Speculating on Christ’s Hair
Kevin R. Henke
September 23, 2022
Lundahl (2022i) describes what Christ supposedly would have looked like during his walking on water or his Ascension into Heaven:
“If God removes the gravity, the result does not violate any law of gravitation, it only involves a situation where they do not apply, because what they apply to, gravity, has been removed. However, the view of miracles proposed here is not that God removes gravity, but that He adds an action from outside gravity, in for instance miracles like the Ascension or the Walking on the Water in the Storm. Gravity not being removed is visible in Christ's clothes and hair remaining the ordinary direction.”
In my other essays, I argue that God, if he exists, could violate the laws of gravity at any time, if he wanted to. As a side issue, in Henke (2022w), I asked Mr. Lundahl how he knows what Christ’s hair and clothes would have looked like when he was supposedly walking on water or during his purported Ascension. Was Mr. Lundahl there to witness it?
Lundahl (2022q) then answers my question with a reply that is full of groundless speculation:
“If gravity had been annihilated and hair and clothes had ceased to fall as they naturally do, the Disciples in the Boat would have had lots more trouble recognising Christ, and also recognising Him as Lord rather than as a kind of Mary Poppins.”
First of all, we have absolutely no evidence that Jesus ever walked on water or Ascended into Heaven. However, let’s say that he did. Here, Lundahl (2022q) seems to be assuming that Jesus had the long hair like what is popularly shown in paintings, Roman Catholic statues, movies and television shows. Yet, we don’t know what Jesus looked like. What if Jesus had short hair? What if he was bald? Then why would his hair need to be under the influence of gravity? What would keep his disciples from recognizing him? Nevertheless, let me be clear here. If God exists, he could make Jesus, long hair or not, walk on water or Ascend into the sky anyway he wants and he could violate the law of gravitation if he wanted to. If God exists, I’m not going to be so bold as to try to tell him how he could do miracles.
Interestingly, after Jesus’ supposed Resurrection, a number of disciples did have problems recognizing Jesus (John 20:15; John 21:4; Luke 24:13-35). Rather than trying to explain why a number of disciples had difficulty recognizing Jesus, perhaps we should recognize that these stories are probably works of fiction (e.g., Carrier 2014, pp. 387-509). We could then possibly determine how and why they really originated.
Reference:
Carrier, R. 2014. On the Historicity of Jesus: Why We Might Have Reason for Doubt, Sheffield Phoenix Press: Sheffield, UK, 696pp.