new thread
Ok I've been gone for a long time because of school, and whatnot, sorry been really busy, and I've come across something about men and long hair. It says god didn't want us to have long hair and wanted women only to have it.
"Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering."
That's what he said,
does God really not want us to have long hair, and if not did Jesus have long hair?
Oh and here's some update pictures :)
I think I'm really close to Waist length :), I'm excited
Best wishes to everyone on the board,
Josh
Hey, welcome back.
Nice update photos! How many years have you been growing?
Lookin goooood! Congrats on your length. ^.^
If God didn't "want" us to have long hair, he probably wouldn't have let it grow in the first place. Then again that brings up the "why did God create the snake" argument =P but you get the point.
Hello Josh! Welcome back, and great progress with the hair the pics are small, but it looks like your hair is getting healthier as well as longer (not that it wasn't healthy before - it just looks even better).
Regarding that verse from 1 Corinthians - if you read the entire chapter, you'll see that Paul writes about alot of cultural behaviors (women covering their heads, etc). The verse you quoted uses "nature" as the "authority", not God - I agree with the perspective that says that Paul is speaking of cultural behaviors and norms of contemporary Corinth (ie - the ways things were at the time). Let's face it - if it was "against nature" (or "unnatural") for men to grow their hair long, why does it grow so long when we let it grow "naturally"?
Jim
Hi, I'm a retired pastor with honours degrees in New Testament & Church History from Sydney Uni. And I have to agree with Belisarius.
Jesus grew up in the Roman Empire, which included very diverse cultures in its various provinces. The Romans were very militaristic and had short hair, while the Greeks mostly had longer hair. The Jews seem to have mostly worn their hair shoulder length, but had strong laws about the necessity for differences between men and women. Women would rarely have cut their hair, so a bloke with shoulder-length hair would not have been seen as feminine. So it's probable that Jesus and his disciples in Palestine wore their hair at what we'd regard as 'long'. But no one did a portrait of him then so it's all conjecture.
Belisarius' point about Paul in Corinth, which was a pretty rough port city at that time, with open prostitution (hello, sailor), is to maintain a dignified lifestyle, he emphasised the cultural norms of that society, rather than lating down unchangeable rules for Christians of all times and cultures.
However, for fundamentalists who regard every verse of Scripture as of equal authority, my view would be unacceptable. Incidentally, John Calvin regarded all Scripture as inspired but taught that all was not of equal value in determining doctrine. What Jesus personally taught is the test for any other part of the Bible, even St Paul's writings!
To my point of view, yes, I definitely believed Jesus had long hair. Just about every painting of Jesus that I have seen showed him wearing long hair. So I took that for granted that Jesus had long hair.
So I say yes.
Matthew (aka Regardless)
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Hey glad to see you back again Josh!I was wondering what was up with you but anyway your mane looks outstanding.I have to say though if God didn't intend for man to have longhair then why on earth does it get so long if we just leave it alone.That seems to say it all I think and you certainly are proof of that my friend:)Take care buddy!
Mark
It's pretty much impossible to prove either way and we could argue what the norm for the time was, but personally i think jesus was the kind of guy that did his own thing no matter the norm (history's greatest outcast and all that), so I choose to think of him as having long hair and some people don't, more power to them.
I'm not even going to touch the religious question except to say that I reconcile myself to a literal interpretation of the Bible. Anyway...
Josh, you have wonderful hair. Is it that smooth and straight naturally or do you have to flat iron it?
I'm old enough to remember Jesus, and He definitely had long hair.
Bill
This resolves the question. Indeed!
Isn´t Bill the hebrew translation from Jesus? Bill have you forgot to tell us something?
;)
Jim and Belisarius wrote so eruditely on the subject, but there's no arguing with so venerable an eye witness :-P
Ah you have connections up there then.....good I'll need all the help I can get when the time comes. (grin)
Kevin
And since I was His understudy, and trying to follow in His footsteps and keeping the Family business alive, I can also verify that having long hair means staying true to my Family Roots! I'm also rumored to be His 2nd cousin, once removed. This is through marriage, though; but, the marriage was later annulled, --- so, historians now question my Connection... The legions of stories about the daily diet of eating prunes and garlic with His oatmeal are false, though. I know for a fact that He prefered only fresh-aqueezed orange juice in the morning, in order to stay light on His feet so He could walk more easily on water...
