Bremen, KS | happycatcher - 11/29/2021 16:40
For many scholars Revelation 1:14-15 offers a clue that Jesus's skin was a darker hue and that his hair was woolly in texture. The hairs of his head, it says, "were white as white wool, white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace.”
As I understand it, this manifestation of Jesus to John would be in his state of glory. John knew Jesus well from his ministry before his crucifixion and after his resurrection, and probably did not feel the need to describe his appearance unless it was such that he had never seen it before. Even at the transfiguration they barely got a glimpse before they hid their faces. At that time the glory of Christ may have been incomprehensible to John.
As far as the assertion that the priests, pharisees and scribes had no idea what he looked like seems preposterous to me. He was well known among them having been in the temple with them and teaching many times. They had also gone out to where he was teaching. He had just been in the temple that week and chased out the money changers, etc. They knew him well. Think of this, they were the religious authorities of their day and here comes this carpenter from Nazareth telling them they're wrong? They hatched plan and I suspect they wanted plausible deniability (sound familiar?).
Their hiring Judas was twofold, one they were scared of the people as Jesus was quite popular and they wanted a cover story to save their own hides. The charge they needed to bring was blasphemy and on that they could turn the public opinion to their side especially if one of Jesus' trusted disciples was willing to betray him on the charge of blasphemy (again, sound familiar?). Second, I think hiring Judas was also an attempt to demoralize Jesus. After all, who among us would not be demoralized if a close confidant betrayed us in like manner even in the best of circumstances?
I think the reason Jesus is portrayed as he is in western art is simply due to the fact that the artists drew/painted what they knew and had a desire to portray a "beautiful savior". We really should probably leave it at that and not apply modern mores to times past.
|
Jesus
