A Jesus-worshiper that I’ve recently come across on a messianic blog wondered why doesn’t the Christian bible (the New Testament) describe Jesus’ physical features in any great detail. The only feature we know for sure that he had (at least according to the NT) is a beard. Was it because people are not supposed to worship images, the Christian asked? Would not knowing what Jesus the man looked like somehow prevent idolatry? Protestants (and their messianic offshoots) think that as long as Jesus’ images are not worshiped (the way Catholics and Eastern Orthodox do), they are not committing idolatry by bowing down to Jesus the human being as unto G-d. Could they be right?
While we don’t have a photo or a life-painting of Jesus, we can still make an educated guess about what Jesus may have looked liked. First of all, he was a human being, with an actual body of flesh, bones and blood. Second, he was a male in his early thirties, according to the New Testament. Third, he most likely had an appearance of a typical first century Jewish man – medium height, olive sun-tanned skin, dark eyes, dark hair and a beard. True, we do not know his exact facial features, but are the exact facial features really important in the making of a graven image? After all, are not most of the idols archaeologist have dug up from the ancient world have extremely stylized faces with features that are not realistic at all? With their disproportionate bodies, huge heads, exaggerated noses, holes for eyes, it’s unlikely that they were meant to copy the exact likeness of the “gods”. Even closer to our era, the early Christians statues and icons representing Jesus didn’t really attempt to represent his exact likeness either (which they didn’t know), settling for a general look of a handsome bearded young (and mostly European) man. Some Catholics indeed argue that because we do know what Jesus looked like (at least what form he has), it’s just fine making an image of him that we can venerate.
Oddly enough, some protestants and messianics argue along much the same line when it comes to the G-d of the Bible and Jesus. They insist that G-d does have a real physical body, which they claimed was revealed to people at various times and places, from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to Abraham in Genesis 18, where G-d disguised Himself as a human guest. Some Christians go so far as to suggest that the whole Trinity is represented in Genesis 18, with Jesus and the Holy Spirit being the other two “human guests” or “angels”. Since G-d has a body that He already showed to people in the “Old Testament” (the way Jesus the son-god showed his disciples his own body in the “New”), they claim, it’s not wrong to worship Jesus, a person with a human body, which the New Testament calls G-d’s image. That G-d warned Israelites in most severe terms that they didn’t see a form and not to corrupt themselves by making idols that looked like any creature, include humans, is ignored and explained away by these Christians. They are certainly not bothered by its implications because they see Jesus as an exception.
Then the L-rd spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice….Therefore watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the L-rd spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a carved image for yourselves, in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female…(Deuteronomy 4:12-16)
But, back to man-made idols. Going a bit farther back into history, Greek statues of their demigods (mortals who are the offspring of a god and a human) obviously didn’t need to rely on an exact image either – they only needed to KNOW that their demigods were human beings, had physical bodies just like theirs and even behaved like mortal, if superhuman, men and women. So, it’s same with Jesus and making images that are used in worship of him – one need not know what Jesus looked liked exactly either in order to make a hand-made idol of Jesus. One only needs to know that he had a real physical human form that other people saw, a real man’s body that could be crucified, which is, of course, known to everyone.
However, do idols even need to be man-made images for them to be forbidden? Can one worship a god who has a human body and is in fact a “100% man”? This is indeed a major Protestant (and messianic) blind spot with which they often pride themselves over Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians. They argue that since Jesus was not a man-made image like a statue or an icon, even though he is a physical created being, he’s not like the idols that their other Christian brethren mold or paint. However, this sort of reasoning ignores the Torah prohibitions against worship any of G-d’s creation, not just graven images created by man. Anything that is not god but is worshiped as one is an idol. For example, is not the worship of things that G-d created, the sun or the moon, also idolatry (and one which was rampant in the ancient world), even though they are creations of G-d and not man’s handiwork? Indeed, it is the case, as we read in Deuteronomy 4:19:
And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars–all the heavenly array–do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the L-rd your G-d has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.
So, if a human being (e.g. Jesus) or any other creature is a creation of G-d as much as the sun, the moon and the stars, how is bowing down to him and worshiping him any less an idolatry than worshiping a statue or an icon? According to the Word of G-d, the Hebrew Bible, that Christians claim to believe, it’s idolatry all the same. Humans beings are experts at rationalizing their beliefs and behaviors, and we are also experts at creating gods that are not gods, false gods that speak to our hearts, idols that are made in our image.
To you (Hashem) shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit. Do people make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!” (Jeremiah 16:19-20)
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