Jesus Image Gallery

What did Jesus look like? No one really knows for sure. The New Testament gives us almost no physical descriptions, and the earliest surviving visual depictions of Jesus date from about two centuries after his lifetime.

The ReligionFacts Jesus Image Gallery is a collection of 100 images of Jesus, arranged in chronological order from the most ancient to the most recent. Some of these images of Jesus may give us clues about what he may have really looked like, such as the alleged shroud imprints and modern forensic reconstructions. But most are symbolic representations or reflections of the artist's own time, culture and perceptions of Jesus, not attempts to show what he actually looked like.

Some basic facts and observations: Jesus was first represented by symbols like a lamb or fish. The earliest known image of Jesus is a fresco of the healing of the paralytic at Dura-Europos (c.230-40). Jesus first appears with a beard in the late 4th century (and then not consistently). The earliest depiction of the crucifixion is on a sarcophagus dated c.420 AD.

30s AD??

30-40??

c.200

c.235

c.250

3rd C

3rd C

320

c.350

c.360

c.360

c.360

4th C

c.370

c.360

late 4th C

4th C

4th C

late 4th C

4th C

395

4th C

400

c.420

c.450

5th C

5th C

c.500

c.500-26

c.550

c.550

6th C

6th C

6th C

6th C

6th C

705

late 8th C

early 8th C

9th C

9th C

c.900

989

late 11th C

c.1070

c.1090

c.1100

c.1140

c.1140

1147

c.1175

12th C

12th C

c.1180-90

1200-10

1200-20

c.1230

c.1235

c.1250

c.1250

1262

1280

1293

c.1300

1308

early 13th C

c.1425

c.1460

c.1450

1468

1479

1480

late 15th C

1490

1500

1506

1518-20

1521

1532

c.1541

 

1601-02

1607

c.1650

17th-18th C

late 19th C

19th C

1973

1986

1992

20th C

1999

2001

2001

2004