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Jesus’ look is fairly standardized.
From the Christ Redeemer statue in Rio de Janiero to nearly every modern painting around the world,
he has shoulder length hair, a full beard, and super white.
Some more self-aware depictions try to portray him like what a middle eastern rabbi probably would have looked like,
you know, with darker skin and hair.
For example, this surprised looking guy was created by a team of forensic anthropologists.
They tried to make a plausible recreation of Jesus' face based on male skulls from around Jerusalem that date to the 1st century,
but the fact of the matter is, we simply have no idea what he looked like.
We take this look for granted not because of any hard forensic data, but because of centuries of artistic habit.
But in the early years of Christianity, artistic representations of Jesus were still in flux.
There was no “standard” Jesus.
So what are the earliest depictions of him? And what do they tell us about the origins of Christianity?
No depiction of Jesus predates the 3rd century. So, that’s where our story begins: 200 CE.
The earliest depiction might actually be an anti-Christian insult.
Graffiti from Rome was discovered that depicts a figure gazing up at a donkey-headed man being crucified.
The [Greek] (Andrew accidentally says 'Latin') inscription reads
“Alexamenos worships god.”
Some scholars have interpreted this as someone making fun of their acquaintance Alexamenos for becoming a Christian.
After all, crucifixion was one of the most disgraceful ways to be executed in the Roman Empire, and it must have struck the Romans as very weird to worship a guy who was crucified.
But why the donkey head? That seems very random.
A few ancient texts suggest that the Romans circulated a rumor that Jews and Christians worshipped a donkey or a donkey head.
A 2nd to 3rd century text by a Christian named Minucius Felix
reports a Roman stereotype that Christians “consecrate and worship the head of a donkey, the lowest creature.”
And the Christian bishop Terutllian responded to criticism that “our god is a donkey’s head.”
Tertullian also mentions a guy walking around Rome carrying a picture with the inscription
“the donkey-begotten" God of the Christians.
So we can’t prove that whoever scratched this inscription meant to portray Jesus specifically,
but it does seem to reflect this widespread misconception about Christians in general.
But what about the earliest devotional picture of Jesus?
You know, the type with a human head rather than a donkey head.
According to the scholar of early Christianity Michael Peppard,
the “earliest dateable” depictions of Jesus were found in in the Roman frontier town Dura Europos located in modern day Syria.
Archaeologists identified a building there dating to the early to mid-third century CE
as a possible house church, that is to say, a dwelling place converted for Christian rituals
specifically with a baptistery and a meeting hall.
The walls of the church were covered in paintings of scenes from the New Testament,
including Jesus as the good shepherd,
the healing of the paralytic,
and Jesus walking on water.
In the Healing of the Paralytic, Jesus is depicted as a young, beardless man wearing a simple tunic.
Its basically a before and after cartoon read from right to left.
First, we see the paralyzed man lying on his cot,
and right next to him, the same guy carrying it after Jesus healed him.
The painting was located in the church’s baptistery.
This is interesting because the original story in the Gospel of John involves the healing waters of the Pool of Bethesda beside the gates of Jerusalem,
where according to the story, sick people would try to touch the waters in order to be healed.
So the artist may have intended to link Jesus’ miraculous healing powers with the waters of baptism.
The miracle-working Jesus is one of the most common motifs seen in the early Centuries of Christian art,
arguably because that is what Jesus was most famous for.
In other early depictions of him, The miracle-working Jesus appears holding a staff, almost like a magic wand.
Here’s an ancient Christian coffin [Marcus Claudianus Sarcophagus], which shows a beardless Jesus pointing his staff at pots of water turning them to wine,
pointing at a bunch of baskets multiplying the bread,
and at the end, pointing his staff at the resurrected Lazararus.
In fact, the anti-Christian polemicist Celsus
accused Jesus of being a magician and cheap trickster.
So even outside of Christian circles, Jesus was known for miracles…
even though the difference between miracles and magic is a subjective distinction.
But let’s go back to Dura Europos again for our next example.
The miracle-working Jesus is not the only motif there.
Another fresco in the Dura church portrays Jesus as The Good Shepherd,
Again, he has no beard but this time he carries a ram or sheep
slung over his back.
This image appears everywhere in early Christian art.
In fact, In the Roman catacomb paintings, it appears over 120 times.
Now, the Gospel of John [10:11 and 10:14] describes Jesus as the Good Shepherd,
and in the Gospels of Luke and Mathtew, Jesus tells a parable of a shepherd leaving his flock in order to rescue one lost sheep.
This probably explains the association between Jesus and shepherding in Christian art.
But this particular form, a man with an animal around his shoulders, was widespread in the Roman Empire.
Its called kriophoros figure, the ram-bearer.
This motif was closely associated with the god Hermes, who was sometimes called Hermes the Ram-Bearer.
In fact, in some late Roman examples, we can’t even be sure that the image is supposed to be Jesus or Hermes
because they’re indistinguishable from non-Christian examples.
This shows how Christian artists were not working in a cultural vacuum. They were thoroughly embedded in Roman culture,
which means embedded in Roman styles of art as well.
But how do we get from this to this?
To this
Beardless miracle-working Jesus
to the regal bearded Jesus.
Sure, beardless Jesus appears in art for centuries to come, but this certainly has become the standard look. Even into the 21st-century Jesus movies.
This leads us to the next early style of Jesus:
The Philosopher Jesus.
Check out this statue of Apollonius of Tyana, a Greek philosopher and miracle worker who lived during the 1st century CE.
The statue portrays Apollonius with long hair, full beard, and a Bare-chest, his robe draped over his shoulder.
This would have screamed “stereotypical philosopher” to a Roman audience.
