What Did Jesus Really Look Like?

One of the greatest mysteries of ancient history is the true appearance of Jesus of Nazareth. Most people today have an image that immediately pops into their head when they hear the name “Jesus” of a tall, handsome white man with long, flowing hair and a beard and maybe a halo. This is certainly not what the historical Jesus really looked like. In fact, the image we all have of Jesus actually has a quite fascinating origin. In ancient times, Jesus was represented in a wide variety of different ways, some of them downright bizarre, but the standard image we all know and recognize eventually became the canonical one.

We don’t know much about what the historical Jesus looked like, but the gospels and other ancient sources do provide some details that can allow us to reconstruct a very general sense of his possible appearance.

The Alexamenos Graffito

Before we talk about what the historical Jesus actually looked like, let’s talk about the history of how Jesus has been portrayed in art. Before we find out what Jesus looked like, we’re going to find out where the iconic image we all have of Jesus as a young, handsome man with a beard and long, flowing hair comes from. (Spoiler alert: It doesn’t come from the historical Jesus.)

For the first two centuries AD, Christians seem to have rarely depicted Jesus in art. We have no verifiable Christian depictions of Jesus in art from either the first century AD or the second century AD. In fact, the earliest surviving depiction of Jesus that we know of was not made by a Christian, but rather by a virulent hater of Christians.

The earliest surviving depiction of Jesus is probably a graffito from the city of Rome known as the “Alexamenos Graffito,” which most likely dates to around the late second century AD or early third century AD. This graffito was originally scratched into the plaster wall of a room in a building located on the Palatine Hill known as the domus Gelotiana.

The graffito itself is a crude drawing of a man with one arm raised worshipping a crucified man with the head of a donkey. Underneath the image is a crude inscription in Greek, with bad handwriting and several misspellings:

“ΑΛΕ ξΑΜΕΝΟϹ ϹΕΒΕΤΕ ϑΕΟΝ.”

Here is the inscription, rendered in standard Greek:

“Ἀλεξάμενος σέβεται θεόν.”

Finally, here is an English translation of the inscription:

“Alexamenos worships [his] deity.”

There was a popular belief among the Greeks and Romans that the Jewish god had the head of a donkey and that this was the reason why the Jews never made images of their god—because his donkey head was too embarrassing. Indeed, even the eminent Roman historian Publius Cornelius Tacitus (lived c. 56 – c. 120 AD) records a story in his Histories about the Jews worshipping their god in the form of a donkey because, supposedly, when the Jewish people were lost in the desert, they saw a herd of wild donkeys, which led them to water.

In around the early third century AD, the Christian apologist Marcus Minucius Felix wrote a dialogue in Latin titled Octavius in which a Christian named Octavius Ianuarius debates a pagan named Caecilius Natalis. In chapter eight of the dialogue, Caecilius mentions that he has heard rumors that Christians worship a deity with the head of a donkey. He declares, as translated by Alexander Roberts:

“I hear that they adore the head of an ass, that basest of creatures, consecrated by I know not what silly persuasion — a worthy and appropriate religion for such manners. Some say that they worship the virilia [i.e., penis and testicles] of their pontiff and priest, and adore the nature, as it were, of their common parent. I know not whether these things are false; certainly suspicion is applicable to secret and nocturnal rites.”

The Alexamenos Graffito, then, clearly shows Jesus the way many non-Christians imagined him: as a crucified man with the head of a donkey. The man worshipping the crucified donkey god is evidently a Christian man named Alexamenos.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the Alexamenos Graffito, which is probably the earliest surviving depiction of Jesus

ABOVE: Stone rubbing of the Alexamenos Graffito from Wikimedia Commons

Early Christian representations of Jesus from the Dura-Europos Church

The earliest Christian representations of Jesus date to the early third century AD, making them a little bit later than the Alexamenos Graffito. Many of the oldest known surviving Christian depictions of the Jesus come from the Dura-Europos Church, one of the oldest Christian churches to survive to modernity.

The Dura-Europos Church was located in the town of Dura-Europos in Syria. It was converted from a private home into a church in around the early 230s AD. The baptistry of the church was decorated with frescoes of scenes from the gospels, including scenes with Jesus. These frescoes all date to the early 230s AD when the building was converted into a church.

