About the significance of the Nazirate, so far as the Priests’ Code is concerned, we are not left in doubt. The only other class that are commanded to avoid defilement by a corpse are the priests. But an exception is allowed, even in their case (Lv 212), when it is the corpse of their nearest blood relation. On the other hand the prohibition is absolute for the high priest (v."). Now, when the same demand is made on the Nazirites, a kind of enhanced priestly dignity is accorded them, a lay priesthood, indeed, and one without official func- tions (which would be per se inconceivable in the case of a woman), but yet allied to the actual priesthood as a condition of high consecration to God. In all probability, the Priests’ Code has in this way discovered the desired expedient whereby the ancestral and highly esteemed institution of the Nazirate, which, as life-long, had no proper place in the priestly State, might yet be conserved and worthily incorporated among the institutions of the post-exilic theocracy. As always happens in such instances, everything is stripped off in this process which could possibly be regarded as a survival of ancient naturalistic or even heathen notions. The unshorn hair is no longer, as in the case of Samson, the medium of mysterious powers and a pledge of the immediate nearness of Jahweh. Rather is it inviolable because it forms part of the body which, as a whole, is consecrated to God, and the hair is a principal sign of this consecration. Again, the prohibition of wine, which, as we found above, had quite a peculiar significance for the ancient Nazirite, is probably, in Nu 6, to be thought of as finding its motive in the similar prohibition laid upon priests during the exercise of their official functions (Ly 10°).
_Somewhat later than Nu 67° are the prescrip- tions in vv./3-"! regarding the release of a Nazirite after the expiry of the period of his consecration. In addition to various animal offerings he has to take his hair, which has been cut off before the door of the sanctuary, and cast it into the fire which is under the peace-otfering. This enactment is not, however, to lead us to see in the hair-offering the kernel and purpose of the Nazirate as a whole (as if, for instance, it were a symbolical offering of
ee for the above analysis, Wurster in ZA7'W iv. (1884) p. 126.
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the body in the form of the representative offering of a part of it). It is quite possible that the hair-
offering elsewhere, especially on Semitic soil, has |
an independent significance of this kind. But it has certainly no such significance in Nu 6%. Rather is the burning in the fire of the altar the simplest way of getting rid of what had once been consecrated to God, and hence could not be treated as a common thing. Similarly, the parts of the sin-offering victim which cannot be presented on the altar are required (Ex 294, Ly 41f 21 65) to be burned elsewhere. The burning of the Nazirite’s hair im the altar-fire may be a feature correspond- ing to the ancient usage, which was retained by the Priests’ Code without the hair having on that account a sacrificial character conferred upon it. The latest component in Nu 6 is undoubtedly vv.2-!2, containing prescriptions for the case of a Nazirite who has been rendered Levitically unclean by a death occurring suddenly beside him. In that event the consecrated hair is to be cut off, and, after certain guilt-offerings have been presented, the period of consecration is to begin de novo.
4%, Rechabites.—We have already called atten- tion to the close affinity subsisting between the prohibition of wine to the Nazirites and the cor- responding vow of the Rechabites.* But, even apart from this, the latter must be dealt with here, because their founding as a religious sect falls, at latest, in the time of Jehoram the son of Ahab, 7.e. before B.C. 842.
1. We read in 2 K 10"* that the usurper Jehu, while driving along the road from Jezreel to Samaria, met Jonadab the son [or descendant of the family] of Rechab, and gave him his hand in token of his regard, and took him up into his ‘chariot that he might enjoy the spectacle of Jehu’s zeal for Jahweh. From this summary notice we can only suppose that Jonadab was an influential man upon whose adherence Jehu must have laid weight, and that he was inspired with the same zeal for Jahweh as Jehu himself.
2. Fortunately, a much later passage, Jer 35, has preserved for us more exact details regarding the significance of this Jonadab. During the reign of Jehoiakim, after the Chaldeans had moved into Judah (i.e. in B.C. 602 or shortly thereafter), Jeremiah is directed by Jahweh to bring the guild of the Rechabites into a chamber of the temple and to set wine before them. But the Rechabites [whose names one and all end with J ah (Jahweh)] flatly refuse to drink wine, and appeal to the pro- hibition of their ancestor Jonadab the son of Rechab, who had enjoined them not only to abstain from the use of wine, but to neglect the building of houses and every species of agriculture. They had always remained true to this prohibition, and only the invasion of Nebuchadrezzar had com- pelled them to take refuge in Jerusalem. There- upon Jeremiah reproaches the J udahites, pointing out how this example of fidelity to a human com- mand puts to shame those who are constantly disobedient to their God. To the Rechabites, on the other hand, he announces as a recompense that they shall never want descendants in the service of Jahweh. :