Nazarenes (נֹצְרִים, notserim; Ναζωραίοί, Nazōraioi). Also Nazoraeans. Used to refer to a resident or native of Nazareth, as well as to describe Jewish followers of Jesus during the early centuries ad. The term also is applied to a sect of Jewish-Christianity that some early church fathers may have classified as a heretical group (Epiphanius, Panarion, 29.5.4–6).

There is confusion among the church fathers over the names of Jewish-Christian groups during the first few centuries ad. Based on later sources, it is likely that some early patristic writers wrongly equated the Nazarene sect, which apparently affirmed Jesus’ divinity, with the Ebionites, who clearly rejected it. As a result, the Nazarenes might have been a strand of Jewish Christianity that closely resembled Christian orthodoxy in its teachings (even while it differed in its observance of Torah).