The scenes depicted in the baptistry of the Dura-Europos Church include a scene of Jesus healing the paralytic, a scene of Jesus and Peter walking on water, and a scene of Jesus as the “Good Shepherd.” The paintings are of rather poor artistic quality and they haven’t survived in very good condition, but their exceptionally early date makes them especially important for the study of early Christian iconography.

The depiction of Jesus from the Dura-Europos Church that is easiest to make out details of is probably the one from the fresco of him healing the paralytic, which shows him as young, beardless man with curly hair. He is shown wearing a himation, a kind of long mantle formed from a single large, rectangular piece of fabric that was commonly worn as an outer garment by men in the eastern Mediterranean during the time of the Roman Empire. His himation, as it is shown in the painting, appears to be white.

Sadly, the town of Dura-Europos was occupied by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the Syrian Civil War. ISIL is known to have destroyed most of the ruins there and it is likely that the Dura-Europos Church was destroyed as well. The frescoes from the church, however, were thankfully removed from the church after they were excavated and they are still on display in the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the painting of Jesus healing the paralytic from the baptistry of the Dura-Europos Church, dating to the early 230s AD

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the fresco from the baptistry of the Dura-Europos Church depicting Jesus as the “Good Shepherd,” dating to the early 230s AD

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the fresco from the baptistry of the Dura-Europos Church depicting Jesus and Peter walking on water, dating to the early 230s AD

Other early Christian depictions of Jesus

Many of the earliest surviving Christian representations of Jesus draw heavy inspiration from pagan iconography, showing Jesus in the guise of the “Good Shepherd,” bearing a lamb over his shoulders in a manner directly inspired by earlier Greek representations of deities as kriophoroi or “ram-bearers,” bearing rams over their shoulders for the sacrifice.

Pre-Christian kriophoroi are usually young, beardless men. Likewise, early Christian depictions of Jesus as the “Good Shepherd” usually show him as a young man without a beard. Early Christian representations of Jesus as the “Good Shepherd” are often so similar to non-Christian kriophoroi that it is often hard to tell which representations are supposed to be Jesus and which ones aren’t.

Often times, the only way to tell that a figure in a work of art is supposed to be Jesus as the “Good Shepherd” is from the presence of other, explicitly Christian motifs and scenes found in proximity to it. For instance, if an image is found in a church or a catacomb with Christian scenes, then it can be identified as a representation of Jesus.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a late Roman marble copy of a fifth-century BC Greek sculpture of a young man bearing a ram over his shoulders as a kriophoros

Another one of the earliest surviving Christian depictions of Jesus is a mid-third-century AD Christian painting from the Catacombs of Callixtus presenting Jesus in the guise of the “Good Shepherd,” bearing a lamb over his shoulders in the same manner as a Kriophoros. In his right hand, he is shown holding a bucket and at his feet are a couple of sheep.

ABOVE: Third-century AD Christian fresco depicting Jesus as the “Good Shepherd,” bearing a lamb over his shoulders, with a couple of sheep at his feet

A painting from the center of ceiling of the Velatio cubicle of the Catacombs of Priscilla dated to the late third century AD shows Jesus as a smiling, beardless young man bearing a ram over his shoulders, surrounded by sheep, doves, and olive branches.

ABOVE: Late third-century AD painting of Jesus as the “Good Shepherd” from the Catacombs of Priscilla

A remarkable marble statue dating to the first half of the fourth century AD was discovered in the Catacombs of Domitilla underneath the city of Rome and has been identified as an early Christian depiction of Jesus in the guise of the “Good Shepherd.” The statue shows Jesus as a beardless young man with curly hair, bearing a lamb over his shoulders.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of an early third-century AD Christian statue of Jesus from the Catacombs of Domitilla, showing Jesus as a beardless young man with curly hair bearing a lamb over his shoulders

We don’t just see depictions of Jesus as the “Good Shepherd” in early Christian art, however; we also see a number of notable very early Christian representations of Jesus in scenes from the gospels.

