50 Questions on Jesus' Physical Appearance
(Almost) every question you have ever asked about Jesus' image
One of the great things about doing a PhD on a subject like Jesus’ appearance is that almost everyone has an opinion about it –and almost everyone has questions.
Ahead of the publication of Jesus’ Physical Appearance next month, I have therefore set myself a mammoth challenge: to answer one hundred questions on Jesus’ appearance.
Here is my first instalment of fifty Q’s! (You might need a cup of coffee for this one.)
Q1. Is it surprising the Gospels do not describe Jesus’ appearance?
Yes. One of the unexpected results of my research was that every biographer in classical antiquity described at least some of their subjects. Descriptions were particularly common for royal figures and divine men – Jesus was both.
Q2. Does the Turin Shroud reveal Jesus’ appearance?
Almost certainly not. Several lines of evidence converge on a medieval date for the Shroud, including its carbon dating, first literary attestation and its weave.
Q3. Did Jesus have long-flowing hair?
It is highly unlikely. Paul describes long hair as unmanly, and the fashion of the time was to have short hair. Some Jews under the Nazirite vow would have worn their hair long, but we know that Jesus was not under this vow since he drank wine.
Q4. What is our earliest image of Jesus?
It is debated. Some think that it is the Alexamenos Graffito, others consider it to be a magical gemstone once housed in the British Museum. Both are dated around the late second or early third century, and both show a Jesus-figure hanging on a cross.
Q5. Did the second commandment prevent Jesus’ description?
Probably not. The second commandment prohibits the production of graven images of any kind, but this did not always preclude literary descriptions of God. We also know that some Jews did have images. Even the Temple had cherubim.
Q6. Was Jesus not described because he was ugly?
It is possible. Other ancient biographers sometimes covered up their subject’s physiognomic defects. At the same time, there was a lot of significance one could ascribe to an ‘ugly’ Jesus – for example, some famous philosophers were ugly.
Q7. Is Jesus’ missing description evidence he did not exist?
No, but I am surprised at how often this question comes up. We have plenty of mythical figures who are described in ancient biographical literature. So if Jesus was a myth we would actually expect a literary description of him.
Q8. Did Jesus have a long beard?
If he had a beard, the fashion was to have a short one. The idea that Jesus had a long beard is mostly derived from Christian art from the fourth century onwards. In these depictions, there is an effort to make Jesus appear almost as a Zeus-like figure.
Q9. Does Paul tell us anything about Jesus’ appearance?
Paul does not say anything directly. Yet the so-called ‘Philippian hymn’ does describe Jesus as ‘taking the form of a servant’. The word morphé can refer to a person’s physical form, so it is possible that this refers to Jesus’ servile appearance.
Q10. Does the book of Revelation describe Jesus’ appearance?
No. The book of Revelation describes a vision of the exalted Christ, using a pastiche of metaphors from the theophanies of the Jewish Scriptures. It should not be mined for information about the appearance of the historical Jesus.
Q11. Was Jesus black?
No, Jesus was a middle-eastern Jew. So his skin would have been a kind of honey or dark-honey colour. But James Cone once said that “Jesus is black because he was Jewish.” This idea is that because God became incarnate as a Jew (an oppressed people), there is a legitimate sense in which Jesus can be described as ‘black’ today.
Q12. Why is Jesus depicted in early Christian art with a wand?
Some scholars think that this is a magical wand, reflecting beliefs about Jesus as a wonder-working and exorcist. But it might also be a reference to Jesus as a Moses-like figure. Depictions in Jewish art from the same period show Moses with a staff.
Q13. Was Jesus ever depicted in the form of a Greek god?
Yes. In some of our earliest depictions, we find Jesus as a beautiful young god, like Hermes, Orpheus or Apollo. Some of this imagery was easily transferrable. Just as Hermes was the god of the underworld, so Jesus guides our souls to eternal life.
Q14. Which group would Jesus most closely resemble today?
According to one bio-historian, the gene-pool that bears the closest resemblance to ancient Galilean Jews today are Iraqi-Jews. That is something to bear in mind the next time you meet an Iraqi-Jewish man!
Q15. Does Judas betray that Jesus was ‘average-looking’?
John Chrysostom inferred from the fact that Judas identified Jesus to his arrestors with a kiss, rather than his physical traits, that Jesus was probably average-looking. I am not sure we can make much of this, given that they were coming to Jesus under the cover of darkness. The kiss itself was also pregnant with meaning.
Q16. Is Jesus’ woven tunic in John a symbol of the high priest?
This is a plausible interpretation. The only other time the Greek translation of the Scriptures mentions the word ‘woven’ it is in reference to priestly garments, and rabbinic literature also remembers the high priestly garments as ‘seamless.’ With Augustine, I think John is presenting Jesus as both priest and sacrificial victim.
Q17. What is our earliest literary description of Jesus?
Our earliest literary description is probably found in the apocryphal Acts of John from the second century CE. It describes a polymorphic Jesus who appears in different ways to different people. This ability to change form was seen as a marker of divinity.
Q18. Why did some early Christians think Jesus was little?
