Beards

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Josho

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Well there seems to be a great fuss about tattoos, but what about beards? The verse before the one about tattoos in Leviticus says

Leviticus 19:27
Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards."

So why are tattoos unacceptable to many, but beard trimming, shaving is acceptable?

I myself trim my beard and shave it off once in a while.

In my view these were both Old Testament Jewish laws that weren't passed on into the NT.
 
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Josho

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So I would be interested to hear on this, since there are some Christians without beards who speak against tattoos. ;)
 
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farouk

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Well there seems to be a great fuss about tattoos, but what about beards? The verse before the one about tattoos in Leviticus says

Leviticus 19:27
Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards."

So why are tattoos unacceptable to many, but beard trimming, shaving is acceptable?

I myself trim my beard and shave it off once in a while.

In my view these were both Old Testament Jewish laws that weren't passed on into the NT.
The question to ask, I guess, is: Do preachers shave?

Are we Old Testament Jews in the land under the law, or New Testament believers under grace for whom the Gospel - and motivations for witness tools, by extension - is the rule of life?
 
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Reggie Belafonte

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Why would one shave ones head, so why would one shave ones beard. I think such could be an insult to God.

For some reason I hate when people shave their temples or it's short with hair on top, always have looked down on such as an act against God.

Some people who are balled on top suits them to cut the sides short or shave such off as well, that's fine with me, but the trend of cutting the sides short with hair on top I don't like that.

I think cutting the temples has to being a war like savage back in the days of the Jews.

I like to have a short natural trim beard and do not like long beards as such can make one look like a grub, but on some it suits them.
 

Enoch111

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Leviticus 19:27
Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards."
Simple. This was a commandment within the Old Covenant. Christians are under the New Covenant.

As to tattoos, that is an entirely different matter. Pagans used to tattoo themselves within their false religions, and tattooing is forbidden in Scripture (as are all pagan practices). Furthermore today it is generally criminals and gangsters who love tattoos, not Christians. the MS-13 gangsters identify themselves with their tattoos.
 

Josho

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Simple. This was a commandment within the Old Covenant. Christians are under the New Covenant.

As to tattoos, that is an entirely different matter. Pagans used to tattoo themselves within their false religions, and tattooing is forbidden in Scripture (as are all pagan practices). Furthermore today it is generally criminals and gangsters who love tattoos, not Christians. the MS-13 gangsters identify themselves with their tattoos.

But where is there a commandment about tattoos in the New Testament?
 
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farouk

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Good point. I seem to notice skulls more now-dodgy
@2 Chr. 34:19
GodsGrace said:
....almost every young girl I know has some sort of tatoo.
Even those very conservative types.

Good, bad or indifferent, if one is determined to give even the many conservative ones a hard time because they have tattoos, then it would be logical to give the young men a hard time if they don't have beards...

Either we are Old Testament Jews in the land under the law, or we are New Testament believers under grace pursuing the rule of the Gospel rather than the law.
 

Enoch111

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But where is there a commandment about tattoos in the New Testament?
You really wish to labor this point?

This verse would cover tattoos and ALL works of darkness: And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. (Eph 5:11)

"And such an exhortation to the duty of plain abstinence from things that the opinion of the world around us has no objection to, but which are contrary to the light, is addressed to all Christian people." -- Alexander McLaren.

Tattooing is not fruitful spiritually since tattoos are clearly identified with gangsters and criminals -- workers of darkness. They have the appearance of evil, and we are to avoid the very appearance of evil.


Abstain from all appearance of evil. (1 Thess 5:22)
 

farouk

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@2 Chr. 34:19

To try to compel men to wear or not to wear a beard in this dispensation is just not appropriate; Romans 14 would surely apply.

Similarly it's a fact that ppl who are far from avant-garde and radical do get tattoos now.

juliannenw said:
I am a nurse in a cardiac ICU. I am also pretty heavily tattooed. I am a well educated, well rounded nurse, and was raised with strong morals and manners. .. I am an extremely traditional person.
source: allnurses dot com

When very traditional, well educated, well mannered, moral women have the quiet confidence to become tattooed, it does demonstrate undoubtedly just widespread it has become.

It is also perhaps inevitable that among the very conservative people who are tattooed, some will indeed wish to express a tattooed faith related design.
 
