What is your opinion, are you against the European tradition of men shaving their faces? After all, God created men so that they could grow beards. The people of God in the Old Testament did not shave their beards, unlike the Egyptians. Isn’t the custom of laughing at a beard a kind of disagreement with the Creator? Did this tradition appear for some sexual reasons? After all, facial hair growth is distinctive masculine quality, is a face without hair a feminine quality?
It is true that shaving the face had many meanings in the Bible and I will present this aspect below.
Shaving a man's face was a sign of mourning
In the Old Testament, God gave this commandment to His people:
Do not cut your head round, and do not spoil the edges of your beard. For the sake of the deceased, do not make cuts on your body and do not inscribe writings on yourself. I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:27-28)
Why did God give this commandment? Because this is how the pagan peoples around them expressed mourning and horror. When describing the destruction of Moab, the prophet Jeremiah writes:
Every head is naked and every beard is diminished; they all have scratches on their hands and sackcloth on their loins. There is a general cry on all the housetops of Moab and in its streets, for I have broken Moab like a profane vessel, says the Lord. (Jeremiah 48:37-38)
These peoples were idolaters even at death, or when misfortune came, because in this way they wanted to draw the attention of the idols they worshiped. God would never allow His people to engage in these pagan practices and since idolatrous nations shaved between the eyes when someone died, God said the following to the people of Israel:
You are the sons of the Lord your God; You shall not make any cuts on your body or cut off the hair above your eyes for the dead; For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be His own people out of all the nations that are on the earth. (Deuteronomy 14:1-2)
The way pagan peoples expressed mourning and horror was a manifestation of their despair and hopelessness. The children of God have a God in heaven who will not leave them in despair and hopelessness.
In the modern world, the opposite expression of mourning
If in ancient times people expressed pain when someone close to them died by shaving their head or beard, or the corners of the beard, or between the eyes, today pain and mourning are expressed by allowing hair to grow on the face. If a man is dressed in dark clothes and is not shaved, then others assume that he is in mourning.
Shaving a beard is a manifestation of culture and good manners
When Joseph was in an Egyptian prison, Pharaoh had a dream and one of the servants said that Joseph could give an interpretation of the dream:
And Pharaoh sent and called Joseph. And they hastily led him out of prison. He cut his hair(he shaved, - in the Roman translation of the Bible, approx. translation) and changed his clothes and came to Pharaoh. (Genesis 41:14)
Joseph was a decent man and did not compromise his faith and worship among the pagan people where he lived. If shaving his face went against God's will, Joseph would not have shaved. Or, if shaving the face had a pagan or sinful meaning in Egypt, Joseph would not have done it. The fact that he shaved was a sign of culture and respect for the power of the pharaoh he was going to.
Shaving a man's face has no sexual motives
Nowhere does the Bible make such a statement, and even in the culture of our day, I have never heard that shaving a man's face is an expression of sexuality or a sexual consequence.
Translation: Moses Natalya
“The beard should also not spoil the hair and change the image of a person contrary to nature. Do not bare, says the law, your beards. For this (to be without a beard - author's note) the Creator God made it beautiful for women, but He considered it obscene for men. But you, who bare your beard to please, as one who resists the law, will be an abomination to God, who created you in His image.”
Constitutions of the Saints Apostle, book 1, pp. 6-7.
In the first books of the Bible, namely in the book of Leviticus, the Lord gives commandments to his chosen people, and among these commandments there is this: “ do not shave your head and do not spoil the edges of your beard" Thus, the Lord strictly commands that every believer, every pious person, if he is a man, will certainly wore (that is, did not shave) his beard. Why, strictly speaking, should this be so?
Well, actually we shouldn’t even ask such a question! If the Lord gave us such a commandment, then we must accept it simply as the will of God, as an assignment to us on behalf of our Lord, the Creator of the entire visible and invisible world. And if we accept this commandment with just such a mood, then we will not have any doubts about the need to fulfill it - since the Lord wants this from us, then it should be so. But today we will still allow ourselves to reflect on the importance and meaning of this commandment.
As we know, the Lord created the first people, Adam and Eve, “in His image and likeness.” This implies that the natural appearance that man received from the hands of his Creator is the image of God, the reflection of the Lord in each of us. And therefore, we, recognizing ourselves as God’s creation, must accept with gratitude the form that we, each, received from God.
But maybe someone will say: “What does this have to do with me? After all, Adam received his form from the hands of God! Was I born this way from my mother?” However, is each of us the architect of our own body? Does everyone design their own flesh and their own appearance? No! Everyone is born into the light of God from their parents, and this happens in an indescribable way, according to God’s command, which He spoke to our first parents, Adam and Eve. And so, from Adam to you and me, as well as to those who will live on Earth after us, in the birth of each new person this mysterious blessing of God is fulfilled again and again. None of us brought ourselves into earthly life, and therefore it is already believed that we must cherish the external appearance that we have inherited as a seal of God’s creation. This is where the requirement of the Law follows - not to interfere in any unnatural way with that external image that we initially received from the Lord and which is native and natural to us. That is why all kinds of actions to distort the human appearance are considered unnatural and sinful, and therefore unacceptable, including those that are very widespread in Lately sin shaving beard and mustache in men.