The pagan philosopher Celsus reports that Christians believe that Jesus was little. They probably did so on the basis of the Greek translation of Isaiah, which describes Jesus as ‘like a child.’ From this, it was a short leap to think that Jesus was small.
Q19. Do other religious texts describe Jesus’ appearance?
Yes, perhaps most famously, Jesus is described in the Islamic Hadith. For example, Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3439 claims: ‘I saw Jesus son of Mary… He was of medium stature, and his complexion was reddish-white, and he had straight hair…’
Q20. Would Jesus have been muscular?
It is certainly plausible that Jesus would have been strong due to his work as a tektõn. A tektõn was someone who worked with hard materials, like wood or stone. Jesus’ diet was likely basic, but this may have meant that he was lean.
Q21. Which Jesus-actor comes closest to the historical Jesus?
I am tempted to say that it is The Chosen’s Jonathan Roumie. The actor is of Syro-Lebanese paternal descent, and so probably comes closer to the image of a Middle-Eastern man than many other actors do today.
Q22. Would Jesus have really worn sandals?
Yes! John the Baptist says in the gospels that ‘he is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’ Archaeologists have found sandals across Judea, made of layers of leather, with a similar look to modern-day sandals.
Q23. How did the Nazis reconstruct a non-Jewish Jesus?
Some Nazi scholars argued that Jesus was ‘nordic’ in appearance. They argued that Galilee was not really Jewish, and so Jesus would not have been either. The myth of a Gentile Galilee has been thoroughly de-bunked in modern scholarship.
Q24. Did Jesus dress like an ancient Cynic philosopher?
Some texts commend Cynics to wear just one tunic rather than two, which is similar to Jesus’ instructions in the gospels. But Cynics were also known for wearing very little, and for having long beards – there is no evidence Jesus dressed like this.
Q25. What is the Alexamenos Graffito?
The Alexamenos Graffito is a contender for our earliest depiction of Jesus, dating to the late second or early third century CE. It shows the stick figure of a man saluting a crucifixion victim with a donkey’s head, with the words mockingly scribbled beside it: Alexamenos sebete theon (‘Alexamenos [says], ‘worship God’).
Q26. Why does the Alexamenos Graffito give Jesus a donkey’s head?
It was a common anti-Jewish slur to say that Jews worshipped a donkey. This carried over to the Christian sect and was applied to make a mockery of the crucifixion.
Q27. What is the meaning of Jesus’ transfiguration?
For a gentile, Jesus’ transfiguration would have looked very much like a Greek epiphany, in which the divine form of a god or goddess is revealed. For one familiar with the Jewish tradition, it would have recalled God’s mountain-top theophanies.
Q28. Why does Jesus’ face shine like the sun?
This is probably an allusion to Moses, whose face shines like the sun when he comes down from the presence of the Lord. Yet it might also be a messianic allusion to a messianic figure ‘whose face will shine forth like the sun in the earth’ (T. Levi. 18.4).
Q29. Why did the pagan philosopher Celsus criticise Jesus’ appearance?
In his second century work, True Word, Celsus criticised Jesus as having been ‘little, ugly and undistinguished.’ He uses this description, which he has heard from Christians, to disregard Jesus’ divinity, on the assumption that a divine body would have been beautiful.
Q30. Did Jesus’ divinity preclude his textual description?
There are places in the Gospels which describe Jesus in ‘theophanic’ terms, comparable to when God reveals his glory in the Scriptures. Since the Scriptures show a reluctance to describe God’s body directly, this could have influenced the evangelists’ own reluctance to describe Jesus’ physical traits in any detail.
Q31. Why do the Gospels not say that Jesus looked like the suffering servant?
The servant’s ugliness could have led to aspersions of Jesus’ character, according to the “physiognomic” mindset of antiquity. The servant is also diseased, which doesn’t blend with the Gospels’ depiction of Jesus as an (unblemished) passover sacrifice.
Q32. Why did the Church fathers portray Jesus as ugly?
The Church fathers used Isaiah’s suffering servant to argue that Jesus was ugly for a range of apologetic and rhetorical purposes. Sometimes, they used it to commend his humility or to encourage modesty. Other times they used it to show that Jesus was truly a human, on the assumption that a divine body would be beautiful.
Q33. Do we have seamless tunics from the first-century?
Archaeologists have found seamless tunics near the Dead Sea. These were simple garments fashioned by cutting a hole out of the top of a piece of cloth. If John’s reference to Jesus’ seamless tunic is historical, it may indicate that Jesus did not place much stock in his dress.
Q34. Did an average Jew look different from their Gentile neighbours?
Aside from possible accoutrements to their clothing, there is no clear evidence that Jews were distinguishable by their appearance. We have descriptions of Jews from antiquity and they show no awareness of the stereotyped physicality of modern Jews.
Q35. Does John describe Jesus as the beautiful Shepherd?
John describes Jesus using the word kalos (‘good’, ‘beautiful’). Yet the focus here seems to be on Jesus’ noble character – he is a shepherd who protects his sheep – rather than on his outward appearance, which the gospel tells its readers to avoid (7:24).
