What Did Jesus Look Like?
By: Alexander Yung
Tags: History, Culture, Self, Religion, Christmas

What Did Jesus Look Like?

Thousands of years of speculation, theories, and imaginations

Various Depictions of Jesus. Source: Wikimedia Commons

He’s the most famous blonde-hair, blue-eyed white man. After dying in C.E. 30, Jesus Christ’s philosophies became a new religion, Christianity. He became revered around the world as the son of God. Because Jesus is a major religious figure, his physical appearance has been portrayed in various ways. To examine his features, we first have to examine his life, which is told through the four Gospels of the New Testament Bible.

Biblical Accounts on Jesus’s Appearance

Carl Bloch’s The Last Summer. Source: Wikimedia Commons

In the Bible, Jesus does everything under the sun: walking, healing, among others. But, in the whole process, he’s never visually described.

When he was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane, Judas had to point out Jesus among the disciples, which implies they all looked similar.

Since Jesus’s appearance didn’t stand out, we can infer that he looked like the typical Palestinian, Jewish man of the 1st century. However, centuries after Jesus’s death, artists didn’t take into consideration the historical account of Jesus’s appearance. Instead, they used their own creative thoughts.

Depictions of Jesus Over the Years

Byzantine Art

Marvelous mosaic of Christ Pantocrator (“ruler over all”) from the Hagia Sophia in Instanbul. .Source: Wikimedia Commons

One of the earliest depictions of Jesus comes from the catacombs of St. Domitilla in Rome, dating back to the 3rd century A.D. The painting depicts Jesus as the Good Shepherd, a beardless man with a lamb around his shoulders.

Byzantine artists typically used mosaic art — consisting of glass, stone, marble, etc. — to create simple images of Jesus.

Jesus’s image as a light skin, white-bearded man with long robes also dates back to this era. Influenced by the classical Greek gods’ appearance — long hair, beards, and slim bodies — Byzantine artists portrayed Jesus in the same manner.

Even though it wasn’t realistic, this trend would continue into the Renaissance Era.

Renaissance Art

Correggio, testa di cristo. Source: Wikimedia Commons

After the Byzantine Era ended, the Greek-influenced portrayal of Jesus remained, becoming the universal image of Jesus. In the Renaissance Era, artists typically portrayed Jesus with more expressions, gestures, and a linear perspective. His appearance was also a lot more tridimensional, realistic, and colorful than in the Byzantine Era.

However, there are slight differences in his appearance, between various European regions. For example, Spanish and Portuguese artists give Jesus a more Mediterranean look, while the Orthodox churches portray a “darker” version of Jesus.

Asian Art

Restoration of a T‘ang dynasty Ching-chiao (Church of the East) image which found in Cave 17 at Mo-kao Caves, Tunhwang. Source: Wikimedia Commons

During European colonialism, many Asians saw Jesus as a tribal god of the white Europeans. However, as Christianity circulated around Asia, Jesus was reimagined into different, cultural figures like the bodhisattva, a Confucian scholar, and a Shamanistic priest. He became re-portrayed with the local people’s physical features.

Still, all these portrayals were nowhere close to Jesus’s true appearance.

Jesus: The Most Realistic Portrayal

Based on archaeological artifacts, texts, and preserved human remains, researchers can infer these traits about Jesus’s physical appearance:

5 Feet 5 Inched Tall Brown Eyes Black Hair Olive-Brown Skin Short Hair Trimmed Beard

Since Jesus was a carpenter and walked around a lot, we can infer he was skinny and muscular. In the Gospels, Jesus also stated he didn’t want to wear two tunics. So it's most likely he wore a simple tunic, to blend into Galilee’s villages as a simple man.

In 2001, medical artist Richard Neave — along with a team of Israeli and British forensic anthropologists and computer programmers — created a new image of Jesus, based on the typical 1st century, Palestinian Jewish features:

Neave and His Team’s Portrayal of Jesus. Source: BBC News

With all the new evidence available, this picture is a lot more accurate to Jesus’s physical appearance.

Still, at the same time, we will never know what Jesus really looked like. However, it’s safe to assume that the classical portrayals of him are now outdated.