…he [John the Baptist] will be great before the LORD and he may not drink wine or strong drink…(Lk. 1:15)
The prohibition against drinking intoxicants is one of the hallmarks of the nazirite as recorded in the Torah and rabbinic tradition. According to Numbers 6, a nazirite must abstain from everything that is obtained from the grapevine: he may not drink wine, wine vinegar or grape juice, he may not eat grapes fresh or dried, or even the seeds or skins of grapes. He also is not allowed to cut his hair or come in contact with a corpse during his entire term as a nazirite.
The Mishnah seems to indicate that the vow to abstain even from specific parts of the grape implies acceptance of the entire nazirite regimen. According to Nazir 1:2, even if one vows: “I will abstain from eating grape seeds and grape skins…he becomes a nazirite.”
Second Temple Period
Rabbinic literature indicates that the taking of nazirite vows was rather common at the end of the Second Temple period. Thus, for example, the Jerusalem Talmud (Berachot 11b) mentions three hundred nazirites during the time of Shim’on ben Shetah, a sage who lived during the reigns of Alexander Jannai (103-76 B.C.E.) and his wife Salome (76-67 B.C.E.) who succeeded him. The Mishnah states (Nazir 3:6) that Helene, the queen of Adiabene who converted to Judaism, became a nazirite when her son went off to war. The Tosefta speaks of a certain woman in Jerusalem called Miriam of Tadmor who brought the prescribed sacr
| To view the remainder of this article, please log in at the top of this page. | OR | |
OR
If you are not yet a Premium Content subscriber, please consider this amazing tool for Bible study. Premium Content membership gives you access to hundreds of articles, written by many of the best New Testament scholars in Israel and abroad, which illuminated Jesus' sayings. (Read our free sample articles!)
New articles are continually being added to this database of knowledge. Articles are searchable by keyword, category or scripture reference.