Jesus' physical appearance plays a major role in christianit

[Avoice]

The image people have if Jesus plays a big part in their beliefs in him.

They believe he is handsome. That he wears a white robe and sandals. Has long slightly wavy hair. His hair is becoming more blonde these days. And blue eyes are popular now. His eyes used to be brown in paintings and hair was darker. No matter. What matters is that he is nice to look at.

There are thousands of statues of Jesus. Paintings- too many to number. But he is always pleasant to the eyes All depicting a handsome man.

How many statues would there be if he was hideous and disgusting looking? If he was repulsive to the eyes. How many Christians would have a picture of him hanging in their house? And how many would point to that picture and say he is my Lord and savior!!
How many racist white Christians would reject an image of Jesus if he looked like Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden? In truth Jesus would have looked more like them than the one DaVinci painted of him in the famous 'Last Supper'

Before everyone starts replying with how real Christians aren't racists -stop. If they identify as Christians they are Christian.

Christianity is a religion whose relationship with God requires that he be someone they can relate to. Someone who thinks like them. Someone THEY approve of. They want a religion that lets them decide what is right or wrong. That lets them eat what they want. A religion that won't make them feel guilty. A religion that provides an excuse for their failings. They sin because they are born sinners doncha' know. No. We are sinners when we sin!

Christians want God to think and act like them. They want God to be the image of them. They want to look at him. They have created him in their image. 2000 years ago a group of people have the people what they wanted. They dragged God down to earth and gave him a name and made him just like us. Jesus is just the kind of god we would make if we could make one. We get everything we want, live forever and he suffers for our sins.

Want to see people get outraged? Enact a law that forbids images of Jesus. Statues or anything that is to represent him. They are idol worshippers. Take their images and statues and see. Unfortunately that won't happen. Buuuut....next time you see a Christian looking at an image of Jesus mention what a nice picture of Moses they are looking at.
It's Jesus!
No, it's Moses.

Christianity is not based on faith. Faith is believing in things you can't see. Like God
Faith is not needing to put a face on God.

Christians worship the God that exists in their minds. He has light brown hair and blue eyes. Wears a white robe and leather sandals. And holds his arms outstretched. That's god to them. When he returns (rolling my eyes) he better look exactly like that or they won't see him. In the meantime they have their images and statues to look at. So comforting. Oh and the Virgin Mary. They created her plasant to the eyes too. Oh and the manger scene...look there is God....creater of the world...laying in a pile of hay. Born even lower than us. In a barn! A perfect God. One who doesn't think he's better than us[/i][/quote]

[Avoice]

Ezek 45
And it shall be the prince's part to give burnt offerings, and meat offerings, and drink offerings, in the feasts, and in the new moons, and in the sabbaths, in all solemnities of the house of Israel: he shall prepare the sin offering, and the meat offering, and the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel.
Thus saith the Lord God; In the first month, in the first day of the month, thou shalt take a young bullock without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary:
And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering, and put it upon the posts of the house, and upon the four corners of the settle of the altar, and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court.
And so thou shalt do the seventh day of the month for every one that erreth, and for him that is simple: so shall ye reconcile the house.
In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the passover, a feast of seven days; unleavened bread shall be eaten.
And upon that day shall the prince prepare FOR HIMSELF and for all the people of the land a bullock for a sin offering.

Ezek 46
Thus saith the Lord God; The gate of the inner court that looketh toward the east shall be shut the six working days; but on the sabbath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened.
And the prince shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate without, and shall stand by the post of the gate, and the priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate: then he shall go forth; but the gate shall not be shut until the evening.
Likewise the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the Lord in the sabbaths and in the new moons.
And the burnt offering that the prince shall offer unto the Lord in the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish.
And the meat offering shall be an ephah for a ram, and the meat offering for the lambs as he shall be able to give, and an hin of oil to an ephah.
And in the day of the new moon it shall be a young bullock without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram: they shall be without blemish.
And he shall prepare a meat offering, an ephah for a bullock, and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs according as his hand shall attain unto, and an hin of oil to an ephah.
And when the prince shall enter, he shall go in by the way of the porch of that gate, and he shall go forth by the way thereof.
But when the people of the land shall come before the Lord in the solemn feasts, he that entereth in by the way of the north gate to worship shall go out by the way of the south gate; and he that entereth by the way of the south gate shall go forth by the way of the north gate: he shall not return by the way of the gate whereby he came in, but shall go forth over against it.
And the prince in the midst of them, when they go in, shall go in; and when they go forth, shall go forth.

[Elijah John]

[Replying to post 1 by Avoice]

If the bible is to be believed Jesus was a perfect man, whose body was prepared directly by an Almighty God that does everything perfectly... why would a perfect human specimen of a man be physically repulsive or even aesthetically substandard ?

