BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

Jesus the Short King

Measuring up Jesus and Zacchaeus in Luke 19

Zacchaeus in the Sycamore Awaiting the Passage of Jesus, by James Tissot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Translating a text can be a difficult task under any circumstance. But it is all the harder when the meaning of the original text is ambiguous. Such is the case with Luke 19:3. Although most readers assume the text states that Zacchaeus was too short to see Jesus, the original Greek is less clear. Publishing in the Journal of Biblical Literature, Isaac Soon, Assistant Professor of Early Christianity at the University of British Columbia, points out that the original text makes no distinction between which of the characters is “short in stature,” and that it is instead the reader’s preconceived notions of what Jesus “should” look like that leads most to read the text as being about Zacchaeus.

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Size Really Does Matter, or Does It?

The story of Zacchaeus is well known from the New Testament and, for many, the fact that Zacchaeus was too short to see Jesus is one of the most memorable parts. However, that defining feature of the story may instead be about Jesus, as the original Greek is decidedly ambiguous. Indeed, most English texts have retained that ambiguity. “He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature” (Luke 19:3; italics added). While it might seem obvious that “he” is referring to Zacchaeus, Soon warns that such a reading has more to do with our preconceived notions about the text and especially Jesus. The text itself provides no evidence either way. Similarly, Zacchaeus’s climbing a tree is just as likely to have been so he could see a short Jesus whom we otherwise could not see because of the crowd.

So why does nearly everyone think the verse is referring to Zacchaeus? The first reason is the general lack of any physical description of Jesus in the Gospels. While many scholars have seen a clear distinction between the limited gospel descriptions of Jesus and the extensive descriptions of important figures in many other ancient biographies (assuming, therefore, that this must have been an intentional feature of the Gospels), Soon points out that this argument is flimsy. There are lots of ancient biographies with no or almost no physical descriptions of their main characters, and there are a few instances in the Gospels that may already be thought of as physical descriptions of Jesus, such as the mention of his nail-scarred hands in John 20:25. Thus, there is no reason to assume that there cannot be other such physical descriptions of Jesus sprinkled throughout the Gospels.

A second reason why many have read Luke 19:3 as pertaining to Zacchaeus is physiognomics, or preconceived notions about a person based on their looks. As such, people have suggested that Luke chose to mention that Zacchaeus was short to reference some aspect of his character that the ancient reader would have connected with shortness, perhaps greed or something of the like. On the other hand, many people are hesitant to see Jesus as the short person in the story, as that would in some way take away from his grandeur. Soon is quick to point out, however, that this could have been intended as exactly the opposite.

Indeed, several famous historical figures are well known for having been short, including the philosopher Socrates and the fabulist Aesop. These are not random examples, however, and it is possible that if Luke pointed out Jesus’s height, it might have been in reference to those figures. Numerous scholars have pointed out the similarities between the death of Jesus and that of Socrates, suggesting that Luke may have specifically tried to draw parallels between the two figures. Aesop, meanwhile, is directly quoted by Jesus in Luke 24:25 (“O foolish ones, and slow of heart”), and other features of Jesus’s life seem to parallel those of Aesop, suggesting possible references to that figure as well.

Additionally, the text of Luke 19:3 is unclear on just how short the person in the story was anyway. While the phrase used in Greek could be used to refer to someone who is quite short, it could also mean someone who is only a little short, for example, comparing a person who is 5 foot 8 to someone who is 5 foot 10. Thus, the reference to either Zacchaeus’s or Jesus’s height could be no more than an explanation of why Zacchaeus climbed the tree.

So, who was the short one in the story of Zacchaeus? There really is not a clear way to know. While pretty much all early Christian writers understood the passage to be referring to Zacchaeus, there is a reference in Origin’s Against Celsus that suggests that at least some early Christians understood Jesus to be the short one. Nonetheless, Soon himself does not argue that Luke 19:3 must be understood as referring to Jesus. “I’m really just trying to point out how ambiguous the language in Luke 19 is when you don’t approach it presuming anything about Jesus’s body,” he told Bible History Daily. Instead, said Soon, it is important that we question our own “bodily norms” and preconceptions when approaching the text. “There could be more information than we realize if we look without preconceived ideas about what Jesus’s body was like.”

Related reading in Bible History Daily:

Making Amends

Jesus Was a Refugee

Jesus and the Cross

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library:

Jesus of History vs. Jesus of Tradition

Jesus Lives!

Jesus the Teetotaler

Jesus’ Triumphal March to Crucifixion