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fu ller s tyles of today, i.e., the It a lia n
cut.
Short ha ir was the dominan t, ac–
cepted mode for wea r ing men's ha ir
in the t ime of J esus Chris t. On pages
126 a nd 127 of
A Hislory of the
Holy L and
(ed ited by Michael Avi–
Yo na h) are busts of Pompey, Au–
gus tus, and one believed to be
He–
rod the Great
(an observant Jew by
re ligion) -
al! with short hair!
All
s tatues and ca rv ings o f Roman le–
gionnaires show them with closely
cro pped ha ir. A ll Roman emperors
be fo re, during, a nd afte r th e time of
Jesus Chris t. from J ulius Caesa r to
Traj a n. wo re the ir ha ir..short. The
Roma n empero r was the indi vidua l
who set the pattern in s ty les a nd
modes of dress
fo r the whole empire
- whi c h in clud ed Ga l i lee a nd
J udaea in J esus' day .
Prior to the Roman Empire, the
H e ll enis tic Greek cul t ure domi–
nated th e Eas tern Medite rranean
a rea, including the Holy La nd . Even
in Chr ist's d ay, a large po rti on of
the Jewish populatio n was G reek–
speaking a nd He ll enis tic in o utlook.
(See Jo hn 12 :20; Acts 6 : 1, e tc.)
Sh or t ha ir was a lso th e Greek H elle–
nis tic sty le for men. (See G aa lyahu
Cornfield 's
Daniel lo Paul,
pp. 15.
146 .)
Professor Cornfi eld, a noted au–
thor , his torian. and archaeologis t,
ca p ti o n e d o ne of th e sta t u es:
" Marble s ta tue tte of an un identified
man of th e Hellenistic pe riod - a
time of close con tacts between the
1
Jewish and Helleni stic c iv ilizatio ns
in tho ught, a rt and everyday life.
Whe the r J ew ish o r Gent ile, he
evokes his age and environmen t"
(ib id ). T he statue had short ha ir!
Non-He llen istic Jews a lso trad i–
tionally wo re th eir ha ir sho rt. Even
th e anti-He llenis tic J ewish
Talmud
s tates th a t a ll pr ies ts shoul d have
th e ir ha ir cu t o nce every thirty days
(Ta'anith 17a). Th is priestly law is
undo ubtedly based o n the bib lical
inj unctio n fo und
in
Ezekiel 44:20 :
"They [the pri es ts] shall
not
shave
th e ir heads or
ter their locks
grow
lo ng; they sha ll o nly tr im the ha ir of
the ir head s" (RSV).
T he
Talmud
specifies the " Ju–
lia n," or what we wou ld ca ll the
"Caesar cut" (Sanhedrin 22b) . God
had set ra ther stringen t regu la tio ns
fo r the cond uct ofpri ests in the Pen-
10
ta teuch. They were supposed to se t
the example for the rest of the com–
munity (see Ma l. 2:7).
Sta tu es and o ther rep roductions
of Jewish men from J esus' day a re
few and fa r be tween because many
Jews o bj ected to them on religious
grounds. But those few rep resen ta–
tions we do possess inevi ta bly poin t
to
short hair
(see
Daniel lo Paul,
p . 287).
Othe r sources o f a ncien t p ict ures
of known Jews having short hair
a re ( 1) Na th a n Au s ub e l's
The
Book of Jewish Knowledge,
25-26;
and (2)
The Standard Jewish En–
cyclopaedia,
p. 167. The former
shows J ewish concept io ns of bot h
Da vid a nd Ezra da ting from A.D.
250 ; the latter shows Jews o f the
th ird ce ntury with sho rt ha ir.
C hrist was a n average Jew o f his
d ay. How lo ng do you think he wore
his ha ir?
An Apostolic Example
H ave you ever read t he elevent h
cha pter of 1 Corinthi ans - a lette r
wr itten to a G en tile church? A por–
tio n o f tha t particula r biblical cha p–
te r is devo ted to ha ir lengths of bo th
men and women . The apos tle Paul
wro te in ve rses 14 th ro u.gh 16 :
"Does not na ture itse lf teach you
tha t
for a man to wear long hair
is
degrading [a shame,
KJV]
lo him,
but if a woman has lo ng hai r, it is
he r pr ide [glory, KJV]? For her hair
is given to her for a cove ring. l f any
one is disposed to be con tentio us,
we recogn ize no o ther practice, nor
do the churches ofGod" (RSV).
Pa u l, prima rily the apostle to the
gentiles, received the gospel
directly
from
Christ. He wro te to the Ga la–
tians: " F or I would have you know,
bre thren , that the gospel which was
p reached by me is not man's gospel.
For I did not rece ive it from man,
no r was
1
ta ught it, but it carne
th rough
a revelation o.fJ esus Christ "
(Ga l. 1: 11-1 2, RSV). J esus actua lly
a ppeared di rectly to the apostle
Paul (see 1 Cor. 15:8) .
P au l said: " Have I not seen J esus
our Lord?" (I Cor . 9 : 1.) He also sa id:
" Be ye followers of me. even as
l
a lso am of Chris t" ( I Cor. 11 :1) in
the very same chapte r where men
wearing long ha ir is mentioned as
bein g a shame.
My point is that Jesus Christ d id
not contradict the words of his own
a pos tle wh i le he was a h uman
be ing. He did not de liver a gospe1
to
Pa ul that contrad icted his own per–
sona l life-style .
Pa ul did not say: "Follow me as I
fo llow Christ" and then go ou t and
preach a nd write the diametric o p–
pos i te of wha t he was d irectly
ta ugh t.
Jesus was
not
a shame to Paul.
Jesus Chr is t, who was Paul 's cham–
pio n , soon-comi ng king, and high
pr iest,
did not wear long hair!
Jesus Was Not a Nazarite
So rne relig io nis ts claim tha t Jesus
Ch rist was under sorne sort of "Naz–
a ritic vow," and there fore a utoma t–
ica lly wore his hair lo ng. The trut h
is that J esus did
not
fulfi ll a single
o ne of the s trict scrip tu ra l obliga–
tions laid upon a "Nazarite."
A Nazarite was ( 1) not to drink
wi ne, (2) no t to cut h is ha ir as a
token of humi liation. (3) and not to
to uch a dead body (see Numbers
6 : 1-27) . T he Bible p roves that J esus
d rank wine, touched a dead body on
occasio n (Matt. 9: 18-25; Mark 5:35 -
43, e tc.), a nd had his hai r cut as we
ha ve already proved.
Sorne few have even gotten the
terms N azarite, N aza ren e , a nd
Nazareth mixed up in their m inds .
In Matthew 2:23 it says : "And he
[J esus] carne and dwelt in a city
called
Nazaret/1:
[why?] that it mig ht
be fulfi ll ed which was spoken by the
prophets , He shall be ca lled a Naza–
rene" (KJV). Almost any Bible dic–
tiona ry wi ll tell you tha t a Nazarene
was mere ly
an inhabitant or citizen
of Nazareth
-
t he c ity where J esus
grew up (Mark 1:9; Luke 1:26; John
1:45). A man from Texas is a
Texan ; a man from Naza ret h is a
Nazare ne . Neither of t hese two
nam es has a nything to do wi th a
Nazarite vow.
Paintings of Christ-Accurate?
Down through histo ry artists have
portrayed Chr ist as he reftected
their
ideas and idea ls . The "ea rl iest
Ch r ist" pictured by artists is found
on the wa lls of the ca tacombs in
Rome . T hese post-apostolic repre-
The
PLAIN TRUTH August 1976