Jesus' face

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JoshMal

Senior Member
Jan 18, 2018
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#1
Practically, everyone has adapted to the usual image of Jesus' in His human form. But why are some people skeptical about the widely believed image? People still claim we have got d wrong idea of his human image.
 

Angela53510

Senior Member
Jan 24, 2011
11,780
2,935
113
#3
Does it really matter?

We are not supposed to worship idols or images. Some branches of Christianity believe any picture of Jesus is sin. I don’t think that, but in retrospect, I have NO pictures of Jesus anywhere in my home, just some Bible verses here and there.

Following Jesus requires obeying his words, not what he looks like, which we have NO way of knowing, almost 2000 years down the road.
 

posthuman

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
36,530
13,094
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#4
if you're referring to the blonde haired, blue eyed, Germanic image common in western art, well, there's some obvious things maybe you haven't thought of yet, and some facts about art history you might want to look into.
 

posthuman

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
36,530
13,094
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#5
Practically, everyone has adapted to the usual image of Jesus' in His human form. But why are some people skeptical about the widely believed image? People still claim we have got d wrong idea of his human image.
actually, could you post what you think may be accurate, what you are referring to some people being skeptical about?

so it's clear what specifically you're asking about here; that'd be easier :)
 

Waggles

Senior Member
Sep 21, 2017
3,338
1,261
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South
adelaiderevival.com
#6
Isaiah 53:2
(KJV) For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root
out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall
see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

(ISV) For he grew up before him like a tender plant, and like a root
out of a dry ground; he had no form and he had no majesty that we
should look at him, and there is no attractiveness that we should desire him.
 
F

finaldesire

Guest
#7
He sounds like an ordinary looking guy, with great godly authority.
 
S

Stranger36147

Guest
#9
I agree that ultimately it shouldn't matter what Jesus looked like. But to answer the OP's question, he most likely looked similar to the actor who played him in the film Risen, Cliff Curtis.


 

posthuman

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
36,530
13,094
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#10
according to Josephus:

…a man of simple appearance, mature age, dark skin, small stature, three cubits high, hunchbacked, with a long face, long nose, and meeting eyebrows, so that they who see him might be affrighted, with scanty hair (but) having a line in the middle of the head after the fashion of the Nazireans, and with an undeveloped beard.
 

slave

Senior Member
Mar 20, 2015
6,307
1,097
113
#11
The point of Scripture in describing His features is that it had no consequence in why people followed Him. In other words, unlike the world order, beauty is only skin deep in the economy of God; Real beauty is seen from within the constitution of ones character.
[TABLE="class: passage-cols"]
[TR]
[TD="class: passage-col col-xs-6 first"]Isaiah 53:2 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)

2 He was always close to the Lord. He grew up like a young plant, like a root growing in dry ground. There was nothing special or impressive about the way he looked, nothing we could see that would cause us to like him.




[/TD]
[TD="class: passage-col col-xs-6 last"]
Isaiah 53:2 The Voice (VOICE)

2 Out of emptiness he came, like a tender shoot from rock-hard ground.

He didn’t look like anything or anyone of consequence—
he had no physical beauty to attract our attention.





[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
 
Dec 12, 2013
46,515
20,395
113
#12
Does it really matter?

We are not supposed to worship idols or images. Some branches of Christianity believe any picture of Jesus is sin. I don’t think that, but in retrospect, I have NO pictures of Jesus anywhere in my home, just some Bible verses here and there.

Following Jesus requires obeying his words, not what he looks like, which we have NO way of knowing, almost 2000 years down the road.
AMEN.......and the only hints we have are found in Isaiah 53....Nothing about him that would cause one to desire him...........
 

JoshMal

Senior Member
Jan 18, 2018
142
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#13
I know it doesn't matter. We are not worshipping flesh after all. God doesn't even seem to have a problem about our idea of how Jesus looked in d flesh. The Trinity is a Spirit.
Just asking cuz I'm curious.
God bless.
 

Kavik

Senior Member
Mar 25, 2017
785
157
43
#14
Most images through the ages are actually quite close to the figure on the shroud of Turin. It appears as if most art and iconography used this image as the 'model' so-to-speak. Obviously this does not include the modern Indo-European images (blond, blue-eyed, etc.), or African(-American) images.

