esses; among both the priesthood belongs only to the men. What Herodotus mentions in B. 2. c. 35, as a distinguishing peculiarity of the Egyptians, "A woman never performs the office of a priest for a god or goddess,' applies also accurately mutatis mutandis, to the Israelites.

2. That the holy women among the Israelites had no external service in the tabernacle of testimony, that their service was rather a spiritual one, we have already seen. Just so is it among the Egyptians. That their holy women were not, as Bähr 2 supposes, servants of the priests, (hierodulen) is sufficiently proved by the quotations from Herodotus.3 He says, indeed, that they served the temple of Jupiter at Thebes. But that their service, just as in Ex. xxxviii., is to be understood as spiritual service, the account shows, since these Egyptian women are supposed to have founded the oracles of Greece and Lybia. If they served Jupiter in these countries by foretelling future events, they were also employed in a similar manner in their father-land.

3. That also among the Israelites, noble women especially were devoted to the service of the temple, was previously shown. Just so was it among the Egyptians. According to Strabo, the most beautiful and the most noble maidens were devoted to Jupiter or Amon. Wilkinson says, whilst speaking of the tombs of the holy women described by Diodorus, which are now seen at Thebes in a valley 3000 feet behind the ruins of Medeenet Haboo: "The sculptures show that they were women of the highest rank, since all the occupants of these tombs were either the wives or daughters of kings." Rosellini says: "We shall find in the sequel, also, other examples of royal young maidens devoted to Amon, from which it may be inferred, that it was a custom in the earliest period of the Pharaohs to place by this rite some of the king's daughters in a nearer relation to religion."

4. That the holy women among the Israelites were always unmarried, either young women or widows, has been shown in the

· Ιρᾶται γυνὴ μὲν οὐδεμία οὔτε ἔρσενος Θεοῦ οὔτε θηλέης, ἄνδρες δὲ πάντων τε καὶ πασέων.

2 Zu Herod. B. 2. c. 54.

B. 2. c. 54-56.

4 "Ωσπερ ἦν οἰκὸς, ἀμφιπολεύουσαν ἐν Θήβησι ἱρὸν Διὸς, ἔνθα ἀπίκετο, ἐνθαῦτα μνήμην αὐτοῦ ἔχειν.

* Ευειδεστάτη καὶ γένους λαμπροτάτου παρθένος.

6 P. 217.

3

Contributions. Just so also is it with the holy women among the Egyptians. According to Herodotus the brides of Amon were excluded from all intercourse with men. According to Strabo the most beautiful and noble young women were devoted to Jupiter, and when they wished to marry, there was previously a great lamentation made for them as for one dead.*

THE NAZARITES.

From the institution of the holy women we turn to that of the Nazarites. We must naturally expect an Egyptian reference more or less distinct here also. For the institution of the Nazarites originated, not by the appointment of the lawgiver, but it is implied, in Num. chap. vi., as an existing institution, and is there only sanctioned.

But if we examine the matter more closely, we perceive indications of Egyptian influence, yet it is less conspicuous here than in the institution of the holy women. For the institution in general, Egypt furnishes no parallel. An Egyptian reference can be pointed out for only a single feature of the system, the leaving of the hair to grow, and that is one which has no connection with religion, but with the customs of the people. Finally, the single allusion to Egypt, although truly worthy of notice, is still not so characteristic that we could with full certainty assert its exist

ence.

It is necessary for our purpose, that we first determine the significance of leaving the hair unshorn by the Nazarite. We begin with an examination of the view of Bahr. The obligation of the Nazarite, he asserts, to let the hair grow freely, has its basis in

'Th. III. S. 142-3.

2 B. 1. c. 182.

3 Καὶ γὰρ δὴ ἐκεῖθι κοιμᾶται ἐν τῷ τοῦ Διὸς τοῦ Θεβαιέος γυνή· ἀμφότεραι δὲ αὗται γέλονται ἀνδρῶν οὐδαμῶν ἐς ὁμίλίην φοιτᾶν.

* Πρὶν δὲ δοθῆναι, πένθος αὐτῆς ἄγεται μετὰ τὸν τῆς παλλακείας καιρόν. This lamentation, on leaving this community, agrees remarkably with the mourning of the daughter of Jephtha when she entered it. In both cases it depends upon the view of the exclusiveness of the relation.

Symbol. Th. 2. S. 432.

the idea of holiness. Among the orientals, and especially among the Hebrews, the hair of the head is the same as the products of the earth, the grass of the field, and the growth of the trees. Especially in accordance with this is the naming of the vine in the year of jubilee, (nazyr), in Lev. xxv. 5, since they prune it not this year, but allow its leaves and branches to grow freely. From this it is evident, that the growth of the hair, according to oriental view, signifies grass, shoots, blossoms of men. But in so far as the Hebrew looked upon men as distinctively moral beings, the human blossoms and shoots represent holi

ness.

This view is by no means new; but it is discarded by all judicious investigators, as mere mystical refinement. The following reasons are especially decisive against it.'

