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It sounds odd to say there is a Holiness standard that Holiness ministers will agree has no biblical basis, but there is. It’s the rule against facial hair. Back when I asked questions as a teenager, I was told that men aren’t allowed to grow facial hair so they won’t be confused with the hippie movement. The hippie movement – wasn’t that something in my history book from nearly 60 years ago? And didn’t the hippie women wear long flowing skirts? I was told such skirts are godly. The oddest thing of all is, biblical basis or not, the tradition is still enforced. Preaching in the pulpit, singing in the choir, taking up the offering, or even playing an instrument, are all denied only over facial hair. Anyone who “really gets saved” is expected to shave, while growing facial hair out signifies backsliding. Facial hair is a litmus test of spirituality; a litmus test that Jesus would have failed. Perhaps it’s high time we evaluate this tradition in light of scripture, rather than dividing the Church over opinion.
-Natalie
The only independent Holiness writers that I [Nathan] have read are intellectually honest enough not to condemn beards outright, though they caution against them and their alleged pitfalls. The seemingly most hip way to say this is “I would never have a beard, but they are not necessarily sin.” This assumes that beards are fraught with special traps, but acknowledges that there isn’t a shred of Biblical evidence to oppose them. I found a popular Apostolic writer named Martyn Ballestero, who expressed the stronger version of the belief this way. In his words:
“If you are not wearing it out of compromise, rebellion, or from a backslidden state, and you are wearing it just because you think it looks good on you, then would you say it is pride issue with you?
Does Your Facial Hair Tell Others That You Have A Flaming Pride Issue?
If you don’t think pride is involved in wearing of facial hair, just try to preach it off of those who have it. Every wearer I’ve met is fiercely defensive.”
Hopefully, you see some issues with those statements. If not, keep reading.
What does the Bible say about beards?
Old Testament Precedent
Beards were common: The Bible specifically mentions that David (1 Samuel 21:14), Aaron (Psalm 133:2), Ezekiel (Ezekiel 5:1), and Ezra (Ezra 9:3) had beards (among others). Interestingly, Joseph followed the custom of the Egyptians of shaving (Genesis 41:14), and is not condemned for it. Joseph participated in the culture of his day in a way that did not disobey God’s commands (Joseph obviously lived in pre-Mosaic times).
Beards were well maintained and trimmed: In Leviticus 19:27 (and again in Lev. 21:5) the Mosaic law forbids certain styles of beards: “Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.” Given the context, this was likely a reference to the pagan styles of the day, which were associated with idolatry.
A Canaanite beard style with trimmed corners
Notably, this prohibition on shaping the edges of beards didn’t prevent devout Jews from trimming the length. In 2 Samuel 19:24, the Bible clearly records that trimming beards was normal and considered good hygiene, “And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king, and had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came again in peace.”
Removing beards was explicitly allowed under particular circumstances: The Old Testament law didn’t explicitly require having a beard, and sometimes prescribed instances where they were or should be removed. In Leviticus 14:9 shaving a beard is required to prove that you are recovered from leprosy. Jeremiah records that shaven beards were a sign of mourning (Jer. 48:37) and Ezra pulls his out in shock (Ezra 9:3).
Lacking a beard was considered shameful: In 2 Samuel 10:3-5, the Bible tells of messengers who were humiliated by having half of their beards shaven. David’s prescription for their “great shame” was to take them out of action until their beards could regrow.
New Testament Evidence
Did Jesus have a beard? The answer lies somewhere between “almost certainly” to beyond a doubt.
In Isaiah 50:6, Isaiah tells the story of a captive who was slapped and whose beard was plucked out.“I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” Many scholars think this prophecy is Messianic, though the passage doesn’t say that explicitly. If the passage is Messianic, then Jesus certainly had a beard. If it isn’t, the Bible doesn’t say.
As a Jewish man, in light of all the Old Testament evidence he probably would have had a beard, but it depends on the degree to which the Greco-Roman culture (of being clean shaven) had influenced Jewish practice at that point.
