In the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' ritually impure by contact with corpses or graves, even those of family members. After following these requirements for a designated time period (which would be specified in the individual's vow), the nazirite would offer a specific

animal sacrifice Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing and offering of animals, usually as part of a religious ritual or to appease or maintain favour with a deity. Animal sacrifices were common throughout Europe and the Ancient Near East until the spread of Chris ...

; along with it, the nazirite's hair was to be shorn and burned. The nazirite is described as being "holy" and "holy unto God"; yet at the same time, he or she must bring a sin offering. This has led to divergent approaches to the nazirite in the Talmud, and later authorities, with some viewing the nazirite as an ideal, and others viewing the nazirite as a sinner.

Etymology

"Nazirite" comes from the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

word ''nazir'' meaning "consecrated" or "separated", and may be ultimately derived from a root meaning "vow", similar to the Hebrew ''

neder In Judaism, a neder (, plural ''nedarim'') is a kind of vow or oath. The neder may consist of performing some act in the future (either once or regularly) or abstaining from a particular type of activity of the person's choice. The concept of the ...

'' (נדר). The word ''nazir'' is also sometimes used to refer to a prince, who fills a special position of secular power, and the cognate word ''nezer'' can refer to either the state of being a nazirite, or else to a physical crown.

Hebrew Bible

Laws

Besides the basic laws to be followed during the nazirite period, Numbers 6 describes in detail the sacrifices to be offered at the conclusion of the period. The nazirite would make three offerings: a lamb as a burnt offering, a ewe as a sin offering, and a ram as a peace offering; also three additional offerings (a basket of unleavened bread, a grain offering, and a drink offering) to accompany the peace offering. He would also shave his head in the outer courtyard of the

Temple in Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. Accord ...

, and place the hair on the same fire as the peace offering. The text is unclear whether this refers to the fire on the altar, or a cooking fire. If the nazirite has accidentally become impure by touching a corpse during the nazirite period, he must offer a different offering, and restart the nazirite period from the beginning.

Mentions

In addition to the nazirite laws, there are a few other mentions of nazirites in the Hebrew Bible. The prophet

Amos Amos or AMOS may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Amos'' (album), an album by Michael Ray * Amos (band), an American Christian rock band * ''Amos'' (film), a 1985 American made-for-television drama film * Amos (guitar), a 1958 Gibson Fl ...

condemned the Israelites for their failure to respect the nazirite vow: :''And I raised up some of your sons as prophets and some of your young men as nazirites... And you gave the nazirites to drink wine, and you commanded the prophets saying, "Do not prophesy."'' The

Rechabites The Rechabites () were a Hebrew Bible, Biblical clan, the descendants of Rechab through Jehonadab. Biblical sources One theory is the Rechabites belonged to the Kenites, who accompanied the Israelites into the Holy Land and dwelt among them; the ...

were a group mentioned in the Bible who avoided wine, similar to nazirites. The

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

uses a number of terms to translate the 16 uses of ''nazir'' in the Hebrew Bible, such as "he who vowed" ( ) or "he who was made holy" ( ) etc. It is left untranslated and

transliterate Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...

d in Judges 13:5 as ''nazir'' ().

Samson and Samuel

Two prominent Biblical individuals who were nazirites, or similar to nazirites, were Samson (), and

Samuel Samuel is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the biblical judges to the United Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the monarchy's transition from Saul to David. He is venera ...

(). For both, their status was lifelong (unlike the nazirites described in Numbers 6). Both were born of previously barren mothers, and each entered into his vows through either his mother's oath (as in the case of Samuel), or a divine command to his mother (in the case of Samson), rather than by their own volition. These vows required Samson and Samuel to live devout lives, yet in return they received extraordinary gifts: Samson possessed strength and ability in physical battle against the

Philistines Philistines (; LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philistines origi ...

, while Samuel became a

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...

