High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Nazarene sect , used in the Book of Acts, clearly referred to both Jewish and Gentile followers of Jesus' Apostles. The same word, " ", that is used in its genitive case in the phrase " " is used of an early Jewish Christian sect similar to the Ebionites, in that they maintained their adherence to the Torah, but unlike the Ebionites, they accepted the virgin birth of Jesus. The Nazarenes were originally Jewish converts of the Apostles who fled Jerusalem because of Jesus' warning of its coming siege. They fled to Pella, Peraea (which is northeast of Jerusalem), and eventually spread outwards to Beroea and Bashanitis, where they permanently settled. There, they and the other disciples took the name "Jessaeans" and began distinguishing themselves from them. They took this name either because of Jesse, the father of David, to fulfill Psalm 132:11, or from the name of Jesus himself. Once the term Christian was applied to the followers of Jesus at Antioch, the Nazoreans dropped the name Jessaean and Christian, and retook the name Nazarene.