Ojuice5001

Yes; for example, I could claim that since Jupiter is traditionally depicted with a beard, therefore I must have one too. It's something to think about.

DarkBronzePlant

Another Jesus question, maybe a stupid one... was the actual Jesus supposedly named "Jesus Christ" (i.e. first name = Jesus, last name = Christ)? Or was he just "Jesus", and the "Christ" part came later, as some religiously-significant word?

Vorkosigan

CX, I must respectfully disagree. In John Jesus reaches up and yanks one of the disciple's beards, suggesting that he was short, and in Luke there is an ambiguous passage that suggests Jesus was short as well. Of course, that's not much of a physical description.

Vorkosigan

Mageth

Isn't it properly "Jesus, the Christ," with "the" being dropped for convenience?

Tristan Scott

I always thought his name was Jesus H. Christ.

I think, though that since he was a Jew, his name was probably Yeshua ben Yoseph.

[ August 21, 2002: Message edited by: Tristan Scott ]</p>

CX

Easier than that, both orthodox muslims and some Jews are prohibited from shaving their beards. You could probably make a legitimate case that you were one of those.

CX

The Greek word XRISTOS is not a name. It is a translation of the the Jewish word MASHIACH which means "anointed one". The XRISTOS title is theologically significant since in Hebrew culture Kings were anointed and Jesus came to be considered the "anointed one of god" or the Messiah by his followers.

As someone else has already pointed out his last name would have reflected his ancestry from Joseph (as we find for example with his disciple John son of Zebedee). Furthermore, though his name is translated as Jesus in English versions, his name was Joshua. Elsewhere in the NT when the English version speaks of Joshua (here distinguished from Jesus), the same Greek transliteration is found, namely IHSOUS. So we can conclude that his name transliterated into English today would be Joshua Ben Yosef. A truer version might be Yeshu'a Ben Yosef. This naming convention is still used by Jews and Arabs (with the Arabic being Bin instead of Ben). A totally Anglicized version would be be Joshua Josephson.

[ August 21, 2002: Message edited by: CX ]</p>

CX

Point noted. I guess I was thinking more of his visage and the totally inaccurate Renaissance portrayal most of us in the west are familiar with showing a European looking Jesus with diminutive features, light straight hair and blue eyes. One thing I always find particularly amusing around Xmas time is the nativity scenes showing a blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby Jesus.

freemonkey

Holy Moley!! Do people actually fall for that?

Aerik Von

That is about how I figured he would look. It's interesting how he transformed into a Norseman over time...