. While Samson was explicitly commanded to be a nazirite (), the word "nazirite" was not used regarding Samuel, rather he was "given to the Lord" and forbidden to cut his hair ().Diamond, Eliezer
"An Israelite Self-Offering in the Priestly Code: A New Perspective on the Nazirite"
''Jewish Quarterly Review'', Vol. 88, No. 1/2 (Jul. - Oct., 1997), pp. 1-18 (18 pages) Some commentators later noted that Samson appears to break his nazirite vow several times throughout the text; his killing of both humans and animals would frequently threaten, if not outright violate, his vow of ritual purity, and describes Samson holding a feast – an event which traditionally entailed the consumption of wine (though the text never states that Samson drank any wine himself). This conflict of interpretation has spawned numerous explanations: rabbinic sources claimed Samson had a unique nazirite status (called Nazir Shimshon) which permitted him to touch dead bodies, since the angel who imposed the status omitted this restriction.

David Kimhi ''Cervera Bible'', David Kimhi's Grammar Treatise David Kimhi (, also Kimchi or Qimḥi) (1160–1235), also known by the Hebrew acronym as the RaDaK () (Rabbi David Kimhi), was a medieval rabbi, biblical commentator, philosopher, and grammarian ...

conjectures that even without this special status, Samson would be allowed to touch dead bodies while doing God's work defending Israel. Another argument analyzes the semantics of the vow itself; Numbers 6:6 forbids nazirites from coming near a ''nephesh-mot'' (a dead body), and though there are cases in the Pentateuch where ''nephesh'' is used to refer to animals (see Genesis 1:21, 24; 9:12; Lev. 11:46; etc.), the term in Numbers 6:6 is usually taken to imply the human dead, which seems to be its most focused meaning according to Numbers 6:7. In any event, the supernatural strength that Samson was given was evidently not taken away at the time of Judges 14, indicating that his nazirite vow was not considered broken. Goswell suggests that "we cannot understand the career and failings of Samson without attention to his Nazirite status."

In Rabbinic literature

Laws

Halakha ''Halakha'' ( ; , ), also Romanization of Hebrew, transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Judaism, Jewish religious laws that are derived from the Torah, Written and Oral Torah. ''Halakha'' is ...

(Jewish law) has a rich tradition on the laws of the nazirite. In addition to the Biblical text of , the laws are explained in detail in the

Mishna The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

and

Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...

, tractate '' Nazir''. These laws were later codified by

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

in the ''

Mishneh Torah The ''Mishneh Torah'' (), also known as ''Sefer Yad ha-Hazaka'' (), is a code of Rabbinic Jewish religious law (''halakha'') authored by Maimonides (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon/Rambam). The ''Mishneh Torah'' was compiled between 1170 and 1180 CE ( ...

''.

Vows

An Israelite (not a gentile) becomes a Nazirite through an intentional verbal declaration. This declaration can be in any language, and can be something as simple as saying "me too" as a Nazirite passes by. In general there are two types of Nazirites, those who take a vow for a set time, and permanent Nazirites. A person can specify how long he intends to be a Nazirite, but if no time period or a time period of less than 30 days is specified, the vow is considered to last for 30 days. A person who says "I am a Nazirite forever" or "I am a Nazirite for all my life" is a permanent Nazirite and slightly different laws apply. However, if a person says that he is a Nazirite for a thousand years, he is a regular Nazirite. The permanent Nazirite has no source in the Bible but is known through tradition. All the laws of vows in general apply also to the nazirite vow. As with other vows, a father has the ability to annul the vow of his young daughter, and a husband has the ability to annul a vow by his wife, when he first hears about it (). A father, but not a mother, can declare his son, but not his daughter, a Nazirite, however the child or any close family member has a right to refuse this status. Likewise, all of the laws related to intent and conditional vows apply also to Nazirite vows.

Sacrifices

At the end of their vow, the Nazirite brings three sacrificial offerings to the

. The first is a ewe for a ''chatat'' (sin offering), the second is a lamb for an ''olah'' (elevation offering), and finally a ram as a ''shelamim'' (peace offering) along with a basket of

matzah Matzah, matzo, or maẓẓah ('','' : matzot or Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashk. matzos) is an Unleavened bread, unleavened flatbread that is part of Jewish cuisine and forms an integral element of the Passover festival, during which ''chametz'' (lea ...

and grain and drink offerings. After bringing the sacrificial offerings, the Nazirite shaves their head in the outer courtyard of the Temple, and the hair is burned on "the fire which is under the peace offering". The rabbis (along with some but not all academic scholars) view this as simply the appropriate disposal of a sanctified object, rather than being the hair itself being a sacrifice. Part of the Nazirite's offering is given to the

Kohen Kohen (, ; , ، Arabic كاهن , Kahen) is the Hebrew word for "priest", used in reference to the Aaronic Priest#Judaism, priesthood, also called Aaronites or Aaronides. They are traditionally believed, and halakha, halakhically required, to ...

