Basic HTML Version
But did you know that the
real
Jesus Christ of Naza reth did not
look li ke. did not dress like. d id not
act like. and was not like the tradi–
tional Jesus which we have been
" fed., a ll of our Jives?
The Only Authentic Historical
Source
Th ere have been more books writ–
ten abou t the life. works. act ions.
and deeds of J esus Christ than any
other man throughout all of history
- more than
60,000
in this century
alone. Whole series and bulky vol–
umcs of books have been written on
" the li fe and times of Jcsus.' ' Books
about his life. teachings. birth. in–
fancy. manhood. and mini stry ha ve
wa t er e d do wn. n eg a t ed. m is–
interpreted. misa pplied, and per–
ve rted the only au thentic historical
source of his life - the Christian
Bible.
As one German theologia n put it :
"At no time has Christianity yuietly
accepted this likeness [of the biblica l
Jesus]. On the contrary it has always
wo rked at it. and remodeled it.
Sometimes within limits. and some–
times so pass ionately tha t it has
been refashioned out of all recogni–
tion.''
Scribes have sometimes scoured
mythology. legend. tradition. and
th e superstitions of past dark ages to
come up wi th the tradit ional Jesus
im age. Yet thc true. open. plain ex–
pla na tion of the scriptures of your
Bib le has been virtually ignored.
Most people in the modern world
have ei ther blindly accepted the tra–
d itiona l Jcsus or crcated a Chri st of
their own convenience.
Th e Bible itsdf adds its own testi–
mony. Thc apost le Pau l told the Co–
rinthian church that he was "afraid
th a t
~s
the serpent [Sa tan] dece ived
Eve by his cunning. your thoughts
will be led astray from a sincere and
pu re devoti on
to
Ch rist. For if some
one comes and preaches
anot her
J es us
than th e one we
preached ... you submitto it readily
enough ' ' (11 Cor. ll
:3-4.
RSV) . This
other J esus
is th e figment of
demonic and human imagination
and is not based on the true biblic·a t
accoun t.
Only four minibiographi es we re
wri tten about the li fe and times of
Jesus, most ly concentrating on his
8
th ree-and-one-half-year
min ist ry.
Other Old and New Testament
documen ts supply additiona l de–
tail s. Only the bares t information is
given about bis life prior to th e age
of
30.
However. more than enough
information is provided to crea te
~n
accurate. overa ll picture ofjust what
Jesus was li ke.
Two of the New Testament gospel
writers were men who constantly ate
with Jesus. sometimes in his own
house. slept in the samc area that he
did. and sa ng songs together with
him. Thcy we re his ve ry closest
fri ends - not biogra phers
.200
yea rs
removed from th e scene reconstruct–
ing the s tory based on some third–
hand account.
Matthew. Mark. Luke. and John
wrote abou t Jesus' hab its. appetites.
att itud es. personality. and to a de–
gree. appeara nce. A fa ir-sized por–
ti on of their writings is composed of
first -person quotations from the
mouth of Jesus himself.
·
lt is
on~v
fmm these biblica! docu–
m ents
that we can obtain th e
"s traight scoop'" about th e true
Jesus on any given subject. We can·
lea rn wha t he looked like. what he
die! to ea rn a living, whether he had
a fa'mily - a nd much more.
In this first installment we'll ex–
amine some clues abou t Christ's
phys ical appea rance - with biblical
support for each point. Read on.
JesusWas a Jew
No twi thstanding some of the ultra–
conservative. Nazi-like paramil itary
organiza ti ons and the anti -Semites
of the world, Jesus Christ of
N~za
reth was a member of th e Jewish
race. The English word "Jew" eith er
mca ns a man or woman racially de–
scended from the patriarch Judah or
a citizen or national of the house of
Judah. Jesus was both of th c race
and house of Judah.
The genea logies in two of the gos–
pels in the New Testament define
Jesus as coming right through the
line of Judah (see Ma tt. l and Luke
3). Jes us was a direct descendan t of
Da vid (who was a J ew by race. as
well as nationality) both in hi s natu–
ral and legal genealogies. Noti ce
what th e apos tle Peter said of Jesus'
ancestor David: '"Men and breth-
ren. let me free ly speak unto you of
th e patriarch David , tha t he is both
dead and bur ied.... T herefore
bei"ng a prophet, and knowing that
God had sworn with an oath to him,
that of the fruit of his loins. accord–
ing to the flesh. he would raise up
Christ to sit upon his [David'sJ
th rone (Acts
2:29-30).
He was to in–
heril " th e throne of
his Jatlier
David''
(Luke 1
:32).
Scriptures too
numerous to quote here show Christ
as
the son of Da11id
(see Matt.
15:22;
20:30; 22:41-46;
Mark
10:47-48 ;
Rom.
1: 3
among many).
Jesus knew that he was a Jew!
Notice part of his conversation wi th
thc Samaritan woman at the we ll.
She said to him: " How is it that
thou.
being a Jew,
askest drink of
me. whi ch ama woman ofSama ri a?
for the Jews have no dealings with
the Sama ritans'" (John
4:9.
KJV).
Racia l bigotry was as bad then as it
is tuday. The only difference is that
it was between Jews and Samaritans
then.
Later at the end of the conversa–
tion Jesus told her: "Ye [you and
the Samaritans] wo rship ye know
not wha t: we [Jesus and the JewsJ.
know what we worship ; for sa lva–
tion is of the Jews" (verse
22).
Add the we ight of the apos tle
Paul to th e mounting evidence. He
wrote:
" It
is evident that our Lord
was descended from Judah " (Heb.
7: 14.
RSV) . In the book of Revela–
tion. Jesus is ca ll ed the "Lion of the
tribe of Judah ' ' (Rev.
5:5).
Both
Genesis
49: 10
and
1
Chronicles
5:2
predict that the Prince or Mess iah
(Christ) would conie from the tribe
of Judah.
Pi la te kn ew Jesus was a Jew '
"Thine own nation and the chief
pries ts de li ve red th ee unto me"
(John
18:35).
Scripture after scripture proves
over and over again that J esus was
born of human fl esh by a divine
begettal into
the nation. area, and
ja1~i~y
ofJudah
(the Jewish race).
Jesus was a Jew!
What Did Jesus Look Like?
Jesus was a common. everyday.
or–
dinary-looking
young
Jeu"ish man
of
his day.
People seem to forget th at Judas
The
PLAIN TRUTH August 1976