Text/Fast Wind
What did Jesus Christ look like?
Pictured: The image of Jesus in Western culture
For centuries, the most standard image of Jesus in Western culture was this: fair-skinned, bearded, with long wavy light brown or blond hair and blue eyes. The Jesus that appears in the movie is even more unworthy and handsome.
Pictured: Jesus in Son of God
But Jesus is 2,000 years old, is his true appearance really a handsome man with blond hair and blue eyes? The truth can be very different.
First, what does the Bible say?
According to the Biblical Gospels, Jesus was a Jew, born in the small Palestinian city of Bethlehem, who began preaching at the age of 30 and was crucified by the Roman governor in Jerusalem at the age of 33.
Pictured: Jesus in The Passion of Jesus
The book of Isaiah says, "Jesus looks no different from ordinary people—he looks ordinary." The book of Revelation says that Jesus' skin was dark, describing his hair as "as white as white wool and as white as snow." His eyes were like flames, and flames were like polished bronze, as delicate as in a furnace. ”
Jesus' execution before his crucifixion is described as follows: "His face is more haggard than others, and his description is wither than the world's." ”
The Bible hardly describes what Jesus looked like, and it is clear that he did not excel by his looks. When Jesus was arrested, Judas had to point him out to the soldiers from a group of disciples—presumably because they looked alike.
From a scholar's point of view, since Jesus was a first-century Palestinian Jew, his appearance may have been consistent with the Jewish characteristics of his time: dark complexion, dark eyes, black hair, and no contact with blonde hair and blue eyes.
Pictured: Jesus the Shepherd in Western art
The earliest images of Jesus were found in Israel in recent years. On the walls of an abandoned church, a portrait of Jesus from the around 6th century AD remains, with short hair and a face that is severely illegible due to weathering.
Pictured: A weathered portrait of Jesus
In the West, the image of Jesus is almost detached from reality, influenced by the Greek and Roman gods, especially Zeus, the king of the gods, who mostly sits on a throne in a robe and has a halo on his head. As Christianity flourished, Jesus finally developed into what we recognize as the "standard Jesus image."
Pictured: One of the standard jesus statues
One would say, have you forgotten the famous Shroud of Turin?
Among the artifacts of Jesus, the most famous and eerie Shroud of Turin was revealed in 1354. This shroud, with a clear face, is said to be the shroud of Jesus after his death. However, the Shroud of Turin was twice debunked by the world, and the Catholic Church declared it a medieval painting.
Pictured: A statue of Jesus reproduced from the Shroud of Turin
The truth, only science can tell us.
Since the 21st century, teams of Israeli and British scientists (forensics, anthropologists, and computer programmers) have recreated the image of Jesus based on Israeli skulls dating back to the first century AD, computer modeling, and knowledge of Palestinian Jews.
Pictured: Scientists copy the head of Jesus
This image completely subverted the standard image of the Son of God, because he looked so ordinary: about five feet tall, with a broad peasant face, dark olive skin, short curls and a protruding nose.
Although we can never really depict the image of Jesus 2,000 years ago, he cannot have blue eyes and blond hair, and this rustic image is more reliable than all artistic depictions.