; this gift is one of the twenty-four kohanic gifts. A person can become a Nazirite whether or not the

is standing. However, no temple means that there is currently no way to make the offerings that end the Nazirite vow, so anyone taking the vow would become a ''de facto'' permanent Nazirite.

Abstinence from grape products

A Nazirite must abstain from all beverages derived from grapes, even if they are not alcoholic. According to traditional rabbinic interpretation, the Nazirite may drink alcoholic beverages not derived from grapes. According to less traditional rabbinic interpretation, a Nazirite is forbidden to consume any alcohol, and vinegar from such alcohol, regardless of its source.The New JPS translation is: "wine and any other intoxicant". Classical rabbinical interpretation permits non-grape alcohols. The law regarding combining wine or grapes with other food is similar to

kashrut (also or , ) is a set of Food and drink prohibitions, dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to halakha, Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed ko ...

, which applies to all Jews. An early rabbinic proverb warned the Nazirite: "Get yourself far around t Don't even come near to a vineyard!"

Uncut hair

A Nazirite must refrain from cutting the hair of his head. He can groom his hair with his fingers or scratch his head and need not be concerned if some hair falls out, however, he cannot use a comb since it very likely to pull out some hair. A Nazirite is not allowed to use a

chemical depilatory A chemical depilatory is a Cosmetics, cosmetic preparation used to Hair removal, remove hair from the skin. Common active ingredients are salts of thioglycolic acid and thiolactic acids. These compounds break the disulfide bonds in keratin and also ...

to remove hair. However, a Nazirite who recovers from the skin disease of

tzaraath ''Tzaraath'' (Hebrew language, Hebrew: ''ṣāraʿaṯ''), #Name, variously transcribed into English and frequently translated as leprosy (though it is not Hansen's disease, the disease known as "leprosy" in modern times), is a term used in the ...

is obligated to cut his hair, and a permanent Nazirite may cut his hair once a year. Nazirites who shave their hair are obligated to redo the last 30 days of the Nazirite period.

Avoidance of corpses and graves

A Nazirite must avoid corpses and graves, even those of family members, and any building that contains one. (In this respect, the nazirite is similar to the

high priest The term "high priest" usually refers either to an individual who holds the office of ruler-priest, or to one who is the head of a religious organisation. Ancient Egypt In ancient Egypt, a high priest was the chief priest of any of the many god ...

.) A permanent Nazirite becomes ritually impure through proximity to a corpse. Nonetheless, a Nazirite who finds an unburied corpse is obligated to bury it, although he will become defiled in the process. If a Nazirite touches a

corpse A cadaver, often known as a corpse, is a dead human body. Cadavers are used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a li ...

or carries a funeral

bier A bier is a stand on which a corpse, coffin, or casket containing a corpse is placed to lie in state or to be carried to its final disposition.''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' (American Heritage Publishing Co., In ...

, or goes into a building that contains a corpse, their vow is ended as unfulfilled., ''Niddah'' 68b, s.v. . In this case, after he has waited seven days for his purification, the Nazirite should shave their head and to bring sacrificial offerings. After that, he is permitted to put himself under another Nazirite vow with a new time limit. If the Nazirite simply enters an area where a grave or graveyard had been ploughed (in which case there is only a chance that he touched human bones), or if he went into a foreign land that was declared unclean by the chazal (sages) and had touched its earth, or if he stands beneath the branches of a tree or a rock that shades the ground () near a graveyard, he still contracts a level of uncleanness. However this is less than the impurity of touching corpse, and although he must be sprinkled with water containing the ashes of a

red heifer The red heifer () was a reddish brown Cattle, cow sacrificed by Temple priests as a ritual purification, purification ritual in biblical times. Ritual in the Torah The red heifer offering is described in Book of Numbers, Numbers 19. The Tora ...

on the third and seventh days, he is not required to shave his head or bring sacrificial offerings, and his Nazirite vow is not invalidated, though he adds seven days to the time he spends as a Nazirite to make up for the days of impurity.

