The Nazarite Vow in the New Testament
Posted: Tuesday, November 20, 2007
by Rabbi Stanley
Mosaic Ministries
Concerning the Nazarite vow: The word Nazarite probably comes from the shoresh (root) of the word "Nader" which means "Vow"
There are different resources we can look at to find info on the Nazarites. Starting with the Biblical source in Numbers chapter 6. I'm going to post the chapter as it isn't very long and it'll make it easier to get to then having to look it up.
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall make a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself unto Jehovah,
3 he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any juice of grapes, nor eat fresh grapes or dried.
4 All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the grape-vine, from the kernels even to the husk.
5 All the days of his vow of separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in which he separateth himself unto Jehovah, he shall be holy; he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow long.
6 All the days that he separateth himself unto Jehovah he shall not come near to a dead body.
7 He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die; because his separation unto God is upon his head.
8 All the days of his separation he is holy unto Jehovah.
9 And if any man die very suddenly beside him, and he defile the head of his separation; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it.
10 And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtle-doves, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tent of meeting:
11 and the priest shall offer one for a sin-offering, and the other for a burnt-offering, and make atonement for him, for that he sinned by reason of the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day.
12 And he shall separate unto Jehovah the days of his separation, and shall bring a he-lamb a year old for a trespass-offering; but the former days shall be void, because his separation was defiled.
13 And this is the law of the Nazirite, when the days of his separation are fulfilled: he shall be brought unto the door of the tent of meeting:
14 and he shall offer his oblation unto Jehovah, one he-lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt-offering, and one ewe-lamb a year old without blemish for a sin-offering, and one ram without blemish for peace-offerings,
15 and a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and their meal-offering, and their drink-offerings.
16 And the priest shall present them before Jehovah, and shall offer his sin-offering, and his burnt-offering:
17 and he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace-offerings unto Jehovah, with the basket of unleavened bread: the priest shall offer also the meal-offering thereof, and the drink-offering thereof.
18 And the Nazirite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tent of meeting, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace-offerings.
19 And the priest shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazirite, after he hath shaven [the head of] his separation;
20 and the priest shall wave them for a wave-offering before Jehovah; this is holy for the priest, together with the wave-breast and heave-thigh: and after that the Nazirite may drink wine.
21 This is the law of the Nazirite who voweth, [and of] his oblation unto Jehovah for his separation, besides that which he is able to get: according to his vow which he voweth, so he must do after the law of his separation.
Here we see that it is a vow that can be taken by either a woman or a man and can be temporary or perpetual. It is to be taken so seriously that you can't even touch a family member if they die. in Judges 13 it tells the story of Shimshon (Samson) another Nazerite and we also find in the Bible that Shmuel (Samuel) had taken the vow. In the NT Shaul (Paul) also took the vow (not sure if this is what Michele was referring to, if so, apologies). And also of course John The Baptist was also a Nazerite. But it isn't only referred to in Biblical accounts. We find the Nazerites in the Apocrypha and also in other writings such as Josephus and in the Mishna (The Oral Law). In the Apocrypha we find it in the book of Maccabees chapter 3 vs 49 and in the Mishna it is found in the order of Nashim (Women). The Mishna was in place during the time of Yeshua and made up the main teachings of the Pharisees. This is important as Yeshua told the Messianic Jews to do as the Pharisees say. Well, what did they say? They said follow the Oral Law (The Mishna). A lot has been added to the Mishna since that time so it would be a difficult task now for us to follow but the vows of the Nazir are still intact. Here's what it says in Josephus...
in Josephus
book 19 "Antiquities" ( you can read Josephus from my site if you like)
CHAPTER 6.