However, it should be noted that for the same reason not only barber shaving is considered sinful, but also whole line such encroachments on the image of God: in particular, the custom of shaving one’s head almost bald, which has spread in the last two decades among the “tough guys,” which is also unnatural and not pleasing to God. And today we see even more liberties among women. This includes cosmetics, hair cutting/coloring/curling, and all sorts of tricks in the field of manicure; This includes plastic surgery, and much, much more, invented by the devil not at all for the salvation of our souls. And everything like this represents a purposeful perversion of the image of God that is given to each of us, and conscious resistance to the will of God, a reluctance to accept from the hands of God the image that the Lord Himself handed to each of us. But today we will talk, first of all, exactly about the beard.
18th century illustration. Shaving the beard. In the pre-schism Russian Church, barber shaving was considered blasphemy against God.It must be said that in past times, even quite recently - about 100 years ago, wearing a beard for men it was a completely natural thing. Even at the beginning of the last century, seeing a shaven man, and especially somewhere in the outback, among ordinary Christians, was a great rarity. And if such a person could meet someone, then it was immediately clear that he was either a foreigner, or a non-religious person, or some other renegade, in a word - anyone, but not a real, true believer. But in the past 20th century, as we know, terrible events occurred in our country; These events broke the established life, turned people's consciousness upside down, distorted customs, and turned many things upside down. And today our common problem is that we often don’t even understand what’s what and why. Therefore, I am sure that this simple question today causes some confusion among many - both men and women:
“Well, of course, we believe in God... But what does the beard have to do with it?”
The whole law of God agrees that it is not enough to just “believe,” that is, to believe in words. Faith in the Lord - if it is real, real - our faith should be confirmed not by verbal assurances, not by ostentatiously beating oneself on the chest “I am a Christian!”, but by concrete deeds: keeping the commandments of God. And if our life, our actions contradict the commandments of the Lord, then it is premature to call ourselves Christians, for, according to the words of the Apostle John the Theologian, “Whoever says: “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and there is no truth in him "(1 John 2-4).
Many instructive examples of strict observance of the Lord's regulations regarding the beard can be given. In 1341 in Vilna for refusing to fulfill the will of the Lithuanian Prince Olgerd (he demanded shave the beard) suffered to death martyrs Anthony, John and Eustathius; their bodies rest incorruptible (their memory and service are on April 14). For refusing to bless the prince's son, the barber, Archpriest Avvakum was thrown from the ship into the Volga (see his “Life ...”). There are many other examples when true Christians were ready to suffer, even to the point of shedding blood, for the sake of wearing a beard, in order to fulfill this important commandment of God.
But today everything has become much simpler: no one forces us to do anything, no one threatens us with anything - live as you please. Now it has become no longer difficult for everyone to keep God’s commandments; now everyone can begin to organize their lives according to the Law of Christ! This is when Christian piety should flourish! But no... On the contrary: precisely at the present time, zeal for keeping the commandments has decreased - more than ever! So, isn’t the current freedom and modern social well-being really good for us? Or have we weakened our faith so much that we fear not only some threats, but often even the simplest question, like the terrible one: “ Listen, what are you doing - you just got a beard? grow, whether?».
This question is not presented here for the sake of rhetoric. This, or questions similar to this, have probably been heard by every man who has ever decided to grow a beard. Well, so what? What's the problem? Is it difficult to answer such a question - “ Yes, I decided to grow it- and all questioners quickly lose interest in this topic! But the trouble with many today's men is that even such a small, fleeting asked question suddenly it can cause them serious fear... And it happens that some adult man, the head of a family, the father of his children, suddenly begins to tremble like an aspen leaf from such questions! Although – if you really think about it – what are we afraid of? Who can stop us today from fulfilling God’s commandment if we want to? What fears, what oppressions prevent us from doing this? There is only one thing - our lack of faith! If we doubt, it means that the Lord God is not so terrible to us, and His saving commandments are not so dear to us, but the sidelong glance of a neighbor or the sarcastic question of a work colleague seems much more terrible to us - this frightens us much more. And what we have trampled, trampled upon God's commandment– it turns out that we are not afraid at all? Yes-ah... But if you think about it - in essence, why should we be afraid of other people's opinions? Let them think what they want! We should answer for our conscience before God!
And in general, when we want to look back at others, we should always think: what do we want to see, what do we want to learn from the people around us? Okay, if it’s good, truthful and good faith! But there is little truth around us, and there is not much goodness, and there are fewer examples of the good faith of Christ. And then why are we looking around? Are we afraid that we will look somehow “unprofitable” in the eyes of our friends, neighbors, and colleagues? Are we afraid of the questions they might ask us? Are we afraid of seeming like “black sheep” among others? But you and I know that all the world, almost all the people who surround us today, all of humanity who have not come to the saving church fence - this whole world will perish overnight, and this hour is approaching. Only a select few people will be saved, and God grant that you and I will be among them. That is why we should not be bothered by our dependence on the world around us. This is exactly what the Lord calls us to, and His apostles tell us about this:
“And if you call Father the One who impartially judges everyone according to their deeds, then spend the time of your wandering (through earthly life) with fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible silver or gold from the vain life handed down to you from your fathers, but with the precious Blood Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:17-19).
