Jesus Having Long Hair
            QUESTION from Manuel on April 30, 2004

I was having a discussion with a Protestant co-worker of mine about the film 'The Passion of the Christ',and he said that Jesus' portrayal in the film isn't accurate because Jesus didn't have long hair. My co-worker said that Jewish custom prohibited men from having long hair,and that beards were worn by elders,not by younger men. He also said that there was a Jewish sect called 'Nazarites' who had beards and long hair during a period of three years of isolation,but then cut the hair off after the three year period.

I have read in the bible where St. Paul says that long hair on men is a shameful thing. I'm wondering how all of this fits in with the image on the Shroud of Turin,which depicts a man with long hair and a beard. I'm confused,and your insight on this topic will be greatly appreciated. Thanks and God bless.

             ANSWER by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM on May 7, 2004

Dear Manuel:

This Rock Magazine in 1992 answered this question:

Aren't all images of Jesus false? In 1 Corinthians 11:14 Paul tells us long hair is unnatural and degrading for a man. All the pictures of Jesus show him with long hair, so they must be false images.

The pictures we have of Christ do not derive from any physical description we have of him in the Bible, because there is none. The basic image comes from a long artistic and iconographic tradition. Nothing in that facial image contradicts the Bible.

Part of the problem here is how long is long? We know from archeological materials, such as Middle Eastern carvings and Egyptian tomb paintings, that Jews wore what we would consider today as long hair and beards. Hair reached down to the shoulders on men. Women wore hair down to the waist.

Paul was telling Corinthian men that wearing hair down to the waist as women did would be effeminate and unnatural. You assume the length and cut of a Jewish man's hair in the first century was as it is for most men today, but that's a misconception which results in your misinterpretation of Paul's epistle

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

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