Long Hair
Many people are objecting to Jesus being depicted in modern art work with long hair. The truth is that long hair amongst men was not common amongst the Jews. They are right but that does not mean that Jesus did not have long hair during the three years of his ministry before the Crucifixion.
The long hair complained about in the side panel of this artist's rendition is possibly explained in Numbers 6:5
"All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth [himself] unto the LORD, he shall be holy, [and] shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow."
Nazarite is the word meaning "to dedicate, consecrate, separate" Paul even says in 2 Corinthians 6:17 "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you," He said this when he asked "what agreement" would we have with idols. Idols are the things that men create to represent things, institutions or ideas.
Paul goes on to say if we will do that, be separate.
Touch not and cleanse ourselves of "from all filthiness" that He "will be a Father unto you". Of course this is a reference to what Jesus said about calling no man on earth father and applying to God the Father in your prayers rather than the fathers of the earth.
Matthew 23:9 And call no [man] your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
It is all pretty simple stuff once you know who the fathers of the earth were and are. Of course you would need to want to know who they were and unfortunately that might tip over some of the eschatology idols that men have made for themselves.
Some people think "Jesus was not a Nazarite. Jesus drank wine and raised the dead and approached them."
They quote Matthew 2:23 "And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene."
One of the problems with this is there is little to no evidence that Nazareth ever existed as a town at or before that time.
As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
• Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament.
• The Talmud names 63 Galilean towns but no Nazareth there nor in early rabbinic literature.
• St Paul mention Jesus 221 times but does not mention 'Nazareth'.
• There seems to be no ancient historian or geographer who mentions Nazareth.
Nazareth seems to be first noted at the beginning of the 4th century as a real place. The expression 'Jesus of Nazareth' is a translation of the original Greek 'Jesous o Nazoraios' which is actually saying 'Jesus the Nazarene' where Nazarene which more likely comes from the Hebrew root of the name is NZR, nazir which is often translated NAZARITE meaning to dedicate, consecrate, separate.
There is lots of reasons to believe that Jesus separated himself and appeared to be associated with Nazarite Essene teachings.
They like to quote Matthew 9:24-25 "He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But when the people were put forth, he went in, and TOOK HER BY THE HAND, and the maid arose."
And then note the verse Numbers 6:6 "All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body."
They completely miss Matthew 9:24 "He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn."
She was dead but not dead in another sense. The apostles tried to stop Jesus from entering the room where the dead body was which was a part of the vow of the Nazarite, the vow of separation/consecration. Jesus was making it clear to them that the death God is talking about is not the death of the flesh but of the Spirit.
Modern religionists who try to privately interpret the Bible fall back on the letter to give them faith which is a form of idolatry but they often do not even know the meaning of religion as James used it worship the words rather than the spirit of the truth.
When Luke 9:60 says "Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." Was Jesus talking about zombies actually burying the dead?
The literalistic read of the Bible in the spirit may easily fool people because the letter killeth...
So why was Jesus called the Nazarene?
The 2nd century gnostic Gospel of Philip [47] mentions:" The apostles that came before us called him Jesus Nazarene the Christ ...'Nazara' is the 'Truth'. Therefore 'Nazarene' is 'The One of the Truth' ..."
The Nazarene (or Nazorean) was the name of an early Jewish sect of the Essenes that some historians associate with early Christians. The root of their name may have been the Hebrew noun 'netser' ('netzor'), meaning 'branch' or 'flower.' The plural of 'Netzor' becomes 'Netzoreem.'
Paul from Tarsus does not mention Nazareth nor Nazarenes but is accused of being a Nazorean in Acts 24:5 "For we have found this man [a] pestilent [fellow], and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes: Who also hath gone about to profane the temple: whom we took, and would have judged according to our law."
But some say Jesus was not a Nazarite because "Jesus drank wine" and Numbers 6:3 says "He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried."
Matthew 26:29 "But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."
These same people miss entirely that Jesus does drink with them later so the kingdom was there and they were in it. Jesus took it from the Pharisees who miss understood the old testament and gave it to the apostles, appointing them that kingdom but forbade them from exercising authority one over the other.
Just as Jesus touched the dead who were not dead but asleep could Jesus drank wine but did not drink "wine"? There are more than one word in the Hebrew text translated into wine and if you do not know the difference and the purpose of the ritual descriptions then you may easily miss the true meaning as you depend on your private interpretation.
There is a great deal of confusion and misinterpretation of what Jesus was doing and saying.
That is understandable since most of the modern christian coreligionists have asked the Pharisees to tell them what the Old Testament meant.
Flesh and blood study does not reveal the truth of the scripture which is why there are so many different interpretations and denominations.
As long as people continue to worship their personal ideas about the Bible, their modern religionist ideas and private interpretations they will remain under a strong delusion about the real meaning of the Gospel. That is why they seem to have more in common with the Pharisees and probably would not recognize Christ with short hair or long since most of them do the direct opposite of what Christ actually said.
They still pray/apply to men who call themselves benefactors but exercise authority one over the other in-spite of the fact that Jesus saying you are not to be that way. With such covetousness they curse their children to bondage as Peter warned.
2 Peter 2:14 "Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:" and have become merchandise, human resources as Peter also warned:
2 Peter 2:3 "And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not."
But many of the modern worshipers of religious beliefs will cling to their misinterpretation of Paul which Peter also warned about.
2 Peter 3:15 "And account [that] the longsuffering of our Lord [is] salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction."
We cover all this on our website and will be a good topic of one of our broadcasts.
The text of Numbers 6 of the KJV
Numbers 6: 1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD:
3 He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried.
4 All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk.
5 All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.
6 All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body.
7 He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration of his God is upon his head.
8 All the days of his separation he is holy unto the LORD.
9 And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it.
10 And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation:
11 And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and make an atonement for him, for that he sinned by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day.
12 And he shall consecrate unto the LORD the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a trespass offering: but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled.
13 And this is the law of the Nazarite, when the days of his separation are fulfilled: he shall be brought unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation:
14 And he shall offer his offering unto the LORD, one he lamb of the first year without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for peace offerings,
15 And a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and wafers of unleavened bread anointed with oil, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings.
16 And the priest shall bring them before the LORD, and shall offer his sin offering, and his burnt offering:
17 And he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, with the basket of unleavened bread: the priest shall offer also his meat offering, and his drink offering.
18 And the Nazarite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation, and put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings.
19 And the priest shall take the sodden shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazarite, after the hair of his separation is shaven:
20 And the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the LORD: this is holy for the priest, with the wave breast and heave shoulder: and after that the Nazarite may drink wine.
21 This is the law of the Nazarite who hath vowed, and of his offering unto the LORD for his separation, beside that that his hand shall get: according to the vow which he vowed, so he must do after the law of his separation.