Beard

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BEARD.—See Hair.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

With Asiatics, a badge of manly dignity. The Egyptians mostly shaved the hair of the face and head, except in mourning. In consonance with this Egyptian usage, Scripture, with the undesigned propriety of truth, represents Joseph as having "shaved his beard," which he had allowed to grow in prison, before entering Pharaoh's presence (Gen_41:14). Many Egyptians wore a false beard of plaited hair, private individuals small ones, kings long ones square below, the gods one turning at the end. Their enemies are represented bearded on the monuments.
The Jews were forbidden to "round the corners of their heads or mar (i.e. shave off) the corners of their beards" (Lev_19:27; Lev_21:5). Baal worshippers rounded the beard and hair to make their faces round, like the sun. The Arabs trimmed their beard round in sign of dedication to some idol. Possibly the Israelites retained the hair between the ear and eye, which the Arabs shaved away (Jer_9:26 margin; Jer_25:23; Jer_49:32; compare Herodotus, 3:8).
The beard is sworn by in the E. as an object of veneration. Not to trim it marked affliction, as in Mephibosheth's case during Absalom's occupation of Jerusalem (2Sa_19:24). An insult to it was resented as a gross outrage, as David did when Hanun shaved off half the beards of his ambassadors (2Sa_10:4). Compare God's threat of "shaving" away His people as "hair" with the Assyrian king as His "razor" (Isa_7:20). This was one gross indignity to which Jesus was subjected: "I gave My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair" (Isa_50:6). It was shaved in mourning (Isa_15:2; Jer_41:5; Jer_48:37). Only the nearest friends were permitted to touch the beard, which marks the foul treachery of Joab in taking his cousin Amasa's beard to kiss him, or rather it (2Sa_20:9). The precious ointment flowed from Aaron's head at his consecration, upon his beard (Psa_133:2). The leper, at purification, had to shave his head and beard and eyebrows (Lev_14:9).
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Beard. Western Asiatics have always cherished the beard as the badge of the dignity of manhood, and attached to it, the importance of a feature. The Egyptians, on the contrary, for the most part, shaved the hair of the face and head, though we find some instances to the contrary. The beard is the object of an oath, and that on which , blessing or shame is spoken of as resting.
The custom was and is to shave or pluck it and the hair out in mourning, Ezr_9:3; Isa_15:2; Isa_50:6; Jer_41:5; Jer_48:37, Bar_6:31; to neglect it in seasons of permanent affliction, 2Sa_19:24, and to regard any insult to it as the last outrage which enmity can inflict. 2Sa_10:4. The beard was the object of salutation. 2Sa_20:9. The dressing, trimming, anointing, etc., of the beard was performed with much ceremony, by persons of wealth and rank. Psa_133:2. The removal of the beard was a part of the ceremonial treatment proper to a leper. Lev_14:9.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

The Hebrews wore their beards, but had, doubtless, in common with other Asiatic nations, several fashions in this, as in all other parts of dress. Moses forbids them, Lev_19:27, “to cut off entirely the angle, or extremity of their beard;” that is, to avoid the manner of the Egyptians, who left only a little tuft of beard at the extremity of their chins. The Jews, in some places, at this day suffer a little fillet of hair to grow from below the ears to the chin: where, as well as upon their lower lips, their beards are long. When they mourned, they entirely shaved the hair of their heads and beards, and neglected to trim their beards, to regulate them into neat order, or to remove what grew on their upper lips and cheeks, Jer_41:5; Jer_48:37. In times of grief and affliction, they plucked away the hair of their heads and beards, a mode of expression common to other nations under great calamities. The king of the Ammonites, designing to insult David in the person of his ambassadors, cut away half of their beards, and half of their clothes; that is, he cut off all their beard on one side of their faces, 2Sa_10:4-5; 1Ch_19:5. To avoid ridicule, David did not wish them to appear at his court till their beards were grown again. When a leper was cured of his leprosy, he washed himself in a bath, and shaved off all the hair of his body; after which, he returned into the camp, or city; seven days afterward, he washed himself and his clothes again, shaved off all his hair, and offered the sacrifices appointed for his purification, Lev_14:9. The Levites, at their consecration, were purified by bathing, and washing their bodies and clothes; after which, they shaved off all the hair of their bodies, and then offered the sacrifices appointed for their consecration, Num_8:7.
Nothing has been more fluctuating, in the different ages of the world and countries than the fashion of wearing the beard. Some have cultivated one part and some another; some have endeavoured to extirpate it entirely, while others have almost idolized it; the revolutions of countries have scarcely been more famous than the revolutions of beards. It is a great mark of infamy among the Arabs to cut off the beard. Many people would prefer death to this kind of treatment. As they would think it a grievous punishment to lose it, they carry things so far as to beg for the sake of it: “By your beard, by the life of your beard, God preserve your blessed beard.” When they would express their value for any thing, they say, “It is worth more than a man's beard.” And hence we may easily learn the magnitude of the offence of the Ammonites in their treatment of David's ambassadors, as above mentioned; and also the force of the emblem used Eze_5:1-5, where the inhabitants of Jerusalem are compared to the hair of his head and beard. Though they had been dear to God as the hair of an eastern beard to its owner, they should be taken away and consumed, one part by pestilence and famine, another by the sword, another by the calamities incident on exile.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

