Beards on Men: Yea or Nay?

[Guest]

Culture, culture, culture.

Whether or not a man grows his beard has no bearing whatsoever on his relationship or obedience to Christ.

1) There is no statement of Christ in the Gospels that commands the growing of a beard for men.

2) The apostles never advocated the growing of a beard.

3) The apostles did advocate grace and freedom on cultural and secondary issues.

4) Growing a beard was a cultural knee-jerk reaction of the Jews to display their hatred for clean-shaven Romans in Jesus' lifetime. If Jesus had a beard, it was because virtually all Jewish men of that day wore one. I believe he also wore sandals and a robe....Hmmmm.

5) Gender distinction is more a heart attitude than outward appearance.

6) Jesus wasn't a part of the Aarronic preisthood nor a Levite and neither are we. Even if we lived under OT law, we wouldn't be required to grow a beard unless we were a priest or a Levite.

7) As followers of Christ, we should be more concerned with following His teaching, described in the NT, before looking to OT scriptures for behaviour and practice.

Why do Christians get so caught up in the external? The idea that God only cares about external behaviours and appearance was what kept leading the Jews away from God. The whole of the NT reiterates over and over that what matters is the heart and obedience to our conscience before God.
Colossians 2:16-23
Romans 141 - 15:7

If a brother in Christ felt that he should grow a beard, then I support him in following his conscience. However, if he felt that all Christian men should grow beards, then I would respectfully disagree and follow my conscience (Galatians 5:1 - For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.)

Where is the prophecy that Jesus would have a beard?

[Guest]

well, i was kind of looking forward to never shaving again, but Schoel's right.

as to the OT prophecy- here is Is. 50:6:

I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.


TK

[Guest]

Hi, Dave,

7) As followers of Christ, we should be more concerned with following His teaching, described in the NT, before looking to OT scriptures for behaviour and practice.

Mat 5:16-19 "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I come to loosen down the Law or the Prophets; I come not to loosen down, but to fill full. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth might pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke may pass from the Law, until all might come to be. Whoever, then, might loosen one of the least of these commandments and teach others the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever might keep and teach, he will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."

Shalom,
Emmet

[Guest]

well, i was kind of looking forward to never shaving again, but Schoel's right.

as to the OT prophecy- here is Is. 50:6:

I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.


TK

From Barnes' Commentary on Isaiah 50:6:

"And my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair - literally, ‘My cheeks to hose who pluck, or pull.’ The word used here (מרט māraṭ) means properly to polish, to sharpen, to make smooth; then to make smooth the head, to make bald; that is, to pluck out the hair, or the beard. To do this was to offer the highest insult that could be imagined among the Orientals. The beard is suffered to grow long, and is regarded as a mark of honor. Nothing is regarded as more infamous than to cut it off (see 2Sa_10:4), or to pluck it out; and there is nothing which an Oriental will sooner resent than an insult offered to his beard. ‘It is a custom among the Orientals, as well among the Greeks as among other nations, to cultivate the beard with the utmost care and solicitude, so that they regard it as the highest possible insult if a single hair of the beard is taken away by violence.’ (William of Tyre, an eastern archbishop, Gesta Dei, p. 802, quoted in Harmer, vol. ii. p. 359.) It is customary to beg by the beard, and to swear by the beard. ‘By your beard; by the life of your beard; God preserve your beard; God pour his blessings on your beard,’ - are common expressions there. The Mahometans have such a respect for the board that they think it criminal to shave (Harmer, vol. ii. p. 360). The Septuagint renders this, ‘I gave my cheeks to buffering’ (εἰς ῥαπίσμα eis rapisma); that is, to being smitten with the open hand, which was literally fulfilled in the case of the Redeemer Mat_26:67; Mar_14:65. The general sense of this expression is, that he would be treated with the highest insult."

[Guest]

Hello Emmet,

7) As followers of Christ, we should be more concerned with following His teaching, described in the NT, before looking to OT scriptures for behaviour and practice.

Matthew 5:17,18
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

My point (7) agrees with the statement of Jesus in Matthew 5. The teachings of Jesus and the apostles, recorded in the NT, provide us with the framework by which to view the OT scriptures. Through their teaching, we see that the moral aspects of the law still bind the disciple of Christ, while the ceremonial aspects find their fulfillment in Christ and are therefore no longer binding to the Christian. This framework should be used by the disciples of Christ when reading and looking for application of the OT. Unfortunately, some Christians approach the OT without the framework and end up confused or picking the wrong hills to die on.

Matthew 5:19
19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

This statement is made to followers of Christ who still lived before the death of Christ. They were required by God to obey the commands of the OT law until God superceded it with a new covenant, prophesied by Jeremiah and instituted by Jesus at the Passover he shared with the 12 disciples right before his death.

In Christ
Dave

[Guest]

I could not reply to the poll because of the wording.

I do not "wear" a beard, as if it were a piece of clothing that I put on and take off.

I read someone's comment that for a man who shaves, his beard rises in protest each morning, attesting to the fact that it was meant to be a permanent fixture upon his face.

Although beards will not grow on some men, they will on most. It seems obvious to me that God designed the beard. So what right have I to shave it off? Am I arrogant enough to think I can improve on the appearance that God saw fit to give me?

