Short hair, athletic figure, no beard: what Jesus really looked like. Photo

Despite the fact that the image of Jesus has long been known, experts say that in reality, Christ looked nothing like the way he is depicted in icons. The Son of God did not have long hair or a beard and did not wear a robe.

Historians believe that Jesus looked like a typical member of Jewish society in the first century AD. But at the same time, he had an athletic figure, writes DailyMail.

Dr. Meredith Warren, Senior Lecturer in Biblical and Religious Studies at the University of Sheffield, noted that although Christ was thin, he was very strong with pronounced muscles.

"Jesus comes from a family where physical labor is the norm. So, of course, he got exercise in his daily life," the expert said.

And Jesus also walked a lot during his mission, so he probably had an athletic figure, scientists suggest.

Beard and hair

Jesus is usually depicted with brown, straight, shoulder-length hair and a long beard. However, according to the researchers, none of these details match the historical figure of Mary's son.

It is known that Jesus was ethnically Jewish and came from the region that is now modern Palestine. This means that his hair and beard were black and curly, not brown and straight, researchers say.

According to scholars, just as it is today, beards went in and out of fashion over the centuries in the Roman world.

It is known that during the time of Jesus' life, in the first century AD, it was extremely important for Romans to be clean-shaven. But as a Jew, Jesus probably grew a well-groomed beard, experts suggest.

According to historians, Roman coins of the period depict captive Jews with short, curly beards, which indicates that this was the fashion of the time.

"In ancient Judaism, having long hair and a long beard indicated that you were keeping a special vow not to drink wine. But Jesus did not keep such a vow," said Joan Taylor, a professor at King's College London.

Paintings from the first half of the third century AD found in a church in the ruined city of Dura-Europos in Syria show Jesus clean-shaven with his hair cropped above his collar.

However, according to scholars, like many other contemporary depictions of Jesus, these characteristics say more about the culture of the time than about the historical figure.

According to Prof. Taylor, in the first century AD, long hair for men was considered "quite indecent." However, by the fourth century AD, long hair and beards began to appear in images of Jesus.

According to the experts, if artists want to connect Christ with the concept of the Good Shepherd or draw parallels with Roman ideas about Dionysus or Apollo, he will have longer hair.

"Or if they want to emphasize Jesus as a philosopher who had a longer beard. Later, when we get the idea of the omnipotent Christ as the Creator, his image is consistent with the way Zeus or Jupiter is depicted: with a beard and long hair," said Dr. Meredith Warren.

Facial features

There are not many descriptions of Jesus' appearance in the Bible. But based on the few biographical details, experts have pieced together some details of his likely facial features.

"Jesus had brown skin and brown eyes like the local population. He was not rich and spent a lot of time outdoors, so his face probably had wrinkles. His hands and feet were probably calloused and rough," added the teacher of biblical and religious studies.

"One of the few descriptions the Bible gives us of Jesus' appearance points to his indistinct features. After all, when the soldiers came to take the Son of God from the Garden of Gethsemane, they needed Judas to find him among the crowd of other Jewish men.

According to Meredith Warren, the best idea of what Jesus might have looked like can be gleaned from Egyptian portraits. These paintings depicted men who died between 80 and 120 AD in what is now Egypt, Palestine, and Israel.

In 2015, forensic artist Richard Neave used forensic techniques to reconstruct the face of a Jewish man. The portrait shows a broad face, dark eyes, a thick beard, short curly hair, and a tanned complexion that could be typical of Jews in Galilee.

Although it is only a portrait of an adult man who lived at the same time as Jesus, this reconstruction gives a better idea of what features he might have had, scholars say.

Clothing

Jesus is usually depicted wearing long robes. However, according to historians, in first-century Judea, such long robes were considered women's clothing. Instead, men from the region wore short woolen tunics in two parts, girded or tied at the waist, with thinner linen tunics underneath, researchers say.

The only thing that our modern images of Jesus get right is that all Jews wore leather sandals in Jesus' day.

Archaeologists have even found examples of first-century footwear in the Dead Sea and Masada caves. They show that Jesus' sandals were very simple, with soles made of thick pieces of leather sewn together and uppers made of leather straps that went over the toes.

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