Finding the face of Jesus

If you want to see the face of Jesus, says one theologian, take a look at Yasir Arafat.

"It's important to recognize that Jesus probably looked a lot more like Yasir Arafat than you and me," stated Dr. David Matzko, assistant professor of religious studies at the College of St. Rose in Albany. "He probably looked like a Palestinian Jew."

While Jesus probably did have the long hair and beard popular among Jewish men of His time, several experts agreed, He bore little resemblance to the blond-haired, blue-eyed image often seen in religious art.

"He certainly would not have been a white person," explained Rev. Roger Karban, an Illinois Scripture scholar and columnist for The Evangelist. "He would have been closer to a dark-skinned individual."

Average guy

Jesus is often portrayed as strikingly handsome, but Father Karban believes that He was more likely an average-looking person: In all three Synoptic Gospels, Judas actually had to point Jesus out to the authorities to betray Him.

At the time of month that Jesus was arrested, there would have been a full moon, the priest added. If Jesus had had any distinctive characteristics, it would have been easy to recognize Him even at night. Jesus also made a remark to His betrayers about having taught in the temple and never being arrested at that time; apparently, said Father Karban, even after spending several days previously in Jesus' presence, the authorities still didn't recognize Him on sight.

Saving face

After His resurrection, Father Karban added, the Gospels speak of Jesus as having changed so much that His own disciples did not recognize Him until He broke bread with them.

Since Jesus is also the symbol of "everyman," we often try to recreate Him in our own image, giving Him the physical features of our culture. "We tend to portray people like Jesus through our own eyes," Robert Sheard, author of "An Introduction to Christian Belief," told The Evangelist.

While it's important to remember that "God became human in a particular person," Mr. Sheard said, several theologians agreed that fascination with the facts of what Jesus looked like can distract us from exploring His message.

Shrouded

A good example of this can be seen in the public interest in the Shroud of Turin. Even though carbon-dating has proven that the shroud could not have been Jesus' burial cloth, "in a scientific age, there are people who are going to want to make the life of Jesus provable," said Dr. Matzko. "There's a need on the part of some to make their faith hold up to scientific criteria."

However, we will probably never know what Jesus actually looked like. Since Jesus' early followers believed that He had risen and was alive among us, Father Karban explained, "they were not fascinated with His image." As a result, Jesus was often depicted in artwork in Roman catacombs as short-haired and beardless, "destroying what He looked like historically."

Remember mission

Still, the scholars added, what is more important than Jesus' appearance is His mission. Two thousand years of art have proven that we all have a different idea of what Jesus looked like; "it goes with the fad of the day," said Sister Vergilia Jim, OSF, a directress of the Oneness in Peace Spiritual Center in Germantown. "But we can't lose the essence of who Jesus was."

"Thinking that Jesus is some ideal [looking] person is a shame," Father Karban stated. "It makes us think there's just one image of Jesus, so we don't look for Him among us."

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