The race and appearance of Jesus, widely accepted by researchers to be a Jew from Galilee, has been a topic of discussion since the days of early Christianity. Various theories about the race of Jesus have been proposed and debated.Racializing Jesus: Race, Ideology and the Formation of Modern Biblical Scholarship by Shawn Kelley 2002 pages 70–73 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.The Oxford companion to the Bible 1993 page 41Making Sense of the New Testament by Craig L. Blomberg 2004 pages 3–4Pontius Pilate: portraits of a Roman governor by Warren Carter 2003 pages 6–9
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.
By the 19th century, theories that Jesus was non-Semitic were being developed, with writers suggesting he was variously white, black, or some race other than those known to have been native to the Levant. 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.
Historical appearance Research on ancient skeletal anthropology in modern-day Israel and Palestine suggests that Judeans of the time were biologically closer to present-day Iraqi Jews than to any other modern population, according to bio-historian Yossi Nagar. 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 in height. 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. The earliest depictions of Jesus from the Roman catacombs depict him as free of facial hair.
Subsequent genetic analysis has shown Judeans were descendants of Canaanites, who shared strongest affinities with contemporary Levantine populations.
Historians have speculated that Jesus's ascetic and itinerant lifestyle and work as a (Ancient Greek for an artisan-craftsman, typically a carpenter), entailing manual labour and exposure to the elements, affected his appearance. It has been suggested that Jesus likely had a lean appearance, and would have looked akin to any other rural Galilean of his time.
Biblical references
Old Testament Old Testament references which Jews interpreted as being about a coming messiah have been used to form conjectures about the appearance of Jesus. One example is Isaiah 53:2 which refers to a scourged figure with "no beauty that we should desire him." This passage has been interpreted as Jesus' physical description.The Cross of Christ by John R. W. Stott, Alister McGrath 2006 page 145Christianity, art, and transformation by John W. De Gruchy 2001 page 122Brother Jesus: the Nazarene through Jewish eyes by Schalom Ben-Chorin 2001 page 111Understanding early Christian art by Robin Margaret Jensen 2000 page 127
New Testament In the gospels
The New Testament includes no descriptions of Jesus's appearance before his death, and the gospel narratives are generally indifferent to people's racial appearance or features.Robin M. Jensen "Jesus in Christian art", Chapter 29 of The Blackwell Companion to Jesus edited by Delbert Burkett 2010 page 477–502The likeness of the king: a prehistory of portraiture in late medieval France by Stephen Perkinson 2009 page 30
The synoptic gospels include the account of the transfiguration of Jesus, during which he was glorified with "His face shining as the sun",The Cambridge companion to the Gospels by Stephen C. Barton ISBN pages 132–133The Content and the Setting of the Gospel Tradition by Mark Harding, Alanna Nobbs 2010 pages 281–282 but this appearance is considered to refer to Jesus in majestic and transfigured form.
Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation (Rev 1:14-15) includes John's vision of the Son of Man: This vision is usually considered to refer to Jesus in heavenly form, not his appearance during his earthly life.Revelation by William C. Pender 1998 pages 14–16Revelation 1–11 by John MacArthur, Jr. ISBN pages 37–39
Literary traditions Early Church to the Middle Ages
Despite the lack of direct biblical or historical references, from the 2nd century onward, various theories about the appearance of Jesus were advanced. However, these focused more on his physical appearance than on his specific race or ancestry. Larger arguments of this kind have been debated for centuries.
Justin Martyr argued for the genealogy of Jesus in the biological Davidic line from Mary, as well as from his non-biological father Joseph.The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined by David Friedrich Strauss 2010 pages 114–116 However, this only implies a general Jewish ancestry, acknowledged generally by authors.
The focus of many early sources was on the alleged physical unattractiveness of Jesus rather than his beauty. The second-century anti-Christian philosopher Celsus wrote that Jesus was "ugly and small",Robert E. Van Voorst, Jesus Outside the New Testament: An Introduction to the Ancient Evidence, Eerdmans Publishing, 2000, p.66. and similar descriptions are presented in a number of other sources as discussed extensively by Robert Eisler,Eisler, Robert. The Messiah Jesus and John the Baptist. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1931. who in turn often quotes from Ernst von Dobschütz' monumental .Dobschütz, Ernst von, Christusbilder: Untersuchungen zur christlichen Legende, Leipzig, 1899. Tertullian states that Jesus's outward form was despised, that he had an ignoble appearance, and the slander he suffered proved the 'abject condition' of his body.The Catholic Encyclopedia, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0315.htm , Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ, 9. According to Irenaeus, he was a weak and inglorious man,The Catholic Encyclopedia, https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103.htm , Irenaeus, "Adversus haereses", IV.XXXIII.12. and in the Acts of Peter, he is described as small and ugly to the ignorant. Andrew of Crete relates that Christ was bent or even crooked, and in the non-canonical Acts of John, he is described as bald-headed and small with no good looks.Barnstone, Willis. "The Acts of JohnChrist's Earthly Appearance", in The Other Bible. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 1984, p. 417.
