If you take a look at the Jewish population living in Israel today, you will probably be struck by the huge variety of physical traits. Millions of people all calling themselves “Jews” have gathered together after over 2000 years of being scattered throughout the world: Northern Europe, the Mediterranean Basin, North Africa, Ethiopia, Persia, the former Soviet Union, the Americas and the list goes on. All these Jews look rather different from each other. And yet, all claim to be descended from a single ancestor: “Abram the Hebrew” (Genesis 14:13). Is this really the case? Is it even possible to know what the ancient Israelites actually looked like?
No, unfortunately it is probably not possible to verify with any real certainty what Abraham looked like. Presumably, if he was born in Ur of the Chaldeans, located in modern-day southern Iraq, he would have had dark wavy hair, an olive complexion; an appearance characteristic of the populations that have lived in this region for millennia: Kurds, Turkmen, Jews, Armenians, etc. We can look to the Song of Songs for an description of what the Israelite ideal of beauty was (Song 5:10-16). However, beyond this very vague image, it is nearly impossible to know about the physical appearance of Abraham or of any of his Israelite descendants. If we cannot obtain concrete information about the genealogy of the ancient Israelites (nature), what about cultural features (nurture) of their appearance: clothing, hairstyle, facial hair, etc.?
In popular imagination, one of the most “obvious” features of an ancient Israelite man’s appearance is a full beard. Any modern illustration depicting the biblical period contains lots of dusty, turban-wearing Israelite men with unkempt beards. You will never see a clean shaven Israelite in a biblical film or drawing. Why is this? Is this just meant to make the actors look authentically “old-fashioned” or do we have evidence for the absence of shaved faces among Israelite men?
Contrary to the the ancient Egyptians (who were clean shaven) and Mesopotamians (who wore long groomed beards) who depicted themselves extensively in their art, the Israelites hardly left us images of themselves. The biblical prohibition against making graven images (Exodus 20:4) prevented the Israelites from producing art depicting themselves. So scholars mostly need to use textual descriptions found in the Bible to reconstruct the Israelites’ physical appearance.
The Hebrew Bible contains many passages which make it clear that beards are vital part of Israelite fashion. The Book of Psalms compares dwelling in peace with one’s brothers to “fine oil on the head running down onto the beard, the beard of Aaron, that comes down over the collar to his robe” (Psalm 133:2). Listen to two different musical versions of these words here and here. This metaphor is difficult to understand. Why is a well-oiled beard similar to brotherly harmony? Is it because dwelling in peace creates a feeling of overflowing bounty similar to the oil on Aaron’s beard? Is it because in the ancient Near East guests were welcomed by being anointed with fine oil? Perhaps. The main point for our purposes is that the high priest, Aaron, had a very long beard.
But lest one conclude that beards were only worn by the priestly class, we can find many biblical passages that indicate otherwise. Every Israelite man is commanded “you shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.” (Leviticus 19:27). This is the biblical basis for the sidelocks of hair (Hebrew: pe’ot) that Ultra-Orthodox men wear to this day, as seen in the image below. One might even go as far as to say that long sidelocks were the most distinctive feature of the Israelites’ appearance (circumcision was also very distinctive, but not outwardly visible). Jeremiah refers to the foreign nations that surround Israel collectively as “all those with shaven temples who live in the desert” (Jer. 9:25).
Among ancient Israelite men it was apparently considered humiliating to have one’s face shaven. When King Hanun of Ammon clips off half of the beards of David’s courtiers, he instructs them to “remain in Jericho until your beards grow back” (2 Samuel 10:5). Waiting several weeks for the hair to grow back in the ghost town of Jericho (abandoned since Joshua’s destruction of the city) was evidently preferable to the easier solution of simply shaving the other side off. A common form of greeting a fellow Israelite was to “grab his beard with the right hand to kiss him” (2 Samuel 20:9). Prior to visiting king David, it was imperative for Saul’s son Mephibosheth to prepare himself by doing the following: taking care of his feet, trimming his mustache, washing his clothes (2 Samuel 19:24). The mustache (Hebrew safam) was trimmed, but not the beard (zakan). Maybe the reason why shaving one’s beard was humiliating was that it was a pagan rite (Leviticus 21:5), a mourning practice (Job 1:20), or alternatively, a symbolic act performed by a holy man. The prophet Ezekiel, for example, is instructed as follows:
Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber’s razor to shave your head and your beard. Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair. (Ezekiel 5:1).
In fact, there are works of art from the period of the Bible that do depict Israelites. For example, this frieze found in the throne room of Sennacherib in Nineveh depicts the famous battle of Lachish. This was one of the most important battles fought by the Assyrians as they conquered most of the southern kingdom of Judah in 701 BC. In the image below we see Israelite prisoners being led off into captivity. Note the short curly beards on the faces of the men. These are closely cropped as opposed to the long beard of the Assyrian soldiers.
Here is a depiction of King Jehu of Israel bowing down to the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III. Note the beard.