That seems a shallow, superficial way to look at it. And besides, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? Personally, I find the depictions of Jesus in the Watchtower literature to also be shallow, saccharine and superficial. Repugnant to my vision. Jesus as matinee idol or comic book character. Perfectly groomed like a modern metro. I think Jagella's picture of Jesus in post # 2 is more probably far more accurate, and not repugnant in the least, though he makes a good point in that we don't know what Jesus actuallly looked like. But probably far more Middle Eastern/ Mediterranean than Nordic or Germanic.

And remember, God chose the weak to shame the strong and mighty, to paraphrase Paul. And while man looks at appearances, God looks to the heart, to paraphrase the prophet Samuel.

And if God does everything perfectly, ("perfect" by human standards?) as you say, why was Jesus born in a manger instead of a palace?

[1213]

...
Finally, before this discussion gets too ugly, here's a depiction of a not-so-handsome Jesus.

I would like to hear, why do you think that person is not handsome?

[Jagella]

Christians believe the servent in Isaiah 53 is jesus. It's not but if christians insist then....

Excerpt from 53:

"... He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him....".

Now what?

I remember when I was a Christian I spoke to my pastor about this very issue. He told me that Jesus was not a good-looking man, and to prove it he cited the passage from Isaiah 53 above. At first I thought he was citing a passage from the New Testament rather than the Old Testament. Naturally, one would expect eyewitnesses to describe Jesus' appearance instead of those who lived long before he did. Of course, the gospel writers--eyewitnesses or not--have nothing to say about what Jesus looked like.

Anyway, Christians like Jehovah's Witness want it both ways. They want Isaiah 53 to be a prediction of Jesus, but they will ignore it presumably saying that Jesus would be ugly because they wish to believe Jesus was good looking.

So that's the paradox of how Christians interpret the Bible. They will deny what it says to "uphold" it.
because they prefer to believe Jesus was good looking!

[Jagella]

...
Finally, before this discussion gets too ugly, here's a depiction of a not-so-handsome Jesus.

I would like to hear, why do you think that person is not handsome?

He's just not my type, I suppose. I wouldn't say he's ugly, but I wouldn't say he's handsome either. He has a large nose and a lousy haircut. He appears to be aging too.

If Jesus looked like that, would it make any difference to you as far as your Christian beliefs are concerned? Would you reject a homely Christ?

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 1 by Avoice]

If the bible is to be believed Jesus was a perfect man [1], whose body was prepared directly by an Almighty God [2] that does everything perfectly [3]... why would a perfect human specimen of a man be physically repulsive or even aesthetically substandard [4] ?

That seems a shallow, superficial way to look at it.

Firstly, I was posing a question (one which from what I can see nobody has attempted to answer), not proposing a worldview and secondly my question was based on scripturally sound supposition (see below numbered [1-4] for easy reverence). Would you be so kind as to explain what was shallow and superficial in my post?


JW

[1] 1 PETER 1:19

...Christ, who was like a lamb without defect or flaw. - Good News Translation

[2] HEBRRWS 10:5

when Christ came into the world, he said: "... a body you prepared for me - NIV

[3] DEUTERONOMY 23:4 .... the Rock, his work is perfect

- Webster's Bible Translation

[4] ECCLESIATES 3:11

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. - New Living Translation

[JehovahsWitness]

[Replying to post 11 by Avoice]

Is there a reason you presume these verses to be speaking about the Messiah?

[JehovahsWitness]

...we don't know what Jesus actuallly looked like. But probably far more Middle Eastern/ Mediterranean than Nordic or Germanic.

Thank you for sharing but why are you saying this to *me*? Is there anything in my post that suggested otherwise?

[Willum]

Everyone always ignores that the Talmud and Celsus both state Jesus was the bastard child of a Greek soldier.
He could very well have taken after his father.
However, the true story behind Jesus good looks is that, when the church commissioned pictures of Jesus, they were at loss for a model, and it being Rome, the only model they had for a god was Zeus.
Of course, since Jesus is “HeyZeus� this also makes sense.

[Jagella]

[Replying to post 1 by Avoice]

If the bible is to be believed Jesus was a perfect man [1], whose body was prepared directly by an Almighty God [2] that does everything perfectly [3]... why would a perfect human specimen of a man be physically repulsive or even aesthetically substandard [4] ?

That seems a shallow, superficial way to look at it.

Firstly, I was posing a question (one which from what I can see nobody has attempted to answer), not proposing a worldview and secondly my question was based on scripturally sound supposition (see below numbered [1-4] for easy reverence). Would you be so kind as to explain what was shallow and superficial in my post?

Your question can have no single, objective answer. What is "physically repulsive or even aesthetically substandard" is entirely a matter of opinion. If we knew what Jesus looked like, then I'm sure there would be no universal agreement regarding his beauty or lack of beauty.

So Jesus could not be perfect in that his appearance could not please everybody.

The moral of the story is be careful what you claim especially regarding how perfect a person may be. In this case you painted yourself into a corner making a claim that cannot be objectively true.