Biblical Types, Symbols & Patterns
Shave
Claim-level biblical evidence review with contextual controls, canonical relationships, and preserved interpretive history.
How to read this entry
Evidence grades apply to individual claims, not to the headword as a whole. Strong biblical identification is kept separate from plausible or traditional interpretations, and unsupported proposals remain visible as negative evidence rather than being silently removed.
Samson’s shaving and loss of strength in the Nazirite narrative
Judges explicitly links the shaving of Samson’s never-cut hair with the loss of his strength and the LORD’s departure in that exceptional consecration narrative.
Context control: The connection belongs to Samson’s Nazirite consecration and covenant-breaking episode; Scripture does not make shaving intrinsically or universally equivalent to loss of strength.
Judges 16:17–20 explicitly connects shaving Samson’s head with the loss of his strength and the LORD’s departure, so the legacy association is valid in Samson’s exceptional Nazirite-consecration context but must not be generalized into a universal symbolic rule.
Grade 1: Explicit biblical interpretationScope: The connection belongs to Samson’s Nazirite consecration and covenant-breaking episode; Scripture does not make shaving intrinsically or universally equivalent to loss of strength.
Residual uncertainty: No material residual uncertainty beyond the stated scope limitation.
Scripture
Evidence sources
- Canonical Scripture: MT/LXX/NA28 with NET/ESV comparison — Text loci verified for TSP-S0F Batch 1
Shaving as a universal symbol of being stripped of strength or power
Biblical shaving has multiple ritual, vow, mourning, humiliation, and narrative functions and therefore cannot bear one invariant symbolic meaning.
Context control: Levitical cleansing, Nazirite vow completion, prophetic humiliation imagery, and Samson’s exceptional case must be distinguished.
Leviticus 14 uses shaving within cleansing procedure, Numbers 6 within Nazirite vow completion, and Isaiah 7:20 within humiliation/judgment imagery; these contrary functions show that “shave = being shorn of strength/power” is not a universal biblical symbol.
Grade 7: Insufficient biblical evidenceScope: Levitical cleansing, Nazirite vow completion, prophetic humiliation imagery, and Samson’s exceptional case must be distinguished.
Residual uncertainty: No material residual uncertainty beyond the stated scope limitation.
Evidence sources
- Canonical Scripture: MT/LXX/NA28 with NET/ESV comparison — Text loci verified for TSP-S0F Batch 1
Study-aid notice
This page is part of an AI-assisted conservative evangelical Bible-study project. It has passed structured research, review, and QA gates, but it is not inspired or infallible and does not replace Scripture, prayer, pastors, teachers, or local church discernment.
Claims should be tested against Scripture in context. Corrections and Review Policy.