Bible Studies

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The world view today of Jesus Christ is that of an effeminate looking person with long flowing hair similar to a woman’s long hair, in their attempt to portray him as a long haired, sickly, pale, weakling looking man who was unsure of himself. But nothing could be further from the truth.

During the ancient times in which Jesus of Nazareth lived, the Roman and Greek men wore their hair short. It can be seen from the busts, statues and portraits we still have available to us today. You can pick up any illustrated history book pertaining to that period of time in history and the men were all portrayed with short hair very similar to the way 99% of the men cut their hair today, off the ears and cut above the collar in the back. There are busts of Augustus, Pompey, King Herod, and each has closely cropped hair. The carvings and statues of the Roman Legionnaires show them all with short hair cuts, and yes, they actually had razors back then. In fact, even before, during and after the time of Jesus Christ, the Roman emperors from Julius Caesar to Trajan all had short hair, and the emperor set the standard for the entire empire for mode of dress, style, and grooming of what men should look like at that time. The Hellenistic Greeks were the primary people of the Eastern Mediterranean area before the Romans arrived.

A large number of the Jewish population adopted the culture of that day, spoke the Greek language and retained Hellenistic views of life, the dress, behavior and mannerisms, which included the way a man should present himself in society, and that included wearing short hair.

The argument that the Jews of that day, who did not have a Hellenistic view, might have worn their hair long is a weak one since the Jewish Talmud instructs the Jewish men to cut their hair every thirty days and that all the priests should cut their hair short. Why would this instruction be in the Talmud if Jewish men were meant to wear their hair long? The Jewish priests were well aware of the command to cut their hair, found in (Ezekiel 44:20) which states “neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long.” In the NIV, "They must not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but they are to keep the hair of their heads trimmed." God wanted the priests to set the example for the rest of the Jewish community (Malachi 2:7) since the priests were messengers of the Almighty. Also in the Talmud we find that the style of haircut was “Julian,” also called a “Caesar cut”, (Sanhedrin 22b).

There is also the assumption that Jesus was under a Nazarite vow which is found in (Numbers 6:2-3, 6). “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord: He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. All the days that he separates himself unto the Lord he shall come at (touch) no dead body”. Jesus was under no such vow. He drank wine (Matt. 11:19) and touched the hand of the little girl who had recently died (Matt. 9:25), and He raised her from the dead, back to full life. If Jesus had been under a Nazarite vow, he would not have done either of these two things. Jesus was from Nazareth, a Nazarene, which has nothing to do with a Nazarite vow. The ones who took the Nazarite vow grew their hair long as a sign of humiliation. The only two exceptions are Samson and Samuel, who were under a lifetime Nazarite vow (1 Samuel 1:11) (Judges 13:5; 16:17).

The men today, who wear their hair long, do it proudly and boldly show off their flowing locks, there is nothing humble about them. This is a sign of pride. It is also a sign of rebellion and defiance against traditional values in society. Note also in (Numbers 6:18-19) that when the time of the Nazarite vow was over, the vow was to shave his head (Num.6:9), which indicates that short hair was the normal way the Jews were to keep their hair. The Nazarite vow was temporary usually lasting only 30 days. When the days of separation were complete it ended this shameful period! We know that for a man under the Nazarite vow, having long hair was a shameful period of time.

In (1Cor. 11:14) it states “Does not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?” Most men naturally come to this conclusion early in life as boys, long hair would interfere with their play and as grown men it interferes with work. That’s what it means “does not even nature itself teach you”.

I personally know a long haired man I worked with on many jobs, who accidentally got his hair caught in a spinning drill bit as he was using a drill motor with a long metal bit to drill a hole. His long hair was so entwined and wrapped around the bit in a tangled mess that it took him more than 45 minutes to untangle the hair because he refused to cut it away from the drill. What common sense is there in that? But his pride was so great, he refused to cut it. This is similar to the story of Absalom, the rebellious son of David the King of Israel. After fighting against his father for a long period of time trying to overthrow the king, Absalom was caught off guard, separated from his men and fled from the soldiers of King David on a mule and ran under a great oak tree and was caught up in thick branches as the mule ran out from under him, hanging him there in midair by his head (2 Sam. 18:9-10). Which I believe his own long hair entangled his head and he could not free himself, because he was stuck there long enough for one man to see him then report back to Joab, King David’s captain. Nevertheless Absalom was then killed by Joab who plunged three javelins into Absalom’s heart while he hung there by his head of long hair in the network of thick oak branches. You see Absalom cut his hair only once a year. He let it grow long all year and then at the end of the year he would shave it off. He even weighed it at 200 shekels which is equivalent to 5 pounds of weight. It became so heavy he would have to cut it at least once a year. (2 Sam. 14:26).

