What Did Jesus Really Look Like?

“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire Him.” Isaiah 53:2b

Jesus has been depicted in every possible manner over the last 2,000 years—in gold and silver, oils and watercolor, marble and mosaics. From icons to street art, from coloring books to the Sistine Chapel, the image of Jesus has been interpreted in a myriad of ways.
But do we really have any idea of what Jesus, the historical person, looked like?
Of course, none of Jesus contemporaries attempted to make a likeness of him for one simple reason: Jesus and his friends were Jews. The Law of Moses expressly forbid the making of images of the human person. Neither is there one sentence of description in all of the New Testament writings.
And so we are left with the theories of historians, theologians, anthropologists and scientists. Debates abound, but in one aspect, each of these disciplines agree: Jesus—the Son of God, the Incarnation, the Savior of the World—was quite ordinary looking.

From historical, archeological, and Biblical evidence, we can conclude that Jesus . . .

• Was around 5’ 1” and about 110 pounds. Because he was a carpenter and walked all over Judaea, he was most likely muscular and physically fit.

•  Had brown eyes, olive skin,  and short dark hair. There is little doubt of the color of Jesus eyes, skin, and hair, although length of his hair is under debate. The shroud of Turin shows long hair, but Biblical scholars point to 1 Corinthians, where Paul says that long hair on a man is disgraceful. They conclude that Paul, who had seen Jesus, wouldn’t have said that if Jesus had long hair.

•  Had a beard, as did most Jewish men of the first century.

• Had no unusual or distinguishing features. Judas had to point Jesus out to the arresting officers of the Temple guard for the simple reason that he did not stand out from the other Jews of his time.

And so Jesus was an ordinary-looking  man, with ‘no beauty or majesty to attract us to him’, and yet he changed not only the world, but all eternity.

The picture above is one of my favorite images of Jesus. Tell me, how do you picture Jesus?