Mike,

Good question. We're so use to the modern notion of picturing someone individually with their facial features and body type. Remember, we have the technology of very clear mirrors, close-up photography, film and video, and mass media permeating our culture. We're used to knowing what people look like and easily distinguishing one from another.

Nevertheless, put yourself within the ancient mind set. Personal identity was not always clear,
nor emphasized, back then as it is today.

Off the top of my head, I don't remember anyone in Scripture, other than maybe Sampson and His hair, described physically with any fine detail. Artists have painted Jesus over the centuries, some of them might have used the Shroud of Turin as their model, but we don't know how close these are to the true features of Jesus as He was in 30 A.D. Palestine.

Perhaps my colleagues will have some more insight on this question.

Peace,

Paul

Hi, Mike —

I'd say the answer is fairly simple. Jesus' physical features don't have much to do with our Salvation. The gospel writers are writing to tell us God became man in order to suffer and die for our sins, so that man could be redeemed and have eternal life.

His appearance is not relevant.

John

Hi, Mike —

I agree with my colleague John that the Scriptures tend to omit details that would distract us from the point or incline us to focus on the wrong things.

That being said, there is a description of Jesus, although one can dismiss it as poetic and not to be taken literally, in Isaiah:

"He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him."

(Isaiah 53:2)

Eric