Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up
By
Tom Thumb, Posted Dec 05, 2006
It occurred to a team of British scientists that it was a little unlikely for a white Aryan Messiah to be wandering around in Palestine.
Was Jesus really as pretty as we imagine? The Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus who lived around 34 A.D., tells us differently:
Both his nature and his form were human: for he was a man of simple appearance, mature age, short growth, three cubits tall (a little over 4 feet), with scanty hair, but having a line in the middle of the head after the fashion of the Naziraeans, eyebrows meeting above the nose so that the spectators could take fright, with a long face, a long nose, and with an undeveloped beard, dark skin, and hunchbacked.

It occurred to a team of British scientists that it was a little unlikely for a white Aryan Messiah to be wandering around in Palestine. They worked with a team of Israeli archaeologists and came up with the chap on the left.

Or if you prefer you can go for the blonde hippy of the Last Temptation of Christ. No slight on the superb acting of William Dafoe but you’d think the Bible would point out something as noteworthy as an Aryan Messiah…
Tom has been traveling non-stop since the age of 18 and co-founded Road Junky in 2004. Follow him @tomglaister
He’s the author of Hand to Mouth to India, an account of hitchhiking from England to India with no money and which will soon be rereleased by Road Junky Books.
Tales of a Road Junky featuring tales of breaking people out of jail in Delhi, selling fake Rolexes in Japan and other adventures in Israel and Brazil will be out later this year.
He also writes fiction for anyone who never really grew up and his latest novel is Bozo and the Storyteller – download the audio book for free or even buy a copy…
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