For instance, a painting from the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter dated to the fourth century AD shows the healing of the bleeding woman, an incident described in the Gospel of Mark 5:25–34, the Gospel of Matthew 9:20–22, and the Gospel of Luke 8:43–48.

The painting depicts Jesus as a young, beardless man with short, curly hair wearing the undyed himation of a philosopher. The woman is shown catching hold of the fringe of his himation and Jesus is shown turning around to smile at her.

ABOVE: Fourth-century AD Christian painting from the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter depicting the woman taking hold of Jesus’s himation

Images of Jesus as the “Good Shepherd” appear to have remained common long after Christianity was legalized. A spectacular early Christian mosaic from the mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, Italy dated to the early fifth century AD depicts Jesus as a handsome, beardless young man with long, brown hair sitting on a rock surrounded by his flocks.

While many of the earliest surviving representations of Jesus as the “Good Shepherd” are not clearly marked as depictions of Jesus, this one clearly is; Jesus is shown wearing a golden robe and holding a golden cross in his left hand. There is also a golden halo behind his head. It is abundantly clear from the iconography that this young shepherd is supposed to be none other than Jesus Christ himself.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the early fifth-century AD Christian mosaic from the mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, Italy, depicting Jesus as the “Good Shepherd”

The origin of our modern image of Jesus

Today, most people imagine Jesus as a handsome man with long, flowing hair, a beard, and halo behind his head. This is an image of Jesus that seems to have developed in around the late fourth century AD. One of the earliest surviving depictions of Jesus in this manner is a mural painting from the Catacomb of Commodilla underneath the city of Rome dated to the late fourth century AD.

The mural shows Jesus with long, flowing hair, parted in the center, a beard, and a halo behind his head. On the right side of his head is the Greek letter alpha (A) and on the left side of his head is the Greek letter omega (ω), signifying Jesus’s position as “the alpha and the omega.”

ABOVE: Christian mural painting of Jesus from the Catacomb of Commodilla, dated to the late fourth century AD, showing Jesus as a man with long, flowing hair, a beard, and a halo behind his head

Another late fourth-century AD Christian fresco from the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter shows Jesus as a man with long hair, beard, and a halo enthroned in majesty with Saint Peter and Saint Paul standing on either side of him, wearing togas like Roman senators. Beneath him is the Divine Lamb, with apostles standing beside the lamb on both sides, gesturing with their arms towards Jesus above them.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a late fourth-century AD Christian fresco from the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter, depicting Jesus enthroned in majesty

A mosaic from the apse of the Santa Pudenziana in Rome dated to the very beginning of the fifth century AD depicts Jesus as a man with long hair, a beard, and a halo wearing a golden robe seated upon a throne in majesty with a golden cross floating above his head. Beneath him are the apostles, who are shown wearing togas like Roman senators.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the early fifth-century AD Christian mosaic of Christ enthroned in majesty from the apse of the Santa Pudenziana in Rome

We find an even more familiar depiction of Jesus in a Byzantine mosaic from the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy, which dates to c. 526 AD. This very early representation of Jesus bears all the identifying iconographic features that we associate with Jesus today.

Jesus is shown in the mosaic as a very handsome, pale-skinned man with brown eyes, long, flowing brown hair, and a short beard. He is seated upon a large throne, wearing a purple robe with gold accents, symbolizing his role as ruler of the universe. Behind his head is a golden halo with jewels. His right hand is shown making the sign of the cross. He is flanked by winged angels in white robes on either side.

ABOVE: Detail of the Byzantine mosaic of Jesus from the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, dating to c. 526 AD

ABOVE: A wider view of the Byzantine mosaic of Christ enthroned in majesty from the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, dating to c. 526 AD

Perhaps the earliest surviving painted icon of Jesus is a sixth-century AD encaustic panel painting from Saint Catherine’s Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai depicting Jesus as Christ Pantokrator or “Christ Almighty.” The icon, which is one of the most famous works of early Christian art, shows Jesus with long, straight, black hair, a short beard, and brown eyes.

