eriod of his vow is over, it must be offered to the
rd along with the peace-offerings (ν.}8). In Samson’s case it is also the seat of his personal strength; as soon as it is cut off, his special relation to Jehovah ceases, and he becomes weak as other men (Jg 167"), The general idea under- lying this restriction is that whatever is to be, or has been, consecrated to God must be kept in- violate, in the condition in which it has come from its maker’s hand (cf. Ex 20%, Ly 22%, Nu 19", Dt 15 215,1 5. 67. But it is the Nazirite himself, and not merely his hair, that is consecrated to Jehovah: how, then, are we to explain the em-
hasis laid on the latter? ‘The hair,’ says W.
. Smith, ‘is regarded by primitive peoples as a living and important part of the body... it is often regarded as the special seat of life and strength.’ ‘All over the world the head and hair of persons under taboo are peculiarly sacred and inviolable, and the primitive notions about the hair as a special seat of life are quite sufficient to account for this... . It is easy, for example, to understand why, if an important part of the life resides in the hair, a man whose whole life is con- secrated—e.g. a Maori chief, or the Flamen Dialis, or in the Semitic field such a person as Samuel or Samson—should either be forbidden to cut his hair at all, or should be compelled, when he does so, to use special precautions against the profanation of the holy growth’ (2S? pp. 324, 483). The inviola- bility of the Nazirite’s ee is thus the manifest token of the consecration of his whole personality to Jehovah.t
(3) The requirement to avoid all uncleanness due to contact with the dead is simply an enhance- ment of what is required of every Israelite, and more especially of the priests (Lv 21'™). One that has specially devoted himself to the service of Jehovah must naturally avoid everything cere- monially defiling. He must come into contact with nothing that renders him unfit for the service of the living and holy God. In this respect, so long as his vow lasted, the Nazirite stood on a level with the levitically holiest person among the people, viz. the high priest (Lv 21", where only father and mother are mentioned). Though Samson does not seem to have been subject to this restriction,} the importance attached to it generally is manifest from what is said in Nu 6
* A similar hostility to the use of wine is found among many ancient peoples. Among the Romans the priest of Jupiter was forbidden even to touch the vine ; the Nabatwans of the Syrian desert were forbidden to use wine; among the Arabs also, long before the Koran, there was a strong repugnance to the vine. *Like all barbarians, the Arabs were fond enough of getting drunk; but wine was a foreign and costly luxury, and the ο ition to its use found distinguished advocates before
ohammed’ (W. R. Smith, op. cit. p. 888).
ἡ Among the ancient Arabs we find a similar connexion between the hair and vows; the pilgrim allowed his hair to grow until his vow was paid; he then cut it off and thereby returned to the state of ordinary secular life. He was not even permitted to comb and wash his locks till the pilrrimaye was accomplished, This rule was not ascetic; it was simply a consequence of the fact that the hair of his head was inviolable. Pilgrims to Mecca are still forbidden to cut the hair of their head or even to pare their nails during their pilgrimage.
t Schultz remarks (p. 110) that this restriction naturally did not prevent one from engaying in the holy wars of Jehovah.
499
NAZIRITE
as to the Nazirite who has been accidentally defiled.
The Nazirites are mentioned so seldom in the OT that we cannot trace the history of this peculiar institution. It may be confidently assumed, how- ever, that it grew up spontaneously on Israelitish soil, and that, too, as early as the time of the Judges, Israel had been unable to conquer the Canaanites completely, and, through intercourse with the latter, was gradually losing its distinctive char- acter. If it was to maintain its existence and fulfil its vocation as the people of Jehovah, it must return to the customs which the fathers had brought with them out of the desert. The Nazir- ites were leading representatives of this reaction; ‘they were men, who, when the sensual and self- indulgent habits of the Canaanites threatened to make their way into Israel, endeavoured by a vow of abstinence to set an example of moderation and self-denial, which might help to preserve the old simplicity of Israelitish life’ (Driver, Joel and Amos, p. 152f.). They were a class of persons ‘holy to the Lord’ in a peculiar sense. That which formed the basis of their consecration was neither birth nor ottice, but a vow of a special kind. In an ordinary vow, a man consecrated some material thing; the Nazirites consecrated themselves (Nu 67°). Occasionally parents dedi- cated their unborn child to the life of a Nazirite (e.g. Samson and Samuel), in which case the mother had, during her pregnancy, also to abstain from the use of wine, etc. (Jg 1347-4), As a rule, however, and probably originally, the Nazirite, following an inner prompting, which he recognized as coming from the Lord (Am 2"), dedicated him- self. He thereby devoted himself wholly, for a limited time or for life, to the positive service of Jehovah. Though his vow committed him to certain abstinences, it was not, at least originally, a vow of mere abstinence ; the life that he Jed was not necessarily that of a mere ascetic. As repre- senting to his fellow-countrymen the ideal of a genuine Israelite, he naturally abstained from ever yehing that was out of keeping with that ideal; but these abstinences were simply conse-