There was a documentary done a few years back where they took the image on the shroud (which apparently shows depth as well) and did some painstaking computer reconstruction (I remember them saying it took an incredible amount of time to do) and essentially came up with a three dimensional image of the face on the shroud - pretty cool.

Josephus' description seems most likely, 3 cubits is not very tall (4.5ft.) by today's standards, but probably pretty average back then. Have to wonder where he got it from.
 

Zmouth

Senior Member
Nov 21, 2012
3,391
134
63
#15
Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. John 6:46

Pictures of You

"... and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; "
Rev 1:11

zx33ca.jpg
 
Last edited:
Mar 28, 2016
15,954
1,528
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#18
The point of Scripture in describing His features is that it had no consequence in why people followed Him. In other words, unlike the world order, beauty is only skin deep in the economy of God; Real beauty is seen from within the constitution of ones character.
[TABLE="class: passage-cols"]
[TR]
[TD="class: passage-col col-xs-6 first"]Isaiah 53:2 Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)

2 He was always close to the Lord. He grew up like a young plant, like a root growing in dry ground. There was nothing special or impressive about the way he looked, nothing we could see that would cause us to like him.



[/TD]
[TD="class: passage-col col-xs-6 last"]Isaiah 53:2 The Voice (VOICE)

2 Out of emptiness he came, like a tender shoot from rock-hard ground.

He didn’t look like anything or anyone of consequence—
he had no physical beauty to attract our attention.




[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Amen .I would suggest just as we are informed in Job 9. God is not a man as us and neither is there a fleshy man seen with the eyes, as a daysman. This is some sort of infallible umpire who stand between God and man. The Pope holds that position. Some hold it not so openly.

Job 9:32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.

But as the Son of man Jesus resisted all attempts to be worshiped in respect to walking by sight after the temporal .Which of Christ's own flesh clearly informs us it profits for nothing. Many of the disciples who were looking for a Jewish fleshly God walking by sight) no longer walked with Christ.

Christ had spoken to them who were not mixing faith, the unseen eternal, in what they see or hear according to the prescription found in 2Co 4:18

2Co 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

With that interpretation prescription in view (What you see is not what you get) Christ said

What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the
spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.Joh 6:66

When called good Master as special assistance of the Holy Spirit (daysman) he said only God not seen is good .God has no face we know him by his unseen glory of grace according to His great mercy.

Luke 18:19 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
 
Jan 25, 2018
673
10
0
#19
I know it doesn't matter. We are not worshipping flesh after all. God doesn't even seem to have a problem about our idea of how Jesus looked in d flesh. The Trinity is a Spirit.
Just asking cuz I'm curious.
God bless.
What I find interesting, is the Turin shroud appears real, unique, non-man made, so the Lord
desires we have some understanding and encouragement, which is what I take.

The Turin shroud demonstrates how brutal they were to Him. It is not surprising Jesus died
before the allotted time from simple blood loss and shock.

And for me it brings home that Jesus was a historical man, who walked this earth.
It is too easy to spiritualize everything, and Jesus becomes this distant figure of stories.
 

posthuman

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
36,530
13,094
113
#20
The Turin shroud demonstrates how brutal they were to Him. It is not surprising Jesus died
before the allotted time from simple blood loss and shock.

He died when "He gave up the ghost" crying out in a loud voice. that's not how a body bleeds to death.

no one has power to take His life from Him, but He has power both to lay it down and to take it up again.

according to Mark, the centurion standing right in front of Him when He died exclaimed 'surely this man was the Son of God!' when he saw how He had breathed His last.

this centurion had maybe seen hundreds of men die, maybe a thousand. something was different, radically different.

according to Matthew when all those soldiers guarding the crucifixes saw how Jesus died, and the earth quake, they were terrified and confessed Him the Son of God - these men all believed because of how He died. men who all saw any number of ordinary men crucified before. we'll meet these soldiers in glory; they are our brothers -- they'll tell us how ordinary it was, and whether it was weakly passing into delirium & unconsciousness from blood loss and shock.