Christianity passed through the Roman Empire. How we imagine the physical appearance of Jesus of Nazareth was one element influenced along the way.

The Jesus we’ve inherited from centuries of Christian art is not accurate, but it is a powerful brand. A man with long hair parted in the middle and a long beard – often with fair skin, light brown hair and blue eyes – has become the widely accepted likeness. We imagine Jesus in long robes with baggy sleeves, as he is most often depicted in artworks over the centuries. The Conversation

But that’s how an ancient wealthy Roman looked, and we know Jesus was a working man, part of the poor classes that he championed. Scruffy. Honoring his actual appearance seems, to me, part of honoring his teachings. So, what did the historical Jesus look like?

There is no neat physical description of Jesus in the Gospels or in ancient Christian literature. But there are incidental details. The Conversation

Adding to written records, anthropology provides a general description.

Archaeological evidence [shows] that the average man of Jesus’ day was about 5 feet 3 inches tall and a bantam-like 110 pounds. Given the harsh conditions, especially for working stiffs like members of Jesus’ family, combined with Jesus’ ascetic lifestyle, which included walking everywhere, scholars agree that he was most likely a rather sinewy peasant, as tough as a root and about as appealing. Mark Goodacre

Twenty years ago, as part of a documentary, the BBC and a British medical artist began a facial reconstruction starting with Semitic skulls from first-century Palestine – skulls chosen from the correct time and place. They didn’t claim to reconstruct an actual historical Jesus, but the popular media soon tagged their work that way. For me, close enough. Jesus was so much a common man that Judas had to point him out to Roman soldiers who couldn’t tell him apart from his followers.

Naturally, there was debate and criticism over the resulting face. People felt that a great teacher would have something ethereal in his expression. Something “noble, even soulful, and yet historically believable.” Does the reconstructed man appear dumbfounded? Someone said he looked like a New York City taxi driver. Well, I suspect Jesus would be dumbfounded over how his name and teachings are used today. And, a NYC taxi driver might be exactly how he’d return to us.

So, here’s the face.

Historian Joan Taylor says this face, “is the beginning of a different way of seeing Jesus, and one very relevant for our times of massive inequality between rich and poor, as in the Roman Empire. Jesus aligned himself with the poor and this would have been obvious from how he looked.”

I wish you Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays. However you celebrate the season, consider taking time to contemplate the few words of his teachings that have survived the centuries in the Gospels.

Thanks to scholars Joan Taylor and Mark Goodacre for their articles.