Who cares? That might be your first reaction to the question of what Jesus looked like. On one hand, given the importance of who Jesus was, what he accomplished, and what we are called to do as his followers, the question of his physical appearance is rather irrelevant. On the other hand, how we imagine Jesus gives us important insight on how we see ourselves, one another, and the Church. For example, the depictions of Jesus by Chicago artist Warner Sallman depict a White, blue-eyed, fair haired, muscular messiah. This Americanized image of Jesus helped bolster the nation’s sense of pride and masculinity in the post-WWII era, so much so that the Head of Christ became ubiquitous in Sunday School classrooms. The consequences of such images, together with the long history of Western depictions of a European Jesus since the Renaissance, have etched in our psyches the false image of White Jesus that can and has been used to justify racism, prejudice, and intolerance of “others”. Jesus wasn’t White. Historically, he was a first-century, Mediterranean Semite from a two-bit town in of Galilee. Unless the Shroud of Turin is authentic (a topic I will save for another post), it is difficult to reconstruct exactly Jesus’s impression. Art historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists have endeavored to share with us what they know about a first century Jew’s appearance. One notable example is a computer construction of a Judean man by applying modern forensic modelling to a first-century skull. But even that is a guess at what Jesus might have looked like. The best sources in my view that demonstrate how Jesus’ might appeared are the so-called mummy portraits of the first centuries of the common era. Let me explain: in the time of Jesus, wealthy people (Romans, Jews, and others) would have their bodies embalmed and buried in caskets, upon which artists would realistically paint the person’s portrait. Interestingly, archaeologists have discovered almost a thousand such portraits, that depict both Mediterranean men and women from the early Roman period. The most infamous cache are the portraits discovered at Fayum in Egypt. Through these we get an almost photographic record of people of the region and period Jesus knew. We can see their skin and eye color, their hair styles and clothing. Because life expectancy was drastically shorter than we know today, there are relatively few examples of older, grey-haired people (a reminder that if Jesus was thirty when he began his ministry, he was considered and elder, the movement that grew around him was a youth movement). The next time you wonder what Jesus might have looked like, take some time to research the Fayum mummy portraits, and explore the faces of people from two millennia ago. And there, you might catch a glimpse of how the Messiah might have appeared. | |
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AuthorScott Howard is the pastor of Triumphant Cross Lutheran in Salem, New Hampshire. HomeArchives
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