MEN AND LONG HAIR

Today we sometimes see men wearing long hair, a style used by musicians, ‘hippies’ and ‘Jesus freaks.’  Artists of the middle ages painted Jesus with long hair to distinguish Him from other men.  They are wrong, drawing from their imaginations.
History does not support the notion that Jesus had long hair. The oldest drawings going back to the first Christian centuries found chiefly in the catacombs of Rome all picture Him without a beard (P. Vollmer, Life of Christ). Even from Leonardo de Vinci and Michelangelo we have pictures of Christ according to this style.
Authentic busts from the ancient Roman Empire show that leaders wore short hair as the accepted mode in Roman occupied India (A History of the Holy Land, p 126f by Avi-Yonah), These emperors in the time of Christ set the pattern in style for the whole empire.
A Nazarite man took special vows (Num 6:6-9) that prohibited cutting his hair or drinking wine (I Sam 1:11; Judges 13:1-7; 16:17). Jesus was a “Nazarene” (lived in Nazareth), but was not a “Nazarite.” Paul wrote, “If a man have long hair, it is a SHAME to him” (I Cor 11:14). “Shame” is atimia in Greek, translated “dishonor, reproachand vile” (Thayer lexicon, as in I Cor 15:43).
It is an “honor” or “glory” for a woman to have long hair (I Cor 11:15)

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