Shape shifting Jesus of Egypt???

[patrick457]

Another homily also attributed to St. Cyril of Jerusalem (this one titled Homily on the Resurrection and the Passion) makes the same explanation as our text to why Judas was needed:

He had given them a sign, saying: ‘The one whom I shall embrace and kiss is your man.’ He, then, said this because they did not know him. For sometimes he is white, but another time he has the colour of wheat, sometimes he is a young man, another time he is a man of advanced age, sometimes his hair is curly, another time it is long, sometimes he speaks, another time he is silent, in short, he never permitted them to know him.

Immediately after Judas’ wife congratulates Judas on his betraying Jesus, the scene abruptly shifts to Jesus and the other disciples (77-79).

Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Oh my brethren, in truth, there is something in my heart which I want to tell you. But come, let me assure you that I am able to escape from everything which is about to befall me; and I know the things that will happen before they do happen. Arise, and let us pray to my Father.”

When we, then, prayed, the whole mountain shook beneath us. We were afraid and looked and saw the Saviour like a column of fire, and his feet were with us on the mountain, but his head reached to the sky, and he was entirely on fire. And we were like the dead, our whole body trembled and we did not know what happened. Afterwards the Saviour raised all of us, who were like the dead, and we saw him in the shape of his humanity, whereas his invisibility, which actually is his divinity, was hidden within him. Then our Saviour released us from our fear and spoke with us about what would happen to us and about how we would preach.

Again he began to be grieved and to be gloomy of heart and he said to them: “I have longed with desire to eat this passover with you before I die. Oh my brethren, I bid you farewell, for yet a little while I am with you and yet a little while you see me; yet a little while until you are grieved and weep, and again a little while until you laugh. For as to me, I am a stranger to this world, I have come to those who are mine, who are in the world until I redeem them.”

The thing about the bolded paragraph is that it is crudely grafted into the narrative. The story, which until then has been told from the perspective of an uninvolved narrator, briefly switches into the first person plural, being told from the perspective of the disciples. While up to now in the narrative, Jesus and the disciples are in Jerusalem, the scene suddenly switches to a certain mountain (which couldn’t have been the Mount of Olives, since Jesus and the disciples have yet to leave for the Kidron brook in the narrative). Also note the paragraph’s consistent reference to “the Savior,” which doesn’t have much continuity with the preceding or the following paragraphs (our author’s choice for calling Jesus is “Jesus”).

This apocryphal transfiguration story may derive from some gnostic writing, though this is by no means certain. In its original setting, the passage apparently described a post-resurrection appearance by Jesus to the disciples: this is suggested by Jesus “[speaking] with [the disciples] about what would happen to [them] and about how [they] would preach.” Our author adapts this element to highlight Jesus’ divinity, and to emphasize how Jesus entered the Passion willingly. Since He is God, Jesus could have chosen to escape or reveal His divinity to everyone, but He still chose to die for the sake of man, and to fulfill what was said by the prophets. This somewhat paradoxical idea of the “God who suffered” (in a Miaphysite sort of way) is crucial to the work.

 

[patrick457]

The second time Jesus changes appearance in pseudo-Cyril is when He is brought before Pilate, wherein He appears before him as a young prince.

They however, took Jesus to the governor at the hour of the fourth day of the week, and the name of that governor was Pontius. He was a foreigner by birth, but after he had come to this city he had come to believe in God and had been given an additional name: Pilate.

As, then, they brought Jesus before him, he looked at him for a long time, marveling at his beauty and youth. This is his appearance: he is corn-coloured, his hair is black, coming down to the shoulders like bunches of grapes, his nose is prominent, he has beautiful eyes, his eyebrows are joined together, his cheek are red like roses. He wears a grape-coloured tunic, he has two silver-studded adornments on his side, like a sword, and a linen garment covers him so that he looks like a royal son. Thus they brought him to Pilate, the governor.

Then Pilate said to Jesus: ‘So you, you (dressed) in this manner, you are the king of the Jews?’ Jesus said to him: ‘Have you said this of your own accord or because others have told you this about me?’ The governor answered: ‘It is your own people that accuse you, but I do not believe them without a witness.’ He commanded that Jesus be taken to a separate place.

The description wasn’t merely the product of pseudo-Cyril’s imagination, but traces itself from a Byzantine literary tradition - which began to flourish during the Iconoclast controversy of the 8th century and afterwards down to the Middle Ages - which purports to describe what Jesus looked like.



Of the evangelist and apostle Luke all his contemporaries said that with his own hands he painted both Christ the Incarnated himself and his purest Mother, and their images are preserved in Rome, so it is said, with great honour; and in Jerusalem they are exhibited with meticulous attention. Josephus the Jew, too, says that this was what the Lord looked like when he was seen by the people: with eyebrows that met, fine eyes, a large and prominent face, and great stature, as he was clearly seen when he spoke to the people; and the same can be said as to the reproduction of the Mother of God, which we see also today and somebody calls “the Roman.”

• Andrew of Crete, On the Veneration of the Holy Images (ca. 700)

He was extremely handsome, six feet tall with blondish hair, not too thick, and lightly waved; the eyebrows black and not very arched, the eyes clear and brilliant; he had beautiful eyes, a long nose, and long, blondish beard, since a razor had never touched his face, nor even any man except for his mother’s when he was an infant. The neck slightly bent, just enough to avoid being rigidly upright, his colour that of wheat; his face was not round, but, like that of his mother, drawn toward the chin, the cheeks lightly coloured, just sufficiently to reveal his pious nature, sage, calm and maintaining always a serene humour without anger.

• Epiphanius the Monk (ca. 800)

He was beautiful in body, his height seven complete spans, his hair was yellowish, not thick, and at the ends somewhat curled. His eyebrows were black, only a little arched, and without break; his eyes were hazel, of that description called bright-eyed, not dim, in no way misinformed, nor wandering. His nose was prominent, his beard reddish, not profuse, but the hair of the head was abundant, for never had razor or hand of man shorn it. His neck was somewhat bent, so that He did not walk perfectly upright; the colour of his face was a yellow brown, like ripe wheat: his face was not round, nor pointed, but, like his mother’s, a little drooping and slightly blushing. His very countenance indicated a man of intelligence, with manners grave, calm, and removed from anger. In all things was He like His most pure mother.

• Nicephorus Callistus Xantopulus (ca. 1330s)

Lentulus, the Governor of the Jerusalemites to the Roman Senate and People, greetings. There has appeared in our times, and there still lives, a man of great power, called Jesus Christ. The people call him prophet of truth; his disciples, son of God. He raises the dead, and heals infirmities. He is a man of medium size; he has a venerable aspect, and his beholders can both fear and love him. His hair is of the colour of the ripe hazel-nut, straight down to the ears, but below the ears wavy and curled, with a bluish and bright reflection, flowing over his shoulders. It is parted in two on the top of the head, after the pattern of the Nazarenes. His brow is smooth and vary cheerful with a face without wrinkle or spot, embellished by a slightly reddish complexion. His nose and mouth are faultless. His beard is abundant, of the colour of his hair, not long, but divided at the chin. His aspect is simple and mature, his eyes are changeable and bright. He is terrible in his reprimands, sweet and amiable in his admonitions, cheerful without loss of gravity. He was never known to laugh, but often to weep. His stature is straight, his hands and arms beautiful to behold. His conversation is grave, infrequent, and modest. He is the most beautiful among the children of men.

• The Letter of Publius Lentulus