WHAT THINGS WERE DONE BY AGRIPPA AT JERUSALEM WHEN HE WAS RETURNED BACK INTO JUDEA; AND WHAT IT WAS THAT PETRONIUS WROTE TO THE INHABITANTS OF DORIS, IN BEHALF
1. NOW Claudius Caesar, by these decrees of his which were sent to Alexandria, and to all the habitable earth, made known what opinion he had of the Jews. So he soon sent Agrippa away to take his kingdom, now he was advanced to a more illustrious dignity than before, and sent letters to the presidents and procurators of the provinces that they should treat him very kindly. Accordingly, he returned in haste, as was likely he would, now lie returned in much greater prosperity than he had before. He also came to Jerusalem, and offered all the sacrifices that belonged to him, and omitted nothing which the law required; (19) on which account he ordained that many of the Nazarites should have their heads shorn. And for the golden chain which had been given him by Caius, of equal weight with that iron chain wherewith his royal hands had been bound, he hung it up within the limits of the temple, over the treasury, (20) that it might be a memorial of the severe fate he had lain under, and a testimony of his change for the better; that it might be a demonstration how the greatest prosperity may have a fall, and that God sometimes raises up what is fallen down: for this chain thus dedicated afforded a document to all men, that king Agrippa had been once bound in a chain for a small cause, but recovered his former dignity again; and a little while afterward got out of his bonds, and was advanced to be a more illustrious king than he was before. Whence men may understand that all that partake of human nature, how great soever they are, may fall; and that those that fall may gain their former illustrious dignity again.
So we see it was going strong.
So again we see that it was still in place at the time of Yeshua and as I wrote before that Paul helped out in purification rites of other Messianics (Acts 21:24 this is the Scripture I was referring to in an earlier post) so they could become Nazarites. So it's something we should take a serious look at. It was a very special topic to G-d. In fact in Amos 2 vs 11 and 12, the Nazir are mentioned in the same breath as the Prophets. It brought G-d to a point of wrath against Israel cause they were making the Nazarites drink wine. It's pretty incredible how strongly G-d felt about this really. And that just leads me to think that if it was that important to G-d... then it should be important to us.
Shalom,
Rabbi Stanley
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Hear hear, I agree with you. I'm a born again Christian (prefer to call myself a New Covenant Israelite, just as Bruce Wayne personally referred to himself as Batman in a comic I once read) and have expressed Nazarite ‘traits’ on and off for a few years. I've recently come into the understanding that I have a legitimate claim to be a nazarite under the New Covenant. I felt this for a long time but only just started to look it up on the internet. Being born with Jamaican parents and having a significant amount of older West Indian members of my local congregation, there is a pressure to not either grow my hair to what they call 'long' in either dreadlocks, afro, or braided. There is a split amongst the older generation. One side is for having a good length of hair as they think it looks 'nice', others are against it because of the Scripture which correctly states that there should be a distinction between men and women in terms of hair length. They are also against dreadlocks because of their hatred/phobia/prejudice (can't quite put my finger on it) of Rastas. Personally I think there are some issues of self hatred that can be traced back to slavery and ideals of white supremacy and anything that isn't conservative is subconsciously classed as "too black too strong" (quotation from the rap group Public Enemy).I felt pressured by people’s comments when my hair was long, to cut it etc and I could tell that certain people didn’t approve and because of my lack of true understanding at the time I couldn’t justify my gut impulses with Scripture. However after doing some reading, I know have enough examples of the nazarite vow being fulfilled in the New Testament by born again believers such as Paul (the guy who actually wrote about the appropriateness of head covering etc ). We keep Passover (Pesach) and have done since the 80’s and we follow the Scripture to keep the Feasts in ernest and have the understand that Yahweh changeth not. If it’s ok to keep Passover (I think it’s more than just ok, I think it’s supposed to be standard practice and a joyful one!) then why not the Nazarite tradition. I mean, it seems to me that from the Scriptures it gives the impression that nazarites were around pre-Mosaic Law (just as the idea of clean and unclean animals i.e. when Noah was commanded to bring the creatures onto the Ark). So even for those who think the Law is done away with, it was pre-Law, and if it was valid then and valid through the Law, then why would it stop now??? I don’t think it’s significance has stopped and I think we as believers are limiting the experience of the territory of discipleship of Yahweh by dismissing the idea of being New Covenant nazarites. Fair enough we don’t have a temple to do everything the Law required, but we can keep it in earnest, just like the Feasts of Yahweh.One other thing. What constitutes ‘long’? It seems relative to different cultures. In Jamaican/West Indian culture, there is this idea of hair being long for a man but short for a woman. This doesn’t make sense to me because the ethos whether hair is long or short is to help distinguish between the two sexes. Therefore it should be ‘what is long for all humans? What is short for all humans?’ Regardless of sex. If a woman’s hair is shoulder length and it’s considered short for a woman, then it’s short for everyone. I personally feel we should judge what is long by how long somebody’s hair can grow and go from there. I know it’d get relative then as well, because compared to a person with hair that goes to their ankles (as I’ve observed with some Rastafarians), someone with hair to the bottom of their spine could seen as short. So, personally to be on the safe side, I’d grow my hair to shoulder length at the maximum, unless of course my vow was for something like 7 years, then I’d be exempt from shame if it went past that, as I’d be consecrated to Machiach within the agreement we have at that time. Let me know what you think. I know I slightly went off subject, but it’s something that’s close to my heart.I'll reiterate my agreement that if it's important to our Heavenly Father, then it should be important to us and worthwhile investigating with purpose and intent to draw closer to Him and His Ways...selah...Yours in Yahshua’s (I know the accepted is ‘Yeshua’ but I feel more ‘connected’ with the former, please don’t be offended or annoyed)Micah GreenShalom Micah, I agree. Hair length is all a matter of culture and what one considers to be the norm. you're also correct about the Feasts of the L-rd. Many try to call them the Feasts of Israel but they are never called that anywhere in the Bible. They are always called "The Feasts of G-d" or "My Feasts" etc. I'm glad you're not worried about what other people think but rather what YHVH thinks. That's encouraging. Rabbi Stanley
was king solomon a nazerite? and did he have the names of God in his hairSolomon could not have been a Nazarite since in Ecclesiates he stated that he drunk wine - even to excess - still retaining his reason to make a point about the vanity of lifeEcc 2:3I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives.Have you not though that he may have broken the vow? Even time and time again?were you aware that one could take the vow for 30 days?
Hi Rabbi Stanley, just to say thanks for the speedy response to my last message (It's Micah). Just wanted to keep you up to speed. I kept a nazirite vow from July 09 to the 15th March 2010. I abstained from wine at first, then extended it to include all alcohol, not just stuff from the vine. I let the hair on my head grow (I never had the understanding or witness at this point to leave my beard, although I always had facial hair)I just want to say as an encouragement that YHVH blessed like you wouldn't believe. It felt like one of His Feast days when I consummated the vow last week and it feels special when you keep your word just like He keeps His Word.It was really hard at times and I really did feel seperated, especially when family members and friends were drinking at birthdays and parties and I couldn't because of a promise that I made voluntarily. I don't drink heavily, never have, but I will drink the odd guiness and ale every so often. Not having this luxury of choice because of the choice to separate myself unto Yahweh was a sacrifice, but one that was more than well worth it. I'd encourage anyone to do one. Like I said it wasn't easy and a couple of times I consumed something from the vine without realising, but I felt that His grace was sufficient enough and by hook or by crook was determined to complete the vow! And I did! By His power working within me. Despite the many misunderstandings and opposition, I was supported by Him and by different people. At the end of the day though, it boiled down to just me and Him, 'I AM' and 'i am', The Great I AM and the person that I am, Micah, son of Yahweh Elohim through Y'hshua Ha'MachiachAnyway, on to the next Feast, Passover and Unleavened Bread, have a blessed one my brother and friend in the faith.Ps I chose to end it two weeks before passover so it was at Yah's New YearMay He always bless and keep you,MicahThat's good to hear Micah,I took the Nazerite myself a few years back and was glad I did. I took it for 30 days (the minimal requirement) and abstained from all things of the vine as well as all alcohol. I shaved my head as well. It was a time that I drew closer to G-d and strengthened my walk with Him.Yes, Pasach is coming, I hope you have a great experience as you keep His appointed times and Festivals as He has commanded us to do "forever and ever throughout all your generations".Baruch HaShemRabbi Stanley
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