just the Word

a faceless prophet, of whom all visual portrayal is forbidden...

if i were creating a figurehead for a religious code of belief i too would include this among the stipulations. why? because religion, at its practical heart, has good intentions of encouraging man to allow higher faculties to dominate lower animal brain from which he evolved. if man is to engage philosophical ideas purely through intellect he must not be distracted by the neurological response to visual stimuli. that is, if the message is important the messenger must not be allowed to impact the perception of the message. if the messenger has a face then the average human brain will respond to it according to how its dna allows it to; the integrity of the message might be lost amidst reactions to characteristics such as ethnicity and attractiveness.

as an atheist and psuedo physicist i make a point to look at useful ideas from religion. underlying ideas aside though, it's all a matter of individual perspective. sadly it is the literalistic interpretation of allegory that often ruins religion's efficacy.