Images of a bearded Jesus show up as early as the 300’s to 400’s. The earliest 2 or 3 depictions of Jesus, starting in 235 AD, show him as beardless. However, some of these pictures were of him as a youth and some were showing him attired as was the custom of the time and place of the artist, not necessarily attired as a Jewish man from 200 years prior.
Christ Healing the Paralytic, Syria, circa 235 A.D.
What did the disciples think about beards?
The earliest depictions of the Apostles do show them with beards, and many others thereafter. Paul is pictured with a pointed beard in the style of the Turks, which makes sense given his heritage from Tarsus, Turkey. Beards are never mentioned explicitly in the New Testament.
The earliest depiction of the Apostle Paul
Clearly, New Testament writers did not think facial hair was a problem, because it existed in their day, and they never addressed it. For that matter, they spent almost no time addressing physical appearance and almost all of their time addressing matters of the heart or conduct towards others.
Pride and Laziness – the contradictory assault on beards
Arguments against beards generally fall into two buckets. These arguments are defended rather half-heartedly in the Holiness blog “Answers in Holiness” by Rev. Jeremy Spurlock. As noted, he acknowledges that one can’t call beards sin, per se, but still makes many of the same remarks about them as the Apostolic writer mentioned in the introduction. He seems to say that beards aren’t the problem, but they are almost certainly the fruit born out of a rebellious heart. In his words:
“There is a trend to cast off the former “traditions” of the holiness church, and to embrace a more relaxed, casual, sloppy attitude in God’s presence.
If the motive of a young man for wearing facial hair stems from an attitude problem, or rebellion – then facial hair is just a little bit of the fruit that is growing on the tree? The root of the problem is a definitely a heart issue!”
It’s actually rather amusing, because opponents of beards call them either “unkempt” or “prideful” to cover all possible versions. If your beard looks bad, it is a sign you are apathetic. If it looks good, it is a sign you are prideful. Rebellion is a related idea to both, with the same responses, so I’ll address that concurrently. Only lacking a beard is considered evidence that you both look respectable, yet are not concerned with your own appearance.
The better question is not, “is a beard prideful,” but rather, “is a beard inherently prideful?” Everything can be prideful if your heart is in the wrong place. I’ve heard people talk about the regularity of their church attendance with evident pride. They have a heart problem, but church attendance is not inherently prideful. On the other hand, publishing a book about why you’re the greatest person in your generation is inherently indicative of pride. While not all actions will fall neatly into one pile or the other, we should be able to make a reasonable determination of where on the spectrum beards fall lie.
Is a beard inherently “unkempt” or “sloppy?”
In Biblical times, the idea that a beard was inherently sloven can be dismissed out of hand. We know from Scriptures cited above that men trimmed their beards and that to be without one was thought a great shame. Throughout most of the past 2,000 years, a large percentage of regular men wore beards. There are exceptional cultures and trends, but beards were normal for most of history. Clearly, beards have not been thought to be inherently sloppy in times past.
Is the beard inherently “sloppy” in the modern era? Perhaps one that isn’t maintained at all smacks of laziness, just like if a man were to never wash, comb, or trim his hair. However, although the hippies of the 60’s did often sport such unkempt beards, that is not the trend with modern facial hair. I did a quick Google image search for “beard” and saw that of the first 50 or so results, all were of trimmed beards, not the ones in the hippie style. Until I got to this one, which I will allow you to judge:
You would have to admit that there is a lot of maintenance going on here.
One argument that is occasionally bandied about is that the US military regulations exemplify that being clean-shaven is more refined and professional in modern times. As someone who spent nine years in the Army, I can say that while that belief is held by some in uniform, it is hardly universal among those who serve. In fact, growing a beard for some period of time after leaving the military is considered something of a rite of passage. Furthermore, well-groomed facial hair is allowed by many other militaries around the world and mustaches are allowed in the US military. The primary reason why the US military forbade facial hair in the first place was so that gas masks can seal to the face properly – this is hardly a broadly applicable cultural principle.
