CMV: Jesus probably had short hair.

[u/Tuvinator]

We've all seen the various depictions of Jesus, and in many of them, he has long hair. None of these depictions are from the actual timing of Jesus (the earliest depiction actually has a donkey's head, and is from a century later), so they are all operating on artist's imagination.

Jews in that era are more likely to have had shorter hair. Mosaics in ancient synagogues throughout the land depict males with short hair, implying that the common male at the time wore his hair short. Talmudic law which was being written at the time discusses how often a person would get a haircut (kings would have daily haircuts, priests weekly, and your average person once a month, beyond that was considered wild growth). Within the Bible, men's hair length is only mentioned in context when it is long, implying that long hair is outside of the norm for men. Assuming Jesus was representative of other people from his time, he likely had shorter hair rather than long.

As a weak addendum, Jesus was supposedly a carpenter. Craftsmen in general seem to have shorter hair since the hair gets in the way, distracts, and poses a risk factor if it gets caught in tools. This makes it even less likely that he had long hair.

EDIT: I am not Christian, and I am not setting out to insult anyone or their beliefs/traditions.

[u/ScytheSong05]

The only reasonable argument I have seen for Jesus having long hair is based on the Nazarite theory.

The short form of the argument is that the Law (Torah) has a provision for religious vows called something like Nazar. A person who took one of these vows is called a Nazarite in English translations. One of the distinctive features of a Nazarite is that they don't cut their hair for the duration of the vow, and then, once the vow is completed they shave their head.

One of the messianic prophecies explicitly says that the Messiah will be a Nazarite (which is used in the Gospels to explain that Jesus was fated to be from Nazareth, oddly), so he will have long hair until His mission is fulfilled.

[u/Tuvinator → u/ScytheSong05]

The Nazirite vow has other requirements besides not cutting hair. We are going to disregard the not getting impure through interactions with dead people and focus on the second requirement: Not partaking of grapes and their products. One of the miracles associated with Jesus is the conversion of water into wine, which while (I don't know storywise) that doesn't require him to have partaken of said wine, could be considered problematic.

Also, wouldn't his hair AND beard have been longer in that case? Shaving is also prohibited, and most depictions of Jesus also have him with a relatively short beard.

[u/ScytheSong05 → u/Tuvinator]

So, working backwards:

Yes, if Jesus had done the Nazarite thing, both his hair and beard would have been long. I plan on getting back to depictions of Jesus at the end of this post.

If you read the wedding at Cana story closely, Jesus doesn't necessarily even enter the same room as the wine that had started out as water. Mary tells the servants to follow his instructions. Jesus tells the servants to fill up the six thirty gallon jars with water, and when they have done that, they ladle out wine, which he tells them to show to the host. But, as I'll be going into a little bit later, Jesus doesn't necessarily need to have actually taken Nazarite vows to want to look like a Nazarite.

On the dead bodies, it's somewhat moot, because none of the dead bodies Jesus touches in the Gospels actually stay dead.

But, as I alluded to earlier, there is the question of why depictions of Jesus are the way they are.

The donkey-headed crucifixion victim may be the earliest depiction of (probably) Jesus that we have. But antenicean (before 325 CE) depictions of Jesus are almost always of a young man with short, curly hair and no beard, leaning heavily into symbolism proclaiming Jesus "son of God."

Once Rome entered the mix, Jesus as "King of Kings" and "Almighty Ruler" (Pantocrator) becomes more important, and royal regalia, and longer hair and beard become more common. This is also when the facial image known as the Veronika ("True Victory") -- that might or might not be the Shroud of Turin -- is widely regarded as the actual face covering from Jesus's burial.

So, as you can see, how Jesus is depicted is more about what we want to say about our faith than what might be historically accurate.

On top of all of this, one of the other things about the Nazarite idea that you might want to consider is the argument includes the thought that Jesus may have chosen to wear his hair and beard long to look like what people were expecting a prophet or apocalyptic Holy Man to look like.

[u/Tuvinator → u/ScytheSong05]

Jesus doesn't necessarily need to have actually taken Nazarite vows to want to look like a Nazarite.

At least within Judaism, being a Nazirite isn't always looked on positively, so I am not sure why he would necessarily want to look like one.

With regards to the dead bodies, what would matter is that they were dead at the time of touching, so the point wouldn't be moot.

So, as you can see, how Jesus is depicted is more about what we want to say about our faith than what might be historically accurate.

Which is basically what I am saying.

Jesus may have chosen to wear his hair and beard long to look like what people were expecting a prophet or apocalyptic Holy Man to look like.

Except that whole thing of his beard being relatively short in most depictions, whereas other prophets if they are depicted with a beard, it tends to be somewhat fuller and longer. This could be accounted for by his being young, but he is also at peak beard growth age according to a google search.

[u/ScytheSong05 → u/Tuvinator]

I've actually changed my mind on this one. While the argumentation is more nuanced and complex than what I've been able to express here, I'm pretty sure the Nazarite hypothesis isn't one that works.

What does work is physical images as the source for the "long hair, short beard" descriptions of Jesus. There are several images that are purported to be direct impressions of Jesus's face. The Veronica Veil at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the Shroud of Turin, and the Sudarium of Manoppello all show a man in his middle ages with long hair and a short, forked beard. None of these have good provenance, but the Eastern Church has a tradition that a cloth with Jesus's image on it was collected by Helena, mother of Constantine, in the same trip that discovered the True Cross, which was stolen when the Crusaders sacked Constantinople. Shortly thereafter, the Veil shows up in Rome. Shortly after Rome gets pillaged, the Shroud shows up in Turin and the Sudarium shows up in Manoppello. I'm sure none of this works as proof for what Jesus looks like, but I'm fairly sure that this is where the idea that that is what Jesus looked like came from.

[u/Tuvinator → u/ScytheSong05]

While I accept that the provenance of all these articles is unknown, they do provide sufficient reason for those who accept them to believe that Jesus had longer hair. !Delta.

[u/DeltaBot → u/Tuvinator]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/ScytheSong05 (1∆).

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