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Two varying depictions of the same figure, Jesus. (Deriv)

Reconstructing Jesus: Using Science to Flesh out the Face of Religion

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For being one of the most widely recognized men in the last 2,000 years, the true appearance of Jesus of Nazareth remains a mystery. Traditionally portrayed in western art as a be-robed, light-skinned Caucasian man with a tidy beard and flowing, light-brown hair, scientific analysis has changed perceptions of what Jesus may have really looked like—and it’s not the familiar face from Sunday school teachings.

Based on the multitude of images of Jesus that exist in the world, we are coaxed into an image of Jesus that is similar to one recently produced by photographer Bas Uterwijk using AI Artbreeder software which produces ‘photo-realistic’ images based on existing paintings and portrayals of historic figures. But this is only as true to life as were the existing images, of which none are photographs, and so the impressions are entirely the imagination and hand of the artist. So although Uterwijk’s image may look realistic, there is no reason to believe it really is the face of Jesus Christ. Indeed, Uterwijk admits on his Twitter page, “I don't really believe it has any archaeologic-historical value regarding to the actual life of Jesus.”

Jesus’s face as created by artificial intelligence Artbreeder software and Bas Unterwijk.(Image:Bas Unterwijk)

Although this portrayal can only be as faithful to the truth as the portrayals from which it was drawn, others have tried to produce the face of Jesus using scientific means. Recently, a British scientist teamed up with Israeli archaeologists in an attempt to forensically recreate a truer face of the historical man who is believed to be the son of God in Christianity. And it had very different look to the one we are accustomed to.

A White Man from Oxford

The physical appearance of Jesus has varied across locations, ages, and cultural settings, with a western likeness being very common in modern times. Jesus has been represented traditionally in art as having pale skin, a narrow face, medium-brown (or even blonde) hair, with kind or sad eyes in any color. Long, flowing hair, with a beard and robes typifies the figure.

Detail; Jesus at the Last Supper, by Tiepolo

Detail; Jesus at the Last Supper, by Tiepolo (Public Domain)

Comedian Eddie Izzard jokes that the popular modern image of Jesus is that of a “white man from Oxford,” England, but researchers have produced a reconstruction of what they believe Jesus, as a real historical man, may have looked like based on the time period and location of the story of Jesus from ancient texts and forensic reconstruction.

Like many religious figures, the representation of the ethnicity of Jesus has been influenced by cultural settings.

Like many religious figures, the representation of the ethnicity of Jesus has been influenced by cultural settings. (Public Domain)

The reconstruction was reportedly a great challenge, as PopularMechanics writes, “nowhere in the New Testament is Jesus described, nor have any drawings of him ever been uncovered.”

Forensic Investigations

Richard Neave, a medical artist retired from The University of Manchester in England had experience reconstructing historical faces, including Philip II of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great, and King Midas of Phrygia.

Using methods commonly employed by police to solve crimes, Neave used modern-day forensic techniques on ancient skulls from around Jerusalem, the area where Jesus was said to have lived and preached.

X-ray “slices” of the three skulls from first century Jewish men were created with computerized tomography to reveal minute data. Specialized programs determined where soft tissue would have been on the skulls, fleshing out the muscles and skin of the composite face. This created a wider face shape than seen in western depictions.

“The entire process was accomplished using software that verified the results with anthropological data. From this data, the researchers built a digital 3D reconstruction of the face. Next, they created a cast of the skull. Layers of clay matching the thickness of facial tissues specified by the computer program were then applied, along with simulated skin. The nose, lips and eyelids were then modeled to follow the shape determined by the underlying muscles,” writes PopularMechanics.

Richard Neave has recreated the face of Jesus (pictured), using forensic techniques.

Richard Neave has recreated the face of Jesus (pictured), using forensic techniques. This is in contrast to the traditional western depiction of a fair-skinned man with flowing hair. (Image: PopularMechanics)

New Face for an Ancient Man

Through the skulls, the team was able to identify the general facial structure of a typical Middle Eastern man living in the Galilee area of northern Israel during the time of Jesus, but were not able to determine the color of his skin and type of hair.

Neave used ancient art from archaeological sites in the region to establish representative skin and hair color, as well as men’s hair style at the time of his era, and based on the New Testament descriptions in the Gospel of Matthew, wherein he was described as closely resembling his disciples. Thus, Jesus would have had dark, olive-toned skin, and worn his bushy beard and hair short, in keeping with the traditions.