Outside of the military, it is increasingly difficult to make the argument that a well-maintained beard is unacceptable in the professional world. Beards have risen and fallen in popularity many times over the last 200 years, but currently, they seem to be re-surging. Many top corporate executives have adopted the beard, such as the late Steve Jobs of Apple and Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin. While I only counted seven of the world’s top 100 CEO’s with facial hair, by comparison, how many top CEO’s have face tattoos or nose rings? None, because those things are actually considered unprofessional.
I don’t see any compelling reasons to believe that a beard makes one inherently “sloppy” looking.
Is a beard inherently “prideful?”
I should point out that trimming the edges of a beard into a clean shape is the opposite of being “sloppy.” Trimming beards was the norm in the Old Testament, though they would have trimmed the length and not shaped the corners. For many men who don’t grow facial hair evenly in a perfect beard range, shaping the edges is essential if you want to have a beard and not look unkempt.
Do men express pride through their beards? Some do, certainly. And the exact same men no doubt express pride through their hair. Does it follow that all men should shave their heads? No. It does not. The inference by Ballestero is that if you like the look of something, it must be prideful to wear it. The logical deduction is that we ought not wear anything we like the look of. Which leads you to this little brain teaser. For most of my life, I have been clean shaven, with the exception of one short period in which I experimented with growing a beard. I wasn’t a big fan of the look, and I think I look better without it. If I think I look better without a beard, does that mean that shaving is an act of pride? Perhaps I should grow a beard in humility.
There may be many valid reasons to grow a beard, just as there may be many reasons to wear shiny shoes or try a military “high and tight” hair cut for a little while. Curiosity, personal preference, the preference of a wife, or the desire to look more masculine, are all fine reasons to change your haircut or grow a beard. There are even practical benefits for men working in certain climates, as beards keep your face warmer and help filter dust and allergens. Additionally, some men, particularly black men, are prone to painful inflamed bumps and ingrown hairs if they do not allow their beard to grow (a condition known as pseudofolliculitis barbae or PFB). This reflects a way in which tacking on an extra-biblical rule has an unintentionally inequitable effect among different races.
Why are we even talking about this?
Spurlock finishes his advice this way:
“I know many good Christian men who have beards and facial hair. So I am not saying facial hair is a sin. But you must be careful to ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing? Or, why you want to do what you have been told not to do by your authority.”
It is valid that we should always evaluate our motives. You should have good motives for everything you do, including growing your eyebrows out. However, there is another question left standing. Why do “the authorities” try to prevent facial hair at all? Given the case I have laid out, why was this ever brought up in the first place?
It can’t be because our culture and churches are so moral, loving, unified, sexually pure, and wholesome that we only have small details of extra-biblical opinion left to discuss. For some, it may be honest ignorance, and the unchallenged assumption that Grandpa was as close to God as possible, so everything should be done his way. However, I suspect that the reason that some authorities oppose beards is, ironically, pride.
Pride, in the sense that they think their spirituality is so refined, that even their preferences carry moral weight for other people.
Pride, in the sense that they feel their personal grasp of other people’s motives and hearts is so insightful that they can, like God, see motives deep in the soul.
It is simply human to want people to do things your way. I am guilty of it myself. But we certainly shouldn’t be turning beards into a moral issue if God didn’t see fit to.
In the apt words of one critic of this belief, “Why would God put hair on my face, and then send me to Hell for it?”
Church is not a place that should be defined by man’s opinion. If you want opinions, look to the media. Only the Church has the living word of an unchanging God to share. And our opinions will not add any value.
–Nathan Mayo
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Shaving beards has a much biblical principle as a woman wearing a dress…… zero biblical support!!!
God created Man in his Image, so when Created Adam he created Beard.
According only Man has Beard not the Women.
Where as woman were given long Hair.
Respect and Accept What God has Created .
Don’t follow the Cult and Tradition.
Women were given long hair? I believe God gave all humans hair on their heads. Now there are exceptions to this rule like Alopecia areata, or baldness from age, but for the majority of humans we have hair on our heads. That being said the length and style is up to us as individuals. Men having short hair and women having long hair is just a custom that we have accepted. I know men with long hair and women with short hair and they all are created by and loved by God. I think the idea that a certain hair style is “sin” is just silliness. We as Christ followers have better things to do with our time than discuss this.