bērd:
(1) Western Semites in general, according to the monuments, wore full round beards, to which they evidently devoted great care. The nomads of the desert, in distinction from the settled Semites, wore a clipped and pointed beard (see Jer_9:26 : ?all that have the corners of their hair cut off, that dwell in the wilderness?; and compare Jer_25:23; Jer_49:32, etc.).
(2) Long beards are found on Assyrian and Babylonian monuments and sculptures as a mark of the highest aristocracy (compare Egyptian monuments, especially representations by W. Max M?ller, Asien und Europa, 140). It is not clear that it was ever so with the Jews. Yet it is significant that the Hebrew ?elder? (zāḳēn) seems to have received his name from his long beard (compare bene barbatus).
(3) The view of some that it was customary among the Hebrews to shave the upper lip is considered by the best authorities as without foundation. The mustache (Hebrew sāphām, ?beard?), according to 2Sa_19:24, received regular ?trimming? (Thus English Versions of the Bible after the Vulgate, but the Hebrew is generic, not specific: ?He had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard?).
(4) In one case (1Sa_21:13, 1Sa_21:14) the neglect of the beard is set down as a sign of madness: ?(He) let his spittle fall down upon his beard. Then said Achish,... Lo, ye see the man is mad.?
(5) It was common. Semitic custom to cut both hair and beard as a token of grief or distress. Isa_15:2, describing the heathen who have ?gone up to the high places to weep,? says ?Moab waileth over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all their heads is baldness, every beard is cut off.? Jeremiah (Jer_41:5), describing the grief of the men of Samaria for their slain governor, Gedaliah, says, ?There came men from ... Samaria (his sorrowing subjects) even four score men, having their beards shaven and their clothes rent,? etc. And Amos, in his prophecy of the vision of the ?basket of summer fruit? (Amo_8:1), makes Yahweh say to His people: ?I will turn your feasts into mourning;... I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head? (Amo_8:10). On the other hand it was even more significant of great distress or fear to leave the beard untrimmed, as did Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, when he went to meet King David, in the crisis of his guilty failure to go up with the king according to his expectation: ?He had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace.? (Compare 1Sa_21:13, 1Sa_21:14; 2Sa_19:24.)
(6) Absalom's hair was cut only once a year, it would seem (2Sa_14:26; compare rules for priests, Levites, etc., Eze_44:20). But men then generally wore their hair longer than is customary or seemly with us (of Son_5:2, Son_5:11, ?His locks are bushy, and black as a raven?). Later, in New Testament times, it was a disgrace for a man to wear long hair (1Co_11:6-15). To mutilate the beard of another was considered a great indignity (see 2Sa_10:4; compare Isa_50:6, ?plucked off the hair?). The shaving of the head of a captive slave-girl who was to be married to her captor marked her change of condition and prospects (Deu_21:12; W. R. Smith, Kinship, 209).
Literature
Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, II, 324, 349; Herod. i.195; ii.36; iii.12; Josephus, Antiquities, VIII, viii, 3; XVI, viii, 1; W. R. Smith, Kinship, 209; RS, 324; Wellhausen, Skizzen, III, 167,
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


