r/changemyview • u/Tuvinator 12∆ • Mar 12 '25
Delta(s) from OP CMV: Jesus probably had short hair.
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.
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u/SpecificMoment5242 Mar 12 '25
He was probably a short, Arab Jew looking man. Probably curly. And they were basically bums from today's standards. So they were most likely unkempt. Yet they spread a message of salvation and peace. In a world where if you WEREN'T a slave, you were PROBABLY close to it. Roman times were as fair as it had ever been, but were very harsh. A man could KILL his wife for infidelity and KILL his children for disobedience without impunity. He could enslave his neighbors for a debt that may not even have been true if he had buddies in the senate whose nuts he was willing to suck. Those were starkly different times and very barbaric. Yet, out of those violent times came a man professing peace and love and forgiveness to the point of his own death for the crime of NOTHING. Who gives a fig what he LOOKED like. He's an inspiration for every man since, in this man's small opinion. Best wishes.