And now, when we have been redeemed from the world around us, mired in vanity and sins, at such a high price - will we really look back at this same fallen world around us, looking for understanding and support there? And why do we need this? On the contrary, brethren, let us stop this looking around, for the Lord Himself has redeemed us and given us freedom from all sin, from any unkind addiction. Therefore, looking back at the godless world around us, taking examples from various sinful customs that have become established around us is a disastrous thing, contrary to the Christian conscience. Not only will this not help the cause of our salvation, but it can lead us even deeper into the abyss of sinful living and deprive us of the Kingdom of God. No, brothers, it does us no good to look around at the atheists around us! But if we compare ourselves with anyone, then with those people who live today according to the faith of Christ or who lived in past times.
Today, many women, listening to me, may be perplexed: “It’s clear that barbering is a sin, but what does this have to do with us? After all, this is a purely male problem, so talk to the men about it!” However, dear sisters, this is not entirely true: in general, today there are no “purely male” or “purely female” sins, and everyone should think about their participation in this or that issue that may have something to do with human sins. At the Last Judgment, the Lord will ask not only for deeds committed, but also for intentions, for advice given to someone, or even for assessments expressed. And we must think about all this carefully and soberly today.
For example, a certain man wanted to fulfill God’s commandment and decided grow a beard, but is afraid to tell his wife directly about this, and thinks to himself: “ I won’t shave for a couple of days and see how my wife reacts to this? If she likes it - I'll grow a beard, if I don’t like it, I’ll shave it off. I wonder what she will tell me? Maybe he won't notice at all?" And on the second day of this “experiment” the wife casually says: “ Listen, I don’t understand - is your razor broken or something?“When faced with such a manifestation of care, it is rare that a man will have something to answer. And now, with sighs, he shaves off the traces of his failed experiment - the issue is resolved. But who, in this case, will be more to blame for the sin of shaving? And you say – “male sin”!
That is why you, dear sisters, show that Christian consciousness that will help your husbands, your children, and other loved ones to shake off this human weakness, and at least in your outer form to draw closer to God! It is good for us, even from this small example, to learn to follow the commandments of God. And only in this way, supporting each other and helping each other in matters of our salvation, can we come to God and inherit His Heavenly Kingdom.
Shaving as an adulterous heresy... Former pious Christians who unquestioningly believed in the authority of the Holy Church teaching, expressed in holy books, in order to recognize the sinfulness or holiness of a custom, they were content with how such a custom was recognized in the patristic books (Basily the Great, rules 89, 91). For example, shaving in these books is considered a sinful act.
"...don't spoil the edges of your beard"
The pagan, ancient world, which Christianity was called upon to replace by God's Providence, placed the ideal of beauty in youth and youthful freshness (Wis. Sol. 2), while old age for the pagans served as a sign of exhaustion of bodily strength and destruction of man. They recognized only earthly life, denying spiritual, afterlife.
“But behold, joy and joy! They kill oxen and slaughter sheep; they eat meat and drink wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” (Is. 22:13)
“Do not be deceived: bad associations corrupt good morals” (1 Cor. 15:33; Ps. 72; Job 21).
Therefore, the pagans, and especially the Greco-Roman world, portrayed almost all their gods as beardless and effeminate. Meanwhile, Christianity teaches, first of all, about the spiritual beauty of man, i.e. about the degree of his religious and moral perfection, to what extent a person has learned, managed to implement or manifest all this in his life.
And since in order to achieve spiritual maturity in spiritual and moral terms, in order to apply the Christian teachings acquired by a person, it is necessary to live longer, to fight the temptations of the world, it is natural that in the Christian understanding the types that are senile, mature, and have a beard like a sign of sedateness and experience. The believing gaze saw in the image of the elders, whitened with gray hair on their heads and beards, in this external form of the body, the ageless light of the spiritual world. That is why one of the ways through which the wearing of a beard, as a natural adornment for men, became a custom and a special honor in Christianity was Christian iconography, as a plausible image on St. icons of persons who really existed.
In the Christian Church there is a dogma about the veneration of saints, and hence the need to depict them on St. icons Christian art could not help but draw attention to the fact that the persons depicted on the icons are not fictitious, but actually once lived on earth, in a visible, definite image. And when depicting the holy saints of God, a characteristic feature of the men was their beard.
Constituting a necessary accessory for the depicted saints, it could serve as a characteristic difference between one person and another, and therefore served to recreate the iconographic type. And that in the beginning, before the retreat into heresy, all the Latin Catholics wore beards, can be seen in their early images (see Pope Sixtus “Sistine”). The originals describe the face of the saints.
January 05, Savva the Sanctified, fell into a pit of fire near the Dead Sea, singed his beard and face. The beard did not grow, it remained small and sparse. He thanked God for such an ugly beard, so that he had nothing to boast about.
January 11, Theodosius the Great, from the beard of St. Marciana carefully took the grain, put it in the granary, and they became full.
June 23, “The Repentance of Theophilus,” who had sold himself to the devil, was stroked by the enemy of the soul on his beard and kissed on the mouth.
February 10, Harlampius, long beard, the torturers put coals on his beard, but fire burst out of the beard and burned 70 people. June 12, Onufriy, beard to the ground.
