What did Jesus look like?

by Gabriele Cantaluppi

Ultimately we could answer very simply and hastily that we know nothing, because the Gospels and the other writings of the New Testament tell us nothing about the physical appearance of Jesus. We capture in the Gospel stories some of his moments of emotion, disturbance, of joy, even of anguish; we see him cry, suffer, rejoice, even joke, sleep and eat as well as walk and get tired. We also learn of his relative youth: Luke 3:23 tells us that "Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his ministry".

We can also note a detail about Jesus' clothing: John tells us that the soldiers cast lots for his tunic, a well-made garment "without seams, woven in one piece from top to bottom" (Jn 19, 23-24 ).

Matthew tells us that during the Transfiguration "his face shone like the sun" (Mt 17, 2) and Luke that "the appearance of his face changed" (Lk 9, 29). But, in addition to the fact that these annotations do not allow us to imagine any aspect other than brightness, the circumstance suggests that it is a very particular moment, a change in appearance (trans-figuration) that does not allow us to detect the real appearance of his face.

The Messiah could not have been very different from the average people born in the Middle East two millennia ago. But Jesus must not have been very physically similar to his other disciples, otherwise Judas would have had no reason to point to the Messiah with a kiss. Furthermore, according to many scholars, if Jesus had been different from all the others, the Bible would certainly have talked about him much more.

Now, we are used to a certain image of Jesus, rather standardized.

This image has thus been codified over a long history essentially linked to two very ancient traditions.

The one that wants Luke to have heard the story of the life of Jesus from the Virgin Mary herself, and in such detail as to be able to obtain a pictorial portrait, at the basis of all the Byzantine iconography of the face of Christ which in fact gave shape to all other subsequent performances.

The second tradition concerns two very famous relics of Jesus himself, namely the Veil of Veronica (the name is significant: a true icon) and that of the Holy Shroud. Both relics have a long history and both are shrouded in numerous mysteries. But it is extremely surprising that they overlap almost perfectly, and reveal a single face.

If we cannot say with certainty what Jesus looked like, we can however take as our own the opinion of a great theologian, Saint Thomas Aquinas. He states that «man is called beautiful mainly for two qualities: for the beauty of his gaze and for his words that are pleasant to the ear. Well, both of these qualities existed in Christ. And some evangelical episodes also demonstrate this. But in Christ there was also beauty of appearance. Christ had this beauty in a supreme way, as befitting his state, reverence and beauty in appearance, so that he radiated something divine from his face and for this reason everyone honored him" (see Commentary on the Psalm 44).