Desirability

Noting that the nazirite must offer a sin-offering at the end of their vow (), Rabbi Eleazar ha-Kappar argued that nazirites are effectively sinners for unnecessarily distressing themselves, while Rabbi Elazar argued the opposite, that nazirites are "holy" () and thus to become one is desirable. Among medieval authorities,

followed the view of Rabbi Eliezer Hakappar, calling a nazirite a sinner, and explaining that a person should always be moderate in his actions and not be to any extreme. Nevertheless, he does point out that a nazirite can be evil or righteous depending on the circumstances. In contrast,

Nachmanides Moses ben Nachman ( ''Mōše ben-Nāḥmān'', "Moses son of Nachman"; 1194–1270), commonly known as Nachmanides (; ''Nakhmanídēs''), and also referred to by the acronym Ramban (; ) and by the contemporary nickname Bonastruc ça Porta (; l ...

sided with Rabbi Eleazer. He explains that ideally, the person should be a nazirite his whole life. Therefore, ceasing to be nazirite requires a sin offering. Opinions recorded in the

Tosafot The Tosafot, Tosafos or Tosfot () are Middle Ages, medieval commentaries on the Talmud. They take the form of critical and explanatory glosses, printed, in almost all Talmud editions, on the outer margin and opposite Rashi's notes. The authors o ...

compromise between these views and explain that a nazirite is both good and bad. Reviewing Halakhic and

Aggadic Aggadah (, or ; ; 'tales', 'legend', 'lore') is the non-legalistic exegesis which appears in the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism, particularly the Talmud and Midrash. In general, Aggadah is a compendium of rabbinic texts that incorporat ...

literature, Jacob Neusner writes that Jewish sages generally viewed the vow of the nazirite to be shrouded in "arrogance" and "weakness". According to

Rabbi Meir Rabbi Meir () was a Jewish sage who lived in the time of the Mishnah. He was one of the Tannaim of the fourth generation (139–163), and a disciple of Rabbi Akiva. He is the second most frequently mentioned sage in the Mishnah and is mentioned ...

, the

tree of the knowledge of good and evil In Christianity and Judaism, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (, ; ) is one of two specific trees in the story of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2–3, along with the tree of life. Alternatively, some scholars have argued that the tre ...

was a grape-vine, for "nothing brings wailing upon a person like wine".

Stories

According to the

Mishnah The Mishnah or the Mishna (; , from the verb ''šānā'', "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Torah. Having been collected in the 3rd century CE, it is ...

, Queen Helena of Adiabene (c. 48 CE) once placed herself under a Nazirite vow for seven years, on condition that her son returned home from war safely. When her son returned home safely, she began to perform her Nazirite vow for seven years, after which she brought the required animal offerings to the

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. Upon arriving there, she was told by the School of Hillel that she must observe her vow anew, and she therefore lived as a Nazirite for seven more years. Towards the end of those seven years, she contracted corpse uncleanness which rendered her vow as null and void, and, therefore, was required to repeat her Nazirite vow once again for a period of another seven years. Altogether, she continued her Nazirite vow for a period of 21 years. According to the Jerusalem Talmud, Simeon the Just (a

High Priest The term "high priest" usually refers either to an individual who holds the office of ruler-priest, or to one who is the head of a religious organisation. Ancient Egypt In ancient Egypt, a high priest was the chief priest of any of the many god ...