Some churches believe to be in ministry you cannot have a beer why is this?
While alcohol is outside of the scope of this article, I can tell you that the Bible has strong warnings against drunkenness, from which some churches derive a standard that restricts all alcohol. Such a standard is difficult to defend Biblically, but there are many other authors that have analyzed both sides of this issue. I typically focus my writing on topics that are more distinctive to hyper-fundamentalism.
This is not an issue. 28 percent Christian.? What does it mean on grooming. Pick your side, put down the Robot. Read the first book. The Bible. This is the manual to life, just like a car manual etc…..Diego
God gave man a beard. It seems to follow that this is His design. If anything is rebellious, surely it is man removing what God has given, no?
Apparently what used to be a conservative business Chick Fil A now requires all men to shave off all of their beard including the corners and all of it.
Leviticus 19:27 clearly mandated having a beard, Jesus kept the Law, he was not a lawbreaker.
Nathan,
You are absolutely right. Why was this ever an issue in the first place? It seems some well meaning souls, with nothing else to do, got carried away with an issue, and can’t seem to figure out how to back off now. I hope they read these articles, and are honest. Thanks
A shots my right Bob. The biggest weapon against the church is the divisiveness of people with these petty ideas. God made man in his own image. And since God was around long before Man. And man was made in his image, then God must have facial hair. And, since the razor was made by Man, not God, then I don’t see God standing over a sink in the morning looking in a mirror shaving.therefore, this is all a foolish nonsense.
Also, for all those who speak of The Law.I urge you to look up the verses what pertain to following the Law. Christians are not under the law. .
Now, let’s drop this petty foolishness and start sharing the Gospen. Instead of concerning ourselves with this petty foolishness. Shall we?
Great article! I have never understood the church being against beards.
From what I was told hair in the under arms , face and private. Did not come until Adam and Eve Sin
Hmm. What you were told has no basis in Scripture that I am aware of. That falls into the category of pure speculation, so I wouldn’t use that as the basis for any other belief.
Holy cows!! (the sacred kind). Never heard that one before.
You’re gonna have to find that verse, cause that’s beyond gross. We were prebubecent until the original sin? Ew. Also, why are only women supposed to have long hair? Men have always had long hair until the 19th century. And wore wigs.
For a group that emphasizes distinction between the sexes (women in skirts/men in pants/long hair on women/short hair on men) you would think beards would be allowed. As a member of that movement for 30+ years I always wondered about the men present at Azusa Street (most were bearded) if that was unpleasing to God, why the movement changing revivals? I finally grew a beard, Mark 7:7 says “ they turned traditions of men into doctrine.” I don’t give traditions of men the same authority as holy scripture, I have chosen to measure my walk with God against holy scriptures, not traditions of men. I pray the Lord keep in me a right spirit!
Amen!
Physical appearance does matter to God. That’s why he says we ought not to wear tattoos, dress like the other sex, keep certain hairstyles, mar the beard etc. No movie producer would be willing to risk portraying Jesus without a beard and many movies would fail without bearded lead characters.
An awful lot of prideful belief among the followers of these sects.
What is in the Word of God is what counts, not what some eco-hipster preacher says is right or wrong.
Beards on men are not inherently sinful. If that was so, none of the descendants of Adam would have beards.
Society might try to dictate what is proper but society is all too often corrupt and vile as we see today.
Why and how a man wears his beard shows what is in his heart. Ink and piercings should not be on a follower of Christ, but that doesn’t make them unfit to serve Him. How they serve is what counts.
