How did the Watchtower develop "Pogonophobia"? (Beard fear) 1950-1960's long hair and beards were a sign of rebelious youth. Then in the 1954 Watchtower p.511 Questions from readers. "Why do Watchtower books now show Jesus with short hair and no beard? ....Because he is shown that way in representations of him that are older then the traditional EFFEMINATE looking pictures...." Watchtower 1968 p.286 "Bible evidence and a recent review shows Jesus did have a beard..."
Watchtower 1954 claims Jesus was clean shaven/ short hair like a Witness!!!
by Witness 007 25 Replies latest watchtower scandals
-
-
sosoconfused
you gotta admit... It takes a huge set of balls to do that kind of stuff
-
Splash
JESUS HAS A BEARD?
YES - (1914) Photodrama of Creation (pictures) p.57, 58, 61, 88:
NO - w54 8/15 p. 511 Questions From Readers
Watch Tower publications show Jesus as beardless and with short hair because he is shown that way in representations of him that are older than the traditional effeminate-looking picture... The photograph of this church window... shows a cross with a young man nailed to it, beardless and with short hair, to represent "Christ crucified, but triumphant."... Since the Bible does not describe Jesus’ facial appearance or indicate he had a beard of length, we follow the oldest archaeological evidence rather than the later traditional view.
YES - w68 5/1 p. 286 Questions From Readers
Biblical evidence is the most reliable testimony to be found on this question, and a recent careful review of what it says indicates that Jesus did indeed have a beard.
NO - (1986) Worldwide Security under the Prince of Peace (picture) p.164:
YES -(2012) Good News From God (brochure picture) p.9:
-
blondie
This is similar to the "superior authorities" being God and Jesus from 1929 to 1962...the WTS says while it was not correct, it protected jws and kept them neutral.
I'm sure the WTS felt they were protecting jws although their "truth" was faulty.
What about jws that died between 1967 and 1980 when organ transplants were forbidden.
male jews had beards....their reasoning on it was a flawed and deceptive way to forbid beards for male jws...after all Jesus did not have one.
-
designs
Hell you can't have Jesus looking like a Hippie
-
JeffT
Do I have this right? The WTBS thought that having a beard looked EFFEMINATE!
-
blondie
That means that Charles Taze Russell was effeminate.
-
Splash
So if that church window was so accurate, why did they not also adopt the view that Christ died on a cross?
Splash
-
Terry
Beard phobia began with the conflict created by Judge Rutherford.
Russell had affected a beard we would ordinarily associate with the Amish. No moustache!
Rutherford went against the express wishes of Russell as enumerated in his Last Will and Testament.
Russellites had an affinity for the more genteel and charismatic Pastor. Some copied his beard style becasue the practice had become common
in Europe for military men to have large, ostentatious moustaches and the pacifist religions immediately declared moustaches off-limits due to association with military sentiments. (Yes, it is ridiculous.) A man who was Amish was not even allowed to grow his beard until he married! It was a sign of having become a "man."
Judge Rutherford was besieged by complaints from Russell's loyalists and he lost his temper with them from time to time.
One thing led to another until "all things Russellite" got on Rutherford's shit list. To wit: no beards.
The no beard policy began at Bethel headquarters and tsunamied outward to the congregations. Searching for some reason to back up
this bete noir, the Society came up with ad hoc explanations. Eventually, Jesus himself "proved" no beard was better by appearing in the society's publications with beardless ubiquity.
As usual, Fred Franz proved equal to the task of "explaining" by referring to old paintings. But, the cherry-picking nonsense never made real sense to anybody but non-thinking JW's.
When I first associated with JW's in the late 50's, I would hear frequent mention of "...and did you know Jesus was beardless" injected into public talks more than one or twice a week.
The doctrinal tendencies of Witnesses was to go left when everybody else went right and to point with glee to this "marching the wrong way" as proof they were not like christendom!
Notice the explanation in the Questions from Readers (when revoking their beardless teaching) pretends that New Light was a real discovery prompted by considerable scholarly acumen on their part.
The real point was that everybody taught this all along EXCEPT them and now they were coming around to the obvious with such a sense of discovery!
-
designs
Even Max Von Sydow as Jesus had a closely trimmed artists' beard.