He is shown wearing a purple robe, representing his role as a ruler, and holding a copy of the holy scriptures with a gold cover and a cross, representing his role as the giver of revelation. Behind his head is a golden halo. Interestingly, the two sides of Jesus’s face are intentionally shown differently in effort to convey the theological teaching that Jesus has two unchangeable, inseparable natures, one divine and one human.

ABOVE: Sixth-century AD encaustic panel painting of Jesus from Saint Catherine’s Monastery, showing Jesus as Christ Pantokrator or “Christ Almighty.”

The pagan inspiration behind the iconic long-haired, bearded image of Jesus

This image of the long-haired, bearded Jesus that developed in the late fourth century AD was undoubtedly directly inspired by earlier Greek and Roman depictions of male deities. From the fourth century BC onwards, the Greek gods Zeus, Asklepios, and Serapis had all almost always been shown with long, flowing hair and beards—just like Jesus is today.

It is clear that Christian artists in late antiquity simply adapted this earlier model and applied it to Jesus to create the iconic flowing-haired, bearded Christ we all know today. In fact, not only is it obvious from the images themselves that early Christian artists were copying the iconography of Zeus and other male deities, but we actually have explicit, written documentation that early Christians artists were doing this.

A fragment of a lost work written by the early sixth-century AD Greek writer Theodoros Anagnostes records a miracle story about how, in around 465 AD, God supposedly punished an artist who portrayed Jesus in a manner too closely reminiscent of the Greek god Zeus by causing his arm to wither. Theodoros Anagnostes writes, as translated by Joan E. Taylor:

“A certain artist painting an image of the Lord Christ lost strength in his hand, and they say that, as instructed by a certain Hellene, he’d painted the work of the image in the appearance of the name of the Saviour, but with the hairs of the head divided in two ways, so the eyes are not covered, since by forms such as this the children of Hellenes paint Zeus, in order for the observers to recognize that instead of the Saviour the adoration is to be assigned (to Zeus), being more truly curly-locked and hairy [than Christ].”

It is unlikely that any ancient Christian artist was really punished by God for representing Jesus looking too much like Zeus, but this story does confirm what modern scholars have already supposed: that many early Christian artists drew inspiration from older pagan models.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the Otricoli Zeus, a Roman marble copy of a fourth-century BC Greek bust of the god Zeus

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a plaster cast of a Roman marble copy of a Greek bust of the god Asklepios from the late fourth century BC

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a Roman marble copy of a fourth-century BC Greek bust of the Greco-Egyptian god Serapis, who is shown with long, flowing hair and a beard

Meanwhile, Jesus most likely got his halo from pre-Christian solar deities, who are often depicted with halos and rays of sunlight radiating from their heads. The Greek sun-god Helios was depicted with a halo and rays of sunlight coming out of his head as early as the fourth century BC. For instance, a Greek relief carving from the temple of Athena at Ilion depicts Helios in precisely this manner.

As the Greek god Apollon became seen as a solar deity in later antiquity, he began to be shown with a halo and rays of sunlight coming out of his head as well. Ancient Roman depictions of the sun-god Sol Invictus consistently show him with rays of sunlight coming out of his head and, in many cases, he is also shown with a halo.

ABOVE: Fourth-century BC Greek relief carving from the temple to Athena at Ilion depicting the sun-god Helios riding in his sun-chariot with a halo and rays of sunlight coming out of his head

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a second-century AD Roman dedication slab depicting the sun-god Sol Invictus with rays of sunlight radiating from his head

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a late second-century AD Roman floor mosaic from El-Jem, Tunisia depicting the Greek god Apollon as a sun god with a halo and rays of sunlight coming out of his head

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a third-century AD Roman silver disk from the city of Pessinous in Asia Minor depicting the sun-god Sol Invictus with rays of sunlight radiating from his head

It was widely believed among early Christians that Jesus was the One True God and that all the roles that had been attributed to various pagan deities rightly belonged to Jesus. Naturally, this included the role of a solar deity. Thus, early Christian artists freely blended elements of the iconography of Sol Invictus with Jesus.