Dear Nathan, I grew up around various Azuza branches mostly (oneness people), UPC, Homestead Heritage, AOG(the only trinitarians), and recently Apostolic followers of Bishop S.C. Johnson(Bishop V. Bush), and now Bro.Gino Jennings. It seems that it is only UPCers that hold to this particular tradition of men. They make men cut off their beards and have women take off their headcoverings and preach, need I say more? Our country had a love affair with Greco/Roman culture and the Greeks were homos and pedofiles. Men with no hair on the face goes back to ancient Greece and wanting to look more desirable to perverts (more childlike, more effeminate). Take a look at Olympic sports, they shave their bodies and wear as little as possible(remember the homosexual Greeks wrestled beardless and naked) that’s because the Greeks ,where we get our Olympics, worshipped the body, and sex. Some say when they see beards they also see worldly things creeping in. Yet at Homestead, Bishop V. Bush’s church group, and at Bro. Gino’s church group the holiness standards are very high, they make UPCers look like flakes and there’s no prob with beards in those camps there’s also no women preaching there either. Plus Bishop V. Bush and Bro. Gino stand for women covering their glory in humilty. The UPC stands against transgender and homosexuality and yet they teach men to shave and women to preach and teach. They think they are the only Jesus name Holy Ghost people out there and that if anybody does different than they, it’s because they aren’t oneness and don’t have the Holy Ghost, but Homestead, Bishop V. Bush, and Bro. Gino Jennings are all oneness groups filled with Holy Ghost and all have holiness standards that would make the average UPCer cringe. For the time has come that judgement must begin at the house of God 1Peter 4:17
Its not in order to bow to the “right” of our current culture vs. the “left” of it, but rather to stand in righteousness( 2Kings22:2, Pro.4:27 looking neither to the right hand nor to the left) being salt and light, being counter-SIN-in-the-culture -revolutionaries for Christ’s sake. In the 60’s and 70’s the hippies rebeled against the traditional “conservative” culture of the time, and not everything about that culture was right and so not everything the hippies did in whole hog rebellion to that culture was wrong. Beards is a prime example plus long hair for women, long feminine skirts and dresses for women, and breastfeeding!(the culture had turned to the baby bottle as the proper appropriate way)natural food vs. chemical laden stuff and getting back to the land which speaks to us about God. Standing for righteousness against a culture that is sinful is not wrong, rather it’s good. I am not saying the hippies were standing for righteousness. They were just counter-culture, not counter-Sin-in-the-culture. What I understand is that Christians are to be counter-SIN-in-the-culture, not counter-culture(render unto Cesaer that which is Cesaers and to God that which is Gods). Men wearing beards in this time are standing in who God made them to be; men, not women, not children, not some sort of sexually perverted “thing 1 or thing 2” . They are standing against the transgender spirit of perversion and chaos. When a man grows his beard there is a protective spirit, a warrior for order and truth presence, that radiates from him. I have seen it again and again; in my Dad, in my brothers, in men walking down the street, everywhere I go. Men can grow beards, women and children cannot. Why would a men think it’s more righteous to look like a child or a woman when he is neither? Peterpan = responsibility shirker. And our nation which loves beardless athletes has an epidemic of fatherlessness, a nation who is not willing to “man up” and own our individual responcibilities.
Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 1Cor.16:13
A beard is like the five loaves and 2 fish.
I was just having this talk with my son. I feel like a man should have a beard, my father came from UPC and still holds to the beard thing…my father is the pastor but we are three generations of preachers…my son is married with a child and near 22…I keep a beard because of how I interpret things and because I never shave it burns like fire if I do…I just don’t get where the idea it looks cleaner came from
“I just don’t get where the idea it looks cleaner came from” I am tired of hearing people say it looks cleaner it makes confused. I dont like hearing it, so confusing, makes me shake of confusion.
Nathan,
I was brought up in church thinking a man with a beard was not a Christian. However, after reading the bible through several times I realized that there was zero in the scriptures about it being a sin. One preacher was talking to some teenage boys and I was stading there as well. He said it was wrong for a man to have a beard and when the boys mentioned that men in the bible had them, he said that is because they didn’t have razors. Well, razor is metioned in seven different verse in the KJV bible. There’s even the mention of a barber’s razor so they definetly had ways to shave a beard if they wanted to. They also had to shave their heads and beards for different reasons in the scripture. So that preacher’s whole argument goes up in smoke.
Why would not having a razor matter? Then I would be asking “why did they not have razors”?
