In germany they got tolerant, it starts maybe 2 years before. Also the young ones don't understand why they couldn't be bearded. And a lot of them, don't be obsessed with being MS or something like this. If they got dropped from doing anythink in the cong, then it will be fine. But if it's allowed, it depends on the cong.
Beards galore at the Assembly
by Truthexplorer 43 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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stuckinarut2
The organisations obsession on rules like "no beards" reminds me of this scripture:
Matt 23:24 "they strain out the gnat, and gulp down the camel"
Why not focus on more important matters such as child abuse, or transparency of their history?
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Truthexplorer
Oubliette and HHH1914- The Assembly was in the UK. EyesOpenHeartBroken - Sounds like you were at the same assembly :-) -
Truthexplorer
BerryGerry- Regarding the sisters. I didn't notice any sisters sporting a Tom Selleck/ Burt Reynolds 'Tache' this time
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Vidiot
Passive resistance is often the most effective kind.
Fun to watch, too. :smirk:
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TheListener
I know of two brothers that grew beards in the US. One did it so he wouldn't be used for microphones and other duties. The other already wasn't be used but grew it because he's a hipster.
The scuttlebutt (as related by my wife) was that the congregation felt they were weak and in spiritual trouble. I don't know what eventually happened. Fortunately, my wife didn't see the beards as a big deal.
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freemindfade
That's the desert god for you! He creates things then regrets them!
Goodbye dinosaurs...
Goodbye preflood people...
Goodbye foreskins....
Goodbye beards....
silly basted yhwh you just don't know what he likes!
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blondie
Jesus wasn't allowed to wear a beard in the WTS publications until 1968. Thus in the midst of the bearded hippie period, Jesus started sporting a beard.
*** it-1 p. 267 Beard ***
Did Jesus, when on earth, wear a beard? Certainly it was a custom strictly held by the Jews. Jesus, born a Jew, “came to be under law” and he fulfilled the Law. (Ga 4:4; Mt 5:17) Like all other Jews, Jesus was dedicated to Jehovah God from his birth, by reason of the Law covenant, and was under obligation to keep the whole Law, including the prohibition on shaving the extremity of the beard. Also, at the time that Jesus was on earth, the Roman custom was beardlessness. Therefore, if Jesus had been beardless, he would have been challenged as being either a eunuch or a Roman. Significantly, a prophecy concerning Jesus’ suffering states: “My back I gave to the strikers, and my cheeks to those plucking off the hair.”—Isa 50:6.
*** w54 8/15 p. 511 Questions From Readers ***
The traditional picture of Jesus shows him with long hair and beard, but the Watch Tower publications illustrate him as beardless and with short hair. Which is correct?—M. H., United States.
The later 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. In an ancient beaker or cup found at Antioch, Syria, which purports to represent Jesus and his disciples at the Memorial supper, Jesus is engraved thereon as a beardless young man while some of his disciples are pictured with beards. For a photograph of this see Harper’s Bible Dictionary, page 22, in the midst of the article “Antioch, the Chalice of.” (M. S. and J. L. Miller, 1952) The scholarly book by Jack Finegan, Light from the Ancient Past, tells of second-century Christian paintings found in the Catacomb of Priscilla, in the room Cappella Greca, and states:
“The painting of the Resurrection of Lazarus is now almost effaced but it is still possible to recognize that on one side is depicted a small building containing a mummy and on the other, the sister of Lazarus standing with arms upraised. In the middle Christ is shown, facing toward the tomb and with the right hand uplifted in a gesture of speech. He is represented in the Roman type, and is dressed in tunic and pallium, the left hand holding the garment. He is youthful and beardless, with short hair and large eyes. . . . The picture is of great interest since it is the oldest representation of Jesus that is preserved anywhere.”—Page 371.
Further on this book tells of the painting of the Healing of the Paralytic (Mark 2:1-12) found in the house church in the excavated ancient settlement of Dura in the Syrian desert, and states: “The almost destroyed painting of Christ in the Catacomb of Priscilla at Rome probably belongs, as we have seen, to the middle of the second century. The painting at Dura is dated even more definitely in the first part of the third century. In both pictures Christ is shown as a young and beardless man with short hair and wearing the ordinary costume of the day. These and similar portrayals are the earliest type of Christ as far as is now known in early Christian art. Later in the third century Christ appears still as youthful but with long, curly hair, and from the fourth century on the more familiar bearded type appears.”—Pages 408, 409.
As recently as October 7, 1949, the new east window of Stepney Parish Church, the mother church of East London, England, was unveiled by the Earl of Athlone. The photograph of this church window, as published in “The Illustrated London News,” October 1, 1949, 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 that makes Jesus appear effeminate and sallow and sanctimonious. Some use Isaiah 50:6 as proof that Jesus had a beard: “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” This may have been literally fulfilled in a typical way upon Isaiah, foreshadowing the shameful insults and reproaches to be heaped upon the servant class, the primary one of whom is Christ Jesus. Each one of the servant class suffers reproaches, but not necessarily all of the ones here specified. The record shows Jesus was whipped, slapped and spat on, but no mention is made of beard-plucking. If it had happened why would it not have been named along with the other abuses and insults? (Matt. 27:26; Mark 14:65, NW) In fact, the Septuagint rendering of Isaiah 50:6 does not mention the cheeks’ being plucked of hair, but as being slapped instead: “I gave my back to scourges, and my cheeks to blows; and I turned not away my face from the shame of spitting.” The record in the Gospels states all this did literally happen to Jesus.
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DATA-DOG
Lol!!! Thanks Blondie! WOW! That WTBTS sure loves the "scholarly" works of Christendumb when they need its support!
If the oldest know representation of Jesus has him beardless, then why hasn't the WTBTS kept that model?? Will they revert to that "cherished error" if the bearded rebels of today begin to gain a following?
DD
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park ave boy
I'll take, "General discontent, disgust and malaise in silent protest against a cult" for $2000 Alex.