Q36. Does Luke describe Jesus as little?
Some have read Luke 19:3 as a reference to Jesus’ short stature, instead of Zacchaeus. I think that this is grammatically unlikely, and the reference to Zacchaeus as ‘short’ better fits Zacchaeus’ negative characterisation as a wealthy tax-collector.
Q37. How tall was Jesus?
If Jesus was of average-height, he would have been something around five foot five. In his Life of Augustus, Suetonius is careful to refute the suggestion that Augustus was short, citing an eyewitness source that the Emperor was five foot seven!
Q38. Did Jesus care about his physical appearance?
Probably not! He teaches his disciples not to care about their body and what they wear. He also criticised those who use their dress to display status. Whenever clothing is mentioned in the gospels, its significance is heavily downplayed.
Q39. Would Jesus have worn a turban?
No! First-century Jews did not wear turbans. The idea that Jews in Jesus’ time wore a turban is an oriental myth. During the time of the Ottoman Empire, Jews came to be associated with the ‘east’ and were depicted wearing turbans in classical art.
Q40. Did Jesus carry a staff?
Some early Christian art depicts Jesus carrying a staff. This may be an allusion to the staff of Moses, but it is also the impression we gain from Mark. There Jesus teaches his disciples, ‘carry nothing on your journey except a staff.’
Q41. Would Jesus have worn tefillin?
Tefillin or phylacteries were boxes which contained scripture worn by some Jews around their arms. Jesus critiqued the enlarging of these tefillin, but was not opposed to the tefillin themselves. It is plausible that he himself sometimes wore them.
Q42. What is the ‘edge’ of Jesus’ garment that the woman touches?
The edge likely refers to the tzitzit, the blue or violet tassels worn by men at the edges of their mantle. The Torah prescribes these tassels (Num. 15:38-39; Deut. 22:12) which served as a visual reminder to obey the Lord’s commandments.
Q43. Why has Jesus’ form changed in Luke’s Emmaus narrative?
The road to Emmaus is what scholars call a ‘theoxeny’: the appearance of a divine being in the form of a stranger (xenos), in which the divine stranger is entertained unawares. Jesus’ changing form is part of this wider theoxenic narrative type.
Q44. Would Jesus have had colourful dress?
Colour was sometimes associated with woman’s clothing, although we know that men did sometimes wear colourful clothing too. In Judea, green and red are some of the best attested colours. Yet it is likely that Jesus dressed in undyed wool or linen.
Q45. Could Jesus have been visibly impaired?
It is certainly not out of the question. He was a labourer (tektõn), working with hard materials like wood and stone, in which he could have acquired impairments. If Jesus was impaired, the gospel writers could have been motivated to cover it up.
Q46. Was Jesus ever portrayed as a philosopher?
We know that a sect called the Carpocratians would crown busts of Jesus alongside ‘the images of the philosophers of the world, namely with the images of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and the rest’ (Irenaeus, Heresies, 1.25.6-7). We know what some of these busts looked like, but painfully, Jesus’ own one does not survive!
Q47. Did Jesus look like a Pharisee?
Jesus’ appearance is often distinguished from the Pharisees in art. Yet if Jesus wore tefillin and tzitzit, he may have had more in common with them than we often suppose. Jesus criticises the use of these accoutrements for show – not their use altogether.
Q48. Would Jesus have worn a Toga?
No, the toga was the dress of a Roman citizen. When Jesus does address toga-like garments – the ‘long robes’ (stolais) of the scribes – he criticises them as an excessive display of status (Lk. 20:45).
Q49. Would Jesus have had a distinctive Galilean accent?
It looks like he would have done! Jesus and his disciples were ‘Northerners’ when they came down to Jerusalem, and that is reflected in how they spoke. We find a hint of this in the gospels when a ‘southerner’ says to Peter, ‘Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you’ (Mt. 26:73).
Q50. So… why is Jesus not described in the Gospels?
I’m afraid you’ll have to pre-order my book to find out!
Thank you for reading 50 Questions on Jesus’ Physical Appearance! If you enjoyed this piece, you might also like these posts, available to my paid subscribers:
It seems as though Luke offers the vanishingly faint suggestion of a handsome Jesus. The comments in 1:40, 52 about the young Jesus growing in strength and wisdom, and acquiring favor with God and men, tends in that direction. All the gospels implicitly liken Jesus to Moses, ,and Luke is no exception (eg. Lk 12:14; cf. Ex 2:14; Lk 24:19 cf. Acts 7:22), but Luke invokes the comparison more directly than Mark and Matt by citing Deut 18:15, 18 in Acts 3:22 and 7:37. The evocation of Moses (along with Joseph) as a Messianic archetype in Stephen's speech in Acts 7 makes noteworthy its description of the infant Moses as "beautiful to God,"paraphrasing Ex 2:2, LXX. Luke's author seems to take Moses' physical beauty, at least in infancy, as appropriate to his divine calling, which might by analogy carry over to Jesus--again, in the mind of the author. But then, Luke's author was not an eyewitness to Jesus.