The Man Nobody Knows

According to author Bruce Barton, the impetus of his book was a boyhood dislike of the traditional portrayal of Jesus as pale, frail, and soft. Jesus as the “lamb of God” sounded to the young Barton like “something for girls—sissified” (x). Barton admired masculine, physically strong fighters such as Daniel in the lion’s den or David defeating Goliath. As an adult, Barton became convinced that many artists and writers had incorrectly depicted Jesus, so he writes a revisionist portrayal of Jesus that appeals to American men of the 1920s. Barton emphasizes Jesus’ masculinity by asserting that Jesus was not a physical weakling. Jesus was a carpenter with strong muscles from years of toil. Barton strikingly revises the account of Jesus’ triumph over the moneychangers in the Temple by not emphasizing Jesus’ spiritual authority (“the halo around his head”) but rather his physical strength, his “muscles hard as iron” (37). Jesus’ manly fitness intimidates the corrupt, “flabby” priests and moneychangers who watch him in action and have “no doubt that he was fully capable of taking care of himself” (37). In these ways, Barton’s text is in dialogue with a Victorian theological movement and cultural trend known as Muscular Christianity, which emphasized the overlap between physical strength and Christian ideals.