The Christian prophet Jesus, a figure of profound cultural and historical significance, has remained an integral figure through all three branches of the wider Abrahamic religions and is still an integral figure of Christianity.

In Western cultures, the common image of Jesus Christ has remained the same: a bearded, fair-skinned man with long, wavy, light brown or blond hair, and blue eyes.

According to best estimates based on biblical translations and ancient texts, Jesus was born sometime around 6 BCE in the town of Bethlehem, in the modern-day Israeli-occupied West Bank of the State of Palestine, about 6 miles south of Jerusalem.

The Bible offers clues about what Christ’s physical appearance may look like. Most of what we know about the Son of Christ comes from the first four books of the New Testament, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Besides this information, nothing else is mentioned about how Jesus looked like expect that he didn’t stand out in any particular way. Judas Iscariot pointed out in Matthew 26:47-56 that he had to point Jesus out to the soldiers among the disciples.

“We don’t know what [Jesus] looked like, but if all of the things that we do know about him are true,” says Robert Cargill, assistant professor of classics and religious studies at the University of Iowa and editor of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Cesare Borgia was an Italian cardinal who lived during the 15th century. He was the son of Pope Alexander VI.

Some believe that Borgia’s father “forced” his son’s image into art history, but no evidence supports this claim.

One of the oldest depictions of Jesus is found on the ceiling of a burial chamber in the city of Rome. Here, the Christian prophet is portrayed with short hair and without a beard, which is strikingly different from modern depictions.

A rare early portrait of Jesus was discovered in 2019 on the walls of a ruined church in southern Israel. Researchers believe that the painting is the earliest portrait of Jesus, and portrays him with shorter, curly hair, which is a common portrait in the eastern region of the Byzantine empire.

By the 4th century, depictions of Jesus began to change dramatically. The carpenter was shown with a beard that resembled many of the depictions of the later centuries.

During the era, facial hair and general scruffiness typically differentiated the philosophers or wise thinkers from the general population. According to the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, a beard was “appropriate according to Nature.”

While the Greco-Roman world began depicting the Son of God with a beard, this idea didn’t catch on everywhere. Depictions of Jesus from the 4th century in Spain appear to further back up the idea that he may have been clean-shaven.

In the Spanish artifact, the prophet is also dressed in a toga, a typical robe worn by philosophers. A halo is pictured above his head. He has people standing on either side of him, many suggesting they represent the apostles Peter and Paul.

The early depictions of Jesus found in Rome and Spain offer valuable insight into the evolution of Christian iconography and how the social idea of Jesus’ appearance changed over the centuries.

During Jesus’s era, it was common for wealthy men to wear long robes, which showed off their high status to the public. However, the prophet most likely wore a knee-length tunic.

Like everyone else in the region during the era, Jesus wore sandals on his feet. His were likely very simple, made of several pieces of leather sewn together. On top, a small leather strap would have held the sandal on his foot.

Nonetheless, the discovery of early artifacts bearing an image of Jesus helps researchers understand the cultural and social ideas of the period and their effect on religion.

The portrayal of Jesus has changed a lot throughout history for a reason. Artists of the earliest paintings were not concerned about historical accuracy, but the symbol and iconography of the Prophet.

In a painting dating after the year 400, Christian artists around the world began depicting Jesus in their image, changing his skin color, hair, and other features to reflect their own.

The current Western depiction of Jesus spread as European colonialism spread across the globe. While some colonizers changed the depiction of Christ to reflect the community they were attempting to convert, others shared the European depiction of Christ.

In 2001, Richard Neave, a retired medical artist, and a team of Israeli and British forensic anthropologists and computer programmers set out to discover what Jesus may have looked like based on an Israeli skull dating back to the first century A.D., computer modeling, and knowledge of what Jewish people looked like at the time.

Neave’s work appeared in the documentary series, “Son of God,” which chronicles the life of Jesus using scientific and historical evidence.

“It isn’t the face of Jesus, because we’re not working with the skull of Jesus, but it is the departure point for considering what Jesus would have looked like,” Bragard added.