Why did Paul shave his head at Cenchrea and not at Jerusalem as was the custom?<\/p>\n\t
“Paul, having remained many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria, and with him were Priscilla and Aquila. In Cenchrea he had his hair cut, for he was keeping a vow<\/em>” (Acts 18:18).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Paul had his hair cut because he was keeping a vow. Luke doesn’t mention what kind of vow, but it is assumed to be a Nazarite vow because that is the only vow that involves the shaving of the head. Traditionally the head is shaved at the start of the vow and then again at the end of the vow. The hair that grew during the vow was then offered as a peace offering to God. It is only at the end of the vow that hair is cut at the tabernacle and later at the temple. “Now this is the law of the Nazirite when the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall bring the offering to the doorway of the tent of meeting. … The Nazirite shall then shave his dedicated head of hair at the doorway of the tent of meeting, and take the dedicated hair of his head and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace offerings<\/em>” (Numbers 6:13,18).<\/p>\n
The rules in Number 6 do not say the hair must be cut at the start of the vow, but it is implied because if the vow is broken, the head must be shaved and sacrifices offered to restart the vow (Numbers 6:9ff).<\/p>\n\t
Response:<\/h2>\n
Thank you very much for your help.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Why did Paul shave his head at Cenchrea and not at Jerusalem as was the custom? Answer: “Paul, having remained many days longer, took leave of the brethren and put out to sea for Syria, and with him were Priscilla and Aquila. In Cenchrea he had his hair cut, for he was keeping a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[882,118,647],"class_list":["post-51808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-nazirite","tag-paul","tag-vows"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21027,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-paul-be-under-a-nazirite-vow-since-he-shaved-his-head\/","url_meta":{"origin":51808,"position":0},"title":"How could Paul be under a Nazirite vow since he shaved his head?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, You had mentioned in your answer to the question as to why Paul shaved his head in Cenchrea recorded in Acts 18:18, that it was because of the Nazarite Vow (Numbers 6:2-21)? The Nazarite Vow does require that \"no razor touch your head\" (Numbers 6:5). How do you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22017,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-tell-me-what-the-vow-was-that-caused-paul-to-cut-his-hair\/","url_meta":{"origin":51808,"position":1},"title":"Can you tell me what the vow was that caused Paul to cut his hair?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can you tell me what the vow was that caused Paul to cut his hair? Answer: \"So Paul still remained a good while. Then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila were with him. He had his hair cut off at Cenchrea,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19531,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/but-paul-had-long-hair-at-least-for-a-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":51808,"position":2},"title":"But Paul had long hair, at least for a time","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: One thing I wonder at is that with as adamant as I Corinthians 11 appears to read, Paul actually chose not to cut his hair while at Corinth, but only after he had left. This means Paul was on some do-not-cut-hair vow while at Corinth. So we shouldn't see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54866,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-paul-thought-long-hair-was-bad-why-did-he-take-a-nazirite-vow\/","url_meta":{"origin":51808,"position":3},"title":"If Paul thought long hair was bad, why did he take a Nazirite vow?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thanks for the website. I read it all the time. I have a question concerning men and long hair. I know that I Corinthians 11 talks about that. The first part of the chapter is written off by many as cultural, but I disagree with that view; however, in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9356,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-you-explain-the-vow-paul-took-at-cenchrea\/","url_meta":{"origin":51808,"position":4},"title":"Could you explain the vow Paul took at Cenchrea?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can you please explain the vow Paul took at Cenchrea that made him cut off his hair recorded in Acts 18:18? Answer: Paul stated once, \"For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7079,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/isnt-long-hair-on-men-a-sign-of-rebellion-only-since-the-1960s\/","url_meta":{"origin":51808,"position":5},"title":"Isn’t long hair on men a sign of rebellion only since the 1960s?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In regards to \"Why do even non-Christians look down on men with long hair?\", your quote associating long hair with a rebellious attitude is only a post 60's statement, only. I don't know of another time when long hair was a sign of 'rebellion' outside of the era of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}