9They did not "split" per se. For a long time Jewish Christians were regarded as a sect of Judaism. They finally broke away and became an independent religion in Hadrian's time after the Hellenist Romans "adopted" the beliefs of the Nazarene and established a church separate from Jerusalem, in Rome. But Christians who also obeyed the law and kept the Sabbath persisted for a long time. There are also many conflicting views of who ultimately were called the Nazarene. So there were Nazarenes of Nazareth, Nazarenes in Jerusalem and then the Nazarene sect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazarene_(sect) So it would seem that after being banished, Jewish Christians who kept the law and circumcised continued with their brand of Judaism for several hundred years in the East. Its possible that there may still be small groups of Nazarene in the Middle East, if we knew where to look All fascinating stuff!
