Whether the lifelong or the temporary Nazirate was the original form, it is impossible to deter- mine. The case of Samson merely proves that tradition was acquainted with Nazirites for life at a comparatively early period. The law in Nu, as already remarked, refers only to the temporary Nazirate ; and the hair of a dead person could not be offered to the Lord. The latter fact, however, is not conclusive against the lifelong Nazirate ; for the long locks of the Nazirite might, from
* That Samuel was a Nazirite is denied by many moderns (e.g. Smend, Nowack). He is nowhere called a Nazirite in the OT; and the special service to which he was dedicated by his mother was that of the sanctuary at Shiloh (1S 1%), It is implied in Ezk 4429 that some Semitic priests allowed their hair to grow long. The LXX, which adds to 18 111 ‘and he shall not drink wine or strong drink,’ seems to regard him as a Nazirite. While the Rechabites are held by some to be even the strictest of all the Nazirites, they are held by others to be simply very closely akin to them. ‘The only certain historical example of a Nazirite, mentioned in the OT, is Samson’ (Driver, Joel and Amos, p. 153).
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time to time, have been cut off and offered at the sanctuary, without his thereby ceasing to be 8 specially consecrated person. Nor can it be saiG with certainty whether abstinence from wine, etc., or the hair-offering was the original content of the vow. Abstinence from wine is alone men- tioned by Amos (2'*), while, in the case of Samson, both in the announcement of his birth and in the narrative of his exploits, the emphasis is laid entirely upon his unshorn locks. His mother, it is true, is forbidden the use of wine, ete., sual her pregnancy; and from this fact, along wit others, opposite inferences have been drawn. By most it has been assumed that the omission in the case of Samson himself is purely accidental : the restriction laid upon his mother already im- lies that he is to be a specially consecrated one om the very beginning of his existence. B others, however, it is argued that Jg 13, whic narrates the circumstances attending Samson’s birth, contains two traditions of these circum- stances, and belongs to a different period from chs. 14-16, in which everything is Bpponed to the notion of his leading an ascetic life. In favour of the view that regards the hair-offering as the essential element, reference is also made to Jer 7”, where unshorn hair is called nézer, and to Ly 25°", where the vine that was left undressed during the Sabbatie year and the year of Jubilee is called a ndzir; but in view of 2" these passages are not decisive. Nazirites are mentioned so seldom in the OT* that on such points we must refrain from dogmatic statements; but on the whole it seems probable that the temporary Nazirate was the most common form, and that from the first abstinence from wine was one of the restrictions imposed on them. ‘There is no instance in the OT of a female Nazirite. Regarding the meaning of the restrictions to which they were subjected there is now very eneral agreement. (1) Abstinence from wine, etc. his was the strictly ascetic element in the vow of the Nazirite. It has often been explained as sym- bolizing abstinence from all delicie carnis ; but, as Dillmann remarks, if the Nazirite was forbidden all delicie carnis, he would have had to avoid them, not merely symbolically, but in reality. It finds an analogy in the late law forbidding the riests to drink wine or strong drink, while engaged in the service of the sanctuary (Lv 10°); and some have accordingly explained it as meant merely to secure at all times the sobriety of mind becoming in a man ppecially dedica to God (cf. Hos 4"). But the prohibition extended not only to wine and strong drink, but to the whole produce of the vine. It is now, therefore, generally explained as ‘a reaction in favour of the primitive simplicity of Israel in the days before it came into contact with Canaanite civilization and Canaanite religion,’ ‘a religious prolet against Canaanite civilization in favour of the simple life of ancient times’ (W. R. Smith, The Prophets of Israel, p. 84f.). ‘All Semitic nomads view wine-growing and wine-drinking as essentially foreign to their traditional mode of life. Canaan, on the contrary, is Eresmunenaly a land of the grape, and the Canaanite worship was full of Dionysiac elements. Wine was the best gift of the Baalim, and wine- drinking was prominent in their luxurious wor- ship’ (7.). his reaction in favour of a simple nomadic life was carried furthest by the Recha- bites ; but though the Nazirites generally did not carry their protest so far, still, by their abstinence
* All the passages in which they are mentioned are cited above. In 47 ‘Nazirites’ should be ‘princes’ or ‘nobles,’ princes as well as priests being among the Hebrews consecrated persons; cf. Gn 4925, Dt 3318, where Joseph is called the Nazir among his brethren.
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from the use of wine, etc., they sought to exhibit in their manner of living the idea of genuine Israelites. *
(2) The long hair of the Nazirite was the visible mark of his consecration ; like the high priest’s ‘mitre’ with the inscription ‘Holy to the Lord’ (Ex 28% 298 39%, Ly 8%, where the Heb. word for ‘crown’ or ‘diadem’ is the same as that rendered *consecration’ in Nu 6; ef. also Ly 21”, 2S 17, 2K 11%), it was the sign, manifest to all, that he was a God-consecrated man. The law in Nu 6 even calls it his ‘consecration’ (v.!; see also vy.7-% 11-18) Jer 7%), and enacts that, when the