A man's beard does appear to be a male distinctive. It is also the case that a number of different species of mammals and birds have males with a distinctive appearance. Would you enjoy as much the appearance those beautiful male birds if their crests were cut off?

Loaves, I did not find your "2nd rebuttal" at all convincing:

"Also, God gave us finger nails, and hair on our head, and we cut them, don’t we? Why then should we not shave our beard?"

The analogy does not hold. We cut our finger nails, but only the tips. We do not entirely remove the nails.

Most men cut the hair of their heads, but very few shave their heads.

Most men who allow their beards to grow, also trim their beards.

In the early Christian church, it was taken for granted that men would allow their beards to grow. Tertullian [145-220 A.D.] in his writing on the apparell of women, also refers to some inappropriate practices of men. He gives these examples:

"...to cut the beard too sharply, to pluck it out here and there; to shave around the mouth to arrange the hair and disguise its hoariness by dyes; to remove all incipent down all over the body; to fix in its place with womanly pigment; to smooth al the rest of the body by the aid of some rough powder or other, then to take every opportunity for consulting the mirror; to gaze anxiously into it."

Some of the early Christian writers considered the practice of shaving the face and smoothing out the skin to be effeminate. It appeared that they understood it to be important to portray true masculinity.

[Guest]

Sorry to interrupt here as this was addressed to the men...

...but Paidion, this is the second time I've seen this from you:

So what right have I to shave it off? Am I arrogant enough to think I can improve on the appearance that God saw fit to give me?

What led you to this belief? Do you have scripture references? I do a LOT of things to try to improve on the appearance that God gave me, and I'm just wondering if there's a line somewhere that I may have crossed.

As for this quote...

Tertullian [145-220 A.D.] in his writing on the apparell of women, also refers to some inappropriate practices of men. He gives these examples:

"...to cut the beard too sharply, to pluck it out here and there; to shave around the mouth to arrange the hair and disguise its hoariness by dyes; to remove all incipent down all over the body; to fix in its place with womanly pigment; to smooth al the rest of the body by the aid of some rough powder or other, then to take every opportunity for consulting the mirror; to gaze anxiously into it."

...wouldn't a man who just shaved in the morning and was done with it avoid all that preening as well?

[Guest]

So what right have I to shave it off? Am I arrogant enough to think I can improve on the appearance that God saw fit to give me?

So what was God thinking when He commanded men to be circumcised? God made me so that my eyes would grow dim. Can I wear glasses? Can the parents of a child born with a cleft pallete have it fixed? Methinks we're getting a tad legalistic here. Perhaps more than a tad.

Tertullian [145-220 A.D.] in his writing...

Tertullian had some good things to say, but also some nutty things too, such as any sin commuted after baptism was unforgivable. Were his comments on beards before or after he got strange?

we see that the moral aspects of the law still bind the disciple of Christ, while the ceremonial aspects find their fulfillment in Christ and are therefore no longer binding to the Christian.

Weren't those things that were moral under the law also moral before the law? I believe moral laws are naturally right in and of themselves and are equally binding in all ages. So when the law was nailed to the cross, only those aspects of it peculiar to it were voided. Beards are neither moral nor immoral but could be positively commanded. Where do we find such a command?

[Guest]

i wonder if tertullian's comments were not made because the guys back then who preened themselves, etc tended to be homosexual and his intention was to advise christians not to act like those guys. of course i could be all wrong about that, just a hunch.

TK

[Guest]

Michelle:

What led you to this belief?

Simply a consideration of nature ---- the way God obviously intended men to look.

Do you have scripture references?

I have references which shows that it's wrong to do that which is against unnatural (against nature as God created it.)

First Paul gives this as the reason that homosexuality is wrong:

For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error. Rom 1:26,27 NRSV

We may disagree with Paul, but he also gave conformity to nature as a reason a man should not allow his hair to grow long (like a woman's. This is possibly a reference to homosexuality), and that a woman ought to allow her hair to grow long, since it is according to nature. Her long hair was given to her (Who gave it to her?) as a shawl (literally, "a throw around").

Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him? But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a shawl. I Corinthians 11:14,15

I do a LOT of things to try to improve on the appearance that God gave me, and I'm just wondering if there's a line somewhere that I may have crossed.

Homer:

So what was God thinking when He commanded men to be circumcised?

I understand that He was thinking of a way which would distinguish the men of Israel from other nations. Would you explain the relevance of this question to the matter at hand?

God made me so that my eyes would grow dim. Can I wear glasses?

God didn't make you at all. You inherited your body and mental facilities from your ancestors and ultimately from Adam. Did God create Adam so that his eyes would grow dim? I don't think so. Dim eyes, illness, and death, are the result of the fall of man, and have been passed on to all their progeny. Eye glasses partially help to correct the results of the fall. It is not "unnatural" to correct these faults. Rather the faults themselves are unnatural, as they do not accord with nature as God originally intended it. For the same reason it's okay to swat mosquitoes.

Can the parents of a child born with a cleft pallete have it fixed?

This belongs in the same category as the dim-eyes question. So, of course, "yes".