Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

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JohnHurt
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Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by JohnHurt »

Friends,

Does the Bible teach that a Christian man should always wear a beard?

Or is this a "cultural choice" that allows men to choose to wear either a full beard, a partial beard, or be clean shaven?

I have been on both sides of this issue, and I am now clean shaven. But I am always interested in learning from other people, and your thoughts and practices are appreciated. (I am not certain where I stand on this issue.)

If you have a link to a website that has a church doctrinal statement on why men should or should not wear a beard, it would be appreciated.

Here is a link to Torrey Topical Index on the verses in the Bible about wearing a beard:

http://www.htmlbible.com/kjv30/torrey/torr0052.htm

Thanks,

John Hurt
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Robert
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Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Robert »

Since I am not a Jew, to my knowledge, or a proselyte, I feel no need to be bound by Judaic law or custom.

[bible]acts 15,22-35[/bible]
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Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Valerie »

JohnHurt wrote:Friends,

Does the Bible teach that a Christian man should always wear a beard?

Or is this a "cultural choice" that allows men to choose to wear either a full beard, a partial beard, or be clean shaven?

I have been on both sides of this issue, and I am now clean shaven. But I am always interested in learning from other people, and your thoughts and practices are appreciated. (I am not certain where I stand on this issue.)

If you have a link to a website that has a church doctrinal statement on why men should or should not wear a beard, it would be appreciated.

Here is a link to Torrey Topical Index on the verses in the Bible about wearing a beard:

http://www.htmlbible.com/kjv30/torrey/torr0052.htm

Thanks,

John Hurt
I would not want to offend anyone in this area at all, it is not something I gave a lot of thought to, in most decades of my Christian life- however, the Amish had brought it to my attention- and then several years ago when beginning to read early Church writers/fathers- they certainly believed a Christian should wear a beard (man-I did see an Amish woman with a beard last year, a real beard and felt bad that they didn't encourage her that it would be 'ok' to remove it).
Maybe the question is- Does God approve of shaving? Why, or why not? Why was wearing the beard important to God for His elect in the OT? Is it because it was His design?

Something that really interested me, was a vision an Orthodox monk or priest had in the 17th or 18 century, that I read- and it had a lot to do with a time to come, when the 'appearance of the genders' would not be obvious- I will have to hunt for that prophesy, and it was to be in the 20th century I believe- and in thinking about what happened last century- women began to wear short hair, men grew very long hair, shaved faces, etc- I think it is more recent that Christian men shaved? Or men in general?
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Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Josh »

I think men should cut their hair, including past their ears. I think how short is a matter of cultural custom. I do believe the Bible teaches that a man should keep his hair short.

I don't think the NT talks about beards at all. A man could very well shave his whole head, and many men are naturally mostly bald; it seems God designed most men's bodies to go bald as they age. It doesn't seem wrong at all according to the scriptures for a man to shave his whole head, and for many men this is a good, low maintenance, atidy style for them.

A church that practices nonconformity and maintains strong gender distinction could say that facial hair is part of helping maintain that, and I think it's fine for a specific church to do that. Mine does. In our culture, dresses are associated with women, not men, and beards with men, not women, so it makes sense to choose those two things. But it's not mandatory in scripture at all for women to wear tunic like garments and men not to - indeed, the scriptures have references to men wearing tunic like garments!
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Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by YorkandAdams »

Josh wrote:I think men should cut their hair, including past their ears. I think how short is a matter of cultural custom. I do believe the Bible teaches that a man should keep his hair short.
How short is short? I mean I almost feel the amish bowl cut is long hair (for men anyway). In my congregation the men have two basic styles. Side part is mostly worn by older gentlemen, layered haircut with bangs for younger guys. Is this the standard?
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Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Sudsy »

JohnHurt wrote:Friends,

Does the Bible teach that a Christian man should always wear a beard?

