The article focuses on the three narrative passages in the New Testament where Jesus is described as weeping and shedding tears: Luke 19, 41-44; Hebrews 5, 7-8, and John 11, 33-36. These scenes are contextualized within a gender specific „history of tears“ (Hans van Wees). Since they never provide a direct access to his emotions and all stand in some tension with a masculinity of self control, the reasons for depicting a crying hero, it is argued, have to be deduced from the texts’ christological message.
