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NAZARITE

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Originally appearing in Volume V19, Page 319 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NAZARITE , or rather NAZIRITE, the name given by the See also:

Hebrews to a See also:peculiar See also:kind of devotee. The characteristic marks of a Nazarite were unshorn locks and See also:abstinence from See also:wine (See also:Judges xiii. I Sam. i. II; See also:Amos ii. rI seq.); but full regulations for the legal observance of the Nazarite See also:vow are given in Num. vi., where every product of the See also:grape-See also:vine is forbidden, and the Nazarite is enjoined not to approach a dead See also:body, even that of his nearest relative. The See also:law in question is in its See also:present See also:form See also:post-exilic, and is plainly directed to the regulation of a known usage. It contemplates the See also:assumption of the vow for a limited See also:period only, and gives particular details as to the atoning ceremonies at the See also:sanctuary by which the vow must be recommenced if broken by accidental defilement, and the closing See also:sacrifice, at which the Nazarite on the expiry of his vow cuts off his See also:hair and See also:burns it on the See also:altar, thus returning to See also:ordinary See also:life. Among the later See also:Jews the Nazarite vow, of course, corresponded with the legal See also:ordinance, which was further See also:developed by the See also:scribes in their usual manner (Mishna, tractate Nazir; cf. 1 See also:Mace. iii. 49; Acts xxi. 23 seq.; See also:Joseph. See also:Ant. xix. 6.

',See also:

Wars ii. 15. I). On the other See also:hand, in the earliest See also:historical See also:case, that of See also:Samson, and in the similar case of See also:Samuel (who,319 however, is not called a Nazarite), the See also:head remains unshorn throughout life, and in these times the ceremonial observances as to uncleanness must have been less precise. Samson's See also:mother is forbidden to eat unclean things during pregnancy, but Samson himself touches the See also:carcass of See also: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 See also:mark of See also:consecration to See also:God (Judges xiii. 5) for a particular service—in the one case the service of the sanctuary, in the other the deliverance of See also:Israel from the See also:Philistines. Since, moreover, the See also:Hebrew See also:root n-z-r is only dialectically different from n-d-r, " to vow," both corresponding to the same See also: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 See also: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 See also:ancient nations, but the closest parallel to the Hebrew See also:custom is found in See also:Arabia? There the vow was generally one of See also:war or revenge, and, till it was accomplished, the man who vowed See also:left his hair unshorn and unkempt, and abstained from wine, See also: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 See also:MECCA), and we find that at Taff it was customary to shear the hair at the sanctuary after a See also:journey. The consecration of Samuel has also its Arabic parallel in the See also:dedication of an unborn See also:child by its mother to the service of the Ka'ba (See also:Ibn Hisham, p.

76; Azraki, p. 128). The spirit of warlike patriotism that characterized the old See also:

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 See also:time the Nazarites had an importance—perhaps even an organization—parallel to that of the prophets, but of a very different religious type from the Canaanite nature-See also:worship. See See also:RECHABITES; Encyc. Bibl. See also:col. 3362 seq.; C. B. See also:Gray, See also:Numbers, pp. 56-61; E. Kautzsch (l.c. n. r below) ; W.

R. Harper, Amos and See also:

Hosea, p. li. sq., with references. (W. R. S.; S. A.

End of Article: NAZARITE

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