Why We Don’t Follow the Old Testament<\/a>” for more details.<\/p>\nI have talked to a few Messianic Jews and I have found their knowledge of the Old Testament to be very sparse. They know far more about Jewish writings and modern Jewish thinking than they do about Moses’ law. Your question doesn’t dispel this impression at all.<\/p>\n
Israelite men did wear facial hair. We can see this from the laws given for examining skin diseases: “If a man or woman has a sore on the head or the beard, then the priest shall examine the sore; and indeed if it appears deeper than the skin, and there is in it thin yellow hair, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a scaly leprosy of the head or beard<\/em>” (Leviticus 13:29-30). Also when a person is cleansed of leprosy we read, “But on the seventh day he shall shave all the hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows-all his hair he shall shave off. He shall wash his clothes and wash his body in water, and he shall be clean<\/em>” (Leviticus 14:9).<\/p>\nKing David had a beard. When he pretended to be insane we read, “So he changed his behavior before them, feigned madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard<\/em>” (I Samuel 21:13). So did Aaron, the High Priest, “It is like the precious oil upon the head, Running down on the beard, The beard of Aaron, Running down on the edge of his garments<\/em>” (Psalm 133:2). The prophet Ezekiel also had a beard, “And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair<\/em>” (Ezekiel 5:1).<\/p>\nWhat is probably being confused is the law forbidding men from shaving half their face as an expression of grief. “You are the children of the LORD your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead<\/em>” (Deuteronomy 14:1). Priests were specifically told “They shall not make any bald place on their heads, nor shall they shave the edges of their beards nor make any cuttings in their flesh<\/em>” (Leviticus 21:5).<\/p>\nThere were also laws against certain hairstyles, “You shall not shave around the sides of your head, nor shall you disfigure the edges of your beard<\/em>” (Leviticus 19:27). In other words, the topknot style of ancient China would have been forbidden to the Israelites. The exact nature of the disfiguring the edges of the beard is debated by scholars. Some believe it forbade shaping the beard into a round or square shape that was popular in some ancient countries. More likely it was forbidding shaving off part of the beard (along with the sides of the head) in a display of grief. We do know that it was not a law forbidding all cutting of the beard because the priests were told, “They shall neither shave their heads nor let their hair grow long; but they shall keep their hair well trimmed<\/em>” (Ezekiel 44:20).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: I am a Messianic Jew and I go to Church not a Messianic Congregation yet. Anyway, I have heard that having facial hair is wrong. They say they have biblical proof but they can’t remember where it is and so I am at a loss as to what to do. I have no conviction…<\/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":[414,851],"class_list":["post-7317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-hair","tag-messianic-judaism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":40124,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-information-on-the-new-testament-not-being-originally-written-in-hebrew-helped-me-defend-the-truth\/","url_meta":{"origin":7317,"position":0},"title":"Your information on the New Testament not being originally written in Hebrew helped me defend the truth","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you so much for\u00a0your article\u00a0on Yeshua\u00a0Messianic groups regarding a Hebrew New Testament. Just yesterday I had an interaction with a person from such a group. I am very much blessed and found the answers to defend against these false Yeshua groups. Once again thank you so much. Answer:\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":45201,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-messianic-jews-go-to-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":7317,"position":1},"title":"Can Messianic Jews go to heaven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can Messianic Jews go to heaven? Answer: The question is can anyone go to heaven while denying portions of God's teachings that they disagree with.\u00a0 Since Jesus said we must do all that he commanded, the answer would be no. \"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, \"All\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":36005,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/am-i-jewish-hebrew-or-gentile\/","url_meta":{"origin":7317,"position":2},"title":"Am I Jewish, Hebrew, or Gentile?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Am I Jewish, Hebrew, or a Gentile? My mother was a German Christian. Her grandparents immigrated and were from Germany. What is known is that my father the son of his mother, who was the daughter of her mother, who was the daughter of her father, an Orthodox German\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":19428,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-know-about-the-black-hebrew-israelites\/","url_meta":{"origin":7317,"position":3},"title":"What do you know about the Black Hebrew Israelites?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi. I hope all is well with you. Getting straight to the point, I want to get some information on a particular group of Christians who look at themselves as being black Hebrew Israelites. I'm not sure if they actually call themselves that but I've seen others refer 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":25576,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-son-started-worshiping-on-saturdays-with-a-group-on-the-internet-is-he-in-a-cult\/","url_meta":{"origin":7317,"position":4},"title":"My son started worshiping on Saturdays with a group on the Internet. Is he in a cult?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My son was raised in the church. He recently started \"keeping the Sabbath,\" and is taking my three grandsons to a motel where they have a private church -- just the four of them. They study the word with a group on the Internet! He will not go 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":35264,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-paul-a-false-apostle\/","url_meta":{"origin":7317,"position":5},"title":"Was Paul a false apostle?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have recently stumbled onto some information. Apparently, some Christians think that the apostle Paul was a false apostle and false teacher. They say that he taught Jesus \"faith only\" while Jesus himself clearly taught faith + works. I am deeply troubled by this and feel my world has\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\/7317","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=7317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}