Shroud of Turn
Holy Face of Vienna
Christ Pantocrator
4th century catacomb
Posted on 03/04/2011 6:27:07 AM PST by dangus
It is commonly claimed that we have little idea what Jesus looked like. Some have even gone to such despicable extremes as to describe traditional depictions of Jesus as looking like an "effeminate hippy." The truth is that although some images of Jesus have made him look overly European, we do have a good sense of what he looked like.
Jesus had a beard. To shave off one's beard was a great dishonor (see 1 Sam 21, 2 Sam 10:4, Isaiah 50:6). One particular humiliation the Messiah withstood was that the centurions plucked out his beard (Isaiah 50:6); certainly they were grabbing significant portions, not just a few day's growth.
Jesus probably did have long hair. The Gospel of Matthew states that the birth of Jesus "fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene (2:23)." In context, Matthew is obviously making a play on the fact that Jesus was born in Nazareth, but prophesy isn't dismissed by a pun, and the prophecy plainly referred to the a Nazarite.
Nazarites were people who atoned for the sins of the people by making sacrifices of their bodies. (Sound familiar?) They abstained from strong drink and grape products. Since Jesus didn't do this, one might suppose that he was not a Nazarite. (Actually, as Luke 5:33 records it, his disciples didn't abstain from drink, there's no reason to suppose Jesus drank apart from ritual.) On the other hand, it confounded people that he didn't do this, which suggests he may have been regarded as a Nazarite, or appeared to be one. So how does one appear to be a Nazarite?
Nazarites didn't cut or groom their hair. As such, they were considered offensive and humiliated in Jewish culture, which began to assume that they were atoning for their own sins, even though this was in opposition to scripture! (See Lam. 4:7, Amos 2:11). The fact that long hair was considered shameful (1 Cor 11:14), thus, shouldn't be considered evidence that Jesus didn't have long hair, since Jesus bore our shame (Isaiah 53:4).
Jesus was fairly ordinary looking, for his time and place. Isaiah 52:14 notes that "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him." But this doesn't mean he looked perfectly typical. The Talmud depicts Adam as a majestic and beautiful giant; one might have expected the Messiah to look like a Son of God. (The Sons of God were a race of giants, see Gen. 6:2.) We shouldn't discount the possibility that he was rather tall, or forget that recent growth in mankind's average height is a result of better diet, not genetic change. Contrary to the recent assertions of the History channel, There is no reason to believe Jesus was rather short.
He was, however, gaunt. As a carpenter, he probably had been fairly muscular, since carpentry involved real labor. But the bible tells of frequent fasting, including one fast of forty days with no food at all (Mat 4:2). By the time he was crucified, he was so thin, you could count all his bones (Psalm 22:17).
Lastly, it's not necessarily true that we have no record of his appearance. Eastern Christian tradition, not infallible, but not baseless, either, asserts that the evangelist Luke was a physician and a painter, and that although Luke's images are lost, the iconic images of Christ Pantocrator are based on them. Christ Pantocrator is consistent with scripture: Bearded, slender, long-haired.. and very Jewish looking. It's also consistent with the numerous supposedly miraculous images of Christ, such as Veronica's veil and the Shroud of Turin. Among scripture and these images, we have a very good sense of what Jesus looked like, indeed.
Shroud of Turn
Holy Face of Vienna
Christ Pantocrator
4th century catacomb
That’s interesting you said that because that’s what my wife says too!
For me personally, I picture someone that looks kind of like Obi Won Kenobi in the Phantom Menace Star Wars movie and when my Jesus talks, he has an English accent. (I have no English blood in me.)
That’s interesting you said that because that’s what my wife says too!
For me personally, I picture someone that looks kind of like Obi Won Kenobi in the Phantom Menace Star Wars movie and when my Jesus talks, he has an English accent. (I have no English blood in me.)
Sorry for the double post.
Didn’t Judas have to “point” Him out to the soldiers? If that’s the case, maybe He didn’t stand out in a crowd and looked like other people did in that day.
>> Notice how Jesus looks Italian in all the paintings? I always picture him as a young Billy Crystal. <<
He certainly does NOT look like a Roman in any of the pictures, if that’s your insinuation. My wife’s family is from Northern Italy. She’s blonde, blue-eyed, round-faced, and has a short nose.
Of course not, but I'm not sure what the relevance is. What's your definition of "graven image"?
Having an Image vs Worshiping that image = Big difference.
So you’re saying that, no, you don’t have such a commandment to draw/paint/sculpt images of Jesus, as Moses did for the serpent? I just want to be clear on that point, and not misunderstand.
>> Didn’t Judas have to “point” Him out to the soldiers? If that’s the case, maybe He didn’t stand out in a crowd and looked like other people did in that day. <<
Well, yeah. Don’t you think Christ Pantocrator looks Jewish? Don’t forget though, many of his followers were followers of John before him (at least three), or were cousins of his (at least two). In the middle of the night, I’d quite easily suppose he blended into that crown.
Nope. Not particularly. Just the example of the first-century Christians' "graffiti" on the graves of the martyrs, the mosaic of the loaves and fishes from the first church in Capernaum. Say what Christian example exists for this stuff?:
Robin Williams said, “When Jesus comes back, he’s not going to look like Ted Nugent, he’s going to come back looking like Charles Bronson, and to paraphrase, he ain’t going to be very happy.”
You better go look at your commandments again. I think there's one in there about bearing false witness or something like that.
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