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Bible Dictionaries
Hair (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or HAIR.—The Jews seem to have shared with other peoples the belief that the hair is really ‘a living and important part of the body’ (W. R. Smith, RS [Note: S Religion of the Semites.] 2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] 324; Frazer, Golden Bough2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , iii. 390). This lent importance to the oath by the head which was common among them (Matthew 5:36), and it accounts for the attention given to the hair in connexion with vows (Acts 18:18; Josephus BJ ii. xv. 1; on hair as offering and in vows see W. R. Smith, l.c. 323 ff.; Frazer, l.c. i. 370 ff.). In NT times long hair was regarded as a glory of women, but a disgrace to men (1 Corinthians 11:14-15). Opinion had changed since the days of Absalom.
Among the Arabs the ancient sentiment survives. Many stalwart men, not merely ‘immature lads’ (RS [Note: S Religion of the Semites.] 2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] 326), take pride in their long glossy locks. It is interesting also to note a change From the NT attitude to women’s hair. The Jews in Poland permit no married woman to wear her own hair; it must be cropped close before the wedding, and replaced by a high head-dress of wool or silk. It is a terrible sin to neglect this rule (Hosmer, ‘The Jews,’ p. 363, in Story of the Nations).
It was customary to dress the hair with ointment (Matthew 6:17), and women bestowed much care upon the eoiffure (1 Timothy 2:9; 1 Peter 3:3). It was a shame for a woman to appear with locks unbound and hair dishevelled.
Lightfoot (Works, ed. 1823, xii. 361) gives two Rabbinic quotations in point. ‘Kamitha had seven sons who all performed the office of high priests; they asked of her how she came to this honour? She answered, “The rafters of my house never saw the hair of my head” ’ (Vayyikra Rabba, fol. 188, 2). ‘The priest unloosed the hair’ of the suspected woman, about to be tried by the bitter water, ‘for greater disgrace’ (Sota, fol. 5. 1).
When Mary (John 12:3) wiped the feet of Jesus with her hair, she thus ‘testified that, as no sacrifice was too costly for her purse, so no service was too mean for her person’ (Godet, in loc.).
Abundant hair on head and chin has always been regarded by Easterns as lending dignity to manhood, and the beard is an object of special reverence. ‘I smooth my beard,’ says Doughty, ‘toward one to admonish him in his wrongful dealing with me, and have put him in mind of his honour. If I touch his beard, I put him in remembrance of our common humanity, and of the witness of God above us. The beard is taken in Arabia for human honour, and to pluck it is the highest indignity. Of an honest man they say, “His is a good beard”; of a vile, covetous heart, “He has no beard” ’ (Arabia Deserta, i. 268). What indignity then He suffered of whom the prophet wrote, ‘I gave … my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair’! (Isaiah 50:6).
Single hairs are taken to illustrate the minuteness of God’s care (Matthew 10:30, Luke 12:7; Luke 21:18). White hairs are a symbol of reverend and glorious majesty (Revelation 1:14). The long hair, as of women, adds to the grotesque and terrible appearance of the locust monsters (Revelation 9:8).
The Baptist’s garment of camel’s hair (θρὶξ καμήλου, Matthew 3:4) is probably identical with אַדֵּרָח שׂעִר of Zechariah 13:4, and that of his great prototype (2 Kings 1:8, where we should read with (Revised Version margin) ‘a man with a garment of hair’). The rough outer cloak generally worn is of goats’ hair. Wabar al-ibil, the hair, or wool, (θρίξ can also mean ‘wool,’ Il. iii. 273, Hes. Op. 515) of the camel is softer, and of this an inner cloak is often worn, e.g. in winter by the fishermen on the Sea of Galilee.
Goats’ hair is not named in NT, but most likely this was the material in which the Apostle Paul wrought at his trade (Acts 18:3), his native province supplying it in great quantities.
W. Ewing.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Hair (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/h/hair-2.html. 1906-1918.
