Christian Jews— Hebrews who believed in the words of God and believed that Jesus is the Messiah; that God indeed came in the flesh as foretold by Moses. Unlike Gentile Christianity, Nazarenes were considered sectaries of Judaism even into the 4th century AD. Jerome speaks of their congregations in Syria. Even 300 years after Jesus Christ, the Nazarenes were thus still thriving, though largely independent of the Gentile Christians. They read their own gospel in Hebrew. Jerome even boasts of making a Greek and Latin translation of their gospel, “Further, the Hebrew itself (or original) is preserved to this day in the library at Caesarea which was collected with such care by the martyr Pamphilus. I also had an opportunity of copying it afforded me by the Nazarenes who use the book, at Beroea, a city of Syria.”
In fact, their Hebrew gospel, which was close to that of Matthew, was believed for hundreds of years to be Matthew’s original. Several of Jerome’s notes on the differences in the gospel from the Greek Matthew are significant, and they correct errors in Greek Matthew and the other gospels. The Nazarenes only read their gospel, and did not read the Greek copies, though doubtless they were familiar with them. As such, they did not accept the dubious dialogue throughout the Gospel of John.
The Ebionites were considered a Gnostic heretical movement of the Nazarenes. They did not consider Christ to be divine, the tabernacle that God would make for his spirit as he swore in the Prophets. Despite being semi-Gnostic, they were feverish Jews, and they rejected Paul as an apostate, believing he taught contrary to Moses and the customs. The Nazarenes, however, were the spiritual descendants of James the Just.
James quickly became a pillar in the church at Jerusalem, and would not allow the Jews to become absorbed into the nations. Understanding that Paul was being misrepresented, he made him undergo an open show that he would not depart from the customs of Jewry. James’ instructions are some of the earliest and most reliable apostolic teachings that can be found recorded in the NT, and are found in Acts. Though the book of James was questioned by later Greek Christians because there was no evidence that it circulated amongst the earliest Greek Christians, it appears that the epistle does stem from the teachings of James ben Joseph. James’ epistle probably was unknown to Greek Christians because it circulated more amongst the Nazarenes.
Sadly, after Catholicism became the state religion of the Roman Empire, the Nazarenes eventually died out, forced to become like the Gentile Christians (presumably) under the new power of the growing church and its attitudes that anything Jewish was “old.” (See “Old Testament”) It was not until the 20th century when this practice stopped. A new movement of Nazarenes began, those Jews refusing to be absorbed into Gentile traditionalism.
During this same time, a new Gnosticism has arisen to combat the prophecies of Paul in Romans. This Gnosticism has sought to metaphorically portray Gentile Christians as true Israel. The context of Romans, however, clearly separates the two, as a future event is prophesied. Gentile Gnostics have tried to make “I would not have you to be ignorant brethren that blindness in part has happened unto Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in. And then all Israel shall be saved . . .” mean that when the last Gentile has been saved “true Israel” is now complete and the end of the world will come. Paul clearly never taught the “metaphysical Jew” teachings of modern Gnostic fundamentalists.
The message of God’s salvation first went out to the Jews and it still does. It was never the preaching of custom and culture. It was always to love God and believe what he said he would do. And, indeed, he did say that one day he wold reveal himself openly and speak to us directly. As Malachi put it: “The LORD will come forth and dwell amongst us.” 