Another rare artistic depiction which might be depicting Israelites is this tomb painting from Egypt. A detail from the tomb of Khnumhotep II, an aristocrat buried in the Beni Hasan cemetery in Middle Egypt. This painting depicts a family of nomadic traders entering Egypt from Canaan in the 19th cent. BCE. This is a very rare depiction of ancient Semites, dressed in colorful tunics, as opposed to the Egyptians wearing only white waistcloths. Perhaps they have come to buy grain. The man bending over the ibex is named “Abisha the Hyksos” according to the inscription. This is a very nice visual counterpart to the story of Jacob’s sons migrating to Egypt.
The Hebrew word for beard is zakan (זקן) and appears 19 times in the Hebrew Bible. Interestingly the Greek equivalent pogon (πώγων) does not appear even once in the New Testament. What should we make of this? Were Jews clean shaven during the Roman period? No. Certainly the majority of Jewish men still had beards, as they did during the period of the Hebrew Bible. There was a small population of highly Hellenized Jews that might have shaved their beards, as was the custom among Romans. But it would have been very odd to see a Jewish man in the Land of Israel without a beard until the 20th century. The Babylonian Talmud states that Rabbi Yohanan was very handsome but did not possess perfect beauty because he lacked a beard. Interestingly, the beard is referred to by the alias “the adornment of the face” (Baba Metzia 84b). Let’s conclude by quoting one of the rare examples of a description of an ancient Jew. The following description of the physical appearance of the apostle Paul is found in the the 2nd century apocryphal book, the Acts of Paul and Thecla:
He was a man of middling size, and his hair was scanty, and his legs were a little crooked, and his knees were projecting, and he had large eyes and his eyebrows met, and his nose was somewhat long, and he was full of grace and mercy; at one time he seemed like a man, and at another time he seemed like an angel.
Not a very flattering description! Evidently, Paul’s beard was so obvious that the author did not even see the need to mention it.
Rev 1:13-15 reads in Aramaic NT. and, in the midst of the menorahs, one like the Son of man, clothed to the feet, and turned about in a robe reaching down to the feet with a girdle of gold. 14. And his head and his hair were white, like white wool, like snow and his eyes, like flames of fire : 15. and his feet like fine brass, flaming in a furnace: and his voice, like the sound of many waters.
fine brass is yellow. burnished brass is yellow with blackish high lights. flaming brass is a yellow glowing metal. when cooled it is yellow.
Does not sound like a black man to me.
what does burnt brass look like because that is the description given. and if you need more proof read song of solomon 1:4-5…..and use a concordance if you like to define the hebrew word shakur……………it means black not in feelings or emotions, not in some mental state……its his skin color. the shu or shemarians were called SA.GA.GI….THE BLACK FACE OR HEADED ONES. NOW THIS IS WHAT GONA MAKE WHITY SHIT HIMSELF…………….YOUR GREEK GOD JESUS SAID HE CAME FROM THE LINE OF ……………………………………………………………………………………DAVID…………………………..WELL SO DID SOLOMON! WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOUVE SEEN 2WHITE PEOPLE MAKE BLACK PEOPLE? 2BLACK PEOPLE CAN MAKE VERY REAL WHITE PEOPLE! YOUR HISTORY LIES…..AS WELL AS YOUR RELIGIONS……..ALL DISTORTIONS OF THE REAL TRUTH OF THE PEOPLE WHO REALLY INHABITED THIS ROCK. EVEN AS YOUVE STOLE OUR ARTIFACTS AND CLAIMED IT AS YOUR OWN………….EVEN AS YOU DESTROY RELICS OF OUR PAST…………..ALONG WITH AFRICANS THAT YOU CONVINCED MOST OF US WE ARE, SOME OF US HAVE AWAKEN.
Too bad solng of Solomon states he was Red & white as Ivory
Great comment I totally agree.
The scripture says “burnished BRONZE”…..Not Brass.
Does it make it not true because you don’t believe? King James Version
The Book of Romans
Chapter 3: 1-4 (Basically, what advantage have the Negro how your European brethren pronounce, black)
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The people of the levant area looked like a melting pot of many different races.Most men other than Greeks and Romans wore beards.
The Hebrews in the picture bowing down to king shalmaneser, clearly look like what we would call an African american today lol I ain’t never seen no white Jew with Wooly hair and a flat nose. All the Europeans Jews are converts and came down and destroyed the land before capturing it. Ezk. 38.. I always wondered why Jews weren’t suppose to read the end of the Tora lol because it prohisizes who the the people in israel are today lol, “THE BATTLE OF GOG AND MAGOG”. All of the Gentile nations came in, including Ashkenaz through Gomer, Japeths first born. Strange that 80% of the Jewish population living in Israel claim to be Ashkenazi.. Just connecting the dots freckles????????
Your are correct, the true Hebrews (Shem) and Japeths non-hebrews descendants( Indo-cauc-Asians aka Europa) Ashkenaz through Gomer were never Semitic people.