For instance, there is a very unusual third-century AD Christian mosaic from the Vatican grottoes underneath Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome depicting Jesus with the full iconography of Sol Invictus. In the mosaic, Jesus is wearing a golden robe. He has the full halo and rays of sunlight coming out of his head. He is even riding in a sun-chariot pulled by white horses!

The same mosaic is also interesting because it shows how Christians even borrowed the iconography of the Greek god Dionysos; in the mosaic, Jesus the Sun-God is surrounded by vines, the traditional symbol of Dionysos.

ABPVE: Third-century AD Christian mosaic from the Vatican grottoes under Saint Peter’s Basilica, depicting Jesus as the sun-god Sol Invictus riding in his sun-chariot with a halo and rays of sunlight radiating from his head

Historical sources for Jesus’s physical appearance

At this point, you are all probably wondering, “Well, if our traditional image of Jesus only arose in the late fourth century AD, around four hundred years after Jesus’s death, and it is clearly influenced by earlier pagan iconography, then what did the real Jesus look like?”

Unfortunately, it is rather difficult to answer this question because we have no surviving historical sources written by people who personally knew Jesus while he was alive. The closest thing we have to an author who knew Jesus while he was alive is Paul, who did not know Jesus himself, but knew Jesus’s brother James and his closest disciple Peter.

Paul probably had some idea of what Jesus looked like, based on his brothers’ appearances and offhand mentions from Peter and James. Unfortunately, Paul says absolutely nothing about what Jesus looked like as a human being on Earth.

The earliest sources we have that reveal any information at all about Jesus’s appearance are the canonical gospels, which were written decades after Jesus’s death by people who did not know him personally while he was alive. The earliest surviving gospel is the Gospel of Mark, which was probably written sometime around 70 AD.

The Gospel of Matthew, the second oldest surviving gospel, was probably written sometime in the 70s or 80s AD. The Gospel of Luke was probably written in around the 90s AD. The Gospel of John, the last of the canonical gospels, was probably written sometime between 100 AD and 125 AD.

There are also various non-canonical gospels that have survived, such as the Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Mary, and the Gospel of Philip, but these were written even later than the canonical gospels. The Gospel of Thomas, which is probably the earliest of the surviving non-canonical gospels, was probably written in the early second century AD, around the same time as or shortly after the Gospel of John.

Even the earliest gospels, though, give us very little information about Jesus’s physical appearance. They do give us specific information about the clothes Jesus wore, but they give us only vague implications as far as his actual bodily appearance is concerned.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of Papyrus 137, the earliest surviving fragment of a copy of the Gospel of Mark, dated to the late second century AD or early third century AD, over a century after the gospel itself was originally written

Jesus wearing a himation with tzitzit

There are three different places in the canonical gospels in which it is explicitly mentioned that Jesus wore a himation with tzitzit, the traditional knotted tassels with blue stripes worn by observant Jewish men on the fringes of their garments.

The Gospel of Matthew 9:20–22 describes how a woman who had suffered from hemorrhages for twelve years touched the tzitzit of Jesus’s himation because she believed that doing so would heal her of her ailment. The passage reads as follows in the original Greek:

“καὶ ἰδοὺ γυνὴ αἱμορροοῦσα δώδεκα ἔτη προσελθοῦσα ὄπισθεν ἥψατο τοῦ κρασπέδου τοῦ ἱματίου αὐτοῦ· ἔλεγεν γὰρ ἐν ἑαυτῇ, ἐὰν μόνον ἅψωμαι τοῦ ἱματίου αὐτοῦ σωθήσομαι. ὁ δὲ ἰησοῦς στραφεὶς καὶ ἰδὼν αὐτὴν εἶπεν, θάρσει, θύγατερ· ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέν σε. καὶ ἐσώθη ἡ γυνὴ ἀπὸ τῆς ὥρας ἐκείνης.”

Here is the passage as it is translated in the NRSV:

“Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe [i.e. tzitzit] of his cloak [i.e. himation], for she said to herself, ‘If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.’ Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.’ And instantly the woman was made well.”

The same incident is also recounted in the Gospel of Luke 8:43–44, which reads as follows in the original Greek:

“καὶ γυνὴ οὗσα ἐν ῥύσει αἵματος ἀπὸ ἐτῶν δώδεκα, ἥτις [ἰατροῖς προσαναλώσασα ὅλον τὸν βίον] οὐκ ἴσχυσεν ἀπ᾽ οὐδενὸς θεραπευθῆναι, προσελθοῦσα ὄπισθεν ἥψατο τοῦ κρασπέδου τοῦ ἱματίου αὐτοῦ, καὶ παραχρῆμα ἔστη ἡ ῥύσις τοῦ αἵματος αὐτῆς.”

Here, again, is the passage as it is translated in the NRSV:

“Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years; and though she had spent all she had on physicians, no one could cure her. She came up behind him and touched the fringe [i.e. tzitzit] of his clothes [i.e. himation], and immediately her hemorrhage stopped.”

We also find one other reference to the tzitzit of Jesus’s himation in the Gospel of Matthew 14:36, which reads as follows in the original Greek:

“καὶ παρεκάλουν αὐτὸν ἵνα μόνον ἅψωνται τοῦ κρασπέδου τοῦ ἱματίου αὐτοῦ· καὶ ὅσοι ἥψαντο διεσώθησαν.”

Here is the passage as it is translated in the NRSV:

“and begged him that they might touch even the fringe [i.e. tzitzit] of his cloak [i.e. himation]; and all who touched it were healed.”

Jesus is mentioned as wearing a himation in several other passages aside from the ones I have listed here. For instance, in the Gospel of John 13:4, Jesus is described as taking his himation off when he washes his disciples’ feet. The other passages mentioning Jesus’s himation, though, do not mention that it had tzitzit on it.

It is almost certain that the historical Jesus did indeed wear tzitzit, since the wearing of tzitzit is explicitly commanded in the Book of Numbers 15:37–41 and in the Book of Deuteronomy 22:12 and virtually all men in Galilee in the first century AD would have worn them.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a modern tzitzit. There are many different styles of tzitzit used today. It is hard to guess what exactly the tzitzit used in the Jesus’s day would have looked like.

Jesus’s chiton

In several different passages from the gospels, it is mentioned that Jesus wore a kind of tunic known as a chiton, which he would have worn underneath his himation. The Gospel of John 19:23–24 claims that Jesus’s chiton was one seamless piece of cloth, but this is probably an attempt by the gospel-writer to portray Jesus as a High Priest, since the High Priest of the Temple in Jerusalem also wore a seamless tunic.

It is highly probable that the gospels’ descriptions of the clothes Jesus wore are accurate for the most part, since the clothes Jesus is described as wearing are the same kinds of clothes that a Jewish religious leader in Galilee in the first century AD would have been expected to wear.

A number of ancient wall paintings from the Dura-Europos Synagogue, a Jewish synagogue from the town of Dura-Europos in Syria that was used in the second and third centuries AD, represent Jewish religious figures such as Moses and Ezra wearing the kind of clothing worn by Jewish religious leaders of the Roman period.

As it happens, the Jewish religious figures in the wall paintings from Dura-Europos are wearing precisely the same clothes Jesus is described as wearing in the gospels; they all wear chitons and himatia with tzitzit.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a painting of Moses from the Dura-Europos Synagogue, dating to the early third century AD, showing him wearing a chiton and a white himation with tzitzit—the same outfit Jesus is described as wearing in the gospels

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of a painting of Ezra reading the Torah from the Dura-Europos Synagogue

More hints about Jesus’s appearance in the gospels

This is all that the canonical gospels say directly about Jesus’s appearance. Nonetheless, there are a number of other very subtle hints pertaining to Jesus’s appearance that are dropped throughout the gospels. For instance, there are many places in the gospels where Jesus is described as escaping by disappearing into the crowd. Here are a few examples:

• “But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way” —Gospel of Luke 4:30, NRSV
• “Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there.” —Gospel of John 5:13, NRSV
• “So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” —Gospel of John 8:59, NRSV

These references to Jesus disappearing into the crowd strongly suggest that early Christians in the first century AD believed that there was nothing remarkable about Jesus’s appearance and that he was the sort of person who could easily blend into a crowd. I suspect that this impression among early Christians is probably a correct one, since, if Jesus’s appearance had been unusual or remarkable in some way, one would think that word of this would have been passed down through oral tradition.

