Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/359

NAXOS. 315 NAZARETH. It, is situated in the .Eyean, midway between the coasts of Greece and Asia Jlinor. Extreme length, about 20 miles ; breadth, 15 miles. I'opulation, in 189C, 15,008. The principal )>roduets and articles of export are wine, corn, oil, cotton, fruits, and emery. The wine of Xaxos (the best variety of which is still called in the islands of the -Egcan Bacchus trine) was famous in ancient as it is in modern times, and on tliis account the island was celebrated in the legends of Dionysus aiid Ariadne. The island also contains good quarries of marble of a rather coarser grain than that of Paros. They were worked in the sixth century- B.C., as is proved by th> unfinished statues found in them, among which is a famous colossus^ some 3-t feet in length. The most flourishing period in the his- tory of the island seems to have been in the sixth century B.C. under the rule of the tyrant I.ygdamis. In B.C. 490 it was ravaged by Per- sians, and later joined the Delian League, from which (B.C. 40!)) it was the first to revolt. The island now became a dependency of Athens. After the conquest of Constantinople by the Latins, it became in 1207 the seat of a duke- dom, founded by the Venetians, and in 1566 w-as seized by the Turks. It now forms a portion of the Kingdom of Greece (q.v.). Naxos, the capital, with a population of 2000, is situated on the northwest coast, contains Greek and Catholic churches, and a castle built by the A'cnetians. and is the seat of a Greek and a Latin bishop. Consult: Koss, Reiscn atif dm Inscln. lies Aegiiischcn Meeres, i. (Halle, 1840) ; Tozer, Islands of the JEfiean (Oxford, 1890) ; Gurtius, Naxos (Berlin, 1846) ; Duget, De Insula Kaxo (Paris. 1S07). NAY'LER, .James (c.1617-GO). An English (^Kiaker. He was born at Ardsley, in Yorkshire. In 1042 he became an adherent of the Parlia- ment, and served for about eight years under Fairfa.x and Lambert. While in the army he began to preach as an independent, but in 1651 was led by CJeorge Fox to become a Quaker, and for three years was Fox's literary coadjutor. But popularity, especially with women, turned his head. His followers fancied that he re- sembled the pictures of Christ, and they called him 'Jesus' and the 'Lamb of God.' He was arrested on charges of blasphemy, tried before Parliament, and sentenced to the pillory, whip- ping, branding, and imprisonment for two years. The whole punishment was inflicted. He was released in 1059. recanted his errors, and was again received by the Society of Quakers. A odllection of his writings was published in Lon- don in 1710, and his iletnoirs in 1719 and re- printed in 1800. NAZ'ARENE (Gk. TSa^apvvis, 'Xazarenos, more frojucntly 'Sa^apa'iot. Xazoraios. from asa/)d, .Ao.coco, Xaj-a/je«, Ao,;«/x'(/i, Xazaretli). A term applied to .Jesus to indicate that He came from the somewhat obscure Galilean town Naza- reth (q.v.). which was not connected with any Jlessianic prophecies or expectations (cf. John i. 4fi and vii. 41). '.Jesus the Xazarene' (i.e. '.Jesus of jS'azareth') became a popular term used by friend and enemy alike (quite frequently in the Gospels and Acts) , Wlien the Gospel of JLitthew was written the term was considered a fulfill- ment of Isa. xi. 1. (Matt. ii. 23). It was thus an easy transition for the Jews to speak of the Vol. XIV.— 21. early Christians as the sect of Xazarenes (Acts x.xiv. 5). Throughout the obscure and checkered development of .Jewish Christianity the name was preserved, until in the fourth century 'Xazarenes' meant those .Jewish Christians who, iinlike the Ebionites (q.v.), were quite loyal to Jesus' teachings and not strongly anti-Gentile in their sentiments. Their general traditions and usages were, however, more .lewish than Christian. They had a Gospel of their own, made no use of Paul's Epistles, and were looked upon unfavorably by many orthodox Christians. While the Ebionites, however, grew ever more bitter toward Catholic Christianity, the.se seem to have gradually become lo.st in the greater Gentile Cliurch. Their Gospel, known to us mainly through .Jerome, was probably the same as that called by other writers the Gospel of the Hebrews, and was in existence as early as 150. All the evidence indicates that it was a secondary form of ilatthew. with certain addi- tions and variations. The work was by no means heretical in its tendencies. Later writers, from the fourth century onward, were inclined to class it as apocryphal, probably on account of the differences between it and the canonical Matthew, and also because there was no place for a fifth Gospel. The Gospel used by the more bigoted .Jewish-Christian sect of Ebionites was not identical with the Xazarene Gospel, but a secondary form of the Greek Matthew. Consult: Zahn, fleschwhtc des neutestamcntlichen Kanons, ii. 2 (Leipzig, 1892) ; Nicholson, Gospel of the Eehreirs (London, 1879) ; Resell, Agrapha (Leip- zig, 1889) ; Kruger. Historii of Early Christian Literature (New York, 1897). NAZARENES, or NAZARITES. A group of German painters. See Pre-Rapii.elites. N AZ'ARETH ( Gk. Nafap^S, Nazareth, Nofopd, Xazara, from an Aramaic word of uncertain form and meaning). A town of ancient Galilee, famed as the place where Jesus passed His childhood. The Xew Testament records are singularly silent as to the details of the life of the Holy Family in Xazareth. The only passage giving any light is Matt. xiii. 54-58 (= Mark vi. 1-5. Lukeiv. 16- 30 ) , the record of a visit by Jesus after He had begun His public ministry. From the question of Xathanael (.John i. 46) it may be inferred that it was a place of no special importance, but not necessarily that it had a bad reputation. Since the town is not mentioned in the Old Testament or .Tosephus, we are entirely ignorant of its early history. The New Testament writ- ings and the Talmud only show that Jesus was ])opularly called, jjerhajis at first in contempt, 'the Xazarene,' and His followers 'Xazarenes.' (See Nazarexe.) No further mention is found until Eusebius, who says in his Onomasticon that it was fifteen Roman miles eastward from Legeon (the ancient ilcgiddo). and not far from Mount Tabor. Epiiihanius. a century later, says that it had become in his day a mere village. "The Chris- tialis of the first three centuries appear to have regarded it with no consideration. In later cen- turies it began to attract pilgrims. It naturally was reverenced by the Crusaders, who greatly em- bellished the place. After its final capture by the Moslems in 1291 it declined, though retaining its attraction for pilgrims. Alxmt 1620 a great Franciscan church and convent of the Annuncia- tion was built. This has become one of the most