So after reading through both of these articles I came to some interesting conclusions about this particular verse. My initial thoughts on this was that it was madness to walk around without shaving or cutting your hair it was only until I looked closely on the issue and finding its true meaning.  The protagonist constantly says be holy because I am holy in the book of Leviticus and many others. I believe he wants his people to be set apart from what is the norm for ancient times, and contemporary societies. Being modern times it does make me wonder why would one cut his hair when he is in mourning, and why cut the skin? It is an answer that I am unable to answer because no one is hear to answer the question. Lastly, I think all the rules in Leviticus were about maintaining order, and helping the people break  the mindsets of them that had been established by the Egyptians. Still the idea is strange, but let us also think about the time period before the modern knife was invented all the people had were jagged rocks and would u like to shave o cut your hair with this?



I hope most people say no lol, but you never know with some people. My point is this something like that could cause tremendous pain, and infection. they were in  a desert so many diseases, infections, and bacteria can happen in a place like this. I venture to say Yahweh wanted his people to be clean, and doing something like cutting your edges, rounding your head would have caused serious problems in a desert surrounding before the modern knife was invented.

Ancient custom of Mourning the Dead

It has been established that rounding your head in  the fashion of a bowl is wrong, due to the fact that it was practiced by the Egyptians. Another strange customs of these people was that during a mourning process it was the custom to cut the head, beard, and cut the skin.  So my guess to this reason is that the protagonist looked at this act as erratic and his people should not be practiced, and when I think about it that does make sense to help deter random acts like this:


To help me get to this particular point I found another website that helped the reasoning behind the commandment: Firstly, we learn that the prohibition is not necessarily a bowl-cut, but making any baldness around the edges of the head. Secondly, we see that the prohibition is specifically in the context of mourning. That is, one is prohibited to make baldness in the head as an act of mourning "for the dead". In ancient times when someone died the surviving relatives were so distraught that they cut their skin until they bled and shaved bald spots on their head.

would you guys like to take  a further look on the topic: http://www.karaite-korner.org/shaving.shtml

The custom of Heathen people?

So after doing  a little digging on the topic I found some interesting articles about this verse, and it really helped my insight into why this was not allowed.  In the article the publisher explains why this was wrong:
It was the custom of some heathen nations to cut and trim their beards and hair into particular shapes in honor of some pagan god. The Egyptians, for example, had their hair cut short and in a certain way, so that what remained appeared in the form of a circle surrounding the head (the halo was derived from this). In another instance, a round spot would be shaved off. Both of these forms are indications of sun god worship.
http://rcg.org/questions/p029.a.html
 I find this interesting  because was the Protagonist in some way jealous of the Hebrew people, and was this command to set his people apart because he is holy, which can sometimes be described as be different because I am different.

To further my understanding this concept I continued reading this article, and it also described what it means in our society today. Here is another excerpt: Modern forms of such extremes include: extremely short or even no hair to intimidate (e.g., Nazis, skinheads); strangely cut, colored or spiked hair to intimidate, but also to attract undue attention (e.g., punk rockers, the more recent “Gothic” look, etc.); strangely cut and colored hair at sporting events (a form of idol worship); and many others.

From what I have found this helps out but what also made me ponder more on the issue is that the article said it is ok for modern Christian to shave their hair. In my opinion it is very much so a contradiction to the verse itself, but nevertheless it served its purpose for part of my question.

is it wrong to cut your hair?

I had the great opportunity to read through Leviticus this week, and I was very shocked by some of the things that I had read. I didn't know their were so many rules in this book. The one verse that really through me for a loop was found in chapter 19 verse 27: "You shall not round off the side growth of your heads and  not harm the edges of your beard." This stuck out to me because I love getting my haircut , and trim my beard when I can so is that wrong according to this verse? Hopefully throughout this blog I come to the conclusion of why is it wrong to cut your hair?