The difference between a Nazarite and someone from Nazareth

Dec18

No doubt the more serious students among us will have studied the Nazarite vow at one time or another, but one might also consider the difference between a Nazarite and someone from Nazareth. Jesus was from Nazareth, but he was not a Nazarite (requiring long hair). John the Baptist was a Nazarite, but the average picture we see of John baptizing Jesus shows it the opposite way. Obviously the artist did not understand that concept. Children’s Bible class teachers must beware.

One of the most touching accounts in the Old Testament is Jeremiah 35:1-8. There we read about a beautiful family who followed their father direction wholly regarding the Nazarite vow.

Jer 35:1-8
The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,
2 Go unto the house of the Rechabites, and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.
3 Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites;
4 And I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door:
5 And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups, and I said unto them, Drink ye wine.
6 But they said, We will drink no wine: for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying, Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever:
7 Neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any: but all your days ye shall dwell in tents; that ye may live many days in the land where ye be strangers.
8 Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab our father in all that he hath charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters…

–Beth Johnson
“…Remember me, O my God, for good”

(Neh. 13:31b).
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