Popular Mechanics notes that in one chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul is credited with writing that he saw Jesus, and “then later describes long hair on a man as disgraceful. Would Paul have written ‘If a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him’ if Jesus Christ had had long hair? For Neave and his team this settled the issue.”

Archaeological record and skeletal remains show the average build of a Semite male 2,000 years ago was 5 foot 1 inch (155 centimeters), and a weight of approximately 110 pounds (50 kilograms). It is felt that because he was known as a carpenter, he would have spent a lot of time outdoors doing hard work, so therefore would be physically fit, tanned, and his skin weathered, making him appear older than his years.

In this depiction of “Christ in the House of his Parents”, by John Everett Millais (carpentry in the background) Jesus is shown as a fair, red-headed child.

In this depiction of “Christ in the House of his Parents”, by John Everett Millais (carpentry in the background) Jesus is shown as a fair, red-headed child. (Public Domain)

Son of God

No matter the recreation, there will surely be various interpretations of one of the most famous figures on earth.

Earlier this year Italian researchers and police generated their own facial reconstruction of a young Jesus from the negative image on the material of the mysterious and famous Shroud of Turin, said to be the wrappings of Jesus.

The Independent reports,

Using the Turin Shroud, the supposed burial cloth of Jesus, police investigators have generated a photo-fit image from the negative facial image on the material. And from this they reversed the ageing process to create an image of a young Jesus, by reducing the size of the jaw, raising the chin and straightening the nose.”

The image looks strikingly different from the Neave build, and seems to more resemble the traditional ideal of the Christian son of god.

“Young Jesus” as depicted from analysis of the Shroud of Turin in Italy.

“Young Jesus” as depicted from analysis of the Shroud of Turin in Italy. (Image: Independent.co.uk)

Neave’s facial reconstruction of the face of Jesus was revealed in the British documentary “Son of God” in 2001.

Featured Image: Two varying depictions of the same figure, Jesus. (Deriv)

By Liz Leafloor 

 

Comments

That is correct, Jesus was a white man with hair that was light colored. The skulls around Jerusalem were from a different group of people. The twelve tribes were not part of the modern day Jews. King David has a description as being Ruddy with beautiful eyes probably blue. I have read so much BS lately about black israelites, all lies. Gods chosen ones are western Europeans. The ten tribes were not lost. Read the Scottish declaration of independence. This Black African garbage is part of a political agenda If this keeps going on there won't be a single Western European left.

Sir Clerke

Really need a better comments section for this website… try diqus or something. 

Sorry to all the racist anti-white communist liberal politically correct rioters out there. Jesus was white as the fresh driven snow. He may have been well tanned though he was in Israel… (no mention of walking in England, to my knowlege)! So if you don’t like white supremacy you can say he was very tan. 

So good luck with that. Cuz he was the son of the son of the Gods who were Arctic race people of Atlantis (Alt – land – ice  – All land ice, ice age). White as snow. White people come from the ice age from the north. He was a son of an Aser (hyperborans) man and his sister Margareta. They were thrown out of Hell in shame for doing what they did togather so they walked across the gulf of Finland into Hellas. There Yesus was born and he grew up in the court of the Sultan, and then later the court of Egypt, his mother gave him a testament future story and so he grew up thinking he was special. He heard about these gypsy people and their strange story from India so he went to there to see what this man named Krishna had done to India. He walked with the Sadhus and the Babas and learned about Buddha and then took he knew from there and then went back to the Gypsy people (then called the Yuts, and what became Jews) and tried to teach them what was missing in Moresay’s (Moses, another Aser but a woman) Torah – the heart teaching. Also brought the marraige system. The Jews had the story of a messiah coming to them so Jesus decided that’s him. (and perhaps it was). But it didn’t work the Jews didn’t go for it and they apparently tied him to a shame pole and threw tomatos and eggs at him and so he left Israel (Is ra el, Ice Ra (King) Law) and went back to India and spent the rest of his days there, his ashes were thrown in the Ganges. Today in Kashmir India you can still find the grave of Yesus Christ (From Krishna). He died a respected Baba. He came from (Nasaet (Ra (king) Sa (true) et (family tree)). He never died on the cross, cross is the symbol for Tor , the heart teaching about you’re Tor friend (mentor), which he kinda changed by teaching Krishna’s marraige and pair system. So the cruxifix symbol is like saying your best friend and mentor is dead – so it was a symbol to demoralize Pagans with their Tor system. 

