For centuries, countless artists across the Western world have portrayed Jesus of Nazareth through a familiar lens: tall, fair-skinned, with long, light brown or even blonde hair, and soft European facial features.
These depictions—found in Renaissance paintings, church stained glass windows, and religious sculptures—have deeply influenced how people imagine the face of Christianity’s central figure. However, modern historians and scholars argue that these widely accepted images are far from historically accurate.
Based on archaeological studies and historical data, researchers now believe that Jesus likely bore a much closer resemblance to the average man living in ancient Palestine over two thousand years ago.
This means he was probably shorter in stature, with a more compact build, darker skin, and tightly curled dark hair. His facial structure would have reflected Semitic features typical of the region, not European ideals.
In an effort to present a more historically plausible depiction, Dutch digital artist Bas Uterwijk utilized cutting-edge artificial intelligence to generate a realistic portrait of what Jesus may have actually looked like.
Rather than relying solely on traditional religious art, Uterwijk combined numerous cultural sources and input historical data to guide the AI in producing a face that more closely aligns with known features of people from the Middle East during that time.
According to Uterwijk, the AI-generated image is a composite that blends archaeological findings, historical descriptions, and genetic insights.
He noted that many religious artworks have altered or idealized Jesus’s ethnicity over time, presenting him through the lens of different cultures and social expectations. His goal was to reverse that process and reconstruct a version of Jesus that matches what historical science now tells us.
Joan Taylor, a respected academic and author of What Did Jesus Look Like?, supports this view. Drawing from Roman-era texts and anthropological evidence, she suggests that Jesus likely had olive-toned skin, a short beard, and coarse black hair cut relatively short—a common hairstyle among men in his era.
Taylor emphasizes that Jesus should not be seen as European, but as a man deeply rooted in the culture and conditions of first-century Judea.
She also highlights that Jesus lived a life of poverty and simplicity, which would have shaped his outward appearance. “He wasn’t wealthy or powerful,” Taylor explains. “He was a wandering preacher, and that humble lifestyle would’ve been reflected in the way he dressed and carried himself.”
Thanks to technological advancements like Uterwijk’s AI-assisted imagery, combined with historical and cultural research, we now have a more grounded and authentic vision of Jesus—one that invites us to rethink long-held assumptions and to see him not as an icon shaped by Western tradition, but as a real person shaped by his own time and place.
