For thousands of years, Jesus Christ has been depicted as a slight, white skinned man with blue eyes, long dark hair and a beard.
From the pictures in children’s first Bibles and churches’ stain glass windows, to his cameos in cartoons like South Park and The Simpsons, Jesus has always looked like variations of the same white man.
However, this imagination of how the son of God looked could be far from reality, according to an expert.
A professor has now stepped forward to say Jesus may not have looked anything like how he has been depicted for centuries.
Wikimedia CommonsJoan Taylor, who works as a professor of Christian origins and second temple Judaism at King’s College London, says Jesus would’ve had shorter hair and darker skin.
In addition, the messiah would, according to Joan, have had a shorter beard, and his clothing would have been plain and not coloured, unlike the colourful outfits which are often depicted in paintings.
The professor says there’s even a picture already out there which most realistically depicts what Christ would have looked like:
Wikimedia CommonsIn an article for American Schools of Oriental Research, Professor Taylor opens by saying:
Everyone knows what Jesus looks like: he is the most painted figure in all of western art, recognised everywhere as having long hair and a beard, a long robe with sleeves (often white) and a mantle (often blue).
But what did he really look like, as a man living in Judaea in the 1st century? This subject has long been of interest. I have already written on John the Baptist and his clothing, but not about Jesus.
View Askew ProductionsProfessor Taylor continues:
Nevertheless, over the years, numerous television documentaries have asked me for guidance on dramatising aspects of ancient life.
In order to give them clear directions, I gathered information about what Jesus looked like, or rather, what he is said to have worn. I would like to share this here.
It is worth emphasising that images of Jesus over time give us clues on how Jesus was imagined in different environments, but say absolutely nothing about what he really looked like.
Our images of Jesus were largely created in the Byzantine era (4th-6th centuries). Byzantine images of Jesus were based on the image of a Graeco-Roman deity, for example the famous statue of Olympian Zeus by Phidias in the 4th century BCE.
Professor Taylor goes on to say she believes Jesus would’ve had a beard because he didn’t go to the barbers, which means sense.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.