) opposed the nazirite vow and ate of the

sacrifice Sacrifice is an act or offering made to a deity. A sacrifice can serve as propitiation, or a sacrifice can be an offering of praise and thanksgiving. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Gree ...

offered by a nazirite on only a single occasion. Once a youth with flowing hair came to him and wished to have his head shorn. When asked his motive, the youth replied that he had seen his own face reflected in the spring and it had pleased him so that he feared lest his beauty might become an idol to him. He, therefore, wished to offer up his hair to God, and Simeon then partook of the sin offering which he brought. The

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud (, often for short) or Palestinian Talmud, also known as the Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century Jewish oral tradition known as the Mishnah. Naming this version of the Talm ...

tells the story of 300 nazirites who came to offer sacrifices at the conclusion of their vow, but could not afford the animals for the sacrifices. Shimon ben Shetach, who was head of the

Sanhedrin The Sanhedrin (Hebrew and Middle Aramaic , a loanword from , 'assembly,' 'sitting together,' hence ' assembly' or 'council') was a Jewish legislative and judicial assembly of either 23 or 70 elders, existing at both a local and central level i ...

, was able to annul the vows of 150 of them (retroactively cancelling the nazirite period and making their sacrifices unnecessary), but was unable to find a justification to annul the vows of the other 150. He then went to the king (

Alexander Jannaeus Alexander Jannaeus ( , English: "Alexander Jannaios", usually Latinised to "Alexander Jannaeus"; ''Yannaʾy''; born Jonathan ) was the second king of the Hasmonean dynasty, who ruled over an expanding kingdom of Judaea from 103 to 76 BCE. ...

), and offered to split the costs of sacrifices for the 300 nazirites. The king provided money for the sacrifices of the 150; Shimon provided no money as the vows of his 150 were already nullified. This angered the king, who felt tricked: Shimon was forced to flee, but eventually reconciled with the king by explaining how they had contributed equally, "you with your money and I with my learning". Gamaliel records in the

how the father of Rabbi Chenena made a lifetime nazirite vow before him.

In the New Testament

In the Gospels

The practice of a nazirite vow is part of the ambiguity of the Greek term " Nazarene" that appears in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

; the sacrifice of a lamb and the offering of bread does suggest a relationship with Christian symbolism (then again, these are the two most frequent offerings prescribed in Leviticus, so no definitive conclusions can be drawn). While a saying in and attributed to

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

makes it doubtful that he, reported to be "winedrinker" (Greek οἰνοπότης, ''oinopotēs''), was a nazirite during his ministry, the verse ends with the curious statement, "But wisdom is justified of all her children". The advocation of the ritual consumption of wine as part of the

Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday and one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt, Egypt. According to the Book of Exodus, God in ...

in Mark 14:22–25 indicated he kept this aspect of the nazirite vow when Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the

kingdom of God The concept of the kingship of God appears in all Abrahamic religions, where in some cases the terms kingdom of God and kingdom of Heaven are also used. The notion of God's kingship goes back to the Hebrew Bible, which refers to "his kingdom" ...

." The ritual with which Jesus commenced his ministry (recorded via Greek as "

baptism Baptism (from ) is a Christians, Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by aspersion, sprinkling or affusion, pouring water on the head, or by immersion baptism, immersing in water eit ...

") and his vow in and at the end of his ministry, do respectively reflect the final and initial steps (purification by immersion in water and abstaining from wine) inherent in a nazirite vow. These passages may indicate that Jesus intended to identify himself as a nazirite ("not drinking the fruit of vine") before his crucifixion.

Luke the Evangelist Luke the Evangelist was one of the Four Evangelists—the four traditionally ascribed authors of the canonical gospels. The Early Church Fathers ascribed to him authorship of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Prominent figu ...

clearly was aware that wine was forbidden in this practice, for the angel () that announces the birth of

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

foretells that "he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb", in other words, a nazirite from birth, the implication being that John had taken a lifelong nazirite vow.

In the Acts of the Apostles

Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of The gospel, its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make u ...

is also attributed to Luke (see Luke-Acts) and in it is reported that the apostle

Paul Paul may refer to: People * Paul (given name), a given name, including a list of people * Paul (surname), a list of people * Paul the Apostle, an apostle who wrote many of the books of the New Testament * Ray Hildebrand, half of the singing duo ...

cut off his hair "because of a vow he had taken". From we learn that the early

Jewish Christians Jewish Christians were the followers of a Jewish religious sect that emerged in Roman Judea during the late Second Temple period, under the Herodian tetrarchy (1st century AD). These Jews believed that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah and t ...