But, I digress! Back to the original topic: YES, Jesus indeed had long hair, --- Bill is old enough to remember Him; and, I'm in His Family business... DARE anyone question it any further??? There is no historical record, however, on whether Jesus ever achieved terminal length, --- or, if he went to Middle Eastern hairstylists to regularly trim off the last inch or 2, or whether He ever got split ends.
- Ken, from The Book of Ken
What people who never have met Jesus don't know, is that He has arranged for all longhairs to get express check-in at the pearly gates. This is no trivial matter, because about as many people pass through those gates each year as pass through the Atlanta airport. What you see in the comic strips - one or two people waiting - is a myth.
And God, who has both long hair and a long white beard, lets guys with both cut the longhair line! [grin]
Bill
LOL, and I live in Atlanta.
What's interesting too is that lots of the other gods have long (or longish) hair and beards too. Zeus/Juppiter, Serapis, Mars, Odin, Thor - there are too many to count. This has to say something, though I don't know exactly what - maybe a underlying cultural reverence for males who grow their hair and beards?
OMG! That just prompted my memory. Yes, he did have long hair and I seem to recall didn't use conditioner but his hair looked great despite.
Justin~
Hi,
This comes up from time to time (usually with the St. Paul letter to the Corinthians passage about long hair). No one today really knows what Jesus looked like. Artistic representations of him are all over the place and usually vary with times and local culture. This is because people over the centuries have desired to see him as "one of them" so Jesus has been: black, white, tall, short, etc. In Europe and N. America Jesus usually is some variation on the Da Vinci "Last Supper" look--a sort of anglo hippy. I've even seen him looking very nordic with long blond hair and blue eyes like some guy in a metal band. We know Jesus was a Mediteranian Jew. If I had to guess, I'd say a lot of us today would be surprised if we really got to see what he looked like. I picture a guy who ate well (he could turn anything into food so no malnutrition problems) and had a dark tan from being outside a lot. He was probably in good shape from all the walking and being a carpenter. Picture a youthful slim Henry Kissinger with a dark tan and you have him in my opinion. But Henry Kissinger never won any beauty contests and if you produce art, you want it to sell, so instead we usually get Fabio Jesus.
Josh, Jesus was a Jew and it was forbidden by scripture for them to cut their hair. Paul was a Roman and it was mandated that men, especially soldiers cut theirs. Paul converted to Christianity. Again its all about Man's interpretation.
peace, jonalbear
There are A LOT of people who feel that religion and governments ONLY reason for existence is to control the masses, and that Jesus never really was a person to begin with. Also the Esseans, a Jewish sect near Nazareth, grew their hair out to glorify god
If by nature you mean nature in the usual understanding of it (the environment, the animal and plant life, etc.) then no, nature says the very opposite. Firstly, men are part of nature, and men can grow long hair. That hence contradicts his argument. If you don't like that, then secondly, lions are definitely part of nature without being humans, and their males have long hair.
Besides this, I would be worried if your god was so concerned about the length of your hair. I would say there are far more important problems around the world that could need god's help.
The bottom line is that is one effed up verse that has caused a lot of problems for longhaired men. Why God would choose to include such an execrable piece of hate in his Bible is beyond me. Even if the arguments against its apparent meaning are valid, why include such a loathsome, inflammatory and spiteful verse?
Well, God didn't select what books went into the bible, it was done by a committee, whether divinely inspired or whatever, we know this for a fact. I'm not sure which particular synod it was, but my money's on the Council of Nicea.
Not religious here, FWIW.
The council of Nicaea it was. I think they discarded something like 40 books, most of which were destroyed. Those that survived, interestingly enough, provided a very different account of Jesus, and had far less spite in them.
Wow, you really have beautyful hair!!!
A great update Josh and you hair is certainly getting long now and won't be long before it's at your waist and keep it growing mate.
As for you last question that would open a good old can or worms!
Cheers,
John.B
Jesus was an Extraterrestrial! good lookin' hair by the way
There is a website about that subject (Christian men and long hair), unfortunately only in German...
http://www.jfrs.de/theologie/langehaare/text.htm
It dosent matter because god dosent exist.
/end.