The Beard - Symbol of manhood and token of the superior nature?

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:lol:
All I have is my personal experience. When I had a full bushy beard, store security men would follow me around when I was shopping, and young Jewish kids would come up to me to ask for my understanding of the Torah.

Thats a wonderful opportunity to witness to the Jewish folk!
 
If you ride a bike a long beard feels really neat rubbing your neck. But it forms into a weird bird's nest looking thing when you get off of your bike. Definitely take a comb or brush with you if you do ride a motorcycle. LOL

Martin, with your Dabneyesque look, a bird's nest would be the least of your possibilites. You could play hide-n-seek in that thing, not to mention using it as a really cool place to hide snacks.

I do retrieve seconds from it sometimes. :lol:

Just to really chime in on the beard issue, I would have to say it would have to be more of a moral law (separation and distinction of the sexes) than a ceremonial law. But it wouldn't be a major issue if you paralleled the issue with long hair as Paul mentions in the following passage.

(1Co 11:14) Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?

(1Co 11:15) But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.

(1Co 11:16) But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.

Maybe that is out on a limb. But this passage is about hair and the sexes.


but then what hair does it refer to- most folk today definitely would agree to the top and back of the head, but does it imply facial hair also?
 
I don't have a beard and can't grow one and I gaurantee I could beat the snot out of Clement.

I win.
 
I think, in all honesty, that the principle is still valid of having men look different than women. I don't think it has to be by means of beard, although that is certainly a rather decisive indication of what sex a person is. The point is that men should not look like women.

On a side note, if I shaved my beard off, not only would I look like I'm 16 years old, but my children would be scared to death!

You do have a boyish quality to you.

As a side note, 3 years into my parent's marriage my father shaved his beard off. My mother, up until that point, had never seen her husband without a beard. :D
 
Are beards really a design flaw?

When God designed Adam He was designed to have a beard. Why is there so much prejudice about them? I had a mustache until I was married and made a point of NOT shaving it off until I got married.

If we were meant to have facial hair why remove it? Cultural prejudices aside, ignoring all the gillette adverts etc... why do we (men) shave? :think:

Where does the pressure preventing me regrowing my beard come from?
a) My wife who does not like them
b) My wife who says I will look older
c) My daughter (prompted by my wife) who says she does not like them

Can anyone spot a pattern :lol:
 
My fiance hates them. I told her I would grow one anyway one day and if she won't kiss me, her loss. :D
 
I've posted this quote in other threads recently, but it seems appropriate here, so hopefully you won't mind the repeat:

Martin Luther wrote to Spalatin on May 14, 1521:
After being captured I was stripped of my own clothes and dressed in a knight's cloak. I am letting my hair and beard grow so that you would hardly know me...Now I am living in Christian liberty.
 
Men grow more armpit hair than women...why couldnt this be a sign of manliness instead.

Or chest hair! I am a hairy bear and thus could take the cake as the most hairy...i.e. the most manly!
 
I thought the true test of manhood was how many kids you have. :smug:

Father of 9.
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Ah, er, hmmm . . . you aren't related to Warren Jeffs are you? Do the letters FLDS mean anything to you? Have you ever lived in Utah? :think:

Actually, that is a mighty fine looking family. What a blessing!
 
When God designed Adam He was designed to have a beard. Why is there so much prejudice about them? I had a mustache until I was married and made a point of NOT shaving it off until I got married.

If we were meant to have facial hair why remove it? Cultural prejudices aside, ignoring all the gillette adverts etc... why do we (men) shave? :think:

Where does the pressure preventing me regrowing my beard come from?
a) My wife who does not like them
b) My wife who says I will look older
c) My daughter (prompted by my wife) who says she does not like them

Can anyone spot a pattern :lol:


Under this rationale of design, why would we ever cut our hair or trim our finger or toenails either?
 
When God designed Adam He was designed to have a beard. Why is there so much prejudice about them? I had a mustache until I was married and made a point of NOT shaving it off until I got married.

If we were meant to have facial hair why remove it? Cultural prejudices aside, ignoring all the gillette adverts etc... why do we (men) shave? :think:

Where does the pressure preventing me regrowing my beard come from?
a) My wife who does not like them
b) My wife who says I will look older
c) My daughter (prompted by my wife) who says she does not like them

Can anyone spot a pattern :lol:


Under this rationale of design, why would we ever cut our hair or trim our finger or toenails either?

You're right. Let's stop.
 
Lesser known Early Church Father Steve of Sardis wrote, “How womanly it is for one who is a man to manicure himself and clip his nails with a clipper, for the sake of fine effect, and to take a file and smooth them!"

Paul of Tarsus (not the Apostle, but a similarly named church father from the other side of Sardis) wrote, "Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man hath short nails, it is a shame unto him?"

And that's all I have to say about that. And yes, my wife complains about my quite long nails regularly.
 
This is an intriguing question. My facial hair is short and I shave my cheeks, thus leaving only a goatee, if such it might be called. I have pondered this issue in times past.

Regarding things strangled and blood, I would argue that this law is moral. A similar law was issued in Genesis 9 and was also repeated at the Jerusalem counsel.

When meat is butchered, the juglar vein is sliced and the blood is drained from the carcass. There is no sin in eating steak as God intended - medium rare. That red liquid seen on the plate isn't blood, it's water. Pagan cultures often ripped right into it, sometimes even before cooking it. Of course, blood has often been drank during pagan sacrifices. I would argue that it is sin to eat meat that has not had the blood drained out.

I do think the issue of the beard is ceremonial - it is not given elsewhere in the Scriptures and would seem to be packaged as laws pertianing to Israel as opposed to laws applied universally to all men. Thus my view is that if you don't desire a beard, shave the whiskers off to the glory of God.

bob
 
I am quite thankful God has blessed me with a thick beard at the age of 20, even one that connects to my unibrow (thanks to my German genes). I plan to grow it out for at least my next two years studying philosophy in school (beards and philosophy go well together I think). Were there any reformed who argued against having a beard? It does seem to be both an unattractive and unprofessional feature in today's society (unless you are in philosophy!).
 
Puritan hair

Anyone else notice how long the puritans grew their hair? They wouldn't look out of place in a rock band :ROFL:

I guess the length of a mans hair is relative to the womans - so short female hairstyles and I will have to get a crew cut like the army:lol:
 
How do you know you could whoop Clement?

Well, a few reasons actually.

1. I am 6'4 and 255 pounds. I can beat a lot of people up. Unless Clement was exceptionally large or skilled in hand to hand combat, it's unlikely he'd give me much of a fight.

2. People were much smaller back then. Take into account the fact that Clement was an Alexandrian and I am predominately German and you're guaranteed a disproportionate match-up in size and general body build.

3. I am a Calvinist. We have cold, black hearts which fuels our blood-lust for Arminians, universalists, and Alexandrians.

4. He didn't have guns. I have a Browning A-5 12 gauge shotgun.

There are other reasons, but these should prove sufficient to show that I would, with little doubt, absolutely beat Clement with his severed left arm despite my "unmanliness" (in his opinion) in a lack of beard.
 
*this is now in fun*

But like most Alexandrian movers and shakers Clement was Greek, and haven't you seen Hercules on TV? As to body type Greeks tend to be very stocky and have always been good at hand to hand. Besides, you can't pick a guy at a late time in his life and compare him with yourself in your prime. What if the guy was an expert at pankration in his youth? And the idea they "we're bigger now" does have an element of truth, but not as much as some people think. The volcano statues of Pompey have shown us that the people who lived there then were bigger than the people who live in the same area now, and Roman legionaires had to be at least 5 foot 9 before they could inlist. And if you get to take your gun, then it's an escalation that moves away from personal manliness to technological advantage.
 
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