Fig. 87?Bearded heads from Egyptian monuments
Ancient nations in general agreed with the modern inhabitants of the East in attaching a great value to the possession of a beard. The total absence of it or a spare and stinted sprinkling of hair upon the chin, is thought by the Orientals to be as great a deformity to the features as the want of a nose would appear to us; while, on the contrary, a long and bushy beard, flowing down in luxuriant profusion to the breast, is considered not only a most graceful ornament to the person, but as contributing in no small degree to respectability and dignity of character. With this knowledge of the extraordinary respect and value which have in all ages been attached to the beard in the East, we are prepared to expect that a corresponding care would be taken to preserve and improve its appearance; and, accordingly, to dress and anoint it with oil and perfume was, with the better classes at least, an indispensable part of their daily toilet (Psa_133:2). In many cases it was dyed with variegated colors, by a tedious and troublesome operation. On the other hand, the allowing the beard to remain in a foul and disheveled state, or to cut it off, was one of the most striking outward indications of deep and overwhelming sorrow (2Sa_19:24 Ezr_9:13; Isa_15:2; Jer_41:5.
Nor was less jealousy shown in guarding the honor of, than in setting off to advantage, this attribute of manhood. The slightest exhibition of contempt, by sneering, spitting at, pulling, or even pressing against it in a rude and careless manner, was resented as an insult, such as would now, among men of the world, be deemed expiable only by a duel. No one was permitted to touch it except in the way of respectful and affectionate salutation, which was done by gently taking hold of its extremity with the right hand and kissing it; but even in that case it was only wives in approaching their husbands, children their parents, or the nearest and most attached friends, to whom this unusual liberty was granted. The act itself being an expression of kind and cordial familiarity, its performance by Joab shows in a flagrant light the base and unprincipled conduct of that ruthless veteran, when he took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him (rather it), and then having assumed this attitude under the mask of the most friendly feelings, smote his unsuspecting victim under the fifth rib (2Sa_20:9).
To be deprived of a beard was, and still is, in some places of the East, the badge of servitude?a mark of infamy, that degraded a person from the ranks of men to those of slaves and women. Among people influenced by such ideas, we can easily conceive how deep and intolerable was the affront which the king of the Ammonites put upon the ambassadors of David, when, among other acts of insolence, he shaved off one-half of their beards, and sent them home in that grotesque condition, exposed to the derision of their countrymen (2 Samuel 10). Persons of their high rank, who, in all probability, were fastidious about the orderly state and graceful appearance of their beards, would be even more sensitive as to this ignominious treatment than those of an humbler condition; and, as the shaving off one-half of the beard was among some ancient nations the punishment of cowardice, these circumstances united will help to account for the spirit of determined revenge which the king and the whole nation of Israel breathed, on intelligence of the national outrage.

Fig. 88?Beards
2, 3, 5, 11. Gods
1, 4, 6, 9, 10. Kings
7, 8. Private persons
From the above facts it is clear that the Israelites maintained their beard and the ideas connected with it, during their abode among the Egyptians, who were a shaven people. This is not unimportant among the indications which evince that, whatever they learned of good or evil in that country, they preserved the appearance and habits of a separate people. As the Egyptians shaved their beards off entirely, the injunction in Lev_19:27 against shaving 'the corners of the beard' must have been leveled against the practice of some other and bearded nation. The prohibition is usually understood to apply against rounding the corners of the beard where it joins the hair; and the reason is supposed to have been to preclude a superstition of certain Arabian tribes, who, by shaving off or rounding away the beard where it joined the hair of the head, devoted themselves to a certain deity who held among them the place which Bacchus did among the Greeks (comp. Jer_9:26; Jer_25:23; Jer_49:32). The ultimate effect seems to have been altogether to prevent the Jews from shaving off the edges of their beards. The effect of this prohibition in establishing a distinction of the Jews from other nations cannot be understood, unless we contemplate the extravagant diversity in which the beard was and is treated by the nations of the East. The fig. 87 is very interesting, being a collection of bearded heads of foreigners obtained from the Egyptian monuments, and, without doubt, including the beards, head-dresses, and physiognomies of most of the nations bordering on Egypt and Palestine. In nearly all of them we see that the upper edges of the beard were shaven off, and apparently the hair of the upper lip.
The ancient Egyptians, although they shaved their beards, had the singular custom of tying a false beard upon the chin. This was probably in the way of a compromise between their love of cleanliness and their desire to preserve some trace of the distinguishing sign of manhood. They were made of plaited hair, and had a peculiar form according to the rank of the persons by whom they were worn. Private individuals had a small beard, scarcely two inches long; that of a king was of considerable length and square at the bottom; and the figures of gods were distinguished by its turning up at the end.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

1Ch_19:5 (c) This typifies full manhood and the glory of maturity. The beard when cut subjected them to open shame and ridicule.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.

