NAZARITE, or Nazarean, or Nazarene, a term which signifies one who is of Nazareth, or any native of the city of Nazareth. It was given to Jesus Christ and his disciples, and is commonly employed in a sense of derision and contempt by those authors who have written against Christianity. It has also been applied to a sect of heretics called Nazarenes; and sometimes it means a Nazarite, or one who has laid himself under the obligation of a vow to observe the rules of Nazariteship, whether it be for his whole life, as Samson and John the Baptist, or only for a time, as in the case of those mentioned in Numbers (vi. 18, 19, 20) and Amos (ii. 11, 12). Lastly, the name of Nazarite, in some passages of Scripture, denotes a man of particular distinction and great dignity in the court of some prince. Of these several sorts of Nazarites we shall now give some account.

The name of Nazarene belongs to Jesus Christ, not only because of his having lived the greater part of his life at Nazareth, and because this city has always been considered as his country, but also because the prophets had foretold that he should be called a Nazarene (Matth, ii. 23). “And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.” We find no particular passage in the prophets where it is said that the Messiah should be called a Nazarene; and St Matthew only quotes [7:16:67]the prophets in general. Perhaps he meant to insinuate, that the consecration of the Nazari tes, and the great purity of which they made profession, were a type and a sort of prophecy of those of our Saviour, or else that the name Nazir or Nazarite, given to the patriarch Joseph (Gen. xlix. 26; Deut, xxxiii. 16), was a prophecy which was to be fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ, of whom Joseph was a figure. Lastly, St Jerome was of opinion, that St Matthew here alludes to a passage in Isaiah, where it is said, “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch (Nezer) shall grow out of his roots.” According to the general consent of all the fathers and interpreters, this branch, or Nezer, and this root, are intended to denote Jesus Christ.

When the word Nazarene is applied to the heretics known by this name, it denotes Christians converted from Judaism, whose chief error consisted in defending the necessity or expediency of the works of the law, and who obstinately adhered to the practice of the Jewish ceremonies. The name of Nazarenes at first had nothing odious attached to it, and it was often applied to the first Christians. The fathers frequently mention the Gospel of the Nazarenes, as differing in nothing from that of St Matthew, which was either in Hebrew or Syriac, being for the use of the first converts, but afterwards corrupted by the Ebionites. These Nazarenes preserved the first gospel in its primitive purity. Some of them were still in being in the time of St Jerome, who does not reproach them with any error; they were very zealous observers of the law of Moses, and held the traditions of the Pharisees in supreme contempt.

Nazarite, when used to signify a person under the ancient law who had made a vow of observing a more than ordinary degree of purity, denotes a man or woman who engages himself or herself by a vow to abstain from wine and all intoxicating liquors, to let the hair grow without cutting or shaving, and not to enter into any house which was polluted by having a dead corpse in it, or to be present at any funeral. But if by chance any one should have died in the presence of such a person, he or she began again the whole ceremony of consecration and Nazariteship. This ceremony generally lasted eight days, sometimes a month, and sometimes their whole lives. When the time of their Nazariteship had been accomplished, the priest brought the person to the door of the temple, who there offered to the Lord a he-lamb for a burnt-offering, a she-lamb for an expiatory sacrifice, and a ram for a peace-offering. They likewise offered loaves and cakes, with wine necessary for the libations. After all this had been sacrificed and offered to the Lord, the priest or some one else shaved the head of the Nazarite at the door of the tabernacle, and burned his hair, throwing it upon the fire of the altar. Then the priest put into the hand of the Nazarite the shoulder of the ram roasted, with a loaf and a cake, which the Nazarite returned into the hands of the priest, who offered them to the Lord, lifting them up in the presence of the Nazarite; and from this time he might again drink wine, his Nazariteship being now accomplished. As to those who were perpetual Nazarites, like Samson and John the Baptist, it appears that they were consecrated to their Nazariteship by their parents, and continued all their lives in this state without drinking wine or cutting their hair.

Those who made a vow of Nazariteship out of Palestine, and could not come to the temple when their vow was expired, contented themselves with observing the abstinence required by the law, and afterwards cutting their hair in the place where they happened to reside. As to the offerings and sacrifices prescribed by Moses, which were to be offered by themselves, or by others for them at the temple, they deferred this till they found a conve nient opportunity. Hence it was that St Paul being at Corinth, and having made the vow of a Nazarite, he had his hair cut off at Cenchrea, and postponed fulfilling the remainder of his vow till he should arrive at Jerusalem (Acts, xviii. 18). When a person found that he was not in a condition to make a vow of Nazariteship, or had not leisure to perform the ceremonies which it rendered necessary, he contented himself by contributing to the expense of the sacrifice and offerings of those who had made and fulfilled the vow; and by this means he became a partaker in the merit of such Nazariteship. When St Paul went to Jerusalem, in the year of Christ 58, the apostle St James the Less, with the other brethren, said to him (Acts, xxi. 23, 24), that to quiet the minds of the converted Jews, who had been informed that he everywhere preached up the entire abolition of the law of Moses, he ought to join himself to four of the faithful who had made a vow of Nazariteship, and contribute to the charge of the ceremony at the shaving of their heads; by which .the new converts might perceive that he continued to keep the law, and that what they had heard of him was not true.

The Hebrew word Nazir, which is employed to signify a person exalted to great dignity, as it is said of the patriarch Joseph (Gen. xlix. 26; and Deut, xxxiii. 16), “that he was separated from his brethren,” as it is in our translation, or as the Vulgate and others understand the Hebrew, “that he was a Nazarite amongst his brethren,” has been variously understood. Some think that the Hebrew word Nazir, in these places, signifies one who is crowned, chosen, separated, or distinguished; indeed the word Nazir signifies a crown. The Septuagint translate this word a chief, or him who is honoured. Calmet thinks that it was a term of dignity in the courts of eastern princes; and mentions, that at this day in the court of Persia the word Nazir signifies the superintendent-general of the king’s household, the chief officer of the crown, the high steward of his family, treasures, and revenues; in which sense Joseph was the Nazir of the court of Pharaoh. Le Clerc translates the term Nazir a prince, and calls Joseph “the prince of his brethren and Pool declares in favour of this last translation.