We see similar depictions throughout Roman art,
such as this Roman statue of the Greek philosopher Demosthenes.
And in fact, The Roman writer Dio Chrysostom basically says this was the uniform of a philosopher:
1) No tunic, 2) long hair, and 3) long beard.
And sure enough, Christian artists depicted Jesus in the same way.
But not all portrayals of the “philosopher” Jesus look like this.
A late-3rd century example from a catacomb in Rome shows a beardless Jesus wearing the robe of a Roman Senator.
Surrounded by his students, He raises his hand in a gesture signifying he is speaking.
A similar depiction of Socrates can be found in a mosaic from a villa in Apamea, Syria.
Socrates is the central figure surrounded by a bunch of wise old men.
Portraying Jesus as a philosopher may parallel something that early Christian apologists were trying to do themselves in their writings,
comparing their new Christian philosopher to the philosophical tradition of classical Greece.
Images of the Philosopher Christ, surrounded by his co-philosopher Apostles,
must have fulfilled an important role in the 4th century when Christian politicians and theologians were first trying to flex their intellectual muscle in the Empire.
But Philosophers aren’t the only guys who wear beards in antiquity.
Check out another early example of the bearded Jesus from a mosaic in the Church of Saint Pudenziana in Rome.
Christ sits on a lavish throne, dressed in a sparkly golden robe with an entourage of attendants flanking him.
Now, throughout the 20th century, art historians argued that Christian artists were modeling this style of Jesus after Roman Emperors.
After all, In the New Testament, Jesus is described is as the King of kings, and lord of lords (1 Timothy 6:14-15), and it would have been a
political flex to represent Jesus as the model emperor.
Compare this to the image of the Emperor on the Arch of Constantine located near the Colosseum.
An enthroned emperor surrounded by his followers.
But that’s where the similarities end.
Emperors are often depicted with jeweled diadems, where is that on Jesus?
Even his throne is not particularly imperial…a huge piece of furniture compared to the rather simple “sella curulis,”
the humble seat depicted all over Roman art as the conventional chair worthy of an emperor.
In fact, as the historian Thomas Mathews writes,
"Christ is never shown on the emperor’s proper seat, the sella curulis.
On the other hand, the emperor is almost never shown on a true throne.”
Well
who else in Greco-Roman culture wear beards, golden cloaks, and sit on outrageously fancy thrones?
GODS
We're not seeing an effort to depict Jesus as an Emperor, but rather…as a god.
Long hair, beard, sitting on a throne…
these are attributes of DIVINITY, not royalty.
Jupiter, Serapis, Neptune, and Asclepius
All powerful male gods, all depicted with full beards and flowing long hair.
Check out, for example, this remarkably preserved painting of Serapis,
a Greco-Egyptian God who was especially popular in Alexandria well into late antiquity.
It dates to about 100 or 200 CE and probably originates from the Fayyum region of Egypt where the dry climate has preserved bunches of portraits even after 2000 years.
Here and elsewhere, Serapis is depicted with luxurious flowing hair.
His gaze cooly staring off into the distance.
Elsewhere he is depicted enthroned, such as
in this wooden figurine from Theadephia, also in the Fayyum. Again, notice the beard and flowing hair.
Asclepius and Zeus are other major gods depicted bearded and enthroned.
For example check out this 5th century example of Jupiter, full beard, halo, and surrounded by a council of Gods
Art historians argue that portrayals such as this one
are mimicking this style.
Though other depictions are even more obvious.
One of the earliest depictions of Jesus portray him as Helios or Sol Invictus, the sun god.
A late 3rd century or early 4th century example discovered in a tomb under St. Peter’s basilica depicts,
a beard[less] Jesus riding a four-horse chariot like the sun god.
A Halo of sun rays emanate from his head.
The rest of the tomb has Christian motifs including the Good Shepherd and a scene from the book of Jonah, confirming the chariot rider’s identity is probably Jesus.
This is not to say Christian artists were always trying to copy a specific Greek or Roman god when they depicted Jesus.
I know of fringe theories that claim that Christians ripped off the idea of Jesus Christ from gods like Serapis.
But what we’re really seeing are artists hundreds of years later clothing Jesus with culturally recognizable signals.
A bearded, enthroned Jesus signaled divinity to a Roman audience,
which would have been especially important in the centuries when theological battles were waged over this very question:
was Jesus God?
In such a climate, it’d make a lot of Sense to depict Jesus as the stereotypical alpha God on par with Zeus, Serapis, or Sol Invictus.
All of this demonstrates how depictions of Jesus are embedded in specific historical and cultural moments.
The miracle-working Jesus,
the philosopher Jesus,
the Ruler-of-the-Cosmos bearded Jesus.
All of these reflect the various ways that people wanted to depict their Christ.
To quote Thomas Mathews again: “Images of [Jesus]” are "pure psychological projections;" "inventions corresponding to what people needed or wanted from him.”
In the Roman Empire, Christians needed a respectable philosopher coming off of centuries of persecution and being regarded as a creepy cult by the Romans.
As their theology evolved, they also needed a Jesus that stressed his divinity. A God Jesus. A Pantocrator, ruler of everything Jesus.
And this has been true for centuries.
We can ask ourselves what psychological projections do we see in a translucently white Jesus with soft flowing hair,?
Reflecting the sensibilities of Renaissance and modern American painters alike.
Or how Black Jesus reflects the cultural moment of the civil rights era.
This example of Black Christ stands as a stained glass window in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama.
The same church where four young girls were killed in a bombing perpetrated by the ku klux klan.
Ultimately Jesus’ appearance is amorphous.
Sure, there is the standard Jesus, but Christians throughout history have imputed their own wants and needs onto him as blank canvas that changes from century to century.
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