Even if there were no other bible verses about long hair on men, and how men should wear their hair short, this one verse in (1Corinthians 11:14) alone would be enough for our obedience. It is so crystal clear and exact. This one verse is enough proof that Jesus Christ had short hair. He would simply not have grown his hair long and go against his own word. To do this would be a contradiction of His word, and that simply does not happen.

There is power in the very “name” of Jesus, even the evil spirits are afraid at the very mention of the name of Jesus. His correct title is the Lord Jesus Christ, not “my Jesus” or Jesus meek and mild, or “baby Jesus.” He is no longer in a manger, but grew up, became a man and carried out a great mission in going to the cross, being scourged, bleeding, suffering great agony then dying and paying for the sins of the world on the cross at Calvary. He was buried and then rose again after three days, completing a perfect work of salvation for all mankind. This great work He accomplished stands for all eternity. He is truly the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. He is “Christ” which means “Messiah” in referring to his role as the Deliverer of Israel, the Anointed One. He is the God-Man, 100% deity and true humanity in one person forever. There is no other person like Him. He is the unique person of the universe. He has been exalted to the highest position, seated at the right hand of God the Father. As God the Father is speaking to God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ in this passage, “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” (Psalm 110:1).

But the Lord Jesus Christ places his Word above his own name as seen in (Psalms 138:2). “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” The Lord Jesus Christ is God as seen in (John1:1-2). “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In verse 2 we see, “The same was in the beginning with God.” The capitalized ‘W’ in “Word” is a direct reference to the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Second member of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God. He was with God the Father in the beginning and it also refers to His deity, “and the Word was God.” Remember that it is the Lord Jesus Christ who inspired the whole bible, since he is God. The Lord would not go against His own word. In (2 Timothy 3:16) it tells us, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” The Word guides us and instructs us on many things we face in life and even in the matter of hair lengths for men and women.

The artists years ago who have painted Jesus Christ as having long hair are ignorant and have no clue as to what he really looked like. Why they chose to portray him with long hair is not very clear, but it is not important for us to know exactly what he looked like at this time. In (Revelation 1:13-14-15) the Apostle John saw in a vision, the Lord Jesus Christ as he is now, after the cross, after his resurrection, ascension and session. “And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.” Verse 14, “His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; Verse 15 “And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.” The reference to “his hairs were white” and “white as snow” the word “white” means shining and brilliant in dazzling brightness. The words “like wool” simply means similar to wool.

The Second Commandment warns us not to “make any graven image” (Exodus 20:4). There is no verse in the bible that tells us that we should be concerned with what Christ looked like as a man. In (Isaiah 53:2-3) we find a description of him, the man Jesus of Nazareth. “For He shall grow up before Him (God the Father) as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. Verse 3 “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

The Lord Jesus would have looked like an ordinary Jewish man of his time, a normal, healthy, masculine looking man with short hair and a beard. He worked mostly outdoors as a carpenter for many years, (Mark 6:3). We know he had a beard because just before he was crucified, the Roman soldiers plucked out patches of his beard, as they tortured him. There was nothing weak, sickly or effeminate about Jesus of Nazareth. The Lord Jesus had to be a physically and mentally strong man because he was still able to carry the cross beam of the heavy wooden cross after being scourged. Scourging was a flogging by professional Roman soldiers, in preparation for crucifixion, which included being struck a minimum of 39 lashes with a cat of nine tails, a whip with wooden handle, nine strips of leather and the knuckle bones of sheep at the ends of the strips to cut deep into the flesh of the prisoner to inflict maximum pain and literally shredding the person’s back muscles to pieces, often laying the muscles and flesh open down to the rib bones and back bones. They would also use small lead balls attached to the ends of the whip which would pulverize the muscles. If any man today were to be whipped in this manner, I venture to say they would not even survive more than a dozen strikes of the Roman whip before collapsing and not able to stand up and walk upright, having to be dragged away. Only a strong man could go through such a vicious flogging like this of 39 or more lashes, stand up and walk away on his own and then carry a large 150 pound cross member of wood on his sore, painful and bloody back through the streets, then up to Golgotha the place of the skull, where crucifixion on the cross and much more agony, pain and suffering awaited him. No my friends, Jesus Christ was no weakling, and he did not have long hair.

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