In the 1960’s the free love hippy antiestablishment movement types threw off their clothing and grew their hair long. Love is “all that matters” according to them. Part of their long hair justification was that Jesus had long hair so why can’t they emulate Jesus? But did Jesus have long hair? What were the styles of the day and what does God say to Christians about hair length and grooming?
To begin to understand the topic of Christian hair length we need to go back to the beginning of man. During creation week (Gen. 1 and 2) God made animals on day five and told them to replenish the earth “kind after kind”. He did not delineate male and female in the animal kingdom. On Day six God made man, “male and female” and He did delineate male from female. Man was made in God’s own image and is superior to the animal kingdom. God has a special purpose for mankind (See CSCOG7 Staff Man, Salvation, Life) which the animals do not have thus God made sure we understood He created male and female. God created a distinct division of the human sexes. He did not create human sexual hybrids (metrosexuals, homosexuals, transgenders etc.) He created male and female. The blending of the two sexes in dress, hair length and actions is not what God intended. He made man and women both with wonderful abilities and attributes, both with the same potential to become a part of God’s family. With this principle of the separation of the human sexes in mind we can now look through history both secular and Biblical as to the hair length of Jesus and what God says to us about our hair length today. God’s principle is we should be able to easily tell human male and female apart from each other.
Historically what were the hair styles in the time of Jesus and the apostles? Roman, Greek, Jewish history shows us what was common at that time- short hair on men. From “A History of the Holy Land” by Av-Yonah page 126-7 we learn the common hair length of the time was short without a beard. It was common practice to emulate the Emperor and ALL the busts of Roman Emperors have short hair. In the book “Daniel to Paul” by Gaalyahu Cornfeld page 15 we find the Greek style of the day was to wear short hair. Judea was dominated by the Greeks and the Romans at the time of Jesus. While this is empirical evidence of hair length we see in the Jewish Talmud that all priests should have their hair cut once every thirty days (Ta’anith 17a). We also read this in Ezek. 44:20. Roman, Greek and Jewish tradition of the time was for men to wear their hair cut short. It should be noted paintings of Jesus with long hair did not become popular until about the 13th century when it was the style of the kings to have long hair.
Historically what do we find in the New Testament about hair length? I Cor. 11:14-15 says, “Doth not even nature itself teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.” The apostle Paul cannot be any clearer in showing us that it is a “shame” for a man to have long hair but for a women it is a glory and a covering.
This distinction of man from women is preciously what God intended at the creation. In our personal grooming as Christians we should be able to easily distinguish male from female. Did Jesus have long hair? Not according to history, culture or the Bible. We should emulate Jesus in our everyday grooming, short hair for men and long hair for a glory and a covering for women.
Additional reading on the topic can be found in a very well written and documented article called “What did Jesus really look like?” by Joan Taylor King’s College London 24 December 2015. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35120965 The article uses history and forensics to try to approximate the average looking male of the 1st century.