Most surviving representations of Jewish men from antiquity, such as the wall paintings from the Dura-Europos Synagogue, show them with short, curly black hair, olive skin, and short, well-trimmed beards. It is therefore highly probable that Jesus had short, curly black hair, olive skin, and a short, well-trimmed beard, since this seems to have been normal for the time and place in which he lived and there is nothing in the gospels or in any other early Christian texts to suggest he looked any different.

It is unlikely that Jesus was especially handsome or especially ugly, but rather somewhere in the middle. If he had been especially handsome or especially ugly, then it is likely that this information would have been passed down through oral tradition and recorded by the gospel writers.

These references to Jesus disappearing into crowds in the gospels also seem to suggest that early Christians in the first century AD imagined Jesus as being relatively short, since, if Jesus were tall, he would obviously stand out in a crowd. We know from measurements of skeletons from Galilee and Judaea from Jesus’s time period that the average height for Jewish men in the early first century AD was probably somewhere around 5′5″ or thereabouts.

Our best guess, then, is that Jesus was most likely either about 5′5″ or maybe a little bit shorter than that. This would, of course, make him very short by modern standards, since the average height for a man in the United States today is 5′9″.

We can also gather information about what Jesus might have looked like from his profession. In the Gospel of Mark 6:3, it is stated that Jesus worked as a τέκτων (téktōn), which means “craftsman.” This word is most often used to refer to a carpenter, but it can also sometimes refer to a builder or a stonemason.

In any case, Jesus was certainly a manual laborer. He would have been accustomed to heavy lifting and he would have certainly worked extensively with his hands. As such, he would have been relatively lean and strong and his hands would have been rough and calloused. He would not have looked like someone who had lived an easy life.

I think this is about all we can say about Jesus’s appearance. Nonetheless, we actually do know quite a lot about what Jesus would have looked like if you really think about it. No one will ever know the exact details of his face, but we do have a general impression of the sort of person he would have been, the sorts of clothes he would have worn, the way he would have worn his hair, and the sort of life he would have been accustomed to.

A cautionary tale

Of course, I think it is always important to be wary whenever someone claims to have created a realistic portrait of Jesus. Let me tell you a bit of a cautionary tale. From 1849 to 1850, the English Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais (lived 1829 – 1896) worked to create a realistic painting of Jesus and his family that showed them with distinctively Jewish features.

Millais intentionally depicted Jesus and his mother Mary with red hair to mark them as Jewish, because, in Victorian England, red hair was inextricably associated with Jewish ethnicity. (This is also the reason why all the Jewish characters in Charles Dickens’s novels are always described as having red hair.)

The painting was seen as extraordinarily offensive, in part because its portrayal of Jesus and Mary as distinctly Jewish in appearance went against the views of art critics, who would have much preferred them portrayed as blond Aryans. A review published in June 1850 lambasted the painting, expressing sheer revulsion at the artist’s “studious vulgarity of portraying the youthful Saviour as a red-headed Jew boy.”

Today, though, people laugh at Everett’s painting—not because of its audacity to portray Jesus and Mary as Jewish, but rather because, in their view, it is a desperate attempt to whitewash the holy family as lily white Europeans with red hair, when everyone knows they should be portrayed as dark-haired, dark-complexioned Middle Easterners. The painting that was seen at the time of its creation as an attempt to go against racial prejudices is now seen as the very embodiment of racial prejudice.

Thanks to the modern field of archaeology, modern scholars undoubtedly know more about the historical context in which Jesus lived than John Everett Millais did in the nineteenth century. Nonetheless, I think the Millais’s painting goes to show that, even when we are trying to imagine Jesus’s appearance realistically, the way we imagine Jesus will always be shaped by our own culture, our own preconceptions, and our own prejudices.

ABOVE: Christ in the House of His Parents, painted from 1849 to 1850 by the English Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais. Millais portrayed Jesus and Mary with red hair to physically mark them as Jewish, a decision which shocked and horrified his English contemporaries, who would have preferred them to be blond Aryans.