NAZIRITE, NAZARITE (KJV), năz’ ə rīt, năz’a rīt (נָזִ֔יר, withheld). A member of a Heb. religious class, specially dedicated to God.

I. Definition

A. Origin. The authorization for Nazirites appears in Numbers 6:1-21 and was divinely revealed, through Moses, shortly before Israel’s departure from Mt. Sinai in May, 1445 b.c. (Num 10:11; cf. Exod 40:17).

B. Votive nature. The Nazirite concept is that of a vow (q.v.), “a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the Lord” (Num 6:2). If vows be classified as voluntary obligations, either of dedication or of abstinence (J. B. Payne, Theology of the Older Testament, 430), then the Nazirites’ situation falls primarily into the latter category.

1. Abstinence. The original meaning of the root נזר (cognate to נדר, vow) is “prob.: withhold from wonted use” (KB, 605). The noun נָזִ֔יר, then designated that which is singled out, whether a person, as Joseph, separate, and hence of high rank (Gen 49:26; Deut 33:16; cf. נֵ֫זֶר, H5694, diadem [as a sign of] consecration), or a thing, as a vine during the sabbatical year (Lev 25:5, 11), “withheld from cultivation, left to unfettered growth” (KB, 604).

2. Dedication. Yet the vine that is treated with abstinence is also, in a sense, dedicated “to the Lord” (Lev 25:4); similarly, while the vows made by a Nazirite himself were those of abstinence, the vows of another person, e.g., of a parent in committing a child to the Nazirite life, represent dedication (cf. Judg 13:5). The dedicated person could thus also speak of himself as “a Nazirite to God” (16:17).

II. Original characteristics

The Nazirite, as envisioned in the Pentateuch, was one who separated himself for a limited period of time to a high-priestly sort of life: “He is holy to the Lord” (Num 6:8).

A. Negative restraints

1. From the dead. Naziritism meant the avoidance of ceremonial defilement, esp. from touching a dead body (vv. 6, 7; cf., for the high priest, Lev 21:1). In cases of accidental contact with the dead, provision was made for purification (Num 6:9-12); but the person had to begin his Nazirite period over again: the former days were “void” (v. 12).

2. From wine. Abstinence was specified from wine and other שֵׁכָר, H8911, strong drink or beer (KB; 972). This was not simply because of problems of ministerial intoxication (cf., for the priests, Lev 10:9, 10) because fresh grapes, raisins, grape juice, vinegar, and even grape seeds were equally prohibited (Num 6:3, 4). The grapes prob. stood as a symbol for all the temptations of the settled life of Canaan; cf. the vow of the Rechabites, q.v. (Jer 35:6, 7).

3. From shaving. The cutting of one’s hair was also forbidden (Num 6:5), as a concrete symbol of unimpaired strength; cf. the נָזִ֔יר, vines (Lev 25:11). When the specified period was accomplished, the Nazirite would present burnt-, sin-, peace-, meal-, and drink-offerings at the sanctuary. While the priest performed the sacrifice, the Nazirite would shave the hair of his head and “put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offering” (Num 6:18). Upon such fulfillment he was again free, e.g., to drink wine (v. 20; cf. 1 Macc 3:49).

B. Positive purposes. Even as vows in general consisted of promises made to God, often on condition of His granting certain specified petitions, so the Nazirite vow and the service for God that it entailed seems often to have followed upon divine bestowals of particular, requested blessings, e.g., Hannah’s prayer for a male child (1 Sam 1:11). The subject of the vow was responsible, first to make himself available for use by God, and finally to discharge the prescribed sacrificial worship. Nazirites could be women (Num 6:2) or even slaves, but their vows and service had then to be sanctioned by their husbands or masters (cf. 30:6-8). God’s purpose in establishing the Nazirite group was to raise up within Israel a class of devoted spiritual leaders, to whom He in turn would grant special powers, filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:15), and in this respect similar to the class of the prophets (Amos 2:11).

