Once More into the Breeches, My Friends!

So you know how, in all of the religious movies and pictures, Jesus and his friends are all wearing ankle-length tunics and an open coat or sometimes a toga?  In my book, however, Jesus and his working-class friends, with the exception of Mary of Magdala, wear short tunics and cotton breeches. Pants, in other words. Short pants, long pants, puffy pants, Bermuda shorts, or whatnot, but pants. "Pants?" you might ask?  "Why pants?"

Well, there are many reasons here. First off, togas.  Togas, those things that drape over the shoulder like a bed-sheet, were worn by the Romans, usually Roman citizens and senators. Slaves, provincials and non-citizens were not allowed to wear togas. Some of the Jewish aristocracy, aka Sadducees, wore togas, but only if they were Roman citizens, which was something that was conferred upon them after the payment of many shekels, like getting a knighthood bestowed upon one by the Queen because one has contributed to the glory of the British Empire, or because one has paid a ton in taxes. So, since Jesus and his friends were not Roman citizens or senators, they didn't wear togas. Couldn't. Weren't allowed. Doing so might result in their arrests if for no reason than on suspicion of putting on airs.

Secondly, the Persian Empire had conquered Israel several hundred years before Jesus' time, and those people wore pants. Puffy pants, but pants. Check out the pictures of ancient Persians. (Or for that matter, cavemen and the people who inhabited Britannia.  Pants have been around for a very long time. They're not hard to make.)  Probably even the Hittites and the Sumerians wore pants. Pants are infinitely more masculine and modest than skirts or long tunics. Ask any Scotsman and he will tell you that this is true, especially in a high wind. Furthermore, many of the Persian kings and emperors were friendly toward the Jewish people, the Book of Esther notwithstanding. And the Jewish people were very modest. The Romans, not so much. So it is entirely possible that the Jewish people adopted the Persian habit of wearing pants, and why not? They had more ethnically in common with the Persians than they did with the Romans, who were the enemy de jour, after all.

Thirdly, there are no pictures of First Century Jewish people in Israel, at least not that have been dug up so far. Mosaic Law forbade Jewish people from painting pictures or carving statues or engraving images of people lest they be worshiped as gods. Major no-no. And Jesus was Jewish. So the earliest pictures that we have of First Century Jewish folk came about through Christian artists after Jesus' death, usually by several hundred years. And all that the artists of that time had to go on, when it came to fashion, were pictures of First Century Romans, slaves and Gentiles, all dressed in Roman garb with nary a pair of pants in the bunch. Therefore, it is entirely possible that First Century Jewish men wore pants since there is no proof that they did not. And if they did, then probably Jesus did, at least most of the time.