―Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou, and thy fellows that sit before thee: for they are men wondered at:
for, behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH‖. (Zech 3:8)
―And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is
The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:‖ (Zech.
6:12)
These are the major cites where the Coming One, Y‘shua the Messiah, was entitled ―Branch‖. There is much
to this and it all began when YHWH put an end to the rebellion of Israel in the Wilderness, specifically
concerning who installed Aaron as High Priest. For the rebel Korah said it was because Aaron was Moses'
brother, that Moses made Aaron High Priest. And YHWH instituted a dead branch (also known in English as
a staff or rod), to be His witness as to whom He had chosen to be High Priest. It was when this dead branch
came to life, sprouted and grew almonds on it (Num 17:5ff), that YHWH revealed to Israel whom He had
chosen.
It was when Y‘shua, a dead 'branch' came back to life, glorified, that all Israel could know that YHWH had
made Y‘shua both Lord and Messiah (Acts 2:36).
It was out of the turbulence of rebellion that YHWH established who was to be His anointed one, Aaron. And
now the concept of a branch would become a symbol for the Messiah, used by many prophets. So, when
Matthew (2:23) and others call Y‘shua a 'Nazarene', they are not referring to the vow which will be explained
later; but to the place where He grew up in, for they are also very well aware of the prophecies that say the
Messiah will be a ―Branch‖, which is the meaning of the name of Nazareth.
It gets very interesting when we read John 19:19, which says: 'Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on
the crucifixion stake. It was written, ―Y‘shua the Nazarene, the King of the Jews‖. It can equally be translated
like this: ―Y‘shua My Branch, the King of the Jews‖.
As far as the pictures with short beard and long hair is concerned, Y‘shua, not being a Nazarite, would have
had a very long beard and fairly trimmed hair, hidden under the 'turban...wound' around the head and
'hanging gracefully behind' (Edersheim, Alfred: Sketches of Jewish Social Life, Hendrickson Publishers,
1994, p. 198). This would have been worn by all men of His time and would have protected their heads and
the back of their neck from the scorching heat of the sun, much like the cowboy hat of today.
Giving Y‘shua long hair is actually anti-scriptural, for the Apostle Paul assumes this when he states: 'Does
not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him?' (1 Cor 11:14).
Among the Jews, long hair was a symbol of rebellion.
The Y‟shua that has no beauty that we should desire himAssuming Y‟shua was a nazir, taking from a literal point of view:
A nazir was a man who would isolate himself from certain material luxuries for purposes of spiritual
heightenings. (A female nazir was called a nezirah.) A nazir (pronounced NAH-zeer) or nezirah is a
nazirite, but what's a nazirite (other than a poor translation of the word nazir)?
These Hebrew words both mean "marked out one‖. They come from the root word neizer
(pronounced NAY-zehr) which means ―marked out‖ or ―designation‖. The nazir or nezirah would
mark out certain things as off-limits, the absence of which would enhance their spiritual sensitivity
and deaden their cravings for physical pleasures.
Here's a excellent definition of "nazir" by Encyclopedia.com: "In the Bible, a man dedicated to God.
The Nazarite, after taking a special vow, abstained from intoxicating beverages, never cut his hair, and
avoided corpses. An inadvertent breach of these rules called for purificatory rites. His vow was for a
fixed term (though it could also be for life), at the end of which he was released. Samuel, the prophet,
and Samson were Nazarites. The name is also spelled Nazirite”.
Anybody who is still wants to become a nazir after looking at the ―job description‖ below, must really
be a dedicated person.
The following collection of singular commandments in the Torah applies specifically to the nazir. For
that reason, they are allowed to have long hair, etc. Again, only technically speaking, here's what
nezirut would take: