Discover! >> History Experts Reveal What Jesus Really Looked Like & It’s Not What You Know!

Jesus is absolutely one of the most instantly recognizable figures in the Western world. But experts say that every image you’ve seen of Jesus is almost certainly inaccurate.
Not only would Jesus definitely not have had flowing locks, he is also unlikely to have grown a long beard or even worn robes.
Instead, historians believe that Jesus would have looked like any other unremarkable member of Judean society in the first century AD.
But there is one surprising detail that modern depictions of Jesus do get right.
While it might seem odd that Jesus is often depicted with rippling abs, experts agree that he probably would have been strong and lean.
Dr Meredith Warren, senior lecturer on Biblical and religious studies at Sheffield University, told MailOnline that these muscular depictions aren’t ‘completely off the mark’. She says: ‘Jesus comes from a family where manual labour is the norm, and he certainly gets exercise with all the walking around.’

 

BEARD AND HAIR

The version of Jesus we are most familiar with often has brown, flowing shoulder-length hair and a full beard. However, neither of these ideas matches up with what we know about the historical figure of Jesus.
One of the few things we know for certain is that Jesus was ethnically Judean and came from the region which is now modern-day Palestine. This means his hair and beard would have been black and curly rather than brown and straight.
Likewise, it is extremely likely that Jesus would have worn his hair and beard quite short. Just like today, beards tended to go in and out of fashion in the Roman world over the years. Around the time of Jesus’ life in the first century AD, we think that being clean-shaven was extremely important to Romans but, as a Jew, Jesus probably did grow a well-kept beard.
Roman coins from the period show captive Judeans sporting short curly beards which suggests this might have been the fashion of the time. Joan Taylor, professor of Christian origins at King’s College London, told MailOnline: ‘To have long hair and a long beard signalled something in ancient Judaism – that you were keeping a special vow and not drinking wine.
‘Jesus was actually accused of drinking wine, so he was not keeping such a vow.’
In fact, some of the very first depictions we have of Jesus show him looking distinctly well-groomed. Paintings dating from the first half of the third century AD found the church in the ruined city of Dura-Europos in Syria show Jesus clean-shaven with hair cut well above his collar.
In the first century AD, Professor Taylor says that long hair on men was considered ‘rather unseemly’. However, by the fourth century AD, images of Jesus began to feature long hair and beards depending on what the artists wanted to emphasise.

 

FACIAL FEATURES

Strikingly, the Bible does not include many descriptions of Jesus’ appearance. But based on the few biographical details we have experts have pieced together some details of his likely facial features.
Dr Warren says: ‘Jesus would have had brown skin, brown eyes, like the local population.
‘He died before he was 40. He wasn’t rich and would have spent a lot of time outdoors, so some lines on that face, probably. His hands and feet were probably calloused and rough.’
To get more specific details, experts have to look at other people living in the region at the time. One of the few things the Bible tells us about Jesus’s appearance is how indistinct he appeared to be. When soldiers come to take him from the Garden of Gethsemane they needed Judas to point him out amongst the crowd of other Judean men.
Likewise, in the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene mistakes him for a gardener when she goes looking for his body. From these pieces of information, some scholars have inferred that Jesus might have looked very much like other men of the period and didn’t have many distinctive features.
In her opinion, Dr Warren thinks the best representations of how Jesus might have looked come from the Egyptian mummy portraits. These paintings were made of men who died between 80 and 120 AD in a similar part of the world to Jesus.
They show men with dark eyes, brown skin, short curly hair, beards and facial features which would have been distinctive of people living in what is now Egypt, Palestine, and Israel.
Likewise, in 2015, medical artist Richard Neave used forensic techniques to reconstruct the face of a Judean man by studying Semite skulls. The portrait revealed a wide face, dark eyes, a bushy beard and short curly hair, as well as a tanned complexion which might have been typical of Jews in the Galilee area.

CLOTHING

When we see paintings of Jesus today, he is often wearing a long white robe which hangs down to his ankles. However, in first-century Judea, long robes like these would have been seen as women’s clothing.
Instead, men from the region would have worn a short wollen tunic made up of two pieces, belted or tied at the waist, with a thinner linen tunic underneath.
Only Roman citizens were permitted to wear a toga but Jesus would have had a thick woollen mantle called a himation to wrap about himself for warmth.
As a Jewish man, Jesus’ mantle might have had knotted tassels called tzitzit on each of the corners.

SUMMARY OF WHAT JESUS WOULD HAVE REALLY LOOKED LIKE

Beard and hair:–  Jesus would have had short, curly hair and a well-trimmed beard.

Facial features:– Jesus was ethnically Judean and would have been Middle Eastern in appearance. He would have had dark skin and brown eyes.

Body type:– Jesus would have been lean and wiry due to manual labour and poor diet.

Clothing:– Jesus would have worn a short tunic and an undyed woollen mantle with tassels.

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