Do you imagine Jesus as the Hollywood portrait - tall and slim, with moisturized skin, pretty L'Oreal blond hair, striking deep blue eyes, and very well maintained beard?

The trouble with this picture is that any man with these features in the region that Jesus lived and ministered would have looked totally out of place.  We know that Jesus didn't look out of place because of Matthew's account of when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Matthew says that Judas Iscariot had to indicate to the soldiers which man was Jesus with a kiss (Matthew 26:48). 

How long was Jesus's Hair? 

With no photos, drawings or DNA evidence, where do you start when trying to work out what Jesus looked like? The Turin Shroud? Well, the issue with the Turin Shroud is that it depicts Jesus with long hair and according to Jewish custom, if a man were to have long hair, it would be a disgrace (1 Corinthians 11:14).

Assisted by Israeli archeologists, British scientists (led by Richard Neave, retired medical artists from The University of Manchester) have used forensic anthropology to re-create what they believe is the most accurate image of the face of Jesus. 

Neave and his team began by acquiring skulls from the region near to where Jesus lived and ministered.  Using computerized tomography to create "slices" of the skulls, minute details about each one's structure were extracted, and this information was used to build up possible muscle and skin overlaying details.

READ - The face of Jesus through the ages

From this data a digital 3D reconstruction of the face was built, followed by a clay reconstruction. The shape of the nose, lips and eyelids were then modelled to follow the shape which had been determined by the underlying muscles.

What Colour were Jesus's Eyes? 

This then left the question of Jesus's hair and His coloration.  To complete this part of the picture, Neave turned his attention to drawings which had been discovered at archeological sites, some dating back to the first century (pre writing of the bible).  From these pictures Neave discovered that Jesus probably had dark rather than light-coloured eyes, and in keeping with tradition, Jesus was also probably bearded.  Researching the bible, with attention to the 1 Corinthians 11:14 passage, it was determined that Jesus probably had short hair.

Computer models (left) and modeling clay enable Neave (right) to create a forensically acceptable facial reconstruction. (Photographs by Keith Kasnot/National Geographic Image Collection [left] and The Unit of Art in Medicine/The University of Manchester, UK [right])

How Tall was Jesus?

From analysis of skeletal remains, it was firmly established that the average build and hight of a Semite male at the time of Jesus was 5 ft. 1in, and 7.8 stone.  Since Jesus was a carpenter who worked outdoors until He was 30 years old, it was also decided that a reasonable assumption would be that He was fairly muscular and physically fit, with a weather-beaten face (making him appear older than He was).