Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself (Even Jesus Didn’t Have Perfect Teeth)
Tall, dark, and handsome. This is how Jesus is typically portrayed in older movies like Jesus of Nazareth and Ben-Hur, and in modern-day series like The Chosen, starring Jonathan Roumie.
I must admit that I, too, held an image of a perfect-looking Jesus, until I read an interesting email from an author I follow and have read several of his books, Brant Hansen.
Hansen writes, “So that got me thinking about Jesus. Was Jesus missing teeth? Most likely the answer is “yes”, simply because that was reality for people in the days of the Roman Empire. (I don’t recommend a deep dive into Roman dentistry, by the way, for those weak of stomach.”)
This makes sense to me. In order for Jesus to be relatable to the people he preached and ministered to, he had to share similar traits, such as height (the average male was about 5'3"), weight (around 120–130 pounds), and dark in complexion.
I don’t believe Jesus would have had pearly whites while everyone else had brown, black, or missing teeth.
Though what Hansen wrote initially shattered my image of Jesus, the more I thought about it, the better I felt about it.
In today’s society, we’re pressured to have a perfectly shaped body, perfect hair, and perfect teeth, like…
