Why do we depict Jesus with long hair?

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XXI_4 said:
To a first century Jew long hair would have been closer to waist length, not shoulder length like the typical depictions we see in Catholicism and Eastern iconography.
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šŸ˜± Please tell me no Jewish men had waist-length hair. I canā€™t imagine a woman with hair that long, let alone a man.
 
mVitus said:
And if that was the case, where did our common depiction of Him with long hair come from?
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Long hair didnā€™t equal homosexuality back in the day.

The reason why Jesus has long hair in art is because that is his conventional appearance. All of the various religious figures had took so that the viewers of the art knew who the subject of the art
 
The answer is really very simple. The Lord left a miraculous image of Himself on His burial shroud. This was hidden for about 500 years in the city of Edessa and was known as the Image of Edessa When it was finally removed from its hiding place in the early 6th century, monks traveled throughout the near east making representations of the face of our Lord. One of the most famous is that which is found in St. Catherineā€™s Monastary in the Sinai.

In 944 A.D. the Byzantine emperor extracted the Image of Edessa from that city and took it to Constantinople where it became known as the Holy Mandylion. Many icons were made of the Holy Cloth. Some of these made their way to the west. If an icon was actually touched to the Mandylion, it became ā€œtrueā€ icon or, in Greek, vera iconica.
When a ā€œvera iconicaā€ made its way to Rome, the common people shortened ā€œvera iconicaā€ to Veronica and invented a legend to account for the image of our Lord.

The miraculous Image of Edessa depicts Jesus with long hair as do all icons made of it. And that is why we depict Jesus with long hair. That is how He actually looked.
 
This is probably a more serious topic that what appears on the surface. Because it affects our image of Jesus, of God. Long hair associated with a gentle, peace-loving hippie stereotype? Thatā€™s why I think it is important to think of the spirit of Jesus more than his appearance.
 
Who else had long hair? Samson. His strength was in his hair. Artists joined the two. Jesus said he would destroy the temple in the same way Samson did. Long hair is a symbol of strength and virility. A bald Jesus would hardly have the same effect.
 
For those wondering where I got the idea of long hair equalling homosexuality,
before the forum transition there a question someone asked about one of (I think) St. Paulā€™s letters to the Greeks. And in it one person, Iā€™m pretty sure he was a priest but I could be wrong, mentioned culture shock of a Jew visiting Greece. Kind of mentioning the long hair thing plus Greeks seeing long hair as a sign of intelligence, how Jewish married women covered their hair, and so Greece, with uncovered hair wouldā€™ve /sarcasm/ had no married women and why, because the men were all gay. Itā€™s one of those mental images that sticks with you.

So it seems the main reasons for it are;

1: What we see as long hair today was not seen as long hair then.
2: Symbolism and ancient depictions.
3: At the time some of the depictions we know today came in vogue, long hair was normal so they painted what they saw.

@undead_rat For The Image of Edessa, would that be this?
 
bettercallpaul said:
Long hair associated with a gentle, peace-loving hippie stereotype?
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Different people associate Jesusā€™ long hair with different things.
For some people, itā€™s ā€œhippieā€ in terms of peace loving.
For others, itā€™s ā€œhippieā€ in terms of rebellious, anti-authoritarian.
For still others, they see the long hair as us ā€œfeminizingā€ Jesus, or possibly as denying his Jewish heritage and trying to make him into some European concept.

I prefer to just think hey, maybe Jesus was kind of busy and didnā€™t get around to getting a haircut in between all that curing the sick and praying and giving his life for us, etc.
 
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I never bothered how He used to look i prefer to feel.
None of the pictures are true image,esspecially those with snow white Mary holding big blond,white, puffy baby.(i like them,but surely not true)
 
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We can be sure of :Jesus do exsisted,What He did was true.As for people prespectives and other things always a doubt.
Also the church :There was always conflict between spirit and body.
 
During the time of Jesus many men are with long hair and is not seen as a sign of homosexuality.
 
mVitus said:
@undead_rat For The Image of Edessa, would that be this?
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Yes and No. Icons of Image of Edessa are very difficult to find. Only a few representations remain as either frescoes or murals. That is because Islamic iconoclasm destroyed all most all icons and representations of the Image that were made when it was in Edessa.
What you have given us here is a Holy Mandylion icon that was made some time after the Image of Edessa was extracted to Constantinople in 944 AD. So, yes, this an icon of the Image of Edessa, but after it became known as the Holy Mandylion.

BTW, icons of the Holy Mandylion are still being made, so it is not possible for someone of my limited knowledge to date this one. It may be a later production of Russian origin.
 
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How would the actual image differ from the one I posted then? If you do have an image you could link/upload I would be interested in seeing it.
 
A Nazirite vow was a short term thing, not a lifelong thing (typically).
 
mVitus said:
How would the actual image differ from the one I posted then? If you do have an image you could link/upload I would be interested in seeing it.
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See the back cover in Ian Wilsonā€™s 2010 book, THE SHROUD, for a fresco of Image of Edessa.
 
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