So What DID He Look Like?
Paintings of Jesus have always driven me nuts. I've seen very few where he wasn't white, with brown (perfect) hair, often with that glowing aura around his head. Of course, depending on the culture responsible for the portrayal, he becomes dark-skinned, or his eyes slant a bit, or we alter things even more so that he looks, you know, like US. Nevermind that he was Jewish!Let's go a step further. We also want him to have been tall, strong, and slender. Above all, I think we want him to have been good-looking. After all, wouldn't God's son be the best-looking man who ever lived??? But then, would God's son have entered the earth through a womb? Would he have been born among animals? Would he have started his life in hiding? And consider this prophecy from Isaiah:
"He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted."
Scholars have taken these words so far as to suggest that Jesus was a hunchback or had leprosy. I don't think it went that far. But certainly the idea of men hiding their faces from him, considering him to be stricken by God, must give us the idea that he was not beautiful to behold. We don't like that, but it does make him more common, more in touch with what it is to be truly human.
I don't think people were drawn to Jesus by his looks. I think they were drawn by his words and his deeds. I think they loved him because HE loved THEM, just as it is today. I think he may not have been great-looking. I'm certain his skin and hair were dark, and I think his nose was probably a bit crooked. But I think he was one of those people who seemed better looking than they really are because of the light that shines out of them, because of their smile.
What do YOU think he looked like?
posted by Thurman8er @ 4:08 PM
2 Comments:
I'm with you on this one. How about the movie portrayals as well which are all actors from the midwest region of North America?
Born in the middle east to a Jewish man and a Jewish woman seems to rule out blonde and blue eyed.
Like you, I can't make the leprous or hunchback jump. Nor can I make a leprous hunchback jump.
I agree with you on his drawing power. For the first time they experienced someone in their midst who knew about God and talked about God as one without all the answers. Yes, even though he did have all the answers. There was no pretense, nothing phony, all genuine all the time.
I agree. But, I am guilty of thinking of him as beautiful, strong, close to perfect.
I do believe I can see his eyes, though, and I'm not joking here, in the eyes of others.
I really don't think he'll have a specific look...I think he'll look like he needs to look for the person whos eyes are looking. (did you understand that?)
Post a Comment
<< Home