Beard
(זָקָן, zakan'; Gr. πώγων). The customs of nations in respect to this part of the human countenance have differed and still continue to differ so widely that it is not easy with those who treat the beard as an incumbrance to conceive properly the importance attached to it in other ages and countries.
I. The ancient nations in general agreed with the modern inhabitants of the East in attaching a great value to the possession of a beard. The total absence of it, or a sparse and stinted sprinkling of hair upon the chin, is thought by the Orientals to be as great a deformity to the features as the want of a nose would appear to us; while, on the contrary, a long and bushy beard, flowing down in luxuriant profusion to the breast, is considered not only a most graceful ornament to the person, but as contributing in no small degree to respectability and dignity of character. So much, indeed, is the possession of this venerable badge associated with notions of honor and importance, that it is almost constantly introduced, in the way either of allusion or appeal, into the language of familiar and daily life. In short, this hairy appendage of the chin is most highly prized as the attribute of manly dignity; and hence the energy of Ezekiel's language when, describing the severity of the Divine judgments upon the Jews, he intimates that, although that people had been as dear to God and as fondly cherished by him as the beard was by them, the razor, i.e. the agents of his angry providence, in righteous retribution for their long-continued sins, would destroy their existence as a nation (Eze_5:1-5). With this knowledge of the extraordinary respect and value which have in all ages been attached to the beard in the East, we are prepared to expect that a corresponding care would be taken to preserve and improve its appearance; and, accordingly, to dress and anoint it with oil and perfume was, with the better classes at least, an indispensable part of their daily toilet (Psa_133:2).
In many cases it was dyed with variegated colors, by a tedious and troublesome operation, described by Morier (Journ. p. 247), which, in consequence of the action of the air, requires to be repeated once every fortnight, and which, as that writer informs us, has been from time immemorial a universal practice in Persia. That the ancient Assyrians took equally nice care of their beard and hair is evident from the representations found everywhere upon the monuments discovered by Botta and Layard. From the history of Mephibosheth (2Sa_19:24), it seems probable that the grandees in ancient Palestine “trimmed their beards” with the same fastidious care and by the same elaborate process; while the allowing these to remain in a foul and dishevelled state, or to cut them off, was one among the many features of sordid negligence in their personal appearance by which they gave outward indications of deep and overwhelming sorrow (Isa_15:2; Jer_41:5; comp. Herod. 2:36; Suet. Caligula, 5; Theocr. 14:3). The custom was and is to shave or pluck it and the hair out in mourning (Isaiah 1, 6; Jer_48:37; Ezr_9:3; Bar_6:31). David resented the treatment of his ambassadors by Hanun (2Sa_10:4) as the last outrage which enmity could inflict (comp. Lucian, Cynic. 14). The dishonor done by David to his beard of letting his spittle fall on it (1Sa_21:13) seems at once to have convinced Achish of his being insane, as no man in health of body and mind would thus defile what was esteemed so honorable. It was customary for men to kiss one another's beards when they saluted, for the original of 2Sa_20:9, literally translated, would read, “And Joab held in his right hand the beard of Amasa, that he might give it a kiss;” indeed, in the East, it is generally considered an insult to touch the beard except to kiss it (comp. Homer, Iliad, 1, 501; 10:454 sq.). Among the Arabs, kissing the beard is an act of respect; D'Arvieux observes (Coutumes des Arabes, ch. 7) that “the women kiss their husbands' beards, and the children their fathers', when they go to salute them” (see Harmar, Obs. 2, 77, 83; 3, 179; Bohlen, Indien, 2, 171; Deyling, Obs. 2, 14; Lakemacher, Obs. 10, 145; Tavernier, 2, 100; Niebuhr, Beschr. p. 317; Kitto, Pict. Bible, notes on 1Sa_31:13; 2Sa_10:4; 2Sa_19:24; 2Sa_20:9; 1Ch_19:4, Volney, 2:118; Burckhardt, Arabia, p. 61; Lane, Mod. Egyptians, 1, 322). SEE HAIR.
