No doubt much of what can be said on this thread has already been said, and I honesty didn’t read in detail all of the posts…so forgive me if any of this has already been said…
I believe that it would only be common sense to think that Christ would have looked very much like the Jews from that part of the world…that he probably had brown eyes and hair…but the specifics are not important. I think the shroud of Turin (which I believe to the authentic shroud which covered Christ’s body in the tomb), is a good rendering of what he actually looked like. Doesn’t it say, in Scripture, that he ‘wasn’t much to look at?’
I think that our society, has in the past, chosen to present him with the blonde hair and blue eyes because of a certain societal (American) view that ‘blonde hair and blue eyes’ are more becoming. Admittedly (and perhaps because of society’s imprint), blue eyes do have a ethereal look to them. But, likely, Jesus probably had brown eyes.
Anyhow, I don’t think that accuracy is important. Afterall, it doesn’t change anything. And what I find to be beautiful is that all peoples of the world have a different ‘view’, and want Christ to be their own (by making him look more like themselves, in their own minds). It’s natural. Look at all the representations out there of His mother, Mary! She’s appeared to different folks, from across the world, according to how they would ‘see her’, physically speaking.
Obviously Jesus was real. He most definitely was recognizable as his own distinct person…but I’m sure that he probably looked a lot like modern day Israeli’s, in that he probably had brown hair, brown eyes, and perhaps olive skin.
One day, hopefully, we’ll get a chance to find out, and all the wondering will be past.