Magic hair and samson--aff scholars???

[U376977]

Originally Posted by TRFrance

Because he was a Nazirite, which would be a special circumstance. Under the Nazirite vow (Numbers chapter 6), a person would not cut their hair at all, until the end of their vow. In Samson's case, he was a Nazirite from birth, and a Nazirite for life, thus his hair was never to be cut (Judges 13:5).

Thus, there's no contradiction between Nazirites like Samson having long hair, and what Paul said about long hair on men.

Agreed. So to take this further, Why is not cutting the hair a part of the Nazarite vows? I am not sure there is a scriptural (verse to cite) answer this. But doing like David wrote in PS 103 and understanding the "ways" of God as opposed to just his "acts."
The act is "do not cut your hair!"
The way is "why I don't want you to cut your hair?"
I can understand the act.

But can anyone comment/speculate on the "way" Why did God make this a command? Could he not just as easily have said, Do not bath execpt in a river? Or do not wear any other cloth but animal skin. Why is, or why is not the hair significant?

[Sam]

Originally Posted by U376977

...
But why would God command him not to cut his hair in the first place? And later inspire Paul to write it is a "shame" for a man to have long hair? Your thoughts?

Samson lived in Israel over a thousand years before Christ. Men and women cut their hair there and nothing was thought of it. The Nazirite vow required (among other things) that the normal hair cutting of a man or woman was suspended for the length of the vow. After the vow the hair was shaved off and offered as an offering to the Lord.

Paul wrote to people in a pagan Greek culture in the first century where men dressing as women and fixing their hair like women and where women dressing as men and fixing their hair like men was part of transvestism and pagan worship. Naturally, these customs were wrong for someone who had dedicated their life to the Lord.

[TRFrance]

Originally Posted by U376977

Agreed. So to take this further, Why is not cutting the hair a part of the Nazarite vows? I am not sure there is a scriptural (verse to cite) answer this. But doing like David wrote in PS 103 and understanding the "ways" of God as opposed to just his "acts."
The act is "do not cut your hair!"
The way is "why I don't want you to cut your hair?"
I can understand the act.

But can anyone comment/speculate on the "way" Why did God make this a command? Could he not just as easily have said, Do not bath except in a river? Or do not wear any other cloth but animal skin. Why is, or why is not the hair significant?

Why?
Frankly, that territory is too speculative for me to feel comfortable entering. Maybe someone else will.

Certainly, we can think of so many other scriptural examples of things God did that we could wonder and speculate about. Like... why did God choose to have the men of Israel cut off the foreskin of their penises as a sign of their covenant with Him?

We don't know.
He didn't say.
It just is what it is.
And that's fine with me.