Posted on 11/05/2002 2:05:43 AM PST by Timesink
n the universe of male subjects for magazine covers, there are only a few sure things. Ben Affleck is a winner, and George Clooney is always a good bet to do well on the newsstand. But few can anchor a magazine like Jesus, a cover subject who brings them back year after year, particularly for news magazines like Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report.
Now the appeal of Jesus has found a surprisingly new home — the cover of Popular Mechanics.
The December issue of Popular Mechanics, which is owned by the Hearst Corporation and is scheduled to be on newsstands next week, features on the front a shadowy figure looming behind a headline that promises, "The Real Face of Jesus." Inside, there is a conjured figure with dark skin, a bushy beard and curly hair. Using the tools of forensic anthropology, scientists in the accompanying article concluded that the historical depiction of Jesus as a white man with flowing locks was inaccurate.
"If you look at the history of the magazine, we have been explaining how the world works for 100 years," said Joe Oldham, editor in chief of Popular Mechanics, who came up with the idea for the article. "Our story demonstrated advances in the field of forensic anthropology."
Popular Mechanics and its scientific collaborators overlaid biblical descriptions and computerized tomography, a type of X-ray photography, on a Semite skull from the historical era of Jesus to make informed guesses about how he looked. One of the more surprising findings suggested that Jesus was a small man, 5 foot 1, and weighed about 110 pounds.
While it might be odd for a magazine that features terrorist-hunting robots to turn to Jesus, Mr. Oldham defends the choice. "I knew that Jesus had been successful for other magazines," he said. "I know a bandwagon when I see one, and as long as our approach fit our editorial mission, I was happy to get on it."
Not true. Mark 6:3 says, "Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn't this the carpenter?
The problem with this traditional interpretation is that Jesus had been gone for a very long time, and they responded this way merely because it was the way they LAST remembered him. A lot can happen in 20 years, and Jesus himself said he "came to do the Fathers business". Doesn't sound like carpentry to me, while in a very long holding pattern.
At any rate, we do know he didn't really make an appearance as a spiritual leader until the wedding at Cana -- he had to have done something before then, and given that Joseph was a carpenter, it's reasonable to assume Jesus was, too.
I don't really know where he went during those many years, and neither do you you. But to assume he did nothing different and went nowhere else seems very unimaginative. There are many reports of his being elsewhere during that time, all of which have at least as much credibility as the totally unsubstantiated idea that he went nowhere and did nothing.
Have a nice day.
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