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To: vannrox
Idiotic.

Jesus was Jewish and probably looked so. But to extrapolate that fact into the creation of this "face" and body is the height of idiocy. 110 lbs?? I don't think a 110 lb man could drive money changers out of a temple or work as a successful carpenter.

I think the figure in the shroud of Turin looks both Jewish and resembles what taditional interpretation of his appearance would be like - 5'10 or 11 and of powerful build,
with sriking, not common features.
14 posted on 12/30/2002 6:08:55 PM PST by ZULU
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To: ZULU; vannrox
The article claims that Jesus would have had short hair because it says "would Paul (one of the apostles) have written, 'If a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him' if Jesus Christ had had long hair?" the article surmises.

This is a false argument as the actual article in Popular Mechanics says that Paul actually KNEW Jesus... seems to me he was a late-comer to apostlehood.

I can show you quite a few passages in the Bible where it states that the hair should not be cut, especially the beard and forelocks. To this day many Conservative and Sephardic Jews do not cut their hair.

The study of the shroud showed that there is a strange blurring in the hair image on the back of the head in the center extending down to the shoulder area. Subsequent research found that male Jews of the period often braided their hair in a queue and oiled it to keep it braided. Short hair was also a Greek and Roman style. It is unlikely that the oppressed people of Judea would emulate their conquerors and oppressors. It would be more likely they would return to ethnic affectations to differentiate themselves from the oppressors.

Contemprory depictions of Levantine people in Egyptian wall paintings show them to be consistently bearded and long haired, in contrast to the shorter haired and mostly beardless Egyptians. The sole exceptions to this were depictions of Levantine people who were clearly in the position of slaves. One can surmise that slaves would not have much say in their appearance.

Also the assumption of a heighth of 5'1" isbased on spurious data also. Data developed because the study of the Shroud of Turin image seems to be that of a man 5'10" tall, found that, contrary to assumptions, the men of that area and period actually averaged about 5'6" inches tall and while the image on the shroud is taller, it is not out of the range of normal for the period. This data was found by measuring skeletal remains from the period. Jehohannon, the one skeleton discovered that HAD been crucified in the first century, is calculated from his leg bones to have been 5'7" to 5'8" tall. The creators of this "new" image took the EXTREME LOWER END of the male height range for their caricature. This choice alone makes me very suspicious of the motives behind this effort.
16 posted on 12/30/2002 6:15:21 PM PST by Swordmaker
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To: ZULU
110 pounds is very likely. The average height of Northern Europeons was 5'5' or 5'6" 2000 years ago and they weighed about 130 to 160. He was most likely average size for his ethnic group and time.
24 posted on 12/30/2002 6:57:17 PM PST by Burkeman1
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