Posted on 12/24/2015 9:26:45 AM PST by Thistooshallpass9
Images of a frail, thin, pale-skinned, strikingly handsome man with long locks of light brown hair are nearly ubiquitous in the world of Christianity. During this Christmas season, they seem to be especially numerous. But these images are based almost entirely on paintings by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, who lived hundreds of years after Christ, and who had no insight into His actual appearance. And a team of British forensic scientists now says the real Jesus Christ would have looked nothing at all like those popular images.
The team’s findings are significant, not because they conclusively say what Christ looked like but because they prove the error of the traditional depictions of Him.
Dr. Richard Neave, a forensic facial reconstruction expert, headed up the team, which used forensic anthropology to conduct the study. Forensic anthropology relies on cultural and archaeological data, as well as such fields of study as genetics, nutrition and dentistry to identify physical characteristics of deceased individuals.
The findings of Dr. Neave’s team are worth considering because they were arrived at in part by consulting often-ignored passages from the New Testament.
Strikingly Handsome?
The foundation of Neave’s study was Matthew 26:48-50, which details how Judas Iscariot had to point out Jesus to the Roman soldiers because they otherwise couldn’t distinguish Him from the crowd of Jews.
This passage makes plain that Christ had no special handsomeness or notable features that would have made Him stand out. His appearance was typical of Galilean Semites in that time period.
Based on this understanding, Neave set out to determine what a “typical Galilean Semite†of that era would have looked like. So he obtained several Semite skeletons dating to that period from Israeli archaeologists and used tomography and anthropological data to build digital renderings of what they would have looked like.
The team’s conclusion was that Christ would have had a fairly tanned complexion and dark, possibly curly hair with a matching beard. He would have been the typical height and weight for men of the time, which, according to Neave’s research, was about 5 feet one inch and 110 pounds.
Long Hair?
Neave’s team also consulted the New Testament to answer the question of the length of Christ’s hair.
Crucifixes, movies and thousands of paintings portray Jesus Christ with long, flowing hair. But based on his study of Jewish art from Christ’s day and certain New Testament passages, Neave says this too is in error.
Artwork from the first century shows that male Jews of the time never wore their hair long.
Additionally, in his first letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul mentions having seen Jesus Christ. Later Paul says “If a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him†(1 Corinthians 11:14). If Jesus Christ had had long hair, would Paul—who devoted his life to emulating Christ and to teaching all that Christ taught and did—say long hair on a man was a disgrace?
For Neave, this answered the question. He said Jesus would have had short hair, typical of the men of the era.
Pale, Thin and Effeminate?
Neave’s team also said that since Christ would have worked as a carpenter many hours a day from adolescence until He was 30 years old, He would not have been the frail, pale and emaciated man Western art depicts.
Carpenters of the time worked outside in various weather conditions. The work was highly labor intensive. Carpenters worked not just with large timbers but also stones, routinely carrying and positioning them in homes and buildings. This means Christ would have been both tanned and muscular.
A True Picture
Neave’s team did a commendable job exposing the traditional depictions of Jesus Christ as false and of bringing to light what a typical man of Christ’s time and region might have looked like.
But the Bible says when we think of Christ, we should think of Him not as He was during His earthly ministry but as He is today.
Revelation 1:14-16 states:
His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
All the paintings, statues, crucifixes and movies fail utterly to depict Christ as He is now. If we reject those false images and instead meditate on the above passage and surrounding scriptures, it will help us to worship God in spirit and in truth.
A careful reading reveals that He transited right through the crown trying to push Him off of a cliff in His home area. But that should not surprise us since He left the tomb without rolling away the stone, and entered a closed, shuttered room without opening an entry.
He is now in His glorified body and if we are good and holy enough we may see His TRUE body. But as He said, it is a long and narrow road to that place. Most of us I believe will only be able to see the light of His presence. But that is enough for me!
They might be onto something, as that face is pretty much how I always imagined Peter.
But like you said, not Jesus.
That’s not Jesus, that’s Hey Suse
There was a show where they treated the shroud of Turin like a “flat file” image of a person and converted it to 3D. The resulting image was of an average Jew. If you saw him in a crowd, you would never notice him. If that person walked into your store, you wouldn’t remember him 30 minutes later.
Here are excerpts of 3 ancient documents describing Jesus as blond or fair haired (below chin or shoulder length hair) and blue eyed...also his mother had blue eyes and fair hair
From the Archko Volume:
An additional physical description of Jesus can be found in “The Archko Volume” which contains official first century court documents. This information substantiates that He descended from ethnic lines having blue eyes and golden hair. A part of “Gamaliel’s Interview” describes Jesus’ appearance.
“I asked him to describe this person to me, so that I might know him if I should meet him. He said: ‘If you ever meet him you will know him. While he is nothing but a man, there is something about him that distinguishes him from every other man. He is the picture of his mother, only he has not her smooth, round face. His hair is a little more golden than hers, though it is as much from sunburn as anything else. He is tall, and his shoulders are a little drooped; his visage is thin and of a swarthy complexion, though this is from exposure. His eyes are large and a soft blue, and rather dull and heavy....’ This Jew is convinced that he is the Messiah of the world. This was the same person that was born of the virgin in Bethlehem some twenty-six years before.”
The Archko Volume was translated by Drs. McIntosh and Twyman of the Antiquarian Lodge, Genoa, Italy, from manuscripts in Constantinople and the records of the Senatorial Docket taken from the Vatican of Rome (1896) 92-93. The letter written on a papyrus scroll dated to about 5 B.C., with an accuracy of +- 50 years.
“Acta Pilati”, copies of Pilate’s letter to Tiberius, describing Jesus, are in the Congressional library
http://www.mariavaltortawebring.com/Pages/015_Jeus_Physical_Appearance.htm
The prophet Isaiah describes him:
“he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.”
In other words, he wasn’t built (form) or handsome (comeliness, beauty), so the desirable factor about Him wasn’t his looks.
Isaiah 53 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
The only real description of him in the gospels is that his face was beaten so badly by the Romans that he was unrecognizable as a human being.
I think you’re correct. I can’t remember any description at all in the New Testament.
Wrong question. The right question is who is Jesus Christ? The answer will determine your fate for all eternity.
Correct.
The descriptions are in Revelation.
And those don’t really count in terms of the one they walked around with daily up and down Israel
My own theory is that he looked like Adam.
Adam had in his genes all the DNA that would eventually bring about all the various races.
Jesus is called the second Adam.
My guess is they would probably be considered identical twins.
Of course I have a lot of rather unorthodox theories. :-)
Wasn’t the original Adam a lawyer....”that woman YOU gave me gave that stuff to me to eat....”
Irrelevance and vanity.
Christ is a fully human body indwelt by the word of the triune Godhead. The body isn’t important when there is God inside, instead of a human soul.
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