People tell me that I look like Jesus. In fact many of my peers know me as baby Jesus. But do they even know what the messiah really looked like? In our culture Jesus is associated with a white, slender, tall man with long brown hair and a beard but other cultures have their own image of the man. Consider that image though with the historical context in mind; Jesus would have looked very different from everyone else if that’s how he looked. He would have had darker skin as a middle-eastern Jew for one. Different cultures have different interpretations of the image of Jesus, projecting him as similar to their own kind, probably making him easier to relate to. A team of researchers has designed a more likely view of Jesus based on anthropological and archeological evidence that is far different from our Western view of Jesus. This website explains a different view of Jesus that may change the way you think of him in your minds: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/forensics/1282186
An excellent and self-aware post!
ReplyDeleteIt puts me in mind of a quote from the philosopher Xenophon, "But if cattle and horses and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do, horses like horses and cattle like cattle also would [..] make the bodies [of their gods] of such a sort as the form they themselves have."
Wow Adam, this is great!!
ReplyDeleteI must admit, your appearance does remind me of the typical Western view of Jesus, but as you pointed out, that image may be wrong entirely.
In my Sunday school, we were taught about the Shroud of Turin, so I always held that as proof of what Jesus looked like. The main illustration on your link is a startling contrast to our culture's idea.
This was very eye opening, thank you for sharing!!
It's so true! We all have our own depictions of Jesus, and I think that some people get annoyed when one depiction of Jesus is favored over another.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the link that you found. It makes sense that Jesus looks like that, but it still comes a as a shock because we envision Jesus looking like someone pretty much like yourself. In the article it says, "according to the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane before the Crucifixion, Judas Iscariot had to indicate to the soldiers whom Jesus was because they could not tell him apart from his disciples." Obviously since they were all from the same region, Jesus should look like his disciples. I just think it's ironic and funny that we can't seem to grasp that notion.