Some visitors to this website ask for evidence that Jesus (Joshua ben Miriam) and his disciples were known as followers of The Way. The following article is written to throw some light on the subject, and to put it into a simple context.
Although the original Book of Man later became more widely known as ‘The Bible’, and though much was altered by the priesthoods of the Jewish and Christian religions respectively, there are several references to The Way remaining within the biblical texts, mainly in what is known as the Book of Acts, or Acts of the Apostles, which is a collection of writings in what Christians call the New Testament. The material provided hereunder will hopefully give you some useful links to these main references.
Before we do that, you should be aware that when we refer to ‘biblical’ texts on this website, we refer to what are collectively called the Old and New Testaments, and where we are dealing with The Way title for the original texts, we will refer to it as The Book of Man, to avoid confusion. In The Way we do not refer to the ‘Old Testament’ and ‘New Testament’, as these terms were later added to the collective Way writings and teachings when what later became Christianity took over the previous Jewish teachings, which they then called The Old Testament, and added on their own version of the Nazarene teachings from the time of Jesus (Joshua) onwards, namely the ‘New Testament’.
Note: Depending on what version of the Bible you happen to read, you may see references to The Way either capitalized, as in The Way, or in lower case, the way, or way. However, you can view the same verses in many different translations on the Biblegateway website, by selecting the version selection menu, which is highlighted in the image capture below the table of links.
The link to the Biblegateway website (keyword search page) can be found here (You can search by whatever passage you want also, by using the menus on the upper left)
| Chapter and verse | Link (King James Version) | Text |
| Acts 9:1 – 2 | LINK | And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. |
| Acts 19:9 | LINK | But when divers were hardened, and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus. |
| Acts 19:23 | LINK | And the same time there arose no small stir about that way. |
| Acts 22:4 | LINK | And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. |
| Acts 24:14 | LINK | But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: |
| Acts 24:22 | LINK | And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter. |
| Collective references to ‘the followers of The Way’ | LINK(New International Version) |
Snapshot image from the biblegateway website, showing the drop-down version menu (highlighted).
The relevant chapter dealing with the first reference to the followers of The Way being originally called ‘Christian’ in The Book of Man is An Account by Simon, page 768, where it says: And the followers of The Way were called Christians first in Antioch, because they followed The Way: and Jesus the Christ was of The Way, and its most Supreme High Priest; and an High Caulbearer who was prophesied, and was born according to that prophecy.
Note that the text does not say that Jesus was The Way, as is often quoted and misunderstood, as The Way is a philosophy, a collective body of teachings and knowledge, and therefore cannot be identified as one individual. Otherwise, it would cease to exist when that person died.