April 14, John, Eustathius, outsiders learned that they were Orthodox by their beards - they did not want to cut their hair.
September 01, Simeon the Stylite, when he died, the patriarch wanted to take the hair from his beard, his hand immediately withered.
November 20, Proclus, saw apostle paul, his beard is wide, there is no hair on the front of his head. May 8, Arseny the Great, waist-length beard. January 2, Evfimy, with a large beard with gray hair.
The descriptions were compiled partly according to legend, partly on the basis of already existing icon images:
About Dionysius the Areopagite: gray-haired, with long hair, a somewhat long mustache, and a sparse beard.
Oh St. Gregory the Theologian: the beard is short, but quite thick, bald, blond hair, the end of the beard with a dark tint.
Oh St. Cyril of Alexandria: the beard is thick and long, the hair on the head and beard is curly, with graying, etc.
In addition, there are descriptions of saints where only one beard is named, for example, Patriarch Herman - “old, sparse beard”;
Saint Euthymius - “beard to the brim”;
Peter of Athos - “beard to the knees”;
Macarius of Egypt, "beard to the ground." Christians have always imitated not only the saints in their deeds, but also in their appearance.
The beard was considered a sign of the image of God in whose likeness man was created.
In 1054, Patriarch Michael Cerullarius of Constantinople, in his letter to Patriarch Peter of Antioch, accused the Latins of other heresies and of “cutting their beards.”
The Monk Theodosius of Pechersk expressed the same accusation against the Latins in his “Sermon on the Christian Faith.”
Shaving is an adulterous heresy for temptation and corruption of good morals, leading to the distortion of the sexes, to the sin of Sodomy; and the Russian princes punished with fines those who pulled out part of their beard during a fight. Thus, under Grand Duke Yaroslav, for pulling out a tuft of beard, a fine of 12 hryvnia was collected from the treasury from a guilty person, and in the 15th century, for pulling out a beard, a guilty person’s hand was cut off.
One of the authoritative councils in Russia, at which three Russian saints were present, the Council of the Hundred Heads, determined: “The sacred rules forbid all Orthodox Christians: not to shave their hair and mustaches and not to cut their hair; these are not Orthodox, but Latin and heretical.
Legends Greek king Konstantin Kovalin; and about this the apostolic and patristic rules prohibit and deny: the rule of the saints the Apostle says: if anyone shaves his beard and reposes like this, he is not worthy to serve over them, neither sing the magpie for him, nor bring a prosphora or a candle for him to church, with the infidels will have their due, from the heretics this habit has been acquired" Ch. 40.
About the same interpretation of canon 96, VI Ecumenical Council on cutting the beard: “Why was it not written in the law about cutting your beards: do not cut your beards. Without a beard, it is beautiful for wives, it is not appropriate for husbands, the Creator God judged to say to Moses:
"...do not spoil the edges of your beard" (Lev.19:27).
But you, who do this for the sake of pleasing men, are contrary to the law, you will be hated by Him who created you in His image, and if anyone wants to please God, then retreat from such evil. A time of troubles in Russia, when the Latins, before the eyes of the Russians, insulted everything that the Russians had hitherto been accustomed to consider inviolable and sacred - they laughed at the faith, life and morals of the Russians.
Therefore, a curse was placed on barber shaving.
In the Consumer Book of 1639 and in the Service Book of 1647 there was a teaching: “do not shave your beards or cut your mustache.”
The Great Requirement said this: “I curse the God-hated and fornicating image, the charm that is destructive to the soul from the darkened heresy; and so as not to cut my beard (sheet 600 on the back) and not to shave it.” In the service book of Patriarch Joseph it is written: “destroying charm to the soul, darkness from heresy, do not cut your beard (leaf 600 on the back) and do not shave it.”
“And I don’t know how the heretical disease entered our Orthodox people and at what time in great Russia, as the legend of the Greek king, or better to say the enemy of the Christian faith, and the lawbreaker Konstantin Kovalin and the heretic says in the chronicles, to cut beards or shave , in other words, to corrupt God-created goodness. Or let’s say, according to the chronicles, [we find] confirmation of all the evil heresy [that arose from] the new son of the devil and Satan, the forerunner of the Antichrist, the enemy and apostate from the Christian faith, the Roman Pope Peter of Gugniv, for and He reinforced this heresy and ordered the Roman people, especially their sacred ranks, to do this, to cut and shave their beards.
***
- About the sin of barbering- Ignatiy Lapkin
- Is shaving your beard an expression of unmasculinity and a sin?- Dmitry Tsorionov
- Can an Orthodox Christian shave his beard?- Abbot Vitaly Utkin
***
Epiphanius of Cyprus called this heresy Eutychs. For Tsar Konstantin Kovalin and the heretic legitimized this, and everyone knows that they are heretical servants, because their beards are cut" (Ed. Summer 7155, sheet 621).
The Monk Maxim the Greek wrote: “If cursed are those who deviate from the commandments of God, as we hear in sacred chant, those who destroy their beards with a razor are subject to the same oath" (Sermon 137).
“It should also not spoil the hair on the beard and change the image of a person contrary to nature.
