Leviticus 19:27 says: You shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
Some say the instruction not to round the head in the early part of that verse means not to shave the side of the face. However, it says head not face. It most likely is saying not to have a bowl type head hair design where one for example cuts just above the ears all the way around the head.
In various translations the Hebrew word translated mar in the KJV is variously translated as do not:
- trim the edges of the beard
- clip the edges of the beard
- shave the beard period
- harm or mutilate or disfigure edges of beard
- destroy edges of beard
The Hebrew word translated mar is elsewhere translated as corrupt (Genesis 6:11-12; Exodus 8:24), in the sense of partial ridding of (Genesis 6:13, 17), and full ridding of or destroying in totality (Genesis 19:29; Exodus 21:26).
So then one can see how both clip/trim and cut off may be meant in Leviticus 19:27. In the next verse (Leviticus 19:28) the Hebrew word for cutting is used. So if verse 27 just meant cut off then one would think the writer would have used the word for cut in verse 27. Therefore, it would seem that trimming (or styling or prettying up) the corners violates the commandment in that verse.
Some even say that cutting one’s beard off with a non-electric razor blade is prohibited but doing so with an electric shaver is not due to some saying the Hebrew word used specifically refers to a razor blade. Of course, that is probably all that existed back then. But there is seemingly nothing in the biblical text that says it only applies to a razor blade and not an electric shaver.
Now then the even larger question is why doesn’t the verse simply say do not cut the hair off one’s face or do not cut the beard rather than saying do not trim or cut the corners of the beard? It seems the verse is saying do not separate the hair on the cheeks from the hair on the chin; in other words there seems to have been some who practiced such disfiguring of the beard in some kind of design. But God said do not corrupt your beard like that.
So then since there is no commandment saying thou shall have a beard and there is no commandment saying do not cut or shave the beard off but only not to separate parts of the beard as in cut or shave the corners of the beard, it seems there is no commandment not to have a beard. Thus one may choose not to have one. But if one has one then one is to not to have one with the hair separated on the cheeks and chin if one seeks to comply with Leviticus 19:27 concerning beards.
In the final analysis I think it is a matter of righteous human preference to have or not have a beard. To the extent he has one and cuts/trims it, it should be done following the normal pattern and form in which his beard grows. There should be no attempt to have what one may call designer beards made into disfiguring special symbols or the like.
