Did Jesus Have Short Hair?

Two questions. What did Jesus look like? Why don’t we know?

1. Jesus described.

There is one physical description of Jesus in the Bible. It occurs in the Book of Revelation. Revelation is the record of the apostle John’s visions that he had on the island of Patmos. John was exiled there long after Jesus had died, rose, and ascended into heaven. This is that description:


His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. [Revelation 1:14-16 (KJV).] This describes Jesus in his glorified state. It is the description of a holy vision, not the description of a man as his disciples passed time with him.

The Bible elsewhere contains the idea of Jesus transformed from his natural, earthly appearance. He prayed with three of his disciples, and as he prayed his appearance changed. This is what Luke 9:29 says about the change in his appearance:
And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. [KJV.] These passages do not reveal the appearance of Jesus day-by-day in Galilee.

2. Jesus un-recognized.

After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples, but they did not always recognize him.

He appeared to Mary Magdalene when she came to his tomb, but she thought at first that he was a gardener. (John 20:15.)

Seven disciples were fishing but catching no fish. Jesus stood on the shore and spoke to them, but they did not recognize him. He told them to cast their net on the right side of the boat. They did, and suddenly they had a haul of many fish. Then they knew it was Jesus. (John 21:1-9.) The Book of John suggests that the disciples recognized him by his miracle, not by his appearance or voice. It says that they dared not ask him who he was, because they knew it was Jesus. (John 21:12.) This would make no sense if he were otherwise recognizable.

Jesus walked with two disciples on the road to Emmaus. But they did not know who he was until he broke bread. Then he disappeared from their view. (Luke 24:1-31.)

3. Did Jesus have short hair?

Jesus is not described as he appeared in the time of his ministry, but there is one hint about what he looked like. Against traditional depictions of him, Jesus probably had short hair. The apostle Paul did not meet Jesus in his earthly state, but he knew people who knew him, and he knew the traditions of the time. And based on that tradition, he said in 1^st Corinthians:
Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? [1 Corinthians 11:14.] How odd it would be if Paul indirectly criticized Jesus’s appearance or chided men for having hair like him.

I suppose that the long-haired Jesus tradition is handed down from Medieval and Renaissance paintings. These depicted Jesus in the custom of those times.

4. The Passion of the Christ.

I watched the beginning of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. It is interesting that director Gibson had his actors speak Jesus’s language Aramaic, but he had Jesus wear his hair long, even though that was not the tradition of Jesus’s time.

And Gibson’s Jesus was European-looking. This was even though Jesus was born in the Middle East to a Middle-Eastern mother. Of course, we don’t know that Jesus did not look European, but we have no reason to think that he did.

I don't mean to say that The Passion of the Christ was a bad movie. Many people found it deeply stirring. It's just that a movie director must make a choice about the appearance of his central character. And there is no way to know that this director's choice was right.

5. Disguise as parable.

What does this mean? I suspect it means many things, and I suspect that I’m missing most of them.

But I suspect that one clue to one meaning reposes in Hebrews 13:2: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." (KJV.) Therefore it is true in a literal sense and in a metaphorical sense: if you cannot know the appearance with which Jesus might come, any needy stranger might be Jesus.