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Race and appearance of Jesus

The race and appearance of Jesus, widely accepted by researchers to be a Judean from Galilee,[1] has been a topic of discussion since the days of early Christianity. Various theories about the race of Jesus have been proposed and debated.[2][3] By the Middle Ages, a number of documents, generally of unknown or questionable origin, had been composed and were circulating with details of the appearance of Jesus. These documents are now mostly considered forgeries.[4][5][6]

A wide range of depictions have appeared over the two millennia since Jesus's death, often influenced by cultural settings, political circumstances and theological contexts. Many depictions are interpretations of spurious sources, and are generally historically inaccurate.[7]: 44–45 


By the 19th century, theories that Jesus was non-Semitic were being developed, with writers suggesting he was variously white, black, or some other race other than those known to have been native to the Levant.[8] However, as in other cases of the assignment of race to biblical individuals, these claims have been mostly based on cultural stereotypes, ethnocentrism, and societal trends rather than on scientific analysis or historical method.[7]: 18 

Historical appearance[edit]

Research on ancient skeletons in Palestine suggests that Judeans of the time were biologically closer to present-day Iraqi Jews than to any other modern population, according to specialist bio historian Yossi Nagar.[9]: 161, 194  Thus, in terms of physical appearance, the average Judean of the time would have likely had brown or black hair, honey/olive-brown skin, and brown eyes. Judean men of the time period were on average about 1.65 metres or 5 feet 5 inches in height.[9]: 158–163  Scholars have also suggested that it is likely Jesus had short hair and a beard, in accordance with Jewish practices of the time and the appearance of philosophers.[9]: 123–37  The earliest depictions of Jesus from the Roman catacombs depict him as free of facial hair.[9]: 83–121 


Historians have speculated that Jesus's ascetic and itinerant lifestyle and work as a tektōn (Ancient Greek for an artisan-craftsman, typically a carpenter), entailling manual labour and exposure to the elements, affected his appearance. It has been suggested that Jesus likely had a lean appearance.[10][11][12][13]

Around the 9th century, referred to a tall angelic figure, which has at times been interpreted as Christ, but scholars consider it an unlikely reference to Jesus.[36] Other spurious references include the Archko Volume (likely composed in the 19th century) and the Letter of Pilate to Tiberius, most likely composed in the Middle Ages.[4][5][6][37]

Epiphanius Monachus

The , a forged letter supposedly written by Publius Lentulus, the Governor of Judea, to the Roman Senate, according to most scholars was composed to compensate for the lack of any physical description of Jesus in the Bible.[19]

Letter of Lentulus

In the 14th century, quoted an unnamed antique source that described Jesus as tall and beautiful with fair, wavy hair, but his account was most likely without basis and was inspired by the prevailing artistic images of Jesus.[38]

Nicephorus Callistus

BBC's reconstruction[edit]

In 2001, a new attempt was made to discover what the true race and face of Jesus might have been, and it was documented in the Son of God documentary series. The study, sponsored by the BBC, France 3 and the Discovery Channel,[66] used one of three first-century Jewish skulls from a leading department of forensic science in Israel. A face was constructed using forensic anthropology by Richard Neave, a retired medical artist from the Unit of Art in Medicine at the University of Manchester.[67] The face Neave constructed suggested that Jesus would have had a broad face and large nose, and differed significantly from the traditional depictions of Jesus in renaissance art.[61]


Additional information about Jesus's skin color and hair was provided by Mark Goodacre, a senior lecturer at the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Birmingham.[61] Using third-century images from a synagogue – the earliest pictures of Jewish people[68] – Goodacre proposed that Jesus's skin color would have been darker and swarthier than his traditional Western image. He also suggested that he would have had short, curly hair and a short cropped beard.[69] The First Epistle to the Corinthians, where Paul the Apostle says it is "disgraceful" for a man to have long hair,[70] was cited as support for this, the argument being that as Paul allegedly knew many of the disciples and members of Jesus's family, it is unlikely that he would have written such a thing had Jesus had long hair.[69]


Although it was not literally the face of Jesus,[67] the result of the study determined that Jesus's skin would have been more olive-colored than white or black,[61] and it also determined that he would have most likely looked like a typical Galilean Semite of his day. Among the points which were made in the study was the fact that the Bible says that Jesus's disciple Judas Iscariot needed to point him out to those who were arresting him. The implied argument is that if Jesus's physical appearance had differed markedly from the appearance of his disciples, he would have been relatively easy to identify.[69] James H. Charlesworth says that Jesus's face was "most likely dark brown and sun-tanned", and his stature "may have been between five feet five and five feet seven".[71]

What Did Jesus Look Like?[edit]

In 2018 historian Joan Taylor published What Did Jesus Look Like? which traced portrayals of Jesus back through time from the European Jesus of western art to Jesus himself. By working with Yossi Nagar, an Israeli anthropologist who was able to prove that the physical characteristics of the bones of Jews which date back to the time of Jesus have similarities to the bones of contemporary Iraqi Jews, Taylor concluded that Jesus had honey/olive skin, brown eyes and brown or black hair. As for the honey/olive description, Taylor writes that his skin was "a darker hue consistent with the skin tone of people of the Middle East" (p. 163). Taylor thinks the BBC's reconstruction is "quite speculative" because reconstruction of cartilage (noses, etc.) is guesswork.

Black Madonna

Depiction of Jesus

Genetic studies on Jews

Historical Jesus

Jesus bloodline

Jewish ethnic divisions

Language of Jesus

Life of Christ

Nativity of Jesus

Glasgow, James (2010) [1872]. . Edinburgh: T&T Clark. ISBN 978-1-153-28844-6. OCLC 557904029. Retrieved 18 June 2011.

The Apocalypse Translated and Expounded

Mosley, William (1987). (1st ed.). Chicago: African American Images. ISBN 978-0-913543-09-2. OCLC 17281825. Retrieved 18 June 2011.

What Color Was Jesus?

Niehaus, Jeffrey Jay (1995). . Studies in Old Testament Biblical Theology. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan. ISBN 978-0-310-49471-3. OCLC 31434584. Retrieved 18 June 2011.

God at Sinai: Covenant and Theophany in the Bible and Ancient Near East

Rodriguez, Clara E. (2000). . Critical America (illustrated ed.). New York City: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-7547-9. OCLC 43684476. Retrieved 18 June 2011.

Changing Race: Latinos, the Census, and the History of Ethnicity in the United States

Taylor, Joan (24 December 2015), , BBC News

"What did Jesus really look like?"

York, Malachi Z.