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sentations were painted somewhere
in the neighborhood of 100 to 200
yea rs after the time of Christ - all
probably done in defiance of early
Catholic th inking concerning idola–
trous images .
Yarious authors have commen ted
on these earliest paintings of Christ.
Dr. Farrar. in his authorit ative
book.
The Lije of Christ as Rep–
resellled in Art,
has this to say about
the e primitive paintings: " H e
[Christ] is almost invariably boyish
and bea rdless.... His hair is short "
(p. 43).
What is thought to be the oldest
of these catacomb p ictures is de–
scribed by Roderic Dunkerley: " In
particular. there is a painting of the
Resurrection of Lazarus in which
Ch ri st is shown you th fu l a nd beard–
less. with short ha ir an d la rge
eyes . . . Although it is now only
barely recognizable ...."
(Beyond
the Gospels,
p.
57).
The early. classic, youthful Chris t
was consistently painted beardless
and with short hair. o doubt these
ve ry first a rtistic rende rings were
heavily influenced by the Hellenistic
culture ex tant during the days of
Jesus - who lived in a short-haired
culture.
I pe r so nally doubt their
authenticity because the book of
Isaiah definitely indicares that
Ch rist would have a beard: " l gave
my back to the smi ters, and my
cheeks to those
who pulled out the
beard;
I hid not my face from shame
and spitting" (lsa. 50:6, RSY).
Gradually the artistic conception
of Jes us changed over the centuries.
By the time of the tenth or eleventh
century a sadomasochistic view of
se lf-s uffering, ascetic self-denial,
and self-flagellation was in vogue.
So spanni ng severa! centuri es of
time. arti sts tended to p icture Jesus
as a man of complete sorrow. sad–
ness. and seri ousness - never wit h a
smile on his face.
Later Michelangelo accepted the
idea of an Old Testament God of
wrath - and the painters of his era
generally pictured a God of divine
fu ry that had to be placated by
saints like Mary and St. Francis.
In the 19th century, the pendu–
lum swung back in the other direc–
t ion. probably in reaction to
Michelangelo. Then an "effeminate.
The
PLAIN TRUTH August 1976
overly pious Chr ist was pictured
smiling serenely from a stained–
glass window as he held a shep–
herd's crook while being surrounded
by lambs.
Nota single one of these pictures,
o f whatever era. represents the true
Jesus. Nobody painted him when he
was a human being on this earth.
D id you know about the so-called
Report of Publius Lentulus
which
describes Jesus as having long hair?
Thi letter was su pposedly written
by the Roman governor of Juda ea
to the Emperor Tiberius. But accu–
rate historica l records o f the Roman
governors at that time are still in
exis tence. There was
no governor of
Judaea by the name ofPublius Lemulus
during the time ofJ esus Christ.
Professor Edgar J . Goodspeed, a
well-known biblical scholar, com–
men ts on this totally spurious fo rg–
ery: " The 'Letter of Lentulus' is
evidently a fiction, designed to give
currency to the description con–
tained in the painter 's manual s
about the personal appearance of
Jesus... . It is probably as old as the
thirt eent h ce ntury; but it was
unknown to Christ ian antiquity, and
has no cla ims to serious attention as
throwing any light on the personal
appearance of Jesus"
(Modern
ApoCiypha,
p.
91).
Why the ldentity Crisis?
Jesus knew he was a Jew. Pilate
knew that Jesus was a Jew. The Sa–
maritan woman knew. The apostles
knew. The Bible plainly says that he
was. Then why do some people
today believe otherwise?
Because they almost never go to
the only au thentic sou rce - the bib–
lica l scriptures. Or if they do, their
biases and prejudices a re so thick
that they simply can't see what their
eyes plain ly tell them is there. That
is why people have an identity crisis
wit h Jesus Christ of Nazareth. That
is why people want
to
cling to their
ma ny misconceptions abou t Jesus
Christ and the Bible itself. Human
nature wou ld like
to
hang on to
happenstance, tradition, possibly's,
perhaps's, probably's, and maybe's
- rather than face the straight–
from-the-shoulder bíblica] fact s.
Jesus' genera tion was no different
from ours in that respect. One of the
major points of the gospels was the
continuing struggle between oppos–
ing points of view as to who Jesus
really was.
The book of Matthew makes it
plain that those people back then
had an identity crisis with Jesus
Christ of majo r proportions. "Wh en
Jesus came into the district of Cae–
sa rea Ph ilippi, he asked his dis–
ciples, Who domen say that the Son
of manis? And they sa id, 'Some say
Jo l111 the Baptist, others say Elijah,
and others Jeremiah or one of th e
prophets'" (Matt. 16:13-14, RSY).
The question is: Did the general
pu blic believe sorne of these fantas–
tic stories? They certainly did! Some
carried these utterly untrue con–
victions with them to their graves.
Most of the people of the Middle
East were thoroughly confused as to
Christ's true identity. But not h is
immediate d isciples. " He [Jesus]
said to them. 'But who do you say
that
1
am?' Simon Peter repli.ed.
'You are Christ, rhe Son of the living
God.'
And Jes us answered him ,
'Biessed a re you Simon Bar-Jona!
For flesh and blood has not revea led
this to you, but my Father who is in
heaven' " (verses 15-17).
Peter knew who the real Jesus
was! And it wasn't just the fact that
he had been one of his closest
friends and companions. There was
a miraculous element of revelation
involved in his understanding.
The Next lnstallment
In this article we've substant ia ted
that Jesus Christ of Nazare th was a
common, everyday, ordinary-look–
ing young Jewish man of his day
with a fairly short haircut.
The concluding article in this two–
part se ries will show you that, be–
lieve it or not, Jesus Christ did not
convert one single person during his
entire earthly ministry, tha t he lived
in and owned as many as two
houses in two different cities, that he
sometimes hobnobbed with the up–
per crust of society. that he paid his
taxes as a property owner, and that
he was subj ect to civil authorities.
All thi s information and more is
coming up in either the next or a
soon-coming issue of this magazine.
If you don ' t wish to wait that long,
write for the free booklet entitled
The Real J esus,
which contains
much of the same information.
o
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