Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: ok@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au (Richard A. O'Keefe) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Thoughts on guys with long hair? Message-ID: Date: 29 Nov 90 05:27:04 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Comp Sci, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia Lines: 78 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , lshaw@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (logan shaw) writes: > - Is there (in your opinion) anything at all wrong with guys having long > hair? > [The relevant passage is I Cor. 11:14: "Does not nature itself teach > you that for a man to wear long hair is degrading to him?" Like most > of Paul's specific instructions, some Christians consider this binding > for all time and others consider it to be application only in its > original social context -- a debate we're not likely to settle. > --clh] I think even the most literal-minded conservative would concede that there _is_ such a thing as a Nazirite vow, Numbers 6: The LORD told Moses to say to the Israelites: "When anyone, man or woman, makes a special vow dedicating himself to the LORD as a Nazirite, he is to abstain from wine and strong drink. These he must not drink, nor anything made from the juice of grapes; nor is he to eat grapes, fresh or dried. During the whole term of his vow he must eat nothing that comes from the vine, nothing whatever, skin or seed. --> During the whole term of his vow, no razor is to touch his head; he must let his hair grow in long locks until he has completed the term of his dedication: he is to keep himself holy to the LORD. ... [REB] There's quite a bit more. At the conclusion of this period, ... he is to be brought to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting ... The Nazirite will shave his head at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, take the hair which had been dedicated, and put it on the fire where the shared-offering is burning. ... Now in Acts 18:18, we are told Paul stayed on at Corinth for some time, and then took leave of the congregation. Accompanied by Priscilla and Acquila, he sailed for Syria --> having had his hair cut off at Cenchreae in fulfilment of a vow. Some commentators explain this as the fulfilment of a Nazirite vow. If so, then there was a time when Paul had long hair for religious reasons, and that close in time to a visit to Corinth. As always, a text without a context is a pretext. What's the context of 1 Corinthians 11:12? That chapter is about public worship. Verse 4 says A man who keeps his head covered when he prays or prophesies brings shame on his head ... Now, what kind of person wears a skull-cap? what kind of person uses a prayer-shawl? do they do these things during public prayer? and is there a sense in which they have long hair? Answers: Orthodox Jews, Orthodox Jews, yes, and yes [Leviticus 19:27 "You are not to cut off your hair from your temples or shave the edge of your beards."]. Is that a possible reading of 1 Cor. 11:14? The word is "komao", "to let the hair grow". I haven't a good enough dictionary to tell me whether this can refer to the beard, but the usual word for "hair" (thrix) can refer to animal hair as well as the hair on your head, so I imagine that the range is about the same as English "hair". Anyone know? The NT never seems to refer to beards as such, unlike the Tanach. I don't know about skull-caps, but prayer-shawls and phylacteries certainly existed at the time Paul wrote. In accepting men and women worshipping together, Paul was definitely departing from Jewish custom. _Perhaps_ what he was suggesting in I Cor. 11 was a further separation from Jewish practice. If there is someone on the net who could tell us more definitely what the custom was? Anyone studied _Megillah_? Given that I'm clean-shaven (contra Lev. 19:27), it would ill become me to criticise someone for long hair (contra 1 Cor. 11:14 *maybe*), however silly I think they look. I tend to regard the ethical commands in the NT as binding for all time, and on the strength of 1 Cor. 11 I would not (being a man) wear a hat in church. But in this case I think we can honestly say "further study is needed". -- I am not now and never have been a member of Mensa. -- Ariadne.