So I dunno if the guy was actually white maybe the racists are the people who can’t accept that the Gods became white people due to living in the Ice for 50 million years. If you can’t stomach that then I guess CNN, and MSNBC and Mainstream narrative is there for you and you can live up that mainstream narrative of bad white man and try to “diversify” history by changing the story so it looks like whites were nothing special. But they were. As for now, I guess they Aryan (A (aser) ri (redo) n (knowledge)) is over because the Church crushed it’s revival. Or at least they tried to. Becuase this story still lives on and it’s called the Bock Saga and some of the knowledge of the Aser is still alive: www  dot bocksaga dot info … this site censors comment that link to other pages… shameful

Really need a better comments section for this website… try diqus or something. 

Sorry to all the racist anti-white communist liberal politically correct rioters out there. Jesus was white as the fresh driven snow. He may have been well tanned though he was in Israel… (no mention of walking in England, to my knowlege)! So if you don’t like white supremacy you can say he was very tan.

So good luck with that. Cuz he was the son of the son of the Gods who were Arctic race people of Atlantis (Alt – land – ice  – All land ice, ice age). White as snow. White people come from the ice age from the north. He was a son of an Aser (hyperborans) man and his sister Margareta. They were thrown out of Hell in shame for doing what they did togather so they walked across the gulf of Finland into Hellas. There Yesus was born and he grew up in the court of the Sultan, and then later the court of Egypt, his mother gave him a testament future story and so he grew up thinking he was special. He heard about these gypsy people and their strange story from India so he went to there to see what this man named Krishna had done to India. He walked with the Sadhus and the Babas and learned about Buddha and then took he knew from there and then went back to the Gypsy people (then called the Yuts, and what became Jews) and tried to teach them what was missing in Moresay’s (Moses, another Aser but a woman) Torah – the heart teaching. Also brought the marraige system. The Jews had the story of a messiah coming to them so Jesus decided that’s him. (and perhaps it was). But it didn’t work the Jews didn’t go for it and they apparently tied him to a shame pole and threw tomatos and eggs at him and so he left Israel (Is ra el, Ice Ra (King) Law) and went back to India and spent the rest of his days there, his ashes were thrown in the Ganges. Today in Kashmir India you can still find the grave of Yesus Christ (From Krishna). He died a respected Baba. He came from (Nasaet (Ra (king) Sa (true) et (family tree)). He never died on the cross, cross is the symbol for Tor , the heart teaching about you’re Tor friend (mentor), which he kinda changed by teaching Krishna’s marraige and pair system. So the cruxifix symbol is like saying your best friend and mentor is dead – so it was a symbol to demoralize Pagans with their Tor system. 

So I dunno if the guy was actually white maybe the racists are the people who can’t accept that the Gods became white people due to living in the Ice for 50 million years. If you can’t stomach that then I guess CNN, and MSNBC and Mainstream narrative is there for you and you can live up that mainstream narrative of bad white man and try to “diversify” history by changing the story so it looks like whites were nothing special. But they were. As for now, I guess they Aryan (A (aser) ri (redo) n (knowledge)) is over because the Church crushed it’s revival. Or at least they tried to. Becuase this story still lives on and it’s called the Bock Saga and some of the knowledge of the Aser is still alive: www.bocksaga.info

One big problem with this was that Christ was not a Jew. Lol! There were no Jews in his time. Tribe of Judah is not Jews. So much confusion. Jews are not Israelites either. He looked like tghe imprint on the shroud of turin. Like a western European. They are the Israelites.

Sir Clerke

Jesus was a descendant of King David. King David was "ruddy" meaning red and had beautiful eyes. Christ was a white man. there are two descriptions of him from eye witnesses. Blond hair. Beard that parted. Tall . He was not a brown skinned negro. Sorry to disappoint all the revisionists in their quest to black out the world.

Sir Clerke

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Liz

Liz Leafloor is former Art Director for Ancient Origins Magazine. She has a background as an Editor, Writer, and Graphic Designer. Having worked in news and online media for years, Liz covers exciting and interesting topics like ancient myth, history,... Read More

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