1. The proofs which are brought for the position, that according to oriental and especially Israelitish views, the growth of the hair is a symbol for the thriving condition of man, are very weak. The one derived from Lev. chap. xxv. is the only one which is worth the trouble of a closer examination. It is there said of the sabbatical year, in verse 5: "The grain which groweth of its own accord thou shalt not reap, and the grapes of thy undressed vines (nazarites) thou shalt not gather, a year of rest is it for the land," after that it had been said before in verse 4, " Thy field thou shalt not sow, and thy vineyard thou shalt not prune.' Then in v. 11, concerning the year of jubilee: "You shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself, neither gather its nazarites." It is not entirely certain, that there is a special reference in these passages to the leaving of the hair to grow in the case of the Nazarites.

The general idea of separation, which lies at the basis of the whole institution of the Nazarites, might here also apply. As the Nazarites were separated from the world, so was the vine from the

1

1 Compare e. g. Carpzov. Appar. ad Antiq. p. 153: Ut eos taceam, qui mysticam commenti rationem, nutritionem capillamenti symbolum instituunt nutritionis interioris, quo Abarbanel in h. 1. et Gregorius, L. II. Moral. c. 26, tendit.

2 Besides the establishment of the law in chap. vi. these passages also, in which before the giving of the law concerning the Nazarites allusion is made to them, show that the lawgiver found it as an existing institution.

use of man in the sabbatical year and the year of jubilee. But if we suppose a reference to the unshorn hair of the Nazarites, which the 'not gathering' and 'not pruning' in verses 4 and 5 favour, yet at any rate the point of comparison is only with respect to the separation. That the unpruned vine is not better, but worse, is decidedly against the opinion of Bähr. It shoots out in wood, and an injury is done to its true growth. This is decisive against the opinion that the growth of the hair among the Israelites is a symbol of prosperity, namely, that it belongs to propriety among the Israelites to go with shorn hair, whereas, according to this view, long hair must have been considered an ornament, as among most nations of antiquity.2

2. The fundamental idea in the institution of the Nazarite is that of separation from the world, with its enjoyments, which oppose holiness, and its corrupting influences. This negative point of separation, involves the positive one of sanctification, the separate person is at the same time holy to the Lord,-since the world stands in opposition to the Lord, every renunciation of it is at the same time a union with the Lord, and the separation is here made directly for the sake of the Lord. That the idea of separation lies at the foundation, the name, by which the significance of the institution must be expressed, indicates.3

(nazyr) means the separate one. Equally in favour of this idea is Num. vi. 2: "The vow of a Nazarite is for a separating to the Lord." This fundamental idea of the institution must be traceable in all of its separate points. That especially the command to leave the hair unshorn rests upon it, we have even the express explanation of the lawgiver. It is said in verse 5, "All the days of the vow of his separation, no razor shall come upon

1 John xv. 2.

2 Carpzov. p. 153: Communis inter priscos Judaeos mos ita tulit ut tonsis incederent capillis, secus ac Græci veteres Romani, Galli aut Germani, qui comati erant. Compare, in reference to the consideration in which long hair was held among these nations, the collections by Lampe in the Miscell. Gröning. t. 4, p. 209, seq.

3

Carpzov. p. 151: Haud dubia est a 1, separavit, abstraxit, continuit se a re aliqua et propterea segregatum, separatum notat.Satis omnino præsidio huic interpretationi est ex sede hujus instituti primaria, Num. vi. 2, ubi votam Nasaraei dicitur ad separandum se domino.

his head until the days be fulfilled in which he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy; he shall let the hair of his head grow." The separation is here given as a reason for allowing the hair to grow. Even the hair of the Nazarite is in verses 9 and 18 named, separation, but with the accompanying idea of designation. Now, according to the view of Bähr, the idea of separation is entirely lost. The negative idea, which, as has been alleged, must form the foundation upon which the positive is supported, falls entirely away. Thereby then this element of the institution of the Nazarite will be entirely separated from both the others in which the negative idea, as can be demonstrated and is allowed, prevails.

At the same time with the view of Bähr, that which Winer (after the authority of Lampe,) has proposed, falls to the ground.1 "The head of the Nazarite with its natural ornament was regarded as specially devoted, and the touching of it with a razor is consequently a profanation of that which belongs to Jehovah." The negative idea, according to this view, is also robbed of its just right. Long hair cannot, according to the notions of the Israelites, be considered as a natural ornament."

The proof for the interpretation of the rite claimed by us, is given in the confutation of other views. We believe that long hair is a symbol of separation from the world. It belongs, as we have already seen, to the Israelitish ideas of propriety to go with shorn head, and he who left his hair to grow, furnished by this act a practical confession that he renounced the world, and abandoned all intercourse with men. That also, on other occasions, those who considered themselves as separated from men suffered their hair to grow, is shown by Deut. xxi. 12, where, concerning the captive which an Israelite determined to marry, it is said: "And thou shalt bring her into thine house, and she shall shear her head and pare her nails." By shearing her head and paring her nails she enters again into human society.3

2

In dem Reallexicon, II. 1, S. 165.

Geier, De Hebr. Luctu, p. 203, correctly says: Israelitarum populum comatum haudquaquam fuisse vel inde colligi potest, quod comam alere proprium esset Nazaraeorum, adeo ut hi ipsi ab aliis popularibus facile internoscerentur ex coma.

3 This passage shows very distinctly with what justice Bähr asserts, S. 437: It was the Israelitish custom in mourning, not to allow the hair to