Do not bare, says the law, your beards, for the Creator God made this [being without a beard] suitable for women, but He declared it obscene for men. The same, who bares his beard in order to please, as one who resists the law, will be an abomination to God, who created you in His image (post. apost., Kazan edition, 1864, p. 6).
St. Epiphanius of Cyprus writes: “What is worse and more disgusting than this, the beard is cut off, and the hair on the head is grown; about the beard in the Apostolic decrees, the word of God, the teaching prescribes, so as not to spoil it, that is, not to cut the hair on the beard.” (his work, part 5, p. 302, ed. M. 1863).
96 rule of the Sixth Ecumenical Council with interpretation: “Those who dye their hair to make it light or golden, or tie it up to make it curly, or wear someone else’s hair are subject to penance and excommunication. shaving beards their own, so that they grow later smoother and more beautiful, or so that they always seem young and beardless. Also those who burn off the hair on their faces with small tweezers in order to appear more tender and handsome, who tint their beards so as not to appear old.
Women who use white or rouge to attract men are subjected to the same penance. Oh! how can God recognize in them His creation and His image when they wear another - a devilish face? Don't they know that they are like the prodigal Jezebel? So, all men and women who do anything like this are subject to excommunication. If all this is forbidden to the laity in general, then even more so to the clergy and sacred persons, who must teach the people in word, deed, and external piety" (Greek helmsman "Pedalion" p. 270, ed. 1888).
“Shaving is a heretical and abominable custom, and therefore true Christians must protect themselves from this abomination, so that through the transgression of God’s commandments and patristic traditions we do not lose eternal and endless bliss in the future afterlife. For the Lord will say to the good servant and His active servant:
“Good servant, you have been faithful over a few things; I will make you ruler over many things; enter into the joy of your Lord” (Luke 19:17).
Genesis 34:2, 7, 9, 26 says, “When the son of Hamor the Hivite slept with Dinah the daughter of Jacob, he committed violence against her, and he dishonored Israel.”
In another place we read: “And Hanun took David’s servants, and shaved each of them half his beard, and cut off their clothes in half, even to the loins, and sent them away. When they told David about this, he sent to meet them, because they were very dishonored. And the king commanded to say to them: Stay in Jericho (the city of the curse) until your beards grow back, and then return” (2 Samuel 10:1-5).
And if rape was called dishonor, and so it still is: for in relation to the flesh New Testament did not make any changes to her creation, then the word very dishonored shows that barbering is a greater sin than the loss of virginity. And just as there those guilty of dishonor were all destroyed, so in the case of violence against beards. And if David did not allow the dishonored with damaged beards into earthly Jerusalem, then shouldn’t those who are preparing to enter Heavenly Jerusalem – the Kingdom of Heaven – be more attentive?
“Do not shave your head round, and do not spoil the edges of your beard” (Lev. 19:27).
“How good and how pleasant it is for brothers to live together. It is like precious oil on the head, running down onto Aaron’s beard, running down onto the edges of his garment” (Ps. 132).
Ancient leaders and people wore beards:
"Hearing this word, I tore my lower and outerwear mine, and tore the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat sad" (1 Ezra 9:3)
The loss of a beard was a sign of the loss of God's favor, the wrath of the King of Heaven:
“On that day the Lord will shave the head and the hair of the feet with the razor hired from the other side of the river by the king of Assyria, and even take away the beard” (Is. 7:20)
“...all of their heads were shorn, all of them had their beards shaved” (Is. 15:2)
“And you will do as I did; you will not cover your beards, and you will not eat bread from strangers” (Ezek. 24:22)
In Daniel 7:9-13 - God is shown as the Old One of Days and, of course, with a beard. Such are the images of saints in churches. But in the temples (among pagans, heretics and sectarians)
“the priests are sitting... with shaved heads (like Buddhists and Hare Krishnas) and with shaved beards” (Post. Jer. 30).
And if you are not faithful in small things (is it a great thing not to shave your beard), then what can we say about maintaining morality and chastity?
September 21, Dmitry Rostovsky, nominated to the Rostov See from Peter the Great, this most terrible Russian Antichrist, who destroyed all the foundations of ancient piety, a cynic and a blasphemer of all that is holy, who ordered to forcibly “cut off” beards. And when Demetrius of Rostov told the zealots suffering from the rapists of the Antichrist, in response to their question whether to allow their beards to be cut, he replied: “Let them cut off the beards, the second ones will grow back, and if the heads are cut off, they will not grow back.” Peter the Reformer liked these words so much that he ordered this treatise on beards to be published.
Peter's window to Europe, through which all of Russia fell through, along with the house of the Romanovs, lost their beards, unity divided Russia, and was the beginning of its death. And, as Nekrasov writes, at first they pointed the finger at those who smoke (there were so few of them), but it will come (and has already come) when they point the finger at those who do not smoke. Same thing with a beard.
March 28, Hilarion the New: beards were smeared with resin - and the image of God was smeared, they joined beardless Europe, became Catholic through the Uniate movement, Ukraine and Belarus, and lost the image of God, the Russian man.
All saints, pray to God for us!
Dmitry asksAnswered by Alexandra Lanz, 02/19/2010
Dmitry asks:“Please clarify to me the essence of what the Lord God said in “Do not cut your head round, and do not spoil the edges of your beard.” It turns out that you cannot cut your hair very short? How to understand these instructions of our Lord?”
