Face of Jesus

[PB777]

An Evangelical friend of mine opposes paintings of Jesus since he says wre can’t really know for sure what Jesus looked like and we would be respecting someone other than Jesus. In trying to respond to this, I would like to know if there’s any basis to the representations we see of Christ in art? I suspect that there were people with artistic talent alive at the time and certainly some must have captured what Christ actually looked like. Have any of these images survived- even if they are copies of copies of the originals? What is the Church’s position on this?

Back when I was a Lutheran, anti-Catholic, I remember hearing that modern pictures made Jesus look more Roman than Jewish. Any truth to this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Lillith]

An Evangelical friend of mine opposes paintings of Jesus since he says wre can’t really know for sure what Jesus looked like and we would be respecting someone other than Jesus. In trying to respond to this, I would like to know if there’s any basis to the representations we see of Christ in art? I suspect that there were people with artistic talent alive at the time and certainly some must have captured what Christ actually looked like. Have any of these images survived- even if they are copies of copies of the originals? What is the Church’s position on this?

Back when I was a Lutheran, anti-Catholic, I remember hearing that modern pictures made Jesus look more Roman than Jewish. Any truth to this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I doesn’t matter how we depict these paintings…what matters is that when I walk by my crucifix…pic. of Jesus…whatever…I am reminded to pray and love God. I appreciate the reminder.

 

[thistle]

An Evangelical friend of mine opposes paintings of Jesus since he says wre can’t really know for sure what Jesus looked like and we would be respecting someone other than Jesus. In trying to respond to this, I would like to know if there’s any basis to the representations we see of Christ in art? I suspect that there were people with artistic talent alive at the time and certainly some must have captured what Christ actually looked like. Have any of these images survived- even if they are copies of copies of the originals? What is the Church’s position on this?

Back when I was a Lutheran, anti-Catholic, I remember hearing that modern pictures made Jesus look more Roman than Jewish. Any truth to this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

There is no description in scripture of the physical appearance of Jesus.

 

[StCsDavid]

There is the veil of Veronica that tradition (little “t”) holds the image of Christ’s face. It’s on display in a Church in Italy whose name escapes me at the present. Pope Benedict recently visited there. While there’s no definitive proof that this veil is the real deal, it is highly regarded.

 

[Mommyof02green]

An Evangelical friend of mine opposes paintings of Jesus since he says wre can’t really know for sure what Jesus looked like and we would be respecting someone other than Jesus. In trying to respond to this, I would like to know if there’s any basis to the representations we see of Christ in art? I suspect that there were people with artistic talent alive at the time and certainly some must have captured what Christ actually looked like. Have any of these images survived- even if they are copies of copies of the originals? What is the Church’s position on this?

Back when I was a Lutheran, anti-Catholic, I remember hearing that modern pictures made Jesus look more Roman than Jewish. Any truth to this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

As for art making Him look more Roman then Jewish…that’s news to me.

The only thing I have heard is that Art over the years have made him look more “European” and not “middle eastern”.

I’ve seen art that shows Him black.
I’ve seen art that shows Him white with brown hair/brown eyes
I’ve seen art that shows Him white with blonde hair/blue eyes.

Just do a google search for images…you’ll see what I mean.

As for the veil that another poster was talking about you can go here and learn more.

 

[LilyM]

Don’t forget the Shroud of Turin as well, of course, and the facecloth kept in a Cathedral in Spain somewheres (the one used to wrap just the face for burial, different from Veronica’s veil).

Then again, if your friend’s only objection is that we don’t actually know what He looked like - well, there were statues of Cherubim in the Temple and on the Ark of the Covenant itself.

Does your friend think God kindly sent a couple to pose for the artists who sculpted them? You think even if they had, the artists could get an accurate representation of a spiritual being anyways?

I don’t belive that there were any pictures made of Jesus during his life. Being practicing Jews, the people around him wouldn’t have been willing either to make such pictures or to allow them - they would’ve considered it blasphemous. Peter’s reluctance to eat non-kosher animals shows how deeply such religious law was ingrained in them, even after the Resurrection.

Of course the Roman catacombs of the late first century do indeed have pictures of Christ - short haired, beardless ones. In other words pretty much Roman and not Semitic at all.