The Real Look Of Jesus
The works of Flavius Josephus a Hebrew; War of the Jews,Antiquities of the Jews,The Life of Flavius Josephus - Autobiography,Josephus's Discourse to the Greeks concerning Hades,Flavius Josephus Against Apion.
Josephus was born Joseph ben Mattathias in 37 C.E. in Jerusalem of a priestly and royal family. He excelled in his studies of Jewish law and studied with the Sadducees, Pharisees, and the Essenes, eventually aligning himself with the Pharisees. In 62 C.E. he went to Rome to free some imprisoned priests. After accomplishing this mission through the intercession of Nero's wife, Poppaea, he returned to Jerusalem in 65 C.E. to find the country in revolt against Rome.
Although Josephus had deep misgivings about the revolt, it became inevitable, due to reasons he discusses in his history, primarily the abuses of the Romans; this spurred the growth of fanatical Messianic Jewish movements which believed that the world was coming to an end shortly. In 66 C.E. the Masada was seized by the Zealots and the Romans were on the march; Josephus was appointed the commander of Galilee.
Josephus had to fight a defensive war against overwhelming force while refereeing internecine squabbles in the Jewish ranks. In 67 C.E. Josephus and other rebels were cornered in a cave during the siege of Jotapata and took a suicide pact. However, Josephus survived, and was taken hostage by the Romans, led by Vespasian.
Josephus shrewdly reinterpreted the Messianic prophecies. He predicted that Vespasian would become the ruler of the 'entire world'. Josephus
joined the Romans, for which he was branded a traitor. He acted as consultant to the Romans and a go-between with the revolutionaries. Unable to convince the rebels to surrender, Josephus ended up watching the second destruction of the Temple and the defeat of the Jewish nation.
His prophecy became true in 68 C.E. when Nero committed suicide and Vespasian became Ceasar. As a result, Josephus was freed; he moved to Roman and became a Roman citizen, taking the Vespasian family name Flavius. Vespasian commissioned Josephus to write a history of the war, which he finished in 78 C.E., the Jewish War. His second major work, the Antiquities of the Jews, was completed in 93 C.E. He wrote Against Apion in about 96-100 C.E. and The Life of Josephus, his autobiography, about 100. He died shortly after.
Despite his ambivalent role, Josephus was an eyewitness to history, and his writings are considered authoritative. These texts are key to understanding a pivotal point in world history, which has tragic repercussions even to this day.
This first century source is called the Halosis or “Capture (of Jerusalem)” of Josephus (37-100 CE). Originally written in Aramaic, a Greek rewriting was published around 72 CE. This is an important text for the discussion of Christian origins, particularly given the section therein treating “the human form of Jesus and his wonderful works.” Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, is believed to have had access to official Roman records on which he based his history of the early ‘Jesus movement.’
Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, is believed to have had access to official Roman records on which he based his history of the early ‘Jesus movement.’ He is thus a singularly contemporary witness. His texts passed through Christian scribal hands,during which process the texts were no doubt altered: some ‘offensive’ passages were omitted and some Christian embellishments interpolated. However, according to Eisler, a Slavonic (Old Russian) translation
made from the original Greek text preserves – in scattered form – that original Josephean Testimony. By reconstructing the relevant passages, Eisler ‘restored’ what he believed is the original, first century description of the man Jesus.
“At that time also there appeared a certain man of magic power … if it be meet to call him a man, [whose name is Jesus], whom [certain] Greeks call a son of [a] God, but his disciples [call] the true prophet who is supposed to have raised dead persons and to have cured all diseases. Both his nature and his form were human, for he was a man of simple appearance, mature age, black-skinned (melagchrous), short growth, three cubits tall, hunchbacked, prognathous (lit. ‘with a long face [macroprosopos]), a long nose, eyebrows meeting above the nose, that the spectators could take fright, with scanty [curly] hair, but having a line in the middle of the head after the fashion of the Nazaraeans, with an undeveloped beard.”
This is a remarkable image of Jesus! A short, hunchbacked black-man with a unibrow, short (kinky) hair with a part down the middle, and a scanty (nappy?) beard would have made the Passion of Christa profoundly different experience for undoubtedly every viewer. That this basic description goes back to Josephus is affirmed by a number of early Christian ecclesiastics, such as Andreas Hierosolymitannus, Archbishop of Crete (8th cent.) and John of Damascus (8th cent.). Most of the details of this description are found in other Christian literature of an even earlier period. As T.W. Doane quotes:
Arthur E. Palumbo, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Personages of Earliest Christianity (New York: Algora Publishing, 2004) who concludes: “It is likely that Eisler’s restoration of the Slavonic passage about Jesus does correspond as close as can be expected to what Josephus actually wrote and to what was recorded in the actual official Jewish and Roman documents. ”
“In its first years, the Christian church fancied its Lord’s visage and form marred more than those of other men; and that he must have had no attractions of personal beauty. Justin Marty (A.D. 150-160) speaks of him as without beauty or attractiveness, and of mean appearance. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 200), describes him as of an uninviting appearance, and almost repulsive. Tertullian (A.D. 200-210) says he had not even ordinary human beauty, far less heavenly. Origen (A.D. 230) went so far as to say that he was ‘small in body and deformed.’ As well as low-born, and that, ‘his only beauty was in his soul and life (emphasis Doane’s).