Peace to you, Dmitry!
The Almighty never taught His children whether they should wear a beard or not. There is not a single verse in the Bible that states that God is for or against beards. The Almighty also never established rules for cutting hair for people. (And what we see in the Nazarite ritual has in itself the law on cutting/not cutting hair, but a symbolic indication of how the service of God Almighty takes place).
The Old Testament attitude towards the beard and length of hair is human attitude. In those days, it was almost universally believed that a man should wear a long beard. The reasons for this “fashion” are unknown to us, but we know for sure that God had no complaints about either shaved or unshaven chins. This from a people's point of view It was considered a shame if a man had his beard cut off by force. God nowhere commands a man to raise her.
"And Hanon took David's servants, and shaved half the beard of each of them, and cut off their clothes in half, even to the loins, and sent them away. When they told David about this, he sent to meet them, since they were very dishonored. And he ordered the king tell them: stay in Jericho until your beards grow, and [then] return" ().
Read this passage carefully and you will see that this was entirely David's decision, because in his time what happened was considered a disgrace. And God has nothing to do with this decision.
People, and not God, considered a beard a sign of a man’s dignity, so God, without opposing this desire of theirs, used the example of “beards” to explain to them His will, His attitude to what was happening. In other words, knowing what a beard is in human tradition, the Savior sometimes used it as a symbol to explain His actions. See for example:
“On that day the Lord will shave the head and the hair of the legs with a razor hired by the king of Assyria on the other side of the river, and even take away the beard.”
This is not at all about whether it is good or bad to have a beard, but about what if in people's minds the beard and hair on a man’s head and legs are a sign of his strength, etc., then through the use of this human “opinion” God figuratively shows that he will completely destroy the strength of people.
Now let's take a closer look at the passage that interests you:
“Don’t eat with blood;
do not cast spells or guess.
Do not cut your head round, and do not spoil the edges of your beard.
For the sake of the deceased, do not make cuts on your body and do not inscribe writings on yourself. I am the Lord" ().
Do you see that there is a list of things that Jews used to do, but now they are not allowed to do?
They used to eat with blood, like everyone else.
Previously, they used to cast spells and tell fortunes, just like everyone else.
Previously, they cut their heads in a circle, i.e. they cut the hair at the temples... From the history of pagan cults we know that many pagan priests cut their heads this way, there is even a mention of this in and. God calls the pagans people who “cut the hair on their temples.”
Does this mean that He has something against the haircut itself? No. But God wants His people, in whose minds this type of haircut was associated with pagan rituals and caused a certain “reaction” of memory, to stop performing this action, so as not to be tempted to cling to the sign of paganism in their minds and, as a result, fall into idolatry and etc.
It's the same with beards. Re-read the passage and say: Is God talking here about growing a beard? or He says that if you have a beard, then do not spoil its edges the way pagan peoples do. After all, this follows from the context, doesn’t it?
In other words, the Savior says that His children must stop doing what they learned to do while living among paganism: eating blood, casting spells, trimming their temples, spoiling their beards, making cuts on the body...
Can you cut your temples now? The answer depends on your attitude to what you mean by this: a pagan way of serving God or an ordinary comfortable hairstyle? If it’s the first, then it’s impossible, if it’s the second, then it’s possible. Do you understand why it’s not possible? Because such an action will certainly draw you towards other pagan “interests” of the flesh and turn you away from God.
If you grew a beard and then decided to trim its edges in a special pagan way, then you are on the path of sin because you are trying to perform some kind of magical ritual action that God did not ask you to do. But if you just carefully trim the edges of your beautiful beard without putting any ritual meaning into it, then you are simply caring about your appearance and nothing more.
Simply put, no matter what you do: whether you cut your hair short, shave your beard or grow it, you must first of all think about ensuring that your manipulations are not filled with pagan “meaning” and do not lead you into the abyss of paganism as such.
Sincerely,
Sasha.
Read more on the topic "Miscellaneous":
The Holy Apostle Paul, warning Orthodox Christians against the deception of heretics, writes: “Remember your teachers who spoke to you the Word of God, looking at the end of their lives, imitate their faith” (Heb., section 334) and “in teaching it is strange and different don't attach."
Here we, without going into a detailed discussion of the manifestations of lawlessness among the children of the Church, will dwell on the most visible and glaring evil - barber shaving.
This epidemic disease, the Latin heresy, is quickly instilled among some young people who, having left the due obedience of their parents and not hearing the living, iniquity-convicting, instructive word of the shepherds of the Church, without being embarrassed or ashamed of anyone or anything, enters the holy places in such an un-Christian form. God's temples.
This lustful delusion, which infects some Christians, has always been condemned by the Fathers of the Church and recognized as the work of filthy heretics and heresy.
