What Does Satan Look Like?
"You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, carnelian, topaz, and jasper, chrysolite, beryl, and onyx, sapphire, carbuncle, and emerald; and wrought in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. With an anointed guardian cherub I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned; so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and the guardian cherub drove you out from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground" (Ezekiel 28:13-17 RSV)
It would be quite natural to assume that a spirit being so grossly evil would also look evil. The popular perceptions of Satan are usually either that of a sinister-looking individual in all-black clothing, or a comic character in a red suit with horns and a pitchfork, but
The Bible, as in the above Scriptures, describe Satan with "beauty" and "splendor." Satan
appears righteous:
- "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is not strange if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness." (2 Corinthians 11:13-15 RSV)
There is much written in the Bible about Satan's change of behavior, but
nothing about any change in appearance. He is the ultimate evil, and yet he appears attractive and righteous. The references to him as a "snake" or "serpent" refer more to his sneaking, slithering, underhanded personality than his actual visual appearance. Along with the fact that the rugged and ordinary-looking
Jesus Christ (Isaiah 53:2-5, see also
What Did Jesus Look Like?) looked almost nothing like the pale "pretty boy" who is so often portrayed in Christian art, one of the most startling questions of recent times involves just
who it is that's actually portrayed in those images. What very powerful deceiver, and, as the Bible describes him,
impersonator, could have easily influenced all of those various artists, over the many centuries, to depict someone who's consistently
the same in un-Christ-like appearance?
What Did Jesus Look Like?
Many believe that
The Shroud of Turin is the actual burial cloth of Jesus Christ, and that the man seen in the cloth's image (in photograph) is that of The Lord. Apart from (disputed) carbon-dating tests that show it to be only about 600 years old, there is at least one other strong proof that The Savior is not the man in the cloth which is
idolized by millions of people.
The Bible makes no specific description of what
Jesus Christ looked like, and there are no known images of Him in existence, such as their are, for example, for Roman emperors (e.g.
Emperor Nero), or actual "faces from the past" that can be seen with the
Egyptian Mummies. There are however some very good indications of what He did, and did not, look like -
- There was nothing unusual about His appearance
Throughout the Gospel books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, people made no mention of something different about how He looked. If anything, people wondered how such an ordinary-looking man could be The Savior. John The Baptist would not have known that his cousin was The Savior (their mothers, Mary and Elizabeth were related) unless an angel had told him just before Jesus' baptism at age 30 (John 1:33). The mob that came to arrest Him The Fateful Night could not tell Him apart from Peter or John or any of the others - Judas Iscariot had to actually point Him out (Matthew 26:47-49) (see Why Did He Do It?), and even then Jesus had to identify Himself, twice, to those who demanded Him by Name as He stood right in front of them in the bright light of their torches (John 18:3-9).
- He had a natural, rugged appearance
The Lord did hard outside physical labor, with Joseph in Nazareth, until He was about 30 years old. Back then, the building trade involved very strenuous physical labor with heavy stone and lumber, without any sort of power tools or mechanical digging equipment that are in use today. Unlike many religious pictures that portray Jesus as a pale, skinny, effeminate man with long hair and wearing a flowing white or pink robe (all of which may well be far closer to what Satan looks like), Christ could have looked nothing like that. His appearance would definitely have been that of a tanned, muscular, physically-fit young man dressed in durable and practical clothing - which made Him indistinguishable from the "blue-collar" Fishermen who were with Him when He was arrested. The prophet Isaiah confirms His ordinary appearance -
"He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered Him stricken by God, smitten by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions [see How Did Jesus Christ Die?], He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed." (Isaiah 53:2-5)
- Jesus Christ did not have long hair
Hair styles and socially-acceptable length have varied tremendously over the ages, sometimes very short, sometimes very long. Most religious artists portray Christ with long hair. The man in the Shroud of Turin also has long hair. But did Jesus have long hair? The apostle Paul (see On The Road To Damascus) actually saw Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 9:1). Paul, a trustworthy man who wrote a large part of the New Testament, knew exactly what The Lord looked like. In 1 Corinthians 11:14, Paul wrote, "if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him." It's quite unthinkable that Paul would have made such a statement if Jesus Christ had long hair. How could anything about The Lord be called disgraceful?
from this website: http://www.keyway.ca/htm2002/looklike.htm
I just think we all should not worry what christ looks like for he will reveal himself to us little every time, and just keep our eye on the prize and that is praising the lord.
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