Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: adamd@rhi.hi.is (Adam David) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Jesus wore long hair too Message-ID: Date: 19 Mar 91 04:28:55 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Iceland Lines: 36 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In kenns@prism.cs.orst.edu (Kenn R. Stump) writes: >Jesus was a Nazarene. Like Samson (who was a nazarene also, if my memory >is correct) their covenant with God was proofed by the lack of cutting of >their hair. Samson broke his covenant with God when Delilah (sp?) >cut his hair. No covenant with God, no massive strength. >I'm really weak on the details, and I apologise. But (someone help >me out here) I think Jesus was covenanted by his Mother to God as a >Nazarene. Thus the long hair. All Nazarenes had long hair. It >was their proof of the covenant they held with God. >[Isn't this confusing Nazarene (native of Nazareth) with Nazarite >(someone who has taken a vow to God that is symbolized by >not cutting the hair)? --clh] This is by no means a recent confusion. The way I heard it was that the village where Jesus spent his childhood was renamed Nazareth in the 2nd Century and became a tourist attraction after that. The original name has long since been forgotten and is probably of little significance. Prophecies in the Old Testament have no reference to Nazareth whereas other place names are mentioned. Evidence that Jesus was a Nazarite can be found in the scriptural prophecy "not a hair on his head shall be touched", and there are other references specifically mentioning Nazarite. The Romans who mocked Jesus and mistreated him prior to crucifixion left his hair intact, though they might have been expected in the circumstances to shame him by shaving it off. Pontius Pilate ordered for the sign on the cross to read "Jesus the Nazarite, King of the Jews" in 3 major languages of the time and place. The Greeks who recorded the details at the time may even themselves have confused Nazarite and Nazarene. Gentiles had no cultural context in which to correctly understand the term Nazarite so the obvious folk derivation required a place named Nazar or Nazareth. When pilgrims came from Rome and Greece wanting to visit Nazareth the locals had to come up with the goods or lose trade. This is one example of how a simple misunderstanding in the past can become the foundation for a lasting but erronuous "fact". -- Adam David. (adamd@rhi.hi.is)