[Red Boots]

No one knows what he looks like anyway.

Interestingly, I ran across this in an Art History textbook which had a discussion of why early artists painted Jesus the way they did. It's conviently left out of all of these "what did Jesus look like" articles. The following description comes from Pubulius Lentulus, an associate of Pontius Pilate,

"In this time appeared a man endowed with great powers. His name is Jesus, and his disciples call him the son of God. This Jesus is of noble and well-porportioned stature,with a face full of kindness, and yet firmness, so that beholders both love and fear him.

His hair is the color of wine, straight and without lusture, but from the level of the ears curling and flossy. His forehead is even and smooth, his face without blemish, and enhanced by a tempered bloom, his countenance ingenuous and kind.

His nose and mouth are in no way faulty. His beard is full, of the same color as his hair; his eyes blue and extremely brilliant. ...

His person is tall, his hands beautiful and straight. In speaking he is deliberate and grave, with little given to loquacity; in beauty surpassing most men".

[T.Smith]

That was very interesting. Thank you for posting it.

[Blessed]

>His nose and mouth are in no way faulty. His beard is full, of the same color as his hair; his eyes blue and extremely brilliant. ...

His person is tall, his hands beautiful and straight. In speaking he is deliberate and grave, with little given to loquacity; in beauty surpassing most men".<

This contradicts the Bible.The one thing we do know is that he was not hansom.

[TopQuark]

Thanks for the quote. I'll file it away and explore further.

[Heyworth]

Interestingly, I ran across this in an Art History textbook which had a discussion of why early artists painted Jesus the way they did. It's conviently left out of all of these "what did Jesus look like" articles. The following description comes from Pubulius Lentulus, an associate of Pontius Pilate...

Most scholars consider the Lentulus letter to be a fake, most likely from 13th Century Italy. Interesting that you say you found it in an art history book, since the general thinking is that the letter cribbed from older artists' guides on how to paint Jesus, evidentally to give them some illusion of authenticity

[Robert A Cook PE]

Good point!

(I hadn't realized there were "historical" descriptions available.)

But look at the Shroud of Turin: that is the "classic source" of Christ's face: full beard, longer, thinner face, straight hair - about shoulder length, roughly th e same as your description!

(Which, by the way, calls to mind how the supposed forger's found this document and THEN were able to duplicate the features 1400 years later on the Shroud......)

Granted, some argue about it's legitimacy, but wouldn't it be foolish for Mel Gibson (given this description and the Shroud's "mirror image" NOT to have used both as a "model" of what He looked like?