I’m curious what everyone thinks Christ looks like. Do you think he looks like the traditional image as a long haired bearded man with robes and a red sash? Or like Jonathan Roumie in the chosen? Or did he have short hair? Do you think NDE visions of Christ, such as the ones of Gabe Poirot and Colton Burpo, we can use to imagine him?
Personally, I don’t try to think of his appearance as it dosent matter. Also the classic image feels very childish and Sunday school ish.
Thoughts?
I am way more concerned with how he views me.
Get on a plan, fly to Japan. What do you see? Japanese folks. The same Japanese folks have been there for 2000 years.
Get back on the plane, fly to India. What do you see? Indian folks, the same Indian folks, have been there for 2000 years.
Get on a plan, fly to Bethlehem and Judea. What do you see? Jewish folks. The same Jewish folks have been there for 2000 years. Jesus was a Jew. He was born in Bethlem, raised in Nazareth. Guessed what? I know it is hard to grasp for some, but Jesus is not blonde with blue eyes. He is not Black. He is what He is, Jewish.
Peter
What he looked like then or what he looks like now don’t matter, its what he has and is doing for us now that matters.
Meaning, what was his hair and dress like?
Why do you care, @Josiah? My short answer is that I don’t know, because the Bible isn’t interested in that aspect of Jesus’ life and, therefore, doesn’t say.
Because the traditional image of Christ has been weponized to show him as an “America Patriot” by the right and as a “Liberal hippy” by the left
Isa_53:2 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.
Scripture provides almost no physical description of Jesus during His earthly ministry, and this silence is itself theologically significant. Isaiah 53:2-3 states וְלֹא-מַרְאֶה (ve-lo-mar’eh) “He had no form or majesty” and לֹא-חֵמֶד (lo-chemed) “no beauty that we should desire him,” using מַרְאֶה (mar’eh) meaning “appearance or visible form” and חֵמֶד (chemed) meaning “desirability or attractiveness,” indicating that the Messiah would not be recognized by outward splendor but would be נִבְזֶה (nivzeh) “despised” and חֲדַל אִישִׁים (chadal ishīm) “forsaken by men.”
The Gospels record no description of Jesus’ height, build, hair, eyes, or complexion, which stands in contrast to ancient biographies that often detailed a hero’s appearance, suggesting the biblical authors intentionally focused on His words, works, and identity rather than His physical traits. Revelation 1:12-16 uses apocalyptic imagery, λευκός (leukos) “white as snow” hair, ὀφθαλμοί (ophthalmoi) “eyes like a flame of fire,” πόδες (podes) “feet like burnished bronze,” and φωνή (phone) “voice like the roar of many waters” but this is visionary symbolism describing His glorified, divine majesty, not a literal portrait of His earthly appearance.
Psalm 45:2 declares יָפְיָפִיתָ (yafyafita) “You are fairer than the sons of men,” but this is poetic language in a royal wedding psalm, not a physical description, and the New Testament never applies it to Jesus’ outward looks.
The absence of physical detail serves a pastoral purpose: it prevents idolatrous fixation on His appearance, emphasizes that faith comes by hearing His word (Romans 10:17), and reminds us that God looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7), not outward form. Early extra-biblical descriptions (like the apocryphal Letter of Lentulus) are later fabrications with no historical value, and the Shroud of Turin, while venerated by some, is not Scripture and cannot define what Jesus “looked like” according to the Bible. Therefore, according to Scripture alone, we simply do not know what Jesus looked like physically, and we are not meant to know; the gospel centers on who He is-the eternal Word made flesh (John 1:14), the crucified and risen Lord-not on His appearance, so that our faith rests on His finished work, not on visible signs or human imagination.
J.
“What do you think Jesus looks like?”
Do you mean what does He look like Now, or what did He look like icarnate?
@Johann did a great job or describing what the Bible tells us about the incarnate Jesus. John’s Revelation of Jesus Christ gives us the best idea of what he looks like now.
2-cents.
KP
Much appreciated, brother @Kpuff. It is truly good when brethren encourage one another in the Lord Christ Jesus and exhort each other daily in the faith. “Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works” (Hebrews 10:24), and “comfort yourselves together, and edify one another” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
All Scripture is profitable, and blessed is the fellowship where the Word of God is honored above pride and contention.
Stay strong in Messiah Yeshua.
J.
Yup. What they look like today. However, @Who-me brought up an excellent point. What He looked like then is not what He looks like today. He came in as a lamb, yet He will come back a lion and a conquering King. My first answer was this.
“He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.” Isaiah 53:2
He blended into a crowd: Jesus looked like an ordinary first-century Jewish man from Galilee. When Judas betrayed him in the Garden of Gethsemane, he had to give the soldiers a specific sign (a kiss) because they couldn’t visually distinguish Jesus from his disciples on their own.
As a first-century Middle Eastern man who worked as a tekton, a builder or stone-cutter, until he was 30, Jesus would have been deeply tanned from the sun, physically weathered, with dark, short hair and a beard, typical of Jewish men of that era. While Jesus chose to conceal his heavenly glory during most of his earthly ministry, there was one moment when he pulled back the veil. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John got a glimpse of his true nature:
“There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.” Matthew 17:2
In this moment, his appearance wasn’t defined by skin or hair color, but by pure, unapproachable light. Then you have His return.
“The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand, he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.” Revelation 1:14-16
However, as many have said here, it really does not matter. Will you go to heaven and see a black Jesus, a blue-eyed blonde Jesus, or a Jew, and say, "Oh, I’m sorry, you do not look like I thought, so I will not enter? I would hope not.
Peter