Professor John Garstang in a letter to the Times has
described the Jerash Head which is soon to be on view at the British Museum. This piece of sculpture, which has an obvious affinity with the classical Asclepius, was discovered at the door of an early Christian Church at Jerash in Trans-Jordania. Circumstances indicate that it-had been set up there in the fourth or fifth century. It had been modified and retouched in such a way as to suggest that it was regarded as a portrait of Christ. The hair over the forehead was cut back ; pupils were added to the eyes, and apparently the eyelids and mouth were reworked to produce a pensive and suffering expression. Professor Garstang thinks it probable that the community of Jerash set up the head as corresponding to their conception of the Man of Sorrows. But if so, was their conception an ideal or was it based upon a local tradition about Christ's features ?
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