Taylor writes that mummy images, ancient literature, and other artifacts indicate that the people of Judea and Egypt had dark olive skin, dark black hair, and brown eyes.
She remarked, “Everyone can imagine what Jesus looked like. We have the image of Jesus everywhere. It’s a global image. It’s a phenomenon.
“So we think we can recognize him. We don’t even have to work at it.
“But the traditional images in paintings, in fact, date to the 4th or 5th Century – the long hair, the robe, the beard.
“In reality, that’s not what he looked like at all. Jesus was not a pale person. He was not a European. He was a Jewish man of his time. He was very much of his time and place.”
The scholar, an expert in Christian origins, added: “He would have had dark skin and probably had shortish black hair – long hair was very unusual in the 1st Century – a beard and wore sandals.
