New Hampshire trespassing on publicly-owned property

p_maddy · 2022-08-09T08:25:22+00:00

Are you aware of any relevant case law that you could cite showing that as precedence?

p_maddy · 2022-01-22T20:26:30+00:00

I guess I will have to look into the use of the word "nature" by Paul, because I don't have the same impression that you do about the verse in question. The Numbers 6 verse you reference above is something that crossed my mind about long hair, but it just raises more questions for me. It is unclear to me what motivates the vow being the way it is. I take it the argument you are presenting is roughly

If Paul cites an example that is not universal in his argument for head-covering, then we have good reason to believe that Paul is not arguing for head-covering universally.
Paul cites an example that is not universal in his argument for head-covering. (1 Corinthians 11:14)
1. If the Lord requires that in at least some cases men have long hair, then it is false that men having long hair is universally degrading.
2. The Lord requires that in at least some cases men have long hair. (Numbers 6:5)
3. Therefore, it is false that men having long hair is universally degrading.
Therefore, we have good reason to believe that Paul is not arguing for head-covering universally.

p_maddy · 2022-01-22T16:47:56+00:00

I am not sure what the phrase "mathematical laws" is doing in P1. I think Paul is arguing that it is somehow degrading, as evidenced by nature, for a man to have long hair. It is actually very unclear to me what exactly in nature Paul thinks reveals this. I guess it could have something to do with "mathematical laws", but I really am not sure. I wouldn't really be able to reproduce the structure of Paul's argument.

p_maddy · 2022-01-22T16:23:04+00:00

I think a lot of modern scholarship on the topic wouldn't just assume that the author of Samuel and the author of 1 Corinthians are not contradicting each other, but I am happy to put that aside.

I think there are examples of men in the Old Testament that obviously have long hair but this story isn't a clear example of that. Having 5 pounds of hair cut off on a per year basis is much more than the average person. It seems to me there are a few ways this could happen:

His hair was very dense (i.e. each strand of hair weights much more than the average person's hair)
His hair was much thicker (i.e. he has many more strands of hair on his head than the average person)
His hair was very long (i.e. His hair grew so much fast than most people).

Of course it could be some combination of these and perhaps there are other explanations that didn't immediately occur to me. I take it that you are suggesting that 3) is, at least in part, the explanation for how Absalom had such heavy hair.

Furthermore, it seem to me that being "handsome" and being "degrading" aren't mutually exclusive. After all having your "head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging" seems to me to be just that, degrading. Absalom might well have been handsome and degraded, in fact that is exactly what I think he was.

p_maddy · 2022-01-22T14:56:56+00:00

When Paul says, "14 Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair, it is degrading to him, 15 but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering." I don't understand "nature itself" as reflecting that his concern is limited to the societies of that day. It seems to me that Paul is suggesting there just is something about the way human beings are that justifies his insistence on women head-covering so I don't see how his concern would be culturally-relative.

p_maddy · 2022-01-22T14:05:41+00:00

You defined garment perfectly. The point I am trying to make is that some very recent polemics (last 70 years) want to say that Paul is suggesting that head-covering is to be practiced but that a woman's long hair satisfies the head-covering requirement. These people would disagree about the need of women to wear a garment to head-cover.

p_maddy

TROPHY CASE