Does it really mean that,by following the tradition of keeping beard according to the old testament,one has a ticket to heaven..or if one shave it,he will go to hell by disobeying God’s command? According to knowledge; Dispensation matters,environment also play a role to our lifestyle. Believe it or not; what changes a man can either make or mar him. All the power and authority is in the church,which is the body of Christ,directed by the Holy Spirit. If the church say,No to beard,no one stand a chance to argue it. Beard or no beard doesn’t matter like your right standing with God. Beard as a biblically tradition does not make you righteous. If the church age forbid it,then we should cohere to it..just my conviction.
But where does anyone get off telling you to change what God made?? Even in marriage it says what God joins together let no man put asunder…I had my beard before I was married…God formed me in the womb with full intentions of me one day having facial hair…if he didn’t want it there it wouldn’t be there.
I have had a beard most of my life and only shaved it once since having been married to which my wife said, “never do that again”. My earthly dad has always worn a beard but my granddad never wor a beard nor my uncles. Wearing a beard was never an issue anymore than someone’s favorite color. It was never about pridefulness just about preference.
Christian folks seem to look for a neo-circumcision, if indeed it comes down to bearded or clean shaven. That is my honest opinion… Thank you for this, because I may never had considered that any one had considered it wrong or right.
Muslim or Israeli beards ok because it’s a religion..worldly professional careers Americans with beards not acceptable looks homeless and poor…thank the Lord that he came for the poor lost sick and broken.Jesus sees the heart men looks at his appearance
I recently read a Facebook post by a local apostolic pastor in regards to this subject. My initial thought was, I can’t believe a man of God would let satan put him in a position for such controversy, knowing that it would cause strife among brethren. I’ve seen some of the things he and his members partake in, I believe facial hair is the least of their worries! With that being said, I’d like to see Love back in Christian walks! God doesn’t have special places for all of the different denominations man has created just because they see things differently and no longer speak when passing. Wake up to the divisive tool of the devil ( religion). May God bless each and everyone of you is my prayer.
i’m a christian. i have had a beard my entire adult life. i started shaving my head almost 6 years ago at age 55 because my hair was rapidly disappearing. i also have tattoos, which is an entirely different issue, but i guess it has been “strike 3” that has convinced some christians that i’m not saved at all.
The hypocritical part about this is that just 2 inches up is the hair on their head they go to a barber every week and pay him or her to cut their hair just right but if you come down your face just 2 inches or less and have a beard that’s sin, but the hair on top of your head is not sin this is called deep hypocrisy.
On the July 16 Jeopardy show, under the category “Odds and Ends”, the answer was:
“NEITHER SHALL THOU MAR THE CORNERS OF”
THIS, THE LORD TOLD MOSES; THAT’S WHY EASTERN
ORTHODOX PRIESTS SO OFTEN HAVE ONE
Anyone know the answer?
In the Pentecostal church that I attended when converting over to protestant from Catholic they had 2 reasons for why beard was a hard no to anyone being a member of the church.
1. Having a beard grow out or even long hair was unacceptable because that was the Nazarene promise with God. We are no longer doing Nazarene promises because Jesus was the last one to do it.
2. To differentiate us from the Muslims around town. We were supposed to stand apart from them and therefore not having a beard allowed us to be differentiated from them (not sure how as it also means we would look like every other person without a beard tat could possibly also not be a christian).
I followed the rules while my time there as it was the church I had decided to attend and therefore being a good representative of the Lord submitted to the authority of the land while there. After learning and connecting with God I decided that it was time to leave that church and go to another.
I’m glad to hear you kept growing past that church’s teachings. Allow me to note that item 1 is based on a very simple error. Jesus never took a “Nazarene” vow, because there is no such vow. There is a “Nazarite” vow specified in Numbers 6, whose name comes from the Hebrew word for “set apart.” It was, for most people, a temporary set of voluntary restrictions to express devotion to God, which included not cutting the hair. We know conclusively that Jesus was not a Nazarite, since the Bible records that he drank wine, which would have violated the vow. The vow also banned grape juice, so the alcohol content of what Jesus consumed is immaterial.
It’s true that Jesus was a Nazarene, but all that means is a resident of the town of Nazareth. It’s amazing the level of error people will tolerate when generating support for a pre-existing belief.