III. Subsequent history

A. Exceptional Nazirites. In post-Mosaic times, as the Nazirite law was put into practice, there arose within it certain exceptional features: God could direct parents to dedicate a child as a Nazirite (Judg 13:5, 7), or they might undertake such a vow themselves (1 Sam 1:11). The vow could then be permanent, for “all the days of his life,” “a Nazirite to God from birth” (Judg 13:5). The only known examples of this special type of Nazirite were Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist (Luke 1:15). For each of the former, God specified that no razor should ever pass upon his head. In the case of Samson, when he was betrayed to the Philistines, the loss of his hair represented a corresponding loss of his God-given power (Judg 16:20, 21). When it regrew and Samson turned to God, he experienced a final return of his strength (vv. 22, 28-30).

B. Rest of the OT. Subsequent references to Nazirites are few. The prophet Amos, c. 760 b.c., criticized N Israel for perverting the Nazirites, whom Yahweh had raised up, with wine (Amos 2:12). Jeremiah lamented Judah’s former נְזִרִ֑ים, as “purer than snow, whiter than milk” (Lam 4:7), though the term may indicate nobles (ASV, Th. Laetsch, Bib. Com. Jer, 397; but cf. IB, VI:31).

C. New Testament. Jesus was a Nazarene, q.v. (Matt 2:23) but not a Nazirite, as was John the Baptist, to whom He stood in contrast (11:18, 19). On his second missionary journey [when Paul was “at Cenchreae] he cut his hair for he had a vow” (Acts 18:18), indicating his accomplishment of a Nazirite period. This in turn explains his eagerness to return to Pal., where the other rites of the discharge of his vow would then be performed at the Temple. Later he assumed the heavy expense of purifying four other men that had such vows on them (21:23, 24). Josephus mentions a large number of Nazirites sponsored by Herod Agrippa I (Antiq. XIX. 6. 1). Later Heb. tradition fixed the minimum period for a Nazirite at thirty days (Mishna, Nazir).

D. Critical reconstruction. Biblical criticism produces a history of Nazirites that differs markedly from the Scripture’s own teaching, as outlined above. The fundamental misconception of the negative critics stems from Wellhausen’s evolutionary reconstruction of the Pentateuch, q.v. Its theory assigns Numbers 6, with its Nazirite legislation, to “P,” the Priestly Code (ILOT, 61), and hence to the end of Israelitish history (exilic or later) instead of its beginning (so even J. D. Douglas, NBD, 872). The life-long Nazirites, e.g. Samson and Samuel, are thus held to serve as the earlier norm, while the Mosaic concepts of Naziritism for a limited period, of the important place of multiplied sacrifice in the discharge of the vow, of abstinence from wine and ritual defilement, or even the very idea of the Nazirites as subjects of a vow, are relegated to the status of later accretions. Instead, the Nazirite is seen but as a sacred, “charismatic” warrior, appearing spontaneously, subject to ecstatic behavior, and at times indistinguishable from the primitive sort of prophet, Even the ruthless Absalom—note his long hair (!)—can be regarded as a Nazirite (G. B. Gray, JTS, I [1900], 206). The “later” Pentateuchal laws are then said to have perverted Naziritism into a votive performance of ritualistic duties. Such, however, was a mark only of NT Pharisaism when, as Josephus related, “It is usual for those who had been either afflicted with a distemper, or with other distresses, to make vows; and for thirty days before they are to offer their sacrifices, to abstain from wine, and to shave the hair of their head” (War, II. 15. 1). Bernice, q.v., the incestuous sister-wife of Herod Agrippa II (cf. Acts 25:13), could undertake such a vow (Jos., loc. cit.); and it could be done merely for a bet (Mishna, Nazir, V, 5).

Bibliography On associated theories of negative criticism: G. B. Gray, “The Nazirite,” JTS, I (1900), 201-211; W. Eichrodt, Theology of the OT (1961), I:303-306; IDB, III:526, 527.