This article asking “How Tall Was Jesus?” got me thinking about how fascinated humans are with pinpointing how tall Jesus was, what race he was, or really anything else about his physical appearance.
It may be interesting to speculate, but do these questions distract us from what’s truly important—knowing Jesus for his character, his teachings, and as Lord?
All the Bible really says about his appearance is this prophetic verse in Isaiah 53:2:
“He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.”
Are these kinds of questions about Jesus’ appearance simply harmless speculation or do they post a more serious threat to our faith?
I’ve wondered about this too, and honestly I think our curiosity about Jesus’ appearance comes from a really human place, we want to picture the person we love. It’s the same reason people ask what a grandparent looked like when they were young or what a historical figure “really” looked like. It’s a way of bringing someone closer.
But I do agree that Scripture keeps our focus pointed somewhere different. Isaiah’s description is almost God’s way of gently steering us back: don’t look for His beauty in His features, look for it in who He is.
And the more I think about it, the more comforting that is. Jesus didn’t draw people to Himself with charm or physical charisma; He drew them with truth, compassion, sacrifice, and authority. If God had wanted us to know His exact height or features, He would have told us.
So I think the curiosity itself is harmless, but it becomes unhelpful when it distracts us from the heart of who Jesus is. The appearance questions can be interesting, but they’re not what changes us. His character is.
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.
consdering where many things that takes place in the bible is in the middle east. i’d say its safe to say he’d look like evryone in the middle east; brown skin, dark curly hair and beard and between 5’5” to 5’10”
Isa 53:1 Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the Zero’a Hashem [Yeshayah 52:10] revealed?
Isa 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a Shoresh (Root, Shoresh Yishai, Moshiach, Yeshayah 11:10, Sanhedrin93b) 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 [Chaggai 2:7] him.
Isa 53:3 He is despised and chadal ishim (rejected by men); a man of sorrows, and acquainted with suffering; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isa 53:4 Surely he hath borne our sufferings, and nasah (carried [Vayikra 16:22; Yeshayah 53:12)] our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, [i.e., like a leper is stricken] smitten of G-d, and afflicted [see verse 8 below].
Isa 53:5 But he was pierced [Yeshayah 51:9; Zecharyah 12:10 Sukkah 52a, Tehillim 22:17 Targum Hashivim] for our transgressions, he was bruised mei’avonoteinu (for our iniquities); the musar (chastisement) (that brought us shalom [Yeshayah 54:10] was upon him [Moshiach]; and at the cost of his (Moshiach’s) chaburah (stripes, lacerations) we are healed.
Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own derech (way; see Prov 16:25); and Hashem hath laid on him [Moshiach] the avon (iniquity, the guilt that separates from G-d) of us all.
Isa 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a seh (lamb; see Shemot 12:3) to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
Isa 53:8 He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who of his generation declared? For he was cut off [ Dan_9:26 ; Lev_17:10 ] out of Eretz Chayyim [this refers to the mot of Moshiach Ben Dovid, see Isa_53:12 ] mipesha ami (for the transgression of my people [Yisroel]) -nega (plague cf Psa_91:10 ) lamo ([fell] on him [i.e., Moshiach; in light of Psa_11:7 and Job_22:2 we are warranted in saying the suffix is a singular, “him,” not “them”. Cf Gen_9:26-27 ; Deu_33:2 ; Isa_44:15 ; also compare 1Ch_21:17 ]).
Isa 53:9 And he made his kever (grave) with the resha’im, and with the oisher (rich man; see Mt 27:57-60) bemotayv (in his deaths, intensive plural should be translated singular, death); because he had done no chamas (violence), neither was any mirmah (deceit) in his mouth. T.N. We stray as sheep; we return in Moshiach as children (zera); the Techiyas HaMoshiach (Resurrection of Moshiach) predicted in v. 10 [Dead Sea Scrolls Isaiah Scroll says Moshiach “will see the light [of life];” see also the Targum HaShivim]
Isa 53:10 Yet it pleased Hashem to bruise him; He hath put him to suffering; when Thou shalt make his nefesh an asham offering for sin, he (Moshiach) shall see zera [see Psalm 16 and Yn 1:12 OJBC], He shall prolong his yamim (days) and the chefetz Hashem (pleasure, will of Hashem) shall prosper in his [Moshiach’s] hand.
Isa 53:11 He [Hashem] shall see of the travail of his [Moshiach’s] nefesh, and shall be satisfied; by knowledge of him [Moshiach] shall Tzadik Avdi [“My Righteous Servant,” Moshiach, Zecharyah 3:8, Yirmeyah 23:5; Zecharyah 6:11-12, Ezra 3:8 Yehoshua, Yeshua shmo] justify many (Ro 5:1); for he [Moshiach] shall bear their avon (iniquities).
Isa 53:12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his nefesh unto mavet (death); and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he nasah (Lv 16:22, carried) (like the Yom Kippur scapegoat) the sin of many, and made intercession [did the work of a mafgi’a, intercessor] for the transgressors [see Lk 23:34 OJBC].
It does help to imagine him appearing like someone we might have seen in a children’s illustrated bible. I had one as a child. It was beautiful. The artwork in it was excellent, and so pleasing to look at. I read it over and over and loved it so much. I don’t know what happened to that book. Years later my parents separated and divorced, my mom moved out of that apartment, and over years many things have been lost. But I remember that book, and the illustrations of Jesus. He looked like a normal man to me, with longer hair than my dad’s, brown eyes, and tanned. I think I remember the expression on his face as being tender, and loving. The crucifixion wasn’t depicted because it was a children’s bible, but his resurrection was. That’s the image I have of Christ in my mind as he walked the earth. But what really stuck was his facial expressions of love, grief, and justified anger at the temple, and his posture. Always humble. That’s who my brain imagines when I’m having a conversation him. I miss that bible.
It is perfectly natural for human beings to have a mental picture of other humans (one of many things Jesus Christ was), as our default mode of human social navigation is things like remembering faces and watching people’s expressions. We are also pretty hard-coded to pay attention to people’s physiques and body language, which can give a lot of information on them. The Bible does not give us a lot of information, we can probably guess West Asian/Mediterranean simply by geography and ancestry, but that covers every phenotype from Danny DeVito to Saddam Hussein.
Traditionally, everyone from the Italians to the Chinese imagined Jesus to be vaguely of their ethnicity. This might be historically inaccurate, but since it’s not relevant to the gospel I don’t see a problem with it.