) in the Roman empire, from 70 to about 320 CE. This could have caused many in The Way to go underground, or even convert to a religion, such as Christianity.

Andrew Roth adds some more details in his Aramaic English New Testament, 5th Ed on pages 913 to 915. Netzer is related to the branch in Isaiah 11:1-3 to Jeremiah 23:3-8, to John 15. The rabbinical leadership put a curse of the name Nazarenes in year 90 (confirmed by Epiphanius below). Also Roth provides many details that Flavius Josephus (wikipedia, Jewish-Roman Historian, 37 to 100 CE) was likely a Natsarim (pages 869 to 887).

The Natsarim are the watchman and branches of the Vine

Adapted from Who Are the Natsarim People

Epiphanius of Salamis helped to establish the official Roman Catholic Church dogma. In his Panarion (also known as Against Heresies, written between 374 and 377 CE), Epiphanius wrote this about the Natsarim, whom he called the Nazoraeans:

1,2 For these people did not give themselves the name of Christ or Jesus’ own name, but that of “Nazoraeans.” (3) But at that time all Christians alike were called Nazoraeans. They also came to be called “Jessaeans” for a short while, before the disciples began to be called Christians at Antioch. (4) But they were called Jessaeans because of Jesse, I suppose, since David was descended from Jesse and Mary was a lineal descendant of David. This was in fulfillment of sacred scripture, since in the Old Testament the Lord tells David, “Of the fruit of thy belly shall I set upon thy throne.”

7.1 But these same sectarians whom I am discussing here disregarded the name of Jesus, and neither called themselves Jessaeans, kept the name of Jews, nor termed themselves Christians—but “Nazoraeans” supposedly from the name of the place “Nazareth.” But they are Jews in every way and nothing else.

7.2 They use not only the New Testament but the Old Testament as well, as the Jews do. For they do not repudiate the legislation, the prophets, and the books which are called Writings by the Jews and by themselves. They have no different views but confess everything in full accord with the doctrine of the Law and like the Jews, except that they are supposedly believers in Christ. (3) For they acknowledge both the resurrection of the dead and that all things have been created by God, and they declare that God is one, and that his Son is Jesus Christ.

7,4 They are perfectly versed in the Hebrew language, for the entire Law, the prophets, and the so-called Writings—I mean the poetic books, Kings, Chronicles, Esther and all the rest—are read in Hebrew among them, as of course they are among the Jews. (5) They are different from Jews, and different from Christians, only in the following ways. They disagree with Jews because of their belief in Christ; but they are not in accord with Christians because they are still fettered by the Law—circumcision, the Sabbath, and the rest.

9,1 In this Sect too, my brief discussion will be sufficient. People of their kind are refutable at once and easy to detect and, rather (than being heretical Christians), are Jews and nothing else. (2) Yet to the Jews they are very much enemies. Not only do Jewish people bear hatred against them; they even stand up at dawn, at midday, and toward evening, three times a day when they recite their prayers in the synagogues, and curse and anathematize them—saying three times a day, “God curse the Nazoraeans.” (3) For they harbor a further grudge against them, if you please, because despite their Jewish origin, they preach that Jesus is < the > Christ—something that is the opposite of those who are still Jews and have not accepted Jesus.

9.4 They have the Gospel according to Matthew in its entirety in Hebrew. For it is clear that they still preserve this as it was originally written, in the Hebrew alphabet. But I do not know whether they have also excised the genealogies from Abraham till Christ.

The Panarion Of Epiphanius Salamis (Against Heresies), Second Edition, Revised and Expanded, Translated by Frank Williams

For fuller context see 29 Against Nazoraeans on pages 123 to 130, including footnotes (numbers removed).

For more details of the "God curse the Nazoraeans" prayer, please see the birkat haminim (the prayer to curse heretics).

As written in the History of the Way:

In an effort to correct history, the Catholic Professor Simon wrote: They (meaning the Nazarenes) are characterized essentially by their tenacious attachment to Jewish observances. If they became heretics in the eyes of the Mother Church, it is simply because they remained fixed on outmoded positions.[However.] They well represent (although Epiphanius is energetically refusing to admit it) the very direct descendants of that primitive community, of which our author knows that it was designated by the Jews, by the same name, of Nazarenes. [French Catholic Professor and First Century Assembly expert Marcel Simon, Judo-christianisme, Versus Israel, pp 47-48] Even though he was himself a practicing Roman Catholic, Marcel Simon professed that it was not the Catholic Christians, but the Nazarenes who were the very direct descendants of that primitive community called the Nazarenes.

See also wikipedia's Nazarene (sect). Nazarenes is the English version of the Greek word Nazoreans, the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Natsarim (which is the plural of natsar). Matthew 2:23 states Yahusha was raised in Natsareth (or Nazareth in Greek), as Epiphanius wrote above (and is clear in the Scriptures). Interesting that the town's name includes the word natsar.