This startling image of the Hebrew prophet from first century Jerusalem does violence to the reigning iconographic orthodoxy. Indeed, this orthodox image appears to be a point-by-point contradiction of this no doubt more reliable one: black-skinned vs. white; short and hunchback vs. tall and majestic; short (and curly) hair vs. long and flowing; scanty vs. long beard, etc.
The Book Isaiah Chapter 53 verses 1 - 6
1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Remarkably, scientific advances developed three quarters of a century after Eisler wrote have confirmed the correctness of his restored description of Jesus. In the December 2002 issue of the scientific magazine Popular Mechanics the cover story ran: “The Real Face of Jesus: Forensic Science Reveals the True Image of Jesus.” Science-writer Mike Fillon reports on the fruits of the application of a new science, forensic anthropology, to the search for the historical Jesus. British forensic scientists and Israeli archaeologists collaborated to recreate the “most accurate image” of the Nazerean prophet to date. Based on the data obtained from this multi-disciplinary approach, Richard Neave, retired medical artist from London’s University of Manchester, created a molded image of a dark-skinned Jesus. The data, for the most part, is uncannily consistent with Eisler’s restored description. Mike Fillon writes:
“Jesus (would have had) dark rather than light-colored eyes…in keeping with Jewish tradition, he was bearded as well…While most religious artists have put long hair on Christ, most biblical scholars believe that it was probably short with tight curls …
From an analysis of skeletal remains, archaeologists had firmly established that the average build of a Semite male at the time of Jesus was 5 ft. 1 in., with an average weight of about 110 pounds. Since Jesus worked outside as a carpenter until he was about 30 years old…(his) face was probably weather-beaten, which would have made him appear older…the (image) of the dark and swarthy Middle Eastern man emerges…he probably looked a great deal more like a dark-skinned Semite than westerners are used to seeing…”
Now, Neave’s reconstruction still has a somewhat “European” look, which, by his own admission, derives from his own imagination. Genetics acorroborates this data and confirms that Jesus and the Hebrew must have been, not just black, but Africoid. The African origin of the ancient Hebrews was noted often by the Classical authors and is now confirmed by the genetic data, particularly that related to the so-called “Cohen Gene” or, more properly, the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH). Discovered in 1997 by Jewish scientists, this paternal genetic marker (it is found on the Y-chromosome) has a high frequency among the Jewish (Askenazi and Sephardic) priesthood (Cohanim) and is thought to be a signature of ancient Hebrew ancestry. The haplotype (CMH) is indeed part of a haplogroup (HgJ)that originated in Black Arabia or Afrabia ca 30 kya (thousand years ago) and in high frequencies is believed to indicate “Semitism.”
While early reports, largely from Ashkenazi (white) Jewish writers, tended to portray this discovery as evidence that Ashkenazi Jews are truly Hebrew with a legitimate claim to the Holy Land, further genetic tests and reports demonstrated just the opposite. Two data-sets in particular turned this apologetic use of the discovery on its head: the further “discovery” that the “purest” surviving remnant of the Children of Israel identified by CMH tests is the tribe of Black Jews in India.
The Bene Israel and the Black Jews of Cochin, who show a genetic affinity not only to Ethiopians and Yemenies, but also to the tribe of Black Jews in South Africa, the Lemba, whose relation to the ancient Hebrews has also been confirmed by the presence of high frequencies of the CMH and the reports confirming that, though the CMH is found in high frequencies among the priestly class of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewry, this class only represents 4-10% of this Jewry. Most Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews lack this signature and in fact have been shown to be genetically related, not to Semites, but to Gentiles: Kurds, Turks, East Europeans, etc. Thus, genetics confirms that the ancient Hebrews were black.
Anthropological and archaeological evidence for the Judean town of Lachish, sacked by the Assyrian King Sennacherib in the 8th century BCE, further confirms that Hebrews at that time were still an Africoid people. The approximately 1500 skulls discovered during excavations show a heterogeneous population, but the primary group was likely of a “dark complexioned, narrow-headed type” similar to the ancient Egyptians. That these “Kushites” of Biblical Lachish were in fact Hebrews is unmistakably confirmed by the so-called “Lachish Reliefs”, the monumental pictorial reliefs depicting the siege which graced the walls of Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh. These reliefs depict the Assyrians leading away African-Israelite captives and even flaying them alive . These African-Israelites, with their short stature, prognathicism, and short, kinky hair resemble in these respects the Josephus’ restored description of Jesus. Thus, divergent evidences converge to confirm that description.
1886 THE PROPHET: Tennessee-born Prophet F. S. Cherry established the Church of God, a Israelite movement in Philadelphia. Cherry was a charismatic orator who was fluent and literate in Hebrew and Yiddish .His personal accounts depict a completely self-educated seaman and laborer who traveled the world until "the Lord touched him and appointed him a prophet," thus leading Cherry back to America to teach African Americans that "the true Jews are black and that Jesus was black." Attracting southern migrants, Cherry used the Talmud and the Old Testament to bolster his belief that Jews of the European Diaspora were impostors, and his followers were the true Israelites.
Sources: Mike Fillon - The Real Face Of Jesus, webmazoor70 - The Real Look Of Jesus According to The Scrolls, Wikipedia, Wesley Muhammad, PhD - Jesus, the Black Prophet and the Ancient Black Hebrews of Israel, Arthur E. Palumbo - The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Personages of Earliest Christianity
Is This The REAL Face of Jesus?
WAS JESUS BLACK? (1ST CENTURY IMAGES OF CHRIST/YESHUA)
World's oldest Picture of Jesus + others part 1/2
World's oldest Picture of Jesus + others part 2/2
