Whether or not you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you probably imagine him (or, if you prefer, him) in the same way as most others. Long hair and beard, dress, sandals, beatific gaze: these features all manifested themselves on two millennia of Christian art. “However, these representations do not exactly correspond to the profile of a Jewish carpenter from the first century of the Middle East,” explains Tommie Trelawny, hosts The new video aboveAn investigation into how our modern concept of what Jesus felt has become – and what we can know about his true appearance.
First of all, we have to turn to the Bible. In the King James version, the apocalypse thus describes Jesus: “His head and his hair was white as wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were like a flame of fire; and his feet like fine brass, as if they were burning in a furnace; And his voice as the sound of many waters. He had seven stars in his right hand, out of his mouth, he went a sharp sword with two sharp, and his face was like the sun that shone in his strength. »» That's it for the New Testament. As for the Old Testament, Isaiah describes a figure which could possibly be Jesus by creating him “no form or comedian; And when we will see, there is no beauty that we owe the desire. ”
This slight biblical proof does not align with the very publicized representations of Jesus that we have all seen. For many things in the world today, the “default representation” is the pure and downright glamorous portrait of 1940 Chief of Christ By the American painter Warner Sallman (a chicagoan, moreover, a bit like Pope Leo XIV newly elected). We could see this work of art as the culmination of a fairly long history of visual representations of Jesus, which first became abundant in the Roman Empire of the fourth century under Constantine. According to Greco-Roman mythology, “having long hair and a beard were symbols of divine power”. The first Christians “therefore wanted to present their God using similar artistic conventions”, placing Jesus in a league with Zeus.
This is the basic look that Jesus has in most representations, the botched Spanish fresco which has become a meme has The Crucified M. Universe in South Koreawhere I live, to Andy Warhol's Christ $ 9.98. And yet, according to Leviticus dictates, “you will not go around the corners of your heads, nor will you emit yourself in the corners of your beard.” Trelawny takes this into account during the attempt to reconstruct the historical Jesus, also noting that, since Jesus could only be identified by the kiss of betrayal of Judas, he had to resemble all the other men around him. The result, when all this is introduced into an artificial intelligence images generator, is quite a man, who can be as exact historically as possible. But then, each time and each place creates its own Jesus – and now, with AI, each of us can do the same for ourselves.
Related content:
What makes caravaggio The taking of Christ A large timeless painting?
How Leonardo da Vinci painted The last supper: A deep dive in a masterpiece
Introduction to New Testament history and literature: a free yale course
Based in Seoul, Colin MArshall Written and broadcastTS on cities, language and culture. His projects include the substack newsletter Books on cities And the book The stateless city: a walk through Los Angeles from the 21st century. Follow it on the social network formerly known as Twitter in @ColinmArshall.
At Learnopoly, Finn has championed a mission to deliver unbiased, in-depth reviews of online courses that empower learners to make well-informed decisions. With over a decade of experience in financial services, he has honed his expertise in strategic partnerships and business development, cultivating both a sharp analytical perspective and a collaborative spirit. A lifelong learner, Finn’s commitment to creating a trusted guide for online education was ignited by a frustrating encounter with biased course reviews.