The Nazirite Vow: Living Holy for God

Discover the Nazirite vow in Numbers 6—a sacred commitment to holiness through abstaining from wine, preserving uncut hair, and avoiding ritual impurity. Learn how Samson, Samuel, and others dedicated their lives fully to God.

1. Three Categories of Nazirites

Nazirites called by God’s special providence, such as Samson (Judg 13:5, 7). Because Samson’s mother was instructed to abstain from wine and strong drink while carrying him, she herself was effectively required to observe Nazirite-like regulations for a period until his birth (Judg 13:4).
Nazirites consecrated before birth by their mother’s vow, such as Samuel (1 Sam 1:11).
Nazirites who took a voluntary vow of their own accord, such as Paul.

2. Regulations a Nazirite Was Required to Observe

They were not to eat anything produced by the grapevine or drink strong drink (Num 6:1–4).
They were not to cut their hair (Num 6:5).
They were not to go near a dead body (Num 6:6–8).
They were to avoid the unclean foods designated by the Levitical purity laws (Lev 11; Acts 10:4).
This, however, was a regulation that all Israelites were required to keep, not only Nazirites.
When the period of the vow was completed, they were required to offer sacrifices according to the prescribed regulations of the law (Num 6:13–20).

Abstaining from wine and strong drink carried the meaning of rejecting the corrupt religion rooted in the immoral customs of Canaanite agricultural culture.

Moreover, wine and strong drink represented worldly pleasures, and during the period of the Nazirite vow, one was to find delight in God alone.

Keeping away from corpses and unclean plants was a requirement for all of God’s people, who were to regard holiness as precious as life itself.

Not cutting one’s hair was a sign of existing solely for God, and since hair symbolized life, allowing it to grow uncut and offering it to God expressed the dedication of one’s whole life to Him.

This is clearly illustrated by the practice of shaving the hair that had grown throughout the vow period and offering it to God along with a sacrifice when the term of the vow was completed.

When the apostle Paul was returning to Jerusalem at the close of his second missionary journey, he shaved his head at Cenchreae in accordance with this regulation (Acts 18:18). On a similar occasion, he also demonstrated his faithfulness to the Law by paying the expenses of the sacrificial offerings on behalf of four men under a Nazirite vow (Acts 21:23–26). If, however, a defilement occurred during the period of the Nazirite vow, the entire period up to that point was rendered void and had to be restarted from the beginning (Num 6:9–12).

3. The Nazirite Regulations as Taught in the Mishnah

According to the Nazirite vow regulations in the Mishnah—the oral law—even a slave, provided he was not a Gentile, could take a Nazirite vow. If no specific duration was stated, one was required to observe the Nazirite vow for a minimum of thirty days. If one wished to continue the vow beyond that, the hair was to be shaved and offered to God on the final day of the thirty-day period, after which a new thirty-day vow period would begin.

There is also a record of someone who took a seven-year Nazirite vow and subsequently extended it twice more, living as a Nazirite for a total of twenty-one years. Women and slaves also took Nazirite vows, though in the case of women the Nazirite regulations were said to have been applied more strictly. Hegesippus (A.D. 120–180), a church writer of the sub-apostolic age who converted from Judaism to Christianity, regarded James, the Lord’s brother, as a Nazirite—noting that he had been set apart from his mother’s womb, abstained from wine and meat, and spent his life praying in the temple for the forgiveness of the people’s sins until his knees became as calloused as a camel’s.

Source: Dictionary of Biblical Cultural Backgrounds

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