230 : 9. For evidence as to the blond characters of Christ and the indications of His descent, see Haeckel, The Riddle of the Universe, chap. XVII.
Every now and then some reference to this question is noted in the daily papers. Not long ago, in one of the large New York dailies, there appeared a short paragraph concerning the letter of Lentulus. All mention of the extremely doubtful authenticity of this letter was omitted. The Catholic Cyclopædia, vol. IX, discusses the matter as follows:
Publius Lentulus, A fictitious person said to have been the governor of Judea before Pontius Pilate and to have written the following letter to the Roman Senate: “Lentulus, the Governor of the Jerusalemites, to the Roman Senate and People, greetings. There has appeared in our times and there still lives, a man of great power (virtue), called Jesus Christ. The people call him prophet of truth; his disciples son of God. He raises the dead, and heals infirmities. He is a man of medium size (statura procerus, mediocris et spectabilis); he has a venerable aspect, and his beholders can both fear and love him. His hair is of the color of the ripe hazel nut, straight down to the ears, but below the ears wavy and curled, with a bluish and bright reflection flowing over his shoulders. It is parted in two on the top of the head, after the pattern of the Nazarenes. His brow is smooth and very cheerful, with a face without a wrinkle or spot, embellished by a slightly ruddy complexion. His nose and mouth are faultless. His beard is abundant, of the color of his hair, not long, but divided at the chin. His aspect is simple and mature, his eyes are changeable and bright. He is terrible in his reprimands, sweet and amiable in his admonitions, cheerful without loss of gravity. He was never known to laugh, but often to weep. His stature is straight, his hands and arms beautiful to behold. His conversation is grave, infrequent and modest. He is the most beautiful among the children of men.” The letter was first printed in The Life of Christ, by Ludolph the Carthusian, at Cologne, 1474. According to the manuscript of Jena, a certain Giacomo Colonna found the letter in an ancient Roman document sent to Rome from Constantinople. It must be of Greek origin and have been translated into Latin during the thirteenth or fourteenth century, though it received its present form at the hands of a humanist of the fifteenth or sixteenth century.
The description agrees with the so-called Abgar picture of Our Lord. It also agrees with the portrait of Jesus Christ drawn by Nicephorus, St. John Damascene, and the Book of Painters (of Mt. Athos). Munter, (Die Sinnbilder und Kunstvorstellungen der alten Christen, Altona, 1825, p. 9), believes he can trace the letter down to the time of Diocletian, but this is not generally admitted. The Letter of Lentulus is certainly apocryphal; there never was a governor of Jerusalem; no procurator of Judea is known to have been called Lentulus; a Roman governor would not have addressed the Senate, but the Emperor; a Roman writer would not have employed the expressions, “prophet of truth,” “sons of men,” “Jesus Christ.” The former two are Hebrew idioms, the third is taken from the New Testament. The letter, therefore, shows us a description of Our Lord such as Christian piety conceived him.
There is considerable literature touching on this letter, for which see the Catholic Cyclopædia. Although we cannot credit the letter as genuine, it is interesting, as the article indicated, in showing the popular attitude to the traits in question, and in attributing these Nordic characters to Christ, as are the occasional efforts to bring the matter up again in the journals of to-day.
CHAPTER XII. ARYA
233 : 4. Synthetic. See the note on languages, p. 242 : 5.
233 : 13. Tenney Frank, 2, pp. 1, 2, and the authorities quoted at the end of the chapter. Also Peake, 2, pp. 154–173; Freeman, Historical Geography of Europe, pp. 44–45.
233 : 20. See the note to p. 99 : 27.
233 : 24. Ridgeway, 1; Conway, 1; Peake, 2; and numerous other authorities.