Do we still have a person like Jesus on this Earth?

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Jean-Marie Valheur

 

Jul 19

How one fabricated Renaissance letter from a made-up Roman governor forever altered the way Jesus has been depicted in art.

Jean-Marie Valheur

no stranger to religionJul 19

Do we still have a person like Jesus on this Earth?

The Bible did not provide any physical description of Jesus. None whatsoever. So where, then, does the most common depiction of Jesus Christ come from?

It hails from a mysterious documented that showed up in Italy in the 1400s. The so-called “Letter of Lentulus”, a supposedly Roman source.

The letter is written by a man named Publius Lentulus, a Prefect in Judea during the reign of the Emperor Augustus. And it describes Jesus in some detail.

The letter reads, in full:

“Lentulus, the Governor of the Jerusalemites to the Roman Senate and People, greetings. There has appeared in our times, and there still lives, a man of great power (virtue), called Jesus Christ. The people call him prophet of truth; his disciples, son of God. He raises the dead, and heals infirmities. He is a man of medium size (statura procerus, mediocris et spectabilis); he has a venerable aspect, and his beholders can both fear and love him. His hair is of the colour of the ripe hazel-nut, straight down to the ears, but below the ears wavy and curled, with a bluish and bright reflection, flowing over his shoulders. It is parted in two on the top of the head, after the pattern of the Nazarenes. His brow is smooth and very cheerful with a face without wrinkle or spot, embellished by a slightly reddish complexion. His nose and mouth are faultless. His beard is abundant, of the colour of his hair, not long, but divided at the chin. His aspect is simple and mature, his eyes are blue-gray and bright. He is terrible in his reprimands, sweet and amiable in his admonitions, cheerful without loss of gravity. He was never known to laugh, but often to weep. His stature is straight, his hands and arms beautiful to behold. His conversation is grave, infrequent, and modest. He is the most beautiful among the children of men.”

There are several problems with the letter — the most glaring being the fact that there was never a Governor of Judea named Lentulus during the reign of Tiberius. The manner in which this supposed governor addresses the Senate, furthermore, is unusual. And the description reads more like a love letter than a factual report as was commonly given to the senate… why does this governor think its necessary to write a gushing love letter about a Jewish rebel from a backwater Roman province?

The truth? Jesus was almost certainly a man fairly indistinguishable from his peers. If he was this ethereal beauty, this ridiculously handsome man so good-looking that a Roman governor would fawn even over his “beautiful hands”, I doubt the Bible would have neglected to mention it. As a carpenter, he probably was reasonably fit and muscular, of middle age and of a normal appearance for his age and region. But since he’s the Son of God, people have made him into a male model.