John Hurt
Not in my view. Since Jesus and the NT did not address the subject, I don't think it was important. If one believes Jesus knew the future, then why would the NC not say something about beards knowing in the future some followers of Christ wear beards and some would not ? Also, if a believer does or does not wear a beard as an act unto the Lord, then they should do that as unto the Lord. Like black cars or long pants, etc if it is done as unto the Lord to honour the Lord, then I believe Romans 14 gives us direction.
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Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Neto »

There was a time, not too long ago, when a valid case could have been made for non-approval of men shaving their whole head, because it was closely associated with neo-nazis and white supremacy. (Just think of the common term, skin-heads.) That & goatees. But that seems to have changed culturally, although I still don't like to see it. In the OT, shaving one's head (or having it shaved) is associated with special vows, and also shame. Just how the two relate to one another, I don't know - it is something I haven't studied.
Regarding the Christian man needing to wear a beard, there was a time when I wanted the Scripture to say that, and badly. But as much as I wanted it to say that, it doesn't. (I DO wear one, but for other reasons, none of which are 'style'.)
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Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by MaxPC »

Neto wrote:There was a time, not too long ago, when a valid case could have been made for non-approval of men shaving their whole head, because it was closely associated with neo-nazis and white supremacy. (Just think of the common term, skin-heads.) That & goatees. But that seems to have changed culturally, although I still don't like to see it. In the OT, shaving one's head (or having it shaved) is associated with special vows, and also shame. Just how the two relate to one another, I don't know - it is something I haven't studied.
I might be able to help with that. In Catholic World, shaving the head was a carry-through from the OT as the symbol of a penitent, someone who had repented of their sins and took vows to follow a more disciplined Christian life. Some of our religious orders still follow the custom today in various ways: either a complete shave or a partial shaving of one part of their head (tonsure).
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Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Valerie »

MaxPC wrote:
Neto wrote:There was a time, not too long ago, when a valid case could have been made for non-approval of men shaving their whole head, because it was closely associated with neo-nazis and white supremacy. (Just think of the common term, skin-heads.) That & goatees. But that seems to have changed culturally, although I still don't like to see it. In the OT, shaving one's head (or having it shaved) is associated with special vows, and also shame. Just how the two relate to one another, I don't know - it is something I haven't studied.
I might be able to help with that. In Catholic World, shaving the head was a carry-through from the OT as the symbol of a penitent, someone who had repented of their sins and took vows to follow a more disciplined Christian life. Some of our religious orders still follow the custom today in various ways: either a complete shave or a partial shaving of one part of their head (tonsure).
You bring up a good point, because the ancient faiths (as in Roman Catholic & Eastern Orthodox who had previously been 'one') originated in the early church and know that some of the 'traditions' were carried into the New Testament Church, from Judaism- and didn't really need to be addressed by way of Scripture- the ONLY reason we read about for example headcovering for women, is because Apostle Paul had to bring correction into the Corinthian church by way of his 'epistle' to women who were being contentious against the practice- had it not been for that, there would not even have been a mention of it in New Testament Scripture at all- he had already begun the Corinthian Church 'orally' before his epistles needed to be written. This is an example of areas where there were 'oral' and 'written' teachings (2 Thessalonians 2:15) to bring out again, the Apostles brought some things with them into the NT Church, they were discarding some of Judaism but leaving some things in as they were developing the NT Church that they were building- it does give us some things to think about here-

Do we believe that God wants men to shave off their beards & mustaches? I considered this as a friend of ours who had a lot to do with us seeking Anabaptism- shared his beliefs about the beard & mustache- as well as a unique community in Maine of Old Order Amish who broke their tradition of 'no mustaches' and let their mustaches grow- my friend said they claimed 'if it grows there, it should show there' because God made them that way- So I do believe the reason it is absent in NT Scripture is because the Jews who started the NT Church would not have taught men to shave it off- why would they? If we are looking for Scripture about this- the fact it isn't there, doesn't mean the subject didn't come up-

As a female, I just wonder why men did start shaving to have what's called 'clean faces' - and what the history of this was- God's mandate to the Jews had to do with not just wearing the beard but to specifically not 'groom' the beard- I don't know what Gentiles and or pagans would have been doing at that time that He wanted His elect set apart-
Interesting topic.

Do Old Order Mennonites have beards?
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Josh
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Re: Should a Christian Man be Required to Wear a Beard?

Post by Josh »

Most Old Order Mennonites do not have beards.
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