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Encyclopedia Britannica



NAZARITE

This article appears in Volume V19, Page 319 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: NAN-NEW
NAZARITE , or rather NAZIRITE, the name given by the Hebrews to a peculiar kind of devotee. The characteristic marks of a Nazarite were unshorn locks and
abstinence
  from wine (Judges xiii. I Sam. i. II; Amos ii. rI seq.); but full regulations for the legal observance of the Nazarite vow are given in Num. vi., where every product of the grape-vine is forbidden, and the Nazarite is enjoined not to approach a dead
body
 , even that of his nearest relative. The law in question is in its present form post-exilic, and is plainly directed to the regulation of a known usage. It contemplates the assumption of the vow for a limited period only, and gives particular details as to the atoning ceremonies at the sanctuary by which the vow must be recommenced if broken by accidental defilement, and the closing sacrifice, at which the Nazarite on the expiry of his vow cuts off his
hair
  and burns it on the altar, thus returning to
ordinary
  life. Among the later
Jews
  the Nazarite vow, of course, corresponded with the legal
ordinance
 , which was further developed by the scribes in their usual manner (Mishna, tractate Nazir; cf. 1 Mace. iii. 49; Acts xxi. 23 seq.; Joseph. Ant. xix. 6. ',Wars ii. 15. I). On the other hand, in the earliest historical case, that of Samson, and in the similar case of Samuel (who,319
however, is not called a Nazarite), the head remains unshorn throughout life, and in these times the ceremonial observances as to uncleanness must have been less precise. Samson's mother is forbidden to eat unclean things during pregnancy, but Samson himself touches the carcass of lion and is often in contact with the slain, nor does he abstain from giving feasts.'
In the cases of Samuel and Samson the unshorn locks are a mark of
consecration
  to God (Judges xiii. 5) for a particular servicein the one case the service of the sanctuary, in the other the deliverance of
Israel
  from the Philistines. Since, moreover, the Hebrew root n-z-r is only dialectically different from n-d-r, " to vow," both corresponding to the same
original
  Semitic root (Arab. n-dh-r), it would seem that the peculiar marks of the Nazarite are primarily no more than the usual sign that a man is under a vow of some kind. To leave the locks unshorn during an arduous undertaking in which the divine aid was specially implored, and to consecrate the
hair
  after success, was a practice among various ancient nations, but the closest parallel to the Hebrew custom is found in Arabia? There the vow was generally one of war or revenge, and, till it was accomplished, the man who vowed left his hair unshorn and unkempt, and abstained from wine, women, ointment and perfume. Such is the figure of Shanfara as described in his Lamiya. The observances of the ihram (period of
consecration
 ) belong to the same usage (see MECCA), and we find that at Taff it was customary to shear the hair at the sanctuary after a journey. The consecration of Samuel has also its Arabic parallel in the dedication of an unborn child by its mother to the service of the Ka'ba (Ibn Hisham, p. 76; Azraki, p. 128). The spirit of warlike patriotism that characterized the old religion of
Israel
  could scarcely fail to encourage such vows (cf. 2 Sam. xi. sr, and perhaps I Sam. xxi. 4 seq.), and from the allusion in Amos we are led to suppose that at one time the Nazarites had an importanceperhaps even an organizationparallel to that of the prophets, but of a very different religious type from the Canaanite nature-
worship
 .
See RECHABITES; Encyc. Bibl. col. 3362 seq.; C. B. Gray, Numbers, pp. 56-61; E. Kautzsch (l.c. n. r below) ; W. R. Harper, Amos and Hosea, p. li. sq., with references. (W. R. S.; S. A. C.)


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