Today ’s simulacrum of Jesus , for some reason , is often a whiskered whitened guy with long light-haired hair . However , if we calculate at depictions of Christ created in antiquity , we see a person who look very similar to the Jesus we find in iconic Western artworks from the Renaissance , such as Leonardo da Vinci’sThe Last Supperor Diego Velazquez’sCristo Crucificado .
Archaeologists from the University of Haifa in Israel have late chance upon a antecedently strange 1,500 - year - old painting of Jesus at an Early Byzantine church in the Negev desert of southerly Israel .
regrettably , centuries of baking Sun have not been kind to the house painting , with little more remaining than a few faint line and hints of colour . Nevertheless , the experts argue that something very crucial once stood here .
" I was there at the right clock time , at the veracious place with the right slant of visible radiation and , suddenly , I saw eyes , " lead study author Emma Maayan - Fanar from the University of Haifa told Israeli newspaperHaaretz .
" It was the face of Jesus at his baptism , await at us . "
Writing in the journalAntiquity , the investigator claim it once depicted an crucial spiritual figure with short curly hair , no beard , and a long nozzle surrounded by a halo . Since the painting was once located above a crucifix - shaped Baptist font , they also consider it depict the baptism of Christ , a common scene in Christian art .
But this is no ordinary image of Jesus . It appears that the painting might be the very first pre - iconoclastic baptism of Christ scene to be found in the Holy Land . Images of Jesus from this era in Israel are extremely rare as many faction of Christianity , including the Byzantine Empire after the 8th hundred CE , believe that thecreation of religious imageswas kin to the worship of ikon .
“ Christ ’s expression in this picture is an of import find in itself . It belongs to the iconographic scheme of a unforesightful - haired Christ , which was specially widespread in Egypt and Syro - Palestine , but gone from later Byzantine art , ” the subject area authors spell .
“ Early 6th - century texts include polemist concerning the legitimacy of Christ ’s visual show , including his hairstyle . establish on iconography , we estimate that this scene was also paint in the 6th century [ CE ] . ”
In 2011 , archaeologistsdiscovered what they believe to bethe oldest mental image of Christ , date back to some time around 235 CE . Numerous limning of baby Jesus have also been institute across the Mediterranean .
However , it ’s really exceptional to observe an range of Christ in Israel , the Holy Land itself , from the 6th one C CE .
