Depending on the culture in which you were raised, your perception of what Jesus Christ might have looked like can differ significantly.

However, a scientific discovery that uncovered the Lord’s likely appearance may soon bring the disparate mental images of Jesus from throughout the world into alignment.

In addition to a book from antiquity that is not included in the Bible and which fundamentally changes the message of Jesus, it has the potential to affect our understanding of the divine son.

According to Popular Mechanics, Carlos F. Cardoza-Orlandi, an associate professor of international Christianity at the Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, described how our mental images of Jesus drastically alter in 2002.

“While Western imagery is dominant, in other parts of the world he is often shown as Black, Arab, or Hispanic,” he stated.

Now, with the help of Israeli archaeologists and forensic anthropology, British scientists have successfully recreated Jesus’ visage.

Richard Neave, a retired medical artist from the University of Manchester in England, recreated what he and his colleagues consider to be the most authentic portrayal of Jesus using his expertise in skeletal analysis and the study of primate and human evolution.

Neave collected skulls from the same time period and location where Jesus lived and preached 2,000 years ago and subjected them to computerised tomography.

Neave used a sophisticated computer algorithm to determine the thickness of the skin after the procedure produced an x-ray of the skulls that included even the smallest details.

The procedure, however, was unable to determine Jesus’ eye colour or hair type.

In order to ascertain these, Neave and his group visited a number of archaeological sites that were dated from the first century, before the Bible was even written, indicating that Jesus had black eyes and a beard.

Did Jesus have long hair?

In the Bible, there is a line from the Gospel of Paul which read: “If a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him.”

According to the scientists, if Paul’s Lord had authored that, he wouldn’t have.

However, there is a claim that Jesus wore long hair. The most plausible explanation for this is that the Shroud of Turin, which many people think Jesus was wrapped in after his death, bore traces that resembled long hair imprints.

The majority of biblical scholars have concluded that the Son of God had short hair with tight curls, however this has long been disputed.

How tall was Jesus?

According to archaeologists, he weighed 110 pounds and stood around 5 feet 1 inch tall, which was typical for people in the area at the period.

However, it may be claimed that Jesus had greater muscle than other people since he worked as a carpenter.

Neave stated after finishing his artwork that the picture is of someone who would have lived in the region at the time, not precisely Jesus.

Professor of anthropology at the University of California, in Santa Cruz, Alison Galloway gave her expert opinion to Popular Mechanics: “This is probably a lot closer to the truth than the work of many great masters.”