The Egyptians, on the contrary, sedulously, for the most part, shaved the hair of the face and head, and compelled their slaves to do the like. Herodotus (1, 36) mentions it as a peculiarity of the Egyptians that they let the beard grow in mourning, being at all other times shaved. Hence Joseph, when released from prison, “shaved his beard” to appear before Pharaoh (Gen_41:14). Egyptians of low caste or mean condition are represented sometimes, in the spirit of caricature apparently, with beards of slovenly growth (Wilkinson, 2:127). The enemies of the Egyptians, including probably many of the nations of Canaan, Syria, Armenia, etc., are represented nearly always bearded. The most singular custom of the Egyptians was that of tying a false beard upon the chin, which was made of plaited hair, and of a peculiar form, according to the person by whom it was worn. Private individuals had a small beard, scarcely two inches long; that of a king was of considerable length, square at the bottom; and the figures of gods were distinguished by its turning up at the end (Wilkinson, 3, 362). No man ventured to assume, or affix to his image, the beard of a deity; but after their death, it was permitted to substitute this divine emblem on the statues of kings, and all other persons who were judged worthy of admittance to the Elysium of futurity, in consequence of their having assumed the character of Osiris, to whom the souls of the pure returned on quitting their earthly abode. The form of the beard, therefore, readily distinguishes the figures of gods and kings in the sacred subjects of the temples; and the allegorical connection between the sphinx and the monarch is pointed out by its having the kingly beard, as well as the crown and other symbols of royalty (Wilkinson, Anc. Eg. suppl. plate 77, pt. 2).
From the above facts, it is clear that the Israelites maintained their beard and the ideas connected with it during their abode among the Egyptians, who were a shaven people. This is not unimportant as one of the indications which evince that, whatever they learned of good or evil in that country, they preserved the appearance and habits of a separate people. As the Egyptians shaved their beards off entirely, the injunction in Lev_19:27, against shaving “the corners of the beard” must have been levelled against the practices of some other bearded nation. The prohibition is usually understood to apply against rounding the corners of the beard where it joins the hair; and the reason is supposed to have been to counteract a superstition of certain Arabian tribes, who, by shaving off or rounding away the beard where it joined the hair of the head, devoted themselves to a certain deity who held among them the place which Bacchus did among the Greeks (Herodot. 3, 8; comp. Jer_9:26; Jer_25:23; Jer_49:32). The consequence seems to have been altogether to prevent the Jews from shaving off the edges of their beards. The effect of this prohibition in establishing a distinction of the Jews from other nations cannot be understood unless we contemplate the extravagant diversity in which the beard was and is treated by the nations of the East. SEE CORNER. The removal of the beard was a part of the ceremonial treatment proper to a leper (Lev_14:9). There is no evidence that the Jews compelled their slaves to wear beards otherwise than they wore their own; although the Romans, when they adopted the fashion of shaving, compelled their slaves to cherish their hair and beard, and let them shave when manumitted (Liv. 34:52; 45:44).
In 2Sa_19:24, the term rendered “beard” is in the original שָׂפָם, sapham', and signifies the mustache (being elsewhere rendered “upper lip”), which, like the beard, was carefully preserved.
II. The 44th canon of the council of Carthage, A.D. 398, according to the most probable reading, forbids clergymen to suffer the hair of their heads to grow too long, and at the same time forbids to shave the beard. Clericus nec comam nutriat nec barbam radat. According to Gregory VII, the Western clergy have not worn beards since the first introduction of Christianity; but Bingham shows this to be incorrect. — Bingham, Orig. Eccl. bk. 6, ch. 4, § 15.
Beard (SUPPLEMENTAL FROM VOLUME 1):
The practice of the clergy in ancient-times in respect to wearing beards was in conformity with the general custom. Long hair and baldness by shaving leing alike in ill-repute as unseemly peculiarities, the clergy were required to observe a becoming moderation between either extreme. The fourth Council of Carthage ordered that the clergy should “neither cultivate the hair, nor shave the beard.” The contrary practice, however, having obtained in the later Roman Church, it has been contended that the word “shave” was an interpolation in the canon. But this has been disproved on the testimony of the Vatican and many other manuscripts; and long after it was the custom of the French bishops to wear short hair and long beards. SEE SHAVING.



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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