Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: hans@lfcs.edinburgh.ac.uk (Hans Huttel) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: The physical appearance of Jesus Message-ID: Date: 25 Oct 89 09:18:56 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Laboratory for the Foundations of Computer Science, Edinburgh U Lines: 93 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Now here's another topic for you. I guess this must be the proper newsgroup, even though it has relatively little to do with questions of faith (except for the very last question). The beginning of this article is an excerpt from a short article in this week's New Statesman (20.10.89) (New Statesman is a British magazine) : --- ...Muhammed Ali this week `sparked a race storm' according to the Sun, by announcing that Jesus was black. Since it is a well-known fact that Jesus was a tall, blond Scandinavian, other theologians manques were infuriated by such heresy. `It's nonsense', snorted John Stokes MP. `Christ is always portrayed as a Jew with a beard.' Tory colleague Ivor Stanbrook agreed: `Ali is historically inaccurate and spreading racial hatred'. When Ken Leech, director of the Runnymede Trust, pointed out that, by virtue of geography, Jesus must have been at least brownish, he received a flood of angry mail. There's no contemporaneous record of Jesus's physical appearance. Tertullian, writing in the early third century, claimed that `in the days of the flesh [he] had an ugly countenance'. According to an 11th century Slavonic translation of the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, Jesus was a member of the nomadic race of Kenites - not Jewish at all. He was also, according to the same source, very dark, and stooped - maybe to the point of disability (which gives a savage twist to the taunt `physician heal thyself'). But no one much believes in the Slavonic Josephus text. --- I discussed this article with my flatmates and we all found that of course Jesus must have looked anything but Scandinavian. How on earth did that `Scandinavian' image evolve ? Was it Cecil B. de Mille ? Even Martin Scorcese uses this image in `The Last Temptation'. OK, Scorcese's film is very controversial and he does not claim authenticity w.r.t. the storyline, but given the efforts spent on the authenticity of costumes, music etc. in that film, I find it a bit surprising. I personally have no idea as to what the people of Palestine looked like at that time. It seems rather unlikely to me that Jesus had an `ugly countenance' given that he had such a huge following in his lifetime. Given that Jesus probably also worked as a carpenter when in his teens (we don't know anything about that period from the Gospels) it is also rather unlikely that he was a cripple. I also remember coming across an old Danish book some years ago in which the author tried to prove that Jesus was indeed short, bald and ugly. Now my questions to you, fellow-netters : - Are there any other sources of information that you know of ? Anybody know more about the Josephus text ? The Bible does not provide us with much information in general w.r.t. the physical appearance of the people involved. We know that Samson was hairy, that Goliath was very tall and that some people were young and others old but that's about it. Of course all such descriptions were probably left out because they weren't exactly relevant to the message. I guess it also must have had something to do with the cultural tradition that Matthew, John etc. were in. - I have cross-posted this to soc.culture.arabic since I guess this is as close as we can come to a newsgroup for discussions on Islam. I am well aware of the fact that Islamic attitudes towards depicting people are/can be different, but anyway... do Muslims share Mr. Ali's view ? - Finally - how much would it mean to YOU if it was somehow discovered that Jesus was e.g. short, bald and ugly ? (I don't think anyone believes in Jesus because of his good looks :-) but there must be some reason for e.g. the `Scandinavian' stereotype mentioned above) Personally, I think one of the reasons why the `Scandinavian' stereotype has been so widely accepted is that that people often forget (want to forget ?) that Christianity began in the Middle East among poor (probably illiterate) people. (Note that follow-ups are directed to soc.religion.christian. If, for some reason, you do not receive this newsgroup, reply by e-mail.) Best regards Hans | Hans H\"{u}ttel, Office 1603 JANET: hans@uk.ac.ed.lfcs | LFCS, Dept. of Computer Science UUCP: ..!mcvax!ukc!lfcs!hans | University of Edinburgh ARPA: hans%lfcs.ed.ac.uk@nfsnet-relay.ac.uk | Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, SCOTLAND ... Ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more! [Don't be shocked if this misses soc.culture.arabic, since the news software often messes up when you cross post to a moderated and unmoderated group at the same time. --clh]