As quoted by Eisler, both Hierosolymitanus and John of Damascus claim that "the Jew Josephus" described Jesus as having had connate eyebrows with goodly eyes and being long-faced, crooked and well-grown. In a letter to the Emperor Theophilus, attributed to John of Damascus in the eighth century, Jesus is described as having a "tall stature, arched eyebrows, beautiful eyes, long nose, wavy hair of pleasant colour, black beard, wheat-coloured face like that of His Mother" and "elongated fingers". Ephrem Syrus (320–379 AD) describes Jesus's height as 3 cubits (four foot six): "God took human form and appeared in the form of three human ells (cubits); he came down to us small of stature." Theodore of Mopsuestia likewise claimed that the appearance of Christ was smaller than that of the children of Jacob (Israel). In the apocryphal Lentulus letter, Jesus is described as having had a reddish complexion, matching Muslim traditions in this respect. Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Ambrose considered lack of physical attractiveness in Jesus as fulfilling the messianic prophecy Suffering Servant narrative of Isaiah 53.
The more mainstream, theological perspective, as expressed by Church Fathers Jerome and Augustine of Hippo, argued that Jesus must have been ideally beautiful in face and body. For Augustine he was "beautiful as a child, beautiful on earth, beautiful in heaven".St. Augustin the Writings Against the Manicheans and Against the Donatists by St Augustine, Philip Schaff 2005 page 29 These theological arguments were further extended in the 13th century by Thomas Aquinas in his based on his analysis of the perfection of Christ, reasoning that Jesus must have embodied every possible human perfection.Summa Theologica, Volume 4 (Part III, First Section) by St Thomas Aquinas 2007 pp. 2060–2062Thomas Aquinas: theologian of the Christian life by Nicholas M. Healy 2003 pages 98−101
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:
Around the 9th century, Epiphanius Monachus referred to a tall angelic figure, which has at times been interpreted as Christ, but scholars consider it an unlikely reference to Jesus. 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. The Letter of Lentulus, 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. It offers a description of Jesus as being a "man in stature middling tall, and comely, having a reverend countenance, which they that look upon may love and fear." In the 14th century, Nicephorus Callistus 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.Jesus by Hartmut Miethe, Hilde Heyduck-Huth, Taylor & Francis page 168
Quranic and Muslim traditions Quranic and hadith traditions such as Sahih Bukhari as well as tafsir have given an oral depiction of what Jesus looked like, although some accounts do not match, such as his being both curly-haired and straight-haired. The hadith refer to Muhammad's account of the Night Journey, when he was taken up to heaven by the angel Gabriel (Jibra'il), where he saw Jesus and other prophets. Most versions of this say "Jesus had curly hair and a reddish complexion." Others say his face was flushed as if he just had a bath ("a reddish man with many freckles on his face as if he had just come from a bath").Neal Robinson, Christ in Islam and Christianity, SUNY Press, 1990, p.94.F. E. Peters, Reader on Classical Islam, Princeton University Press, 1993, p.189.
In another account from Bukhari, Jesus is seen in a dream near the Kaaba, as "a man of a wheatish complexion with straight hair. I asked who it was. They said: This is the Messiah, son of Mary."Bukhari, Kitab al-Fitn, ch. 27. However, other narrations give variations in the color. Salim ibn Abd-Allah reports from his father Abdullah ibn Umar that the prophet "did not say that Jesus was of red complexion", rather he was "a man of brown complexion and lank hair".Bukhari, Kitabul Ahadlth al-Anbiya, Hadith 3185. In contrast, Abd Allah ibn Abbas says Jesus was of "moderate complexion inclined to the red and white colors and of lank hair".Bukhari, Kitabul Bad' al-Khalq, Hadlth 3000.
According to Hanafi Madhab, contradictions in hadith may be resolved through multiple methods, one being the number of times a narration has been made and the number of chain of narrations and the character of those in the chain of narration or the narrator themselves. There are four hadiths in Bukhari stating Jesus had a brown complexion and three hadiths in Imam Muslim. However, the most prominent narrator is from Salim ibn Abdullah ibn Umar, descendant of Caliph Umar, with a chain of narration that stated: "a man of brown complexion and lank hair".