What made me wonder about Jesus’s sexuality:
*John 13:23 - Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. *
*John 21:20 - Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? *
Isn’t it pretty well established that that “disciple whom Jesus loved” moniker is how John referred to himself?
There are other theories, but this is the traditional interpretation.
groman: look up at my post #26.
That’s the traditional interpretation but it’s far from “established.” The author of GJohn never identifies the BD. Even the attribution of authorship to the Apostle John is a 2nd Century tradition (and regarded as a spurious one).
Ok, I thought the art historical record could help more, but I’m not finding much that helps. The problem is is that the earliest Christian art we have is Roman, really (as is the early Jewish art we have-- synagogue at Dura Europos, say, but that’s from the 3d century and a Roman garrison town). So any images of Hebrews we have from the era are really in a Roman tradition (perhaps there’s something from the Parthian side of things?).
Also possible that if the Roman trend at the time was short hair and clean-shaven that the Hebrews might have done the opposite as a political gesture. I doubt he had straight long hair in any case-- I think the short wavy ‘jewfro’ is a good guess.
On Romans and beards-- around the time of Jesus I think the beard was totally out of fashion for Romans, but comes back in in the early 2d century when Hadrian starts his fancy Greek philosopher posturing, and Marcus Aurelius further popularizes it.
Yeah, Scipio Africanus (236–183 BC) is often credited with popularizing shaving in Rome. He was a victorious general and a very popular public figure, so a lot of citizens would have emulated him. There are some claims that Hadrian grew a beard to hide a bad complexion, but whatever the reason, he kicked off a hundred years of bearded emperors.
Googling “depictions of Jesus” sure produces some odd results.
I like this one.
It’s possible that the similarity of “Nazirite” (meaning the type of vow which includes not cutting hair) and “Nazerene” (meaning a person from Nazareth) in Latin-descended languages led to the depiction of him as long-haired in modern Western art.
In Hebrew, the two words are not related - the “z” in Nazirite is a zayin, while the “z” in Nazareth is actually the “tz” sound of the letter tzadee.
It’s more complex than that – I’m no expert on Hebrew or Aramaean, but my understanding it that the description of Jesus – rendered as “Yeschu ha Notzri” in some of the books I’ve read – is somewhat ambiguous. It’s been translated as “Jesus the Nazorean” by some, without an attempt to interpret that. Some think it meant Jesus was a Nazirite. Others claim it means “inhabitant of Nazareth”. Others go further and say that it is misinterpreted as “of Nazareth”, and that there are no contemporary records of a town of Nazareth, and that it was made Jesus’ home town by later writers solely on the strength of that title.
I always thought the Fayum mummy portraits were a good source as to what these folks in the area looked like … though they are believed to be Greeks or Romans – we can’t be sure who they were exactly (more than ‘probably’ not Jews tho) and there was unquestionably a large and ancient Jewish community at Fayum. Doesn’t mean much except maybe in a general way on the beard vs. no beard issue - but these were certainly people who lived among Jews of the time & interacted with them on a daily basis and lived within ~300ish miles of Jerusalem in ~“Jesus’ time”.
BTW We have discussed Jesus appearance many times on these boards. I never get tired of it and by the views and replies neither do you – so its not that. But a search will bring up a lot of relevant threads and tangential information.
I thought about Fayoum for a bit, but the earliest of those are early 2d c, and they’re all Roman wanna-bes, culturally, so I think it’s not close enough. Physiognomically, a good idea, but I’m not so sure about hair and beard styling.
No, the earliest portraits are almost certainly first century.
Google dating the fayum portraits here two reasonable cites
http://www.hri.org/news/greek/mpa/1998/98-08-09.mpa.html
I said something similar and don’t disagree.
Isn’t it also part of the Nazarite vows to not drink wine? Jesus was described drinking wine, so we can’t really assume he was strict about the hair thing, even if we assume he was a Nazarite.
Aaand as Bongwater and Ann Magnussen say, "…Besides, it’s a lot easier to accept Jesus Christ
as your personal Lord and Savior when he looks like Willem DaFoe. "
Sorry for the hijack - but the mention of the spurious “Letter to Lentulus” brough to mind a book I once read (probably science fiction) that began with a purported letter from a Roman senator about Judas. Judas was described in the letter as a well-spoken and civilized man who regretted the death of Jesus, but felt it was necessary because, basically, Jesus was letting his ego get in the way of his message, and Jesus’ death was necessary to ensure the continuation of his ministry (an argument I have heard elsewhere in totally unrelated discussions). This Judas was not distraught, and did not hang himself, but was living well on the money he received from the “betrayal.”
My question really is only to see if anyone else has read this book, and knows what it might be? I can’t remember the rest of the book, and while I am sure that this supposed letter is all fiction (and only tangentially related to the topic of the book), I would like to read it again.
Thanks -
(Going quietly back into my corner now . . .)
Jammin’
In one of the apocryphal gospels, that of John the Baptist’s mother St. Elizabeth, this is examined even further in the verses
Hey, mon, Jamaican me saved.
Marry me.
I guess you’ve never met any Radical Faeries, then.
Or “Bears”, many of whom resemble outlaw bikers circa 1974.
Or Heavy Metal Homosexuals such as my partner and myself (our motto:“We don’t just *bang * the head, we give the head!” 
el deluxo