The Fathers of the Stoglavago Cathedral, discussing the subject of barber-shaving, set out the following resolution: “The sacred rules forbid all Orthodox Christians not to shave their hair and not to trim their mustaches, such as there are no Orthodox, but the Latin and heretical traditions of the Greek king Constantine Kovalin. And about this, the apostolic and paternal rules the nobles forbid and deny... Well, isn’t it written in the law about cutting your hair? It is an abomination before God; for this is legitimized by Constantine the Tsar Kovalin and the heretic. For this I know that they are heretical servants, and you, who create human things for the sake of pleasing the law, will be hated by God who created us in the image. If you want to please God, turn away from evil. And God himself forbade Moses, and the holy apostles, and rejected them from the church, and for the sake of a terrible rebuke, it is inappropriate for the Orthodox to do such a thing" (Stogl., ch. 40) .
The apostolic decree prohibiting the evil of barbering contains the following saying: “Nor should you spoil the hair on your beard, or change the image of a person contrary to nature. Do not bare, says the law, your beards. For this (to be without a beard) the Creator God has made suitable for women, and He declared it obscene for men. But you, who bare your beard in order to please, as one who resists the law, will be detestable to God, who created you in his image" (Decree of the Holy Apostle. Publ. Kazan, 1864, p. 6). ).
The holy apostles and fathers of the Church, recognizing barbering as a heresy, forbidding Orthodox Christians to indulge in this abomination, took various measures to correct this epidemic of barbering. In the Greater Potnik it is stated as follows: “I curse the God-hated, fornicating image of the charm, the soul-destroying heresies of cutting off and shaving the brad” (fol. 600v.) The fathers of the Hundred Glavnago Cathedral, in order to finally put an end to the evil of barbering, acted more strictly than set out in the Big Potnik. They set out the following definition: “If anyone shaves his hair and dies like this, he is not worthy to serve over him, nor to sing the magpie for him, nor to bring prosphora, nor to bring a candle for him to church, let him be reckoned with the infidels, for the heretic has become accustomed to this” (chapter .40). And the interpreter of the rules of the church Zonar, interpreting 96 rule 6 Ecumenical Council and, condemning barber shaving, he says: “And so the fathers of this council paternally punish those who do what they said above, and subject them to excommunication.” This is how the holy apostles and holy fathers collectively defined this; Now let’s listen to how the Fathers of the Church in particular looked at this ulcer of Christianity.
Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus writes: “What is worse and more disgusting than this? The beard - the image of the husband - is cut off, and the hair on the head is grown. About the beard in the apostolic decrees, the Word of God and teaching prescribe not to spoil it, that is, not to cut the hair on the beard" ( Created by him, part 5, p. 302. Moscow, 1863).
St. Maximus the Greek says: “If those who deviate from the commandments of God are cursed, as we hear in sacred hymns, those who destroy their own marriages with a razor are subject to the same oath” (Sermon 137).
The Service Book of Patriarch Joseph says: “And we do not know, in the calico people of Orthodoxy, at which time in Great Russia a heretical illness was common. Just as according to the chronicles of the decrees, the tradition of the Greek king, moreover the enemy and apostate of the Christian faith and the lawbreaker Konstantin Kovalin and the heretic, cut your hair, or shave, as you decide to corrupt God-created goodness, or again decide, according to the chronicles, to confirm this evil heresy of the new Satan, the son of the devil, the forerunner of the Antichrist, the enemy and apostate of the Christian faith, the Roman Pope Peter of Gugnivago, as I also reinforced this heresy, and by the Roman people, and even moreover, I commanded the archbishop of Cyprus to do the same in their sacred order, and I called this heresy to Epiphanius the Archbishop of Cyprus. tonsured" (Summer edition 7155, sheet 621).
Likewise, the Serbian Metropolitan Dimitri wrote: “The Latins have fallen into many heresies: on Holy Pentecost they eat cheese and eggs on Saturday and during the week, and they do not forbid their children to do the entire fast. On Saturday and during the week they are commanded to bow to the ground in addition to the rules of the saints. They shave their braids and trim their mustaches, but the evil ones do this and bite their mustaches... all this, having received from the father of his evil son Satan, Pope Peter of Gugniv, shave his braids and mustaches, for the Lord said to Moses: let not the monstrance come forth. “Your brothers, this is abominable to the Lord” (his book, chapter 39, sheet 502).
Pointing out to the barbers the law of the Church, the instruction, reproof and punishment of the shepherds of Christ's Church, we will also remember the zeal of Christians, canonized as saints, who, fearing the rebuke of the Fathers of the Church, never agreed to carry out the order of the wicked prince Olgerd in order to shave their braids, for which suffered.
In the calendar with lives, printed under Patriarch Joseph in the summer of 7157, it is said: “Anthony, Eustathius and John suffered in the Lithuanian city of Vilna from Prince Olgerd, the first for barber shaving, and for other Christian laws, in the summer of 6849” (see under 14th of April). Under the same number of April, the Chetiy-Minea indicates that Anthony, Eustathius and John were only known by Prince Olgerd to be Christians because, contrary to pagan custom, they grew their hair on their brads.
Such suffering of the holy martyrs for Christian customs, among whom a beard flaunted in the foreground, should serve as an example of modesty and a way of pious life for true Christians. Not shaving or cutting your beard is a Christian matter, an important matter - this is the fulfillment of the law prescribed by the Church, obligatory for believers in God and His Holy Church.
