Nazirite
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A Nazirite or Nazarite, (in Hebrew: נזיר,Nazir) , was a Jew who took an ascetic vow described in Template:Bibleverse. The term Nazarite comes from the Hebrew word nazir meaning "consecrated" or "separated". The Nazarite is "holy unto the Lord" (Numbers 6:8) and must keep himself from becoming ritually unclean. This vow required the man or woman to observe the following:
- Abstain from wine, wine vinegar, grapes, and raisins;
- Refrain from cutting one's hair and beard;
- To avoid corpses and graves, even those of a family member.
Accoridng to Jewish Law the vow was kept at a minimum for 30 days, though it could be kept for a longer period of time based on the understanding of the person. Some kept it for life, some for years, and others a much shorter duration — 30, 90 or even 100 days. (Queen Helena kept it for 14 years, Josephus writes some kept it for 30 days.) At the end of that time, the person would immerse in water and make three offerings, a lamb as a burnt offering, an ewe as a sin offering, and a ram as a peace offering, in addition to a basket of unleavened bread. There are cases where a parent would make this vow for her or his child, which the child would observe for his entire life.
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Nazirites in History
Nazirite Vows in the Old Testament
Two examples of Nazarites in the Hebrew Bible are Samson (Judges 13:5), and Samuel (1 Samuel 1:11). In both cases, their mother made the vow before they were born, which required them to live an ascetic life, yet in return they received extraordinary gifts: Samson possessed strength and ability in physical battle, while Samuel was a prophet.
- Judges 13:6-7 (NIV)
- Then the woman went to her husband and told him, "A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn't ask him where he came from, and he didn't tell me his name. But he said to me, 'You will conceive and give birth to a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth until the day of his death.'
- Amos 2:11-12 (NIV)
- 11 I also raised up prophets from among your sons and Nazirites from among your young men. Is this not true, people of Israel? declares the LORD."
- 12 But you made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.
Women could be Nazirites and, as noted, could make Nazirite vows on behalf of their children.
Nazirite Vows in the intertestamentary period
This vow was observed into the intertestamentary period. 1 Maccabees 3:49 mention men who had ended their Nazarite vows, an example dated to about 166 BCE. Josephus mentions a number of people who had taken the vow, such as his tutor Banns (Antiquities 20.6), and Gamaliel records in the Mishna how the father of Rabbi Chenena made a lifetime Nazarite vow before him (Nazir 29b) — examples showing this practice was observed into the first century CE.
Nazarites and the New Testament
The practice of a Nazarite vow is part of the obscurity of the Greek term "Nazarene" that appears in the New Testament; the sacrifice of a lamb and the offering of bread does suggest a relationship with Christian symbolism. While a saying (Template:Bibleverse; Template:Bibleverse) attributed to Jesus makes it doubtful that he was a Nazarite during his ministry, as does the ritual consumption of wine as part of the Eucharist, the Tevilah with which he commenced his ministry and the vow in Template:Bibleverse at the end of his ministry do, respectively, reflect the final and initial steps in a Nazirite vow.
Luke clearly was aware that wine was forbidden in ascetic practice, for the angel (Luke 1:15) that announces the birth of John the 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." The inference is that John had taken a lifelong Nazarite vow (see also Luke 7:33). He also mentions how Paul was advised to avoid the hostility of the Jews in Jerusalem by taking Nazaritic vows, a strategem that only delayed the inevitable mob assault on him (Acts 21:20-24). When Paul is advised to take the Nazarite vow, although in the previous verse it is stated he is meeting with James, the author of Acts clearly ascribes the advice to the general group of elders. It is not clear whether this is because Luke confused the word nazir with netzer (meaning "branch", an allusion to Isaiah 11:1), and felt it did not apply to James, or whether Luke intentionally minimized James' importance, as other Pauline Christians did.
What is curious is that Luke never mentions James the Just as taking Nazarite vows, although later Christian historians (e.g. Epiphanius Panarion 29.4) believed he had, and this would explain the asceticism Eusebius of Caesarea describes James observed (Historia Ecclesiastica 2.23), an asceticism that gave James his title "the Just".
Nazarite vows do not appear to have been understood by the Gentiles nor are they even mentioned in patristic writings; some look to "Nazarite" rather than "of Nazareth" for the Hebrew and Aramaic epithets for Jesus.
Nazarite and Rastafari
The Rastafarians take the Nazarite vow. The visible sign of this is their dreadlocks, which they grow based on the biblical Nazarene vow.
See also
External links
- Jewish Encyclopedia: Nazarite; Biblical data, examples.
- Nazarite in the Catholic Encyclopediade:Nasiräer