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Truman

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Well there seems to be a great fuss about tattoos, but what about beards? The verse before the one about tattoos in Leviticus says

Leviticus 19:27
Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards."

So why are tattoos unacceptable to many, but beard trimming, shaving is acceptable?

I myself trim my beard and shave it off once in a while.

In my view these were both Old Testament Jewish laws that weren't passed on into the NT.
Hi. I looked it up briefly and saw it's something that requires some research. I can only speculate, so I won't. Though I will say that the Lord had a good reason for it. I see Jews sometimes that have long sideburns, though I'm not sure why. Do you know any Messianic Jews? I think that some Orthodox Jews have a real problem with Christians, and rightfully so, see the Inquisitions, etc., so you may want to avoid them. But they're not all like that. It just depends on the person. Ask the Lord to show you. You are right in saying that it isn't for the New Covenant; it may represent something in Heaven, or it may have to do with the prophetic foreshadowing of Christ. I'm a Levite worship leader and that is something I'd like to know. I have thought about it, though. It seems like the more I learn about the word, the more I see that I need to learn. Anyway, thanks for the question, it's a good one. Shalom.
 
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Sabertooth

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Good point. I seem to notice skulls more now-dodgy

Beards do make a man look more ‘manly’,...
And beards are closely related to skulls...!
full
...
full


full
(I bring a skull with me everywhere I go. ;))
 
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icxn

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Leviticus 19:27
Do not trim off the hair on your temples or trim your beards."
The pagans at the time, the Greeks in particular had this custom of leaving their hair and beards grow and then offering them (the trims) to their gods, the demons that is, as sacrifice. You will find this explanation in the writings of Saint Athanasius and Theodoretus.

There's also a spiritual interpretation (Romans 7:14) applicable to us. We should never compromise (trim) the truth concerning God (hair of our temple), nor any of His teachings concerning what is good and moral (beard) and offer them to demons as it were by yielding to their false teachings and shameful suggestions.
 

farouk

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Hi. I looked it up briefly and saw it's something that requires some research. I can only speculate, so I won't. Though I will say that the Lord had a good reason for it. I see Jews sometimes that have long sideburns, though I'm not sure why. Do you know any Messianic Jews? I think that some Orthodox Jews have a real problem with Christians, and rightfully so, see the Inquisitions, etc., so you may want to avoid them. But they're not all like that. It just depends on the person. Ask the Lord to show you. You are right in saying that it isn't for the New Covenant; it may represent something in Heaven, or it may have to do with the prophetic foreshadowing of Christ. I'm a Levite worship leader and that is something I'd like to know. I have thought about it, though. It seems like the more I learn about the word, the more I see that I need to learn. Anyway, thanks for the question, it's a good one. Shalom.
@Ron Coates Hebrews 7 is an interesting passage comparing Old Testament Levites with the Melchizedek order priesthood of the Lord Jesus; and issues of former law-keeping versus being under the better covenant.
 
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farouk

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The pagans at the time, the Greeks in particular had this custom of leaving their hair and beards grow and then offering them (the trims) to their gods, the demons that is, as sacrifice. You will find this explanation in the writings of Saint Athanasius and Theodoretus.

There's also a spiritual interpretation (Romans 7:14) applicable to us. We should never compromise (trim) the truth concerning God (hair of our temple), nor any of His teachings concerning what is good and moral (beard) and offer them to demons as it were by yielding to their false teachings and shameful suggestions.
@icxn I would not however go to the extent of saying that New Testament believers who are men are supposedly compelled to wear beards. In any case, Hebrews 7 makes it clear that the law was changed (v.12); and what we now have is better than the law (v.19).
 

icxn

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@icxn I would not however go to the extent of saying that New Testament believers who are men are supposedly compelled to wear beards. In any case, Hebrews 7 makes it clear that the law was changed (v.12); and what we now have is better than the law (v.19).
And I agree. The letter of the law is useless to us (with some exceptions). The spirit on the other hand is not:

Romans 2:29
But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.​

Romans 7:6
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.​

2 Corinthians 3:6
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.​
 
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farouk

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And I agree. The letter of the law is useless to us. The spirit on the other hand is not:

Romans 2:29
But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.​

Romans 7:6
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.​

2 Corinthians 3:6
Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.​
@icxn: Thank-you; great verses there. I had never linked them with beards, though.