occasionally took the temporary nazirite vow, and it is probable that the vow of St. Paul mentioned in Acts 18:18, was of a similar nature, although the shaving of his head in Cenchrea, outside of Judea, was not in conformity with the rules laid down in the sixth chapter of Numbers, nor with the interpretation of them by the rabbinical schools of that era. If we are to believe the legend of Hegesippus quoted by Eusebius,

James, brother of Jesus James the Just, or a variation of James, brother of the Lord ( from , and , , can also be Anglicized as "Jacob"), was, according to the New Testament, a brother of Jesus. He was the first Jewish bishop of Jerusalem. Traditionally, it is bel ...

, Bishop of Jerusalem, was a nazirite, and performed with rigorous exactness all the practices enjoined by that rule of life. In Paul was advised to counter the claims made by some

Judaizers The Judaizers were a faction of the Jewish Christians, both of Jewish and non-Jewish origins, who regarded the Levitical laws of the Old Testament as still binding on all Christians. They tried to enforce Jewish circumcision upon the Gentile ...

(that he encouraged a revolt against the Mosaic Law). He showed the "believers there" (believers in Jesus, i.e. the Jewish Christians) in Jerusalem otherwise by purifying himself and accompanying four men to the

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

who had taken naziritic vows (so as to refute the naysayers). This stratagem only delayed the inevitable mob assault on him. This event brought about the accusation in that Paul was the "ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes", and thus provides further verification that the term ''Nazarene'' was a mistranslation of the term ''nazirite''. In any case, the relationship of Paul of Tarsus and Judaism is still disputed. Luke does not here mention the apostle James the Just as taking nazirite vows, although later Christian historians (e.g. Epiphanius ''Panarion'' 29.4) believed he had, and the vow of a nazirite would explain the asceticism

Eusebius of Caesarea Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

ascribed to James, a claim that gave James the title "James the Just".

Nazirites in history

Besides the aforementioned mentions of nazirites in the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and classic rabbinic texts, the following ancient texts describe cases of naziriteship:

Deuterocanonical texts

1 Maccabees 1 Maccabees, also known as the First Book of Maccabees, First Maccabees, and abbreviated as 1 Macc., is a deuterocanonical book which details the history of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire as well as the founding and earliest hi ...

, dated to about 166 BCE, mentions men who had ended their nazirite vows.

Josephus

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

mentions a number of people who had taken the vow, such as his tutor Banus. Josephus briefly recounts an episode where, in the 12th year of the reign of

Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus; 15 December AD 37 – 9 June AD 68) was a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his ...

, during the outbreak of the First Jewish-Roman War, Bernice (the sister of King Agrippa II) had put herself under a Nazirite vow and had come to Jerusalem thirty days before she was to offer her sacrifices, during which time she was to abstain from wine, and after which to shave the hair of her head. Josephus adds that those who put themselves under the Nazirite vow often did so when they "had been either afflicted with a distemper, or with any other distresses."

Early Syriac Christianity

Several Syriac Christians beginning in the 4th century appropriated the vow in ascetical practice. Apharat writes in the 4th century: "The sons of Seth were virtuous in their virginity, but when they became mixed up with the daughters of Cain, they were blotted out with the water of the flood. Samson was honorable in his Naziriteship and in his virginity, but he corrupted his Naziriteship with his licentiousness." John Scully records Ephrem suggesting that "the vines of Paradise rush out to meet only those ascetics who lead a life of virginity and abstain from wine" in the 4th century. John the Solitary refers to

for a model of fasting in the 5th century. Dadisho's ''Commentary on Abba Isaiah'' lists several physical activities in relation to the term "Nazirite". The anonymous author of the ''

Cave of Treasures The ''Cave of Treasures'' (, , Ge'ez: ''Baʿāta Mazāgebet'', Tigrinya: መዝገብ ገዛ), is an apocryphal and pseudoepigraphical work, that contains various narratives related to the Christian Bible. It was written in the Syriac language ...

'' writes: And he Priestshall be a Nazirite all the days of his life. He shall not take a wife, he shall not have a house to dwell in, and he shall not offer the blood of animals or fowl. Rather, he will offer bread and wine to God.

