What do Christian Bale, Jim Caviezel, Willem Dafoe, Will Ferrell, Ralph Fiennes, John Legend, and Ewan McGregor have in common, apart from being actors? They have all played Jesus Christ on the silver screen. Given this diversity of appearances each of these men bring to this spiritual and scientific conundrum, what exactly did Jesus look like? Was he black, brown, or white? Did he have brown eyes or green, perhaps blue? What was his height? Did he have Jason Manoa's hair?
In a new book by Joan E. Taylor, What Did Jesus Look Like?, she writes, "Everyone can conjure an image of Jesus: usually as a handsome, white man with flowing locks and pristine linen robes.
But what did Jesus really look like? Is our popular image of Jesus overly westernized and untrue to historical reality? This question continues to fascinate. Leading Christian Origins scholar Joan E. Taylor surveys the historical evidence, and the prevalent image of Jesus in art and culture, to suggest an entirely different vision of this most famous of men. He may even have had short hair."
Here is a video lecture about Taylor's book from 2019 at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
