Long Hair.... (Jesus, tradition, grace, blood, churches)

[Buttercup]

I have read that because Jesus was a Nazarene, he would have had short hair. I can find the reference if you like. Long hair as depicted in all the Renaissance paintings (along with skin color of course) is incorrect. It would have been considered a 'shame' for Jesus to have had long hair.

[Buttons*]

Originally Posted by Buttercup

I have read that because Jesus was a Nazarene, he would have had short hair. I can find the reference if you like. Long hair as depicted in all the Renaissance paintings (along with skin color of course) is incorrect. It would have been considered a 'shame' for Jesus to have had long hair.

exactly my point, danke!

[i believe in tranquility]

alot of things JEsus did were considered a "shame"...when Jesus claimed to be the son of God, that was considered a "shame".

[James the Persian]

Originally Posted by Buttercup

I have read that because Jesus was a Nazarene, he would have had short hair. I can find the reference if you like. Long hair as depicted in all the Renaissance paintings (along with skin color of course) is incorrect. It would have been considered a 'shame' for Jesus to have had long hair.

I thought the Nazarenes took a vow to never cut their hair? I admit to being a little vague on this, but I'm sure I read that somewhere in the past. I don't see any reason for it being considered a shame for Christ to have long hair, though I'd be interested in seeing any evidence you can provide.

Incidentally, the depiction of Christ with long hair is way older than the Renaissance. Early icons almost always show Him with long hair and a beard (though with olive skin). The very earliest icons and illustrations depicted Him in a number of different ways, some with short hair, some beardless, presumably because His physical appearance is not all that important. The interesting thing is that the beginning of the standardised bearded, long haired depiction comes about in the 6th century and corresponds to just after the rediscovery of a burial cloth in Edessa said to belong to Christ. This cloth was later lost to history but in the medieval period a shroud appeared in western Europe now known as the Shroud of Turin. As this was some time after the sacking and plundering of Constantinople by the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade, it's reasonable to think that the two shrouds are in fact one and the same. It seems, then, that the traditional depiction of Christ from the 6th century is based on this cloth. Whether you believe it to be the burial cloth of Christ is a diferent question.

James

[Buttercup]

Jesus was a Nazarene, it is probably Samson you are thinking of. Samson was a Nazarite -- and all Nazarites had long hair: they were forbidden by their faith to cut it. This long hair was the source of Samson's great strength. Nazarites were also forbidden to drink wine or touch dead bodies....both things Jesus did of course.

We cannot know for absolute certainty if Jesus had short hair but from this scripture we assume it was shorter..... "Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?" I Corinthians 11:14

The following is taken from the Book, "The Modern Student's Life of Christ," by Philip Vollmer, published some years ago by Fleming H. Revell Company.

"Archaeologists object to the conventional pictures of Christ because they are not true to History. A German painter, L. Fahrenkrog, says: 'Christ certainly never wore a beard and his hair was beyond a doubt closely cut. For this we have historical proof. The oldest representations, going back to the first Christian centuries, and found chiefly in the catacombs of Rome, all pictured him without a beard. All the Christ pictures down to the beginning of the fourth century at least, and even later, are of this kind'."