On the eve of Christmas, the Daily Mail decided to appeal to the image of Jesus Christ. Specifically - to research, thanks to which scientists are trying to recreate it, doubting that the traditional images are correct.
Nobody knows what Jesus Christ really looked like. There are no details in the Bible on this score. But thanks to numerous paintings, we imagine the Son of God in the form of a man with fine features and fair skin, whose appearance is not at all typical for the area where he was born and raised. If it were in fact, and Jesus would be noticeably different from his fellow citizens, then Judas would not have to point him to those who came for him in the Garden of Gethsemane. And so they would know.
The Apostle Matthew reports: "… Judas, one of the twelve came, and with him a multitude of people with swords and stakes, from the chief priests and elders of the people. But the one betraying Him gave them a sign, saying: Whom I kiss, He is, take Him … And he kissed Him …"
Jesus, a typical Semite from Galilee.
Photo: kp.ru
Richard Neave, an artist and specialist in the so-called forensic anthropology at The University of Manchester in England, based on the testimony of Matthew, quite reasonably suggested that Jesus still had to be like the Semites from Galilee.
Together with colleagues from Israel, the scientist examined the Semitic skulls of the time of Jesus. Computed tomography helped to reveal the characteristic features. On their basis, an averaged skull was "constructed", and its life-size model was made. And according to it, the whole image was recreated according to the method of Professor Gerasimov.
Niiv at work.
Promotional video:
Photo: kp.ru
Neeve suggested that the eyes of the Son of God were dark rather than light. According to Jewish tradition, he wore a beard.
The length of Jesus' hair is a moot point. We are used to him - long-haired. The Apostle Paul, who personally saw the Son of God, notes in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: "If a husband grows his hair, it is dishonor for him." Based on these lines from the New Testament, Neeve and his colleagues decided that Jesus was short-haired. And curly, like the vast majority of Semites. It is unlikely that he would have gone bald by the age of 33.
Bottom line: a man with curly dark brown thick hair, brown eyes, a large nose, and a rounded face.
Jesus could shave his head.
Photo: kp.ru
Read more about how the image of Jesus Christ was restored in Popular Mechanics magazine.
Archaeologists claim that in the 1st century AD, Semitic men were short - no more than 160 centimeters on average. Weighed 50-60 kilograms. Most likely, Jesus also possessed approximately the same parameters. In addition, he was a strong physique, tanned, weathered - which is typical of the former - carpentry - profession of the Savior, associated with work in the fresh air.
WHILE
This is what Jesus was in his youth
At one time, scientists working with the Italian police created a computer program that made it possible to "age" faces - that is, to show how the people depicted in the photo would look after many years. With the help of such a program, it was possible to identify and arrest several mafia leaders who had been hiding for many years, having only their photos in their youth.
Now the police have launched their program "reverse" - in order, on the contrary, to "rejuvenate" the face in the photo. And thus they saw what the young Jesus Christ looked like.
Stages of Jesus' Rejuvenation
Photo: kp.ru
As a "photo" for virtual rejuvenation, experts used an image from the famous Turin Shroud, on which, as many believe, the image of the Savior was imprinted.
This, according to the Italian police, could be the boy Jesus.
Photo: kp.ru
The face from the shroud.
Photo: kp.ru
Let me remind you that the Shroud of Turin is a linen cloth 437 centimeters long and 111 centimeters wide. It is kept in the Italian city of Turin in the Cathedral of John the Baptist. On the canvas there are two negative misprints of the human body with traces of mutilations - in front and behind.
Some believe that it was in this canvas that the Savior taken from the cross was wrapped, whose body was imprinted on the fabric in a supernatural way.
Skeptics doubt it. And they suspect that the shroud is still fake. That is, the image on it, if not drawn, is somehow obtained artificially. Both sides have fiercely argued for years.
The Holy See maintains a kind of neutrality. Officially, he does not recognize the shroud as such a burial cloth, but protects it as a most valuable relic.
The skepticism about the authenticity of the Shroud is based on a 1988 study in which three independent laboratories radiocarbon dated a piece of cloth. And it gave a result: the shroud was made in the period from 1260 to 1390. The Savior on it - long-haired with delicate features - fully corresponded to the image established by that time.
The Vatican protects the Turin shroud, although it does not recognize it as the true cover of Jesus Christ, taken from the cross.
Photo: kp.ru