In modern religion

Modern Judaism

Rabbi David Cohen, a leading disciple of Rabbi

Abraham Isaac Kook Abraham Isaac HaCohen Kook (; 7 September 1865 – 1 September 1935), known as HaRav Kook, and also known by the Hebrew-language acronym Hara'ayah (), was an Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox rabbi, and the first Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbina ...

, was a nazirite for much of his life.

Contemporary Hasidic perspectives

According to the teachings of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, the nazirite's abstention from wine and personal grooming symbolizes a broader principle of self-sanctification, but the Rebbe emphasized that in contemporary times, spiritual refinement is best achieved not through physical withdrawal but through active engagement with the world. Rather than advocating

asceticism Asceticism is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from worldly pleasures through self-discipline, self-imposed poverty, and simple living, often for the purpose of pursuing Spirituality, spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world ...

, the

Rebbe A Rebbe () or Admor () is the spiritual leader in the Hasidic movement, and the personalities of its dynasties.Heilman, Samuel"The Rebbe and the Resurgence of Orthodox Judaism."''Religion and Spirituality (Audio)''. UCTV, 20 Oct 2011. web. ...

interpreted the nazirite ideal as a metaphor for the internal discipline necessary to transform everyday activities into acts of divine service. This view reflects a

Hasidic Hasidism () or Hasidic Judaism is a religious movement within Judaism that arose in the 18th century as a spiritual revival movement in contemporary Western Ukraine before spreading rapidly throughout Eastern Europe. Today, most of those aff ...

emphasis on integrating holiness within mundane life, rather than withdrawing from it.

Rastafari

The tradition of the nazirite vow has had a significant influence on the Rastafari religion, and elements of the vow have been adopted as part of this religion. In describing the obligations of their religion, Rastafari make reference to the nazirite vow taken by Samson. Part of this vow, as adopted by the Rastafari, is to avoid the cutting of one's hair. This is inspired by the text of Leviticus 21:5 "They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard nor make any cuttings in their flesh." The visible sign of this vow is the Rastafarian's

dreadlocks Dreadlocks, also known as dreads or locs, are a Hairstyle, hairstyle made of rope-like strands of matted hair. Dreadlocks can form naturally in Hair#Texture, very curly hair, or they can be created with techniques like twisting, Backcombing, ba ...

. Some Rastafari have concluded that Samson had dreadlocks, as suggested by the description stating that he had seven locks upon his head (Judges 16:13). Additionally, the Rastafari are taught to abstain from alcohol in accordance with the nazirite vow. They have also adopted dietary laws derived from Leviticus, which accounts for some similarity to the prohibitions of the Jewish dietary law of Kashrut.

Protestant perspectives

In 1979, Witness Lee of the Local Church movement published the ''Principle of the Nazarite'', a short pamphlet outlining a metaphorical interpretation of the vow for uptake amongst Christians. Lou Engle, a

Charismatic Charisma () is a personal quality of magnetic charm, persuasion, or appeal. In the fields of sociology and political science, psychology, and management, the term ''charismatic'' describes a type of leadership. In Christian theology, the term ...

evangelical American leader, has written ''Nazarite DNA'', which outlines a metaphorical interpretation of the vow.

References

External links

* * * {{Cite EB1911 , wstitle=Nazarite , volume=19 , page=319 , first1=William R. , last1=Smith , first2=Stanley A. , last2=Cook , short=1 * Full text of th

an

at Machon Mamre. Hebrew words and phrases in the Hebrew Bible Jewish asceticism Book of Amos Book of Judges Book of Numbers Books of Samuel Jewish oaths

Etymology

Hebrew Bible

Laws

Mentions

Samson and Samuel

In Rabbinic literature

Laws

Vows

Sacrifices

Abstinence from grape products

Uncut hair

Avoidance of corpses and graves

Desirability

Stories

In the New Testament

In the Gospels

In the Acts of the Apostles

Nazirites in history

Deuterocanonical texts

Josephus

Early Syriac Christianity

In modern religion

Modern Judaism

Contemporary Hasidic perspectives

Rastafari

Protestant perspectives

See also

References

Further reading

External links