Impact case study database

Jesus is the most represented figure of the last 2,000 years of human history, but traditional images of Jesus as tall and light-skinned, with long clean hair and flowing robes, reinforce powerful norms of ethnicity, gender and social class. His representation is thus charged with significance and used to underpin values. Revisualising Jesus in line with the best evidence challenges past representations that embody questionable ideas of masculine strength, social status, white supremacy and European hegemony. The impact of this research comprises new visual representations; shifts in perception; and changing narratives.

New visual representations of Jesus

The research has led directly to new visual representations of Jesus that challenge traditional images of masculine strength (signified by Jesus’s height and build), social status (signified by Jesus’s long robes and clean appearance), white supremacy (signified by Jesus’s hair, eye colour and skin tone) and European hegemony (signified by Jesus’s facial features).

(i) Taylor’s research was used by the production company Nutopia to make the TV series Jesus: His Life [A], screened on the History Channel in 2019. Nutopia producer Alex Dwiar has confirmed that Taylor’s book was “used by the research team in building up the information for the casting and costumes teams for Jesus: His Life ” [A1]. The resulting representation of Jesus reflects Taylor’s research findings on Jesus’s hair, skin tone and clothing (Fig. d). The Sky History website published an article on Jesus’s appearance to accompany the series Jesus: His Life, making direct reference to Taylor’s research [A2].

Fig. d

(ii) In 2018, Dutch TV company EO produced the documentary film Jezus van Nazareth verovert de wereld (Jesus of Nazareth conquers the world) [B]. Taylor worked as a casting and costume consultant and as a direct result of Taylor’s input an Iraqi Jewish actor was used to visualise Jesus and a new garment was created. Boudewijn Drechsler, Senior Editor from EO, has confirmed that: “We followed the descriptions from [Taylor’s] book and her oral explanation. Without her, we would never have ended up with an Iraqi Jewish man. She helped us with judging ... the garment we have had made for our model, all in order to help our host and audience in their imagination of how Jesus must have looked like ... With Taylor’s research we managed to reach a pretty detailed image of how Jesus might have looked like. Without this knowledge, we could not have been that specific” [B1]. The documentary included an extended contribution from Taylor, explaining her research to presenter Kefar Allush in the storerooms of the Israel Antiquities Authority, with discussions of ancient clothing and Taylor’s verdict on images of Jesus (see Fig. e from [B2]). It specifically featured an image of her book What Did Jesus Look Like?

Fig. e

(iii) When American artist Joseph Hoffman was commissioned to create a life-size bronze sculpture of Jesus for a Lutheran church in the city of Long Beach, California (Fig. f), he consulted Taylor on Jesus’s appearance and clothing. Hoffman testified that “my first sketch [of Jesus] was greatly informed by your writing”, and through a series of email and Skype exchanges Taylor guided Hoffman to change details of the sketches, models and costume replicas he was creating as a basis for the final artwork. During the design process Hoffman wrote to Taylor indicating where specific changes had been informed by her research and affirming the extent and value of her contribution to his work: “I truly appreciate all your critical input” [C].

Fig. f

Shifts in perception

Following the publication of What Did Jesus Look Like?, feature articles questioning traditional depictions of Jesus ran in print and online media in several countries. In Feb 2018, numerous mainstream newspapers and magazines carried features on Taylor’s book. A Daily Mail article (generating 3,100 comments and shared 2,800 times on social media) publicised Taylor’s research conclusions: “The long-haired and bearded Jesus we recognise today can be found in art from the fourth century onwards, but he can also appear as a youthful, beardless, good-looking figure, not unlike Classical sculptures of Roman gods” [D1]. The Daily Telegraph published a review of the book that concluded “we should forget the flowing robe with wide sleeves. Jesus ... was an artisan and a wanderer ... It is all a far cry from the Jesus of the Sacred Heart” [D2]. Newsweek carried a story highlighting how Taylor’s research provided a “radically different picture of God’s son” [D3]. In March 2018, the Sydney Morning Herald ran a feature titled ‘Have we had Jesus wrong all along?’ which praised Taylor’s research for “de-westernising” Jesus [D4]. In May 2018, the global Catholic publication Aleteia, distributed in eight languages to a monthly readership of 3 million, published an article on Taylor’s book which stated that “New research calls for a re-framing of the most famous icon in Western history” and reproduced Taylor’s drawing of Jesus (Fig. b) [D5]

In September 2018, Rich Tenorio published a feature article on the research in the Times of Israel (shared 1,417 times on social media). It included four Europeanised images of Jesus, extensive interview quotes, and asked, “how likely is it that a Levantine Semite from 2,000 years ago actually looked like the fair-haired-and-skinned man represented in so much Christian religious art?” Calling the research a “forensic pilgrimage”, Tenorio states: “Joan Taylor paints quite a different portrait in a challenging new book, What Did Jesus Look Like?” [D6].

Blogs, comments and popular reviews are indicative of individuals’ changed perspectives: “This book has forever changed my mental image of what Jesus looks like” [D7]; “Taylor decides that Jesus probably looked like just an ordinary Middle Eastern guy. This is a conclusion that should warn us away from making Jesus in our own image thereby confirming our prejudices” [D8].

Shifts in narrative

Taylor’s research has contributed directly to new narratives linking Jesus’s appearance to issues of racial justice and social inclusion. In Mar 2018, the Herald Malaysia highlighted the consequences of Taylor’s book for social justice and racial equality, asking readers to “consider the impact of a darker-skinned Jesus” in the history of colonialism, in apartheid South Africa and in the history of segregation in the USA: “clearly, the psychological impact would have been tremendous if the people being oppressed and discriminated against had known that Jesus ... looked more like one of them rather than their oppressors down the ages” [D9]. In January 2020, Michael Eli Dokosi discussed Jesus’s appearance in articles for Face2Face Africa and Keep the Faith, which connected Taylor’s research to issues of racial equality [D10].

During Easter 2020, a New York Times feature by Eric Copage – ‘Searching for a Jesus Who Looks More Like Me’ – brought together Taylor’s research and his own Black American perspective to envision a “multi-ethnic” Jesus. Copage’s article constructs a narrative of “pilgrimage in search of more authentic renderings of Christ – ones reflective of race, but also of gender and sexual orientation.” Copage compiled 12 Jesus images, reproduced in the article, that “translate local idioms and sensibilities into the universal ethos Christianity strives to represent.” In email correspondence Copage informed Taylor that “I’ve read so much of your work on Jesus” and solicited a quotation from Taylor about her own childhood experience of Nordic representations of Jesus which featured in his article [D11].

In July 2020, a few weeks after the death of George Floyd, Sandi Dolbee wrote an influential piece in The San Diego Union-Tribune: ‘Examining the Color of Jesus’. Like Copage’s New York Times piece, Dolbee’s article focused on Black American perspectives and the “legacy of colonization”; it discussed What Did Jesus Look Like? and included excerpts from an interview with Taylor: “I think people of color themselves can explain much better than I can how it makes a difference if Jesus is understood as a man of color, rather than a man of European descent. From what they’ve shared with me, there is a profound sense of relief. Seeing Jesus with brown skin severs Jesus from a link with the global legacy of European authority and dominance” [D12].