The holy martyrs, having grown their braids as required by the duty of a Christian, showed the wicked prince Olgerd that they were no longer worshipers and servants of the demon, but imitators of the way of life of Christ in the flesh, which he led on earth for the salvation of the human race. Such a pious life and wearing a beard according to Christian custom were commanded to us by the fathers of the 6th Ecumenical Council; for they say: “Having put on Christ through baptism, they vowed to imitate His life in the flesh” (96 rule of the Sixth Ecumenical Personality, complete translation, interpretation of Zonara).
So, cutting and shaving a beard is not a Christian custom, but of filthy heretics, idolaters and non-believers in God and His Holy Church. For such a filthy custom, the church fathers strictly condemn and punish, and put them under oath; and those who have not repented and repented of this lawlessness are deprived of all Christian guidance and remembrance.
We pray to our Lord Jesus Christ, may this abomination cease - barbering in our brotherhood of the same faith; we also pray to you, our shepherds, that you teach the flock of Christ entrusted to you by God, according to the sacred rules of your children, all Orthodox Christians, teach and punish, so that from all those evil heretical deeds would cease and would live in pure repentance and other virtues.
Quotes from Scripture
Levit, 19
1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
2 Proclaim to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them, “Be holy, for holy am I the Lord your God.”
27 Do not cut your head round, and do not spoil the edges of your beard.
Leviticus 21:
1 And the Lord said to Moses, Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and tell them...
5 They shall not shave their heads, nor trim the edges of their beards, nor make cuts on their flesh.
2 Samuel 10:4 And Hanun took David's servants, and shaved each of them half his beard, and cut off their garments in half, even to the waist, and sent them away.
2 Samuel 10:5 When they told David about this, he sent to meet them, because they were very dishonored. And the king ordered to tell them: stay in Jericho until your beards grow, and then return.
2 Samuel 19:24 And Mephibosheth the son of [Jonathan, son of] Saul went out to meet the king. He did not wash his feet, [did not cut his nails,] did not care for his beard and did not wash his clothes from the day the king went out until the day he returned in peace.
Ps. 132:2 It is like precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, running down onto the edges of his garment...
Is. 7:20 In that day the Lord will shave the head and the hair of the feet with a razor hired from the other side of the river by the king of Assyria, and even take away the beard.
Jeremiah 1:30 And in their temples sat priests with torn clothes, with shaved heads and beards and bare heads.
Whether it is a sin for an Orthodox Christian to shave his ford and mustache or not, decide for yourself!
Beard as a virtue.
Priest Maxim Kaskun
Father, Dmitry asks:
“Hello, I recently heard a monologue by a philosopher (Alexander Dugin) “The Virtue of the Beard.” Is it true that wearing a beard is a virtue? Or should this be perceived as a ritual that is necessary only for clergy, and not for lay people?.. Does wearing a beard help in any way with spiritual growth? Clarify please. Save me, God!"
- Well, first of all, wearing a beard is, of course, not a virtue - but an honor for a man. Because virtue is something that can be acquired, acquired through labor and achievement. The beard grows naturally, it can be compared to the character given to the person. But it is some accompanying factor for a person’s spiritual life.
For example, in ancient times, for a person whose beard was shaved, it was a shame; and even, for example, David’s envoys were not allowed into the city because they were dishonored and disgraced, that is, their clothes were cut off (shortened) and, accordingly, their beards were cut off. And until they grew a beard, they weren’t even allowed into the city.
And today we see that a beard has no such honor. On the contrary, there is mockery. Therefore, if we consider a beard as an honor, then today it turns out to be dishonored. But why, after all, do Orthodox Christians wear beards and even insist?! And they do it right! First of all, the main purpose of a beard is to help a person in his spiritual life. How does a beard help? If we take animals, they have whiskers that help them navigate when there is no light: they follow their senses, even when they see nothing. The same role, only in spiritual sense, plays and beard for a man. She helps him. Because the structure of beard hair is also empty, it is hollow, like a mustache; The hair on my head is completely different. It is hollow and really helps a person to somehow tune in spiritually. These are things that need to be experienced... Let's say a person who shaves his beard - how does he feel? Yes, he feels naked, as if his underwear has been taken off. Why? Because, indeed, a beard both ennobles and gives some kind of feeling of support. But this is certainly a secret that only those who wear a beard can know. And therefore today Orthodox Christians should certainly wear it, not only because a beard helps, but also in order to revive ancient attitude to a beard as an honor for a man; and, on the other hand, somewhere...and like a sermon! If you are a Christian, you still have to wear a beard; you should not merge with this world, because in this world there is a cult of the flesh that came to us with Ancient Rome, where for the first time they officially, so to speak, began to shave constantly. Although the Egyptians started before them, the Romans were more successful in this regard, because their influence on the surrounding culture was decisive. They also influenced the Church: that is, all Roman priests always shaved, with rare exceptions. If we look at the holy fathers of the Ancient Roman Church, who were canonized as saints (by us), they all had beards. Augustine of Ippona, Ambrose of Milan, Pope Leo the Great - all with a beard. And only after separation they began to shave. When they fell away from Orthodoxy, then they completely changed their attitude towards this and, in general, EVERYONE began to shave. ...And Protestants generally say: “When I shave, I then feel the breath of the Holy Spirit on me”...
- Thank you.
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