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Misconceptions About Jesus
Posted by Editormum on 10 August 2004 in Uncategorized | ∞
Jesus was not …
- Long-haired. Jesus would have had short hair, a beard, and possibly long sidelocks. The confusion comes, I think, from a confusion of Nazarene (which Jesus was) and Nazirite (which He wasn’t). A Nazarene is a person who comes from Nazareth, a city in Israel. A Nazirite is a person who has taken special vows to God as a means of consecration or purification. Nazirites abstain from cutting their hair, paring their nails, drinking liquor, and consuming any product containing grapes.
- Vegetarian. Jesus could not have been a vegetarian, although He undoubtedly ate less meat than we do nowadays. Part of the Jewish Law, which Jesus fulfilled perfectly, includes eating lamb on Pesach (Passover). In addition, Jesus grew up in a part of the world where fish is a dietary staple. We are told that even after his resurrection, he ate fish with his disciples.
- Pacifist. Sorry to burst your bubble, but He wasn’t. He said that He had come to bring, “not peace, but a sword.” While He did advocate peacable solutions to disputes, He didn’t hesitate to flip over the moneychangers’ tables and scourge them away from the Temple.
- Uneducated. Jesus would have received the schooling typical for young men of his day. He would have been able to read and write in Hebrew and Aramaic, and possible also in Greek or Latin. He would undoubtedly have studied Torah (which involves a lot more than just reading) with his local rabbi, and we are told that his erudition astonished the rabbis even at the Temple in Jerusalem, which was the religious center of Judaism in his day. Jesus would also have been trained in a trade, most likely as a carpenter under his father’s tutelage, though it is possible that He was a fisherman or a husbandman (keeper of fields and/or flocks).