Barber

Webster's Dictionary

(1): (v. t.) To shave and dress the beard or hair of.

(2): (n.) A storm accompanied by driving ice spicules formed from sea water, esp. one occurring on the Gulf of St. Lawrence; - so named from the cutting ice spicules.

(3): (n.) One whose occupation it is to shave or trim the beard, and to cut and dress the hair of his patrons.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Only referred to in  Ezekiel 5:1 . Their employment was not usual, but was needed on special occasions, as for a Nazarite; for one supposed to have the leprosy, etc.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Ezekiel 5:1 Numbers 6:5 Judges 16:19

King James Dictionary

B'ARBER, n. One whose occupation is to shave men, or to shave and dress hair.

B'ARBER, To shave and dress hair.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Barber . See Hair.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

bar´bẽr  :

(1) The English word "barber" is from Latin barba , "beard" = a man who shaves the beard. Dressing and trimming the hair came to be added to his work. "Barber" is found only once English Versions of the Bible, in  Ezekiel 5:1 , "Take thee a sharp sword; as a barber's razor shalt thou take it unto thee, and shalt cause it to pass upon thy head and upon thy beard" (compare Ḥăghı̄gha' 4 b , Shab , section 6).

(2) In  Genesis 41:14 we probably have a case of conformity to Egyptian, rather than Palestinian custom, where Joseph " shaved himself , and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh." It is known that Egyptians of the higher classes shaved the beard regularly and completely (as the Hittites, Elamites and early Babylonians seem to have done), except that fashion allowed, as an exception to the rule, a small tuft, or "goatee," under the chin.

(3) We learn from various Scriptural allusions, as well as from other sources (compare W. Max Müller, Asien und Europa , 296ff), that the business of the oriental barber included, besides ceremonial shaving, the trimming and polling of the hair and the beard. Compare  2 Samuel 19:24 where it appears that the moustache (Hebrew sāphām  ; the King James Version "beard") received regular trimming  ; and  1 Samuel 21:14 , where the neglect of the beard is set down as a sign of madness.

That men wore wigs and false beards in ancient days, the latter showing the rank of the wearer, appears from Herodotus ii.36; iii.12; and Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt , II, 324, etc. Josephus, Vita , II, gives one case where false hair appears to have been used as an intentional disguise. See also Polyb. iii.78.

(4) The business of the barber (see  Ezekiel 5:1 , "as a barber's razor shalt thou take it unto thee, and shalt cause it to pass upon thy head and upon thy beard"), outside of ceremonial shaving, may have consisted in trimming and polling the beard and the hair of the head. Of other nations with whom Israel of old came in contact, the Hittites and Elamites, it is now known, shaved the beard completely, as the earliest Babylonians also seem to have done.

(5) The prohibition enjoined in the Mosaic law upon "the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok" ( Ezekiel 44:15 ,  Ezekiel 44:20 ) forbidding either "shaving the head," or "suffering their locks to grow long," or shaving off the corners of their beard ( Leviticus 21:5 ), was clearly, in a sense peculiar to the priests, etc.: "They (the priests) shall only cut off," i.e. trim, not shave, "the hair of their heads" (  Ezekiel 44:20 ). But in the Apostolical Constitutions, I, 3, insistence is laid upon the Biblical prohibition as applicable to all as regards the removal of the beard (compare Clement of Alexandria, Paed., III, edition Migne, I, 580 f). Jerome on  Ezekiel 44:20 and some of the Jewish sages find the basis of this prohibition in the fact that God gave a beard to man to distinguish him from the woman - so, they reasoned, it is wrong Thus to go against Nature (compare Bahya, on   Leviticus 19:27 ).

(6) In the Palestine of the Greek period, say in the 3rd century bc, when there was a large infusion of Hellenic population and influence, clipping of the beard prevailed in some circles, being omitted only in times of mourning, etc. The common people, however, seem to have seen little distinction between clipping the beard and shaving. But see pictures of captive Jews with clipped beard in the British Museum.

Literature

Benzinger, heb. Arch ., 110; Nowack, Lehrbuch der Heb. Arch ., 134; W. Max Müller, Asien und Europa , 296ff.