For over two 2000 years, scholars and historians have debated what Jesus Christ might have looked like. In Renaissance art and Catholic Church depictions, Jesus is often shown as a tall, muscular European man with long blond hair and blue eyes.
However, most historians agree that a carpenter’s son born in what is now Palestine likely had different physical traits. He probably had a shorter, stockier build with curly black hair, resembling the locals of that time.
A Dutch photographer and digital artist may have brought new insight into this debate. Bas Uterwijk, who specializes in algorithmic image synthesis, used advanced artificial intelligence technology to create a new portrait of Jesus.
Using Artbreeder’s machine learning features, Uterwijk produced what he believes is a more historically accurate image of the Messiah.
This portrayal contrasts sharply with Western art and church images of Jesus. Uterwijk, who has a background in computer-generated imagery and special effects, explained how the AI software works. It uses a neural network trained on thousands of photographs and paintings of human faces.
This technology allows multiple sources of faces to be combined and merged into a synthesized version, guided by the artist’s decisions. Uterwijk used it to create both historical and fictional characters, including this new depiction of Jesus.
He drew from several cultural depictions, including Byzantine and Renaissance images like Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi” and the Shroud of Turin. Uterwijk then adjusted the ethnicity to create a more convincing Middle-Eastern appearance.
While he was satisfied with the result as a collective cultural depiction, Uterwijk felt it lacked historical accuracy.
So, he made changes to the hair and beard, giving them a more credible length and style for the time and region. He also incorporated elements from Fayum mummy portraits, pushing Renaissance art influences to the background.
The final result is an artistic impression of how Jesus might have looked, rather than a scientific quest for an exact likeness.
This intriguing image has resurfaced since it first appeared during the Christmas season of 2020. According to the Bible, Jesus was born in Bethlehem around 4 BC, raised there, and later lived in Nazareth in what is now Israel.
Though the Gospels rarely describe Jesus in detail, some accounts mention his clothing. Joan Taylor, an experienced researcher and author of What Did Jesus Look Like?, suggests that Jesus was likely around 5 feet 5 inches tall, which was average for men of his time.
Taylor also believes that people in Judea and Egypt had dark olive skin, dark black hair, and brown eyes. This is supported by ancient writings, artifacts, and mummy portraits.
Taylor points out that while we have a global image of Jesus today, this image often dates back to the 4th or 5th century. The long hair, robe, and beard seen in many paintings are not historically accurate.
In reality, Jesus was not a pale European. He was a Jewish man of his time and place, with dark skin, shortish black hair, and a beard. Taylor adds that Jesus was likely a wanderer, often on the streets, accepting charity from strangers and living among the poor.
A 2nd-century philosopher, Celsus, described Jesus as shabby and unkempt, looking like a beggar.
This aligns with what we know about Jesus, who even described himself as homeless, saying, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
Taylor concludes that Jesus probably looked like a typical Jewish man of the first century. Although he might have had some cultural contact with Europeans and Africans, the intermarriage in Judea and Egypt suggests he would have resembled the average person of that time in the Middle East.
The portrait created by Uterwijk bears a strong resemblance to work done by forensic facial reconstruction specialist Richard Neave.
In 2001, Neave attempted to recreate the appearance of a Judean man from the first century, similar to Jesus. His work, featured in the BBC documentary Son of God, showed a short, stocky man with dark hair, a clipped beard, and olive skin.
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Johnny specializes in content related to Jesus, the Bible, and religious topics. With a profound understanding of spirituality, Johnny’s articles are both insightful and inspiring, guiding readers through the complexities of faith.
