The New Testament provides no verse to prove or disprove Christ having a beard. We in fact have no mention of Jesus having long hair either. So why does Jesus have long hair and a beard in most paintings? The answer to the beard is found in prophecies of Jesus from the Old Testament, “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.” (Isaiah 50:6). We know in that list Jesus was beaten, mocked, and spat on: “Some began to spit at Him, and to blindfold Him, and to beat Him with their fists, and to say to Him, “Prophesy!” And the officers received Him with slaps in the face.” (Mark 14:65), “Now the men who were holding Jesus in custody were mocking Him and beating Him,” (Luke 22:63), “They spat on Him, and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head,” (Matthew 27:30), “They kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him.” (Mark 15:19); so It stands to reason He also had a beard that was plucked to fulfill these prophetic words of Isaiah. For Isaiah is one of top foretellers of Christ and His Passion, his Chapter 53 tells in detail Jesus’ sufferings before Christ came and fufilled those words and suffered. We can trust Isaiah, for he is top prognosticator of Christus.
The second way we can be persuaded Jesus had a beard was that Christ our Lord was born under the Law of Moses, “But when the full limit of the time arrived, God sent his Son, who was born of a woman and who was under the law” Galatians 4:4). Jesus kept the Law, even going up Jerusalem at Passover (Luke 2:41-53), being circumcised as a child (Luke 2:21), teaching in favor of the law (Matthew 5:17-18). In the Law it says you must not cut facial hair, “You shall not round off the side-growth of your heads nor harm the edges of your beard.” (Leviticus 19:25), and “They shall not make any baldness on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts in their flesh.” (Leviticus 21:5). Many saw side growths as side burns, but by time of Jesus the Rabbinic scholars had interpreted this to be the beard as a whole could not be shaven, trimmed but not removed with a razor, for it was the custom of pagans to be clean shaven (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/beards). Since Jesus followed circumcision, Passover (even celebrated the Passover meal and revealed the Lord’s Supper at it Luke 22:19-20), it stands to reason Christ kept the Law about facial hair and did not stand out among his peers physically, as Isaiah foretells, “He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” (Isaiah 53:2). If Jesus was clean shaven it would have drawn a rebuke from The Pharisees and Rabbinical scholars, but there is no account of the Jewish Leaders and scholars rebuking Jesus for shaving his side burns or beard. And we know they would have challenged him on such a violation of the Law publically and it be recorded, as they did over the disciples picking grain on The Sabbath (Matthew 12:1-15).
A case against Jesus having a beard can be taken from a verse in Ezekiel, “As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword; take and use it as a barber’s razor on your head and beard. Then take scales for weighing and divide the hair.” (Ezekiel 5:1). Jesus is The Son of Man, “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—then He *said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home,” (Matthew 9:6, and “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38). But the context of Ezekiel 5:1 should be examined, “Jerusalem Will Be Destroyed “And you, O son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it as a barber's razor and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair. A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them. And you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe. And of these again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.” (Ezekiel 5:1-5). So the context is Jerusalem is being destroyed in that time, and this is Jesus Son of Man Pre-Incarnate, before He was born in a Manger and grows up to bear a cross. Thus it cannot be used to say Jesus in 33 A.D. had no beard.
In the end whither Jesus had a beard or not is not a salvic matter. It is Jesus who saves you, His work on the cross, not the hairs on his skin. Still I am convinced the prophecies of Isaiah which match Jesus’ sufferings and include a beard (Isaiah 50:6), and the Law of Moses which forbids shaving a beard that Christ obeyed are strong indicators that Jesus had a beard. But in the end what matters is Jesus, that He came and saved us. Amen.
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