the limits of variety 165
of the authors of the New Testament. Their influence over the wider
community may have been greater before 70 ce if, as the tannaitic rab-
bis asserted in the early third century ce, they taught at times in the
Temple, in the ‘Chamber of Hewn Stone’, from which, according to the
Mishnah, ‘Torah goes forth to all Israel’. But we should not imagine, as
rabbis many centuries later were to do, that the sages before 70 ce con-
trolled the religious institutions of Jerusalem, from the Temple service to
the Sanhedrin. They were just one group of religious enthusiasts among
many. What made them special was their dedication to working out pre-
cisely how they, and other religious enthusiasts, should live according to
the law of Moses.^9
Nazirites and Haverim
Among the enthusiasts whose supererogatory piety the sages discussed
were nazirites, to whose special vow a whole section of the Mishnah was
dedicated. The nature of the nazirite vow, involving abstention from wine,
strong drink and grapes, while letting the hair grow and (except for life-
long nazirites) avoiding contact with corpse impurity even for the burial
of a close relative, is laid out clearly in the Bible in the book of Numbers
(see above, p. 58). Other biblical texts describe the vow in action, par-
ticularly in stories about Samuel and Samson, who were both dedicated
to lifelong naziritism from before birth. Most nazirite vows were taken
for a brief period by an individual seeking to consecrate himself or herself
to God for a month or so for a special reason, such as thanksgiving for
benefits received or in hope of divine aid when in trouble.^10
The nazirite vow was evidently common both in the diaspora and in
Judaea in the late Second Temple period. The Septuagint translation of
the relevant chapter of Numbers denotes the nazirite vow as the ‘great
vow’. The apostle Paul is probably described in Acts as taking a nazirite
vow, and the Jewish princess Berenice, when in 66 ce she intervened to
try to avert rebellion against Rome, was in Jerusalem to complete her
days as a nazirite. This vow was perhaps particularly attractive for
supererogatory piety for rich and powerful women like Berenice who
wished to demonstrate their devotion. A story is told also of Queen
Helena of Adiabene as a nazirite. According to the Mishnah:
It once happened that the son of Queen Helena went to war and she said,
‘If my son returns in safety from the war I will be a nazirite for seven