What did Jesus look like?
In the Bible, there’s hints
He might be the most famous person in history, and yet there seems not to be any written description of the physical appearance of Jesus.
It’s an endlessly strange subject: the New Testament gospels describing a figure of a deity incarnated into a human body—which is never described.
But I thought: surely there must be a hint?
I’m poring over the Bible for the teensiest hint as to the appearance of Jesus.
Sometimes, Christians like to say that Jesus was “ugly.” Or perhaps just a normal-looking man?
The reference that is used is Isaiah 53:2, where the prophet looks into the mists of time, and catches sight of the messiah?
“…he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.”
Unfortunately, it’s not so clear the Hebrew words here are really intending to create a physical portrait of the messiah. As Vine’s Expository Dictionary notes, this word translated “beauty” seems to refer to the ‘splendor’ or ‘glory’ of a royal office.