First of all, Africans and not Americans they are Africans. The people under study were wandering around in Asia and Africa and Europe at the relevant times. Black Africans are definitely not native to North America and neither are any other of these people under discussion. Now, there is very serious authority that argues that the original Jews were black and went from the area of current Israel into East Africa and that there are people today who are black and live as Jews in Africa, especially East Africa. Your suggestion that the original Jews were black is quite possible although the pictures that I have seen suggest that the Egyptians were very dark but the Jews were not. It would be nice to find some authoritative drawings, pictures or whatever of the people from around the time of Jesus to see what they looked like. The available evidence is really scanty and basically makes the matter even more confusing than it is just based on the original documents.
YOU NEVER WILL…………………HITLER STATES THAT THE JEWS HAVE AMERICA BY THE BALLS BECAUSE AMERICA HAS TAKE THE TRIBE OF YAHAWADAH (JUDAH) INTO SLAVERY FROM AFRICA. HE REFERRED TO US AS GOD’S JEWELRY. HE ALSO GOES ON TO SAY HOW FRIGHTENED WHITE WOULD BE WHEN THEY DISCOVER WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TO GOD’S PEOPLE. I SUGGEST WHITE PEOPLE REREAD THE BOOK OF JOEL..OR ACTS 7:7 OR GENESIS 15:13-17……………………………………..IT DOES NOT LOOK GOOD FOR THE HEATHEN NATIONS THAT ENSLAVED US. BUT WHAT DO I KNOW…….I M JUST READING A CORRUPT VERSION OF MY OWN HISTORY………….CALLED THE BIBLE!
TO EXPLAIN……..THE GREEKS KICKED OUR ASSES IN YERUSHALIM, AND WE WERE FORCED TO RUN IN PARTS OF AFRICA……STORY SHORT……..THE BIBLE EXPLAINS HOW WE NOMADS(HEBREWS) ,,,,THE CROSSING ONES FROM HIBIRU…PLANET X AS YOU NUT JOBS CALL IT…….WERE FOUND IN WEST AFRICA AND BY ODER OF ROME……SENTENCED TO ANOTHER 400 YEARS OR THE MOST INHUMANE TREATMENT ANYTHING LIVING COULD ENDURE AND REMAIN STEADFAST ON LIVING ON THIS ROCK. BUT SOON THIS CURSE WILL END AND AS THE WHITE MAN BIBLE SAYS……..YOU REAP WHAT YOU SEW, HE THAT LIVE BY THE SWORD…….HE THAT TAKETH INTO CAPTIVITY MUST ALSO GO INTO CAPTIVITY…….PRAY THAT OUR CREATOR IS AS MERCIFUL AS YOUR KIND HAS BEEN TO US……WITH DISCRIMINATION IN ALLLLLLLLLL FACETS OF LIFE, OUT -RIGHT HATRED, OUR sanguineous struggle to survive peacefully with the nations we find our selves scattered……only to discover no matter the continent…..our plights the same! but i pray you’ll not take heed…..so you will discover how contaminated your religious beliefs are. you cant call the new testament and the old testament the words of god when they clearly contradict one another.
one question that will shatter, hopefully your blind faith in redemption……………………… if god destroyed the earth and all living creatures due the abomination created via copulation between the elohim and daughters of men, and what these abominations taught mankind, how they devoured mankind………why would he/GOD……ALSO make this folly with a MARRIED WOMAN? THEN AS THE CHILD BECOME MAN ………….HUMAN/BLOOD SACRIFICE HIM………….AS PAYMENT FOR OUR SINS? HE CLEARLY DESPISES HUMAN SACRIFICES TO MOLOCH! BUT THIS IS ACCEPTABLE? IF YOU WOULD TAKE THE TIME TO REALLY READ IT………….YOU’LL DISCOVER THEIR TWO GODS ARE INVOLVED..IN THE OLD TESTAMENT AND VYING .FOR THE LOYALTY OF THE HEBREWS!…………………ONES A SERPENT AND MAKES LOTS OF REFERENCES TO SERPENTS ESPECIALLY WITH MOSES!
THE ELOHIM (GODS/ANGELS) MADE MAN AND FEMALE AFTER THEIR IMAGE CHAPTER 1 GENESIS VERSE 27.
CHAPT 2 VERSE 4…….THEN JEHOVAH ELOHIM MADE ADAM FROM THE GROUND AND GAVE HIM A MATE FROM HIS OWN DNA………..NOT NECESSARILY IN HIS IMAGE! AND GAVE HIM A GARDEN TO TEND. THE FEMALE STATES SHE BEARS ONE SONE BY THE HELP OF HER LORD……..CAIN THE SERPENT SON……THE LIAR AND KILLER FROM THE BEGINNING. THE FATHER BUT ENMITY BETWEEN THE SEEDS OF THESE AGGRESSIVE ONES FROM THE SEED OF ADAM. AND THEY ARE STILL ENEMIES TODAY!
@SANTONIA TYSON – thxs, pls comment more!!!
I hope you found your evidence because it’s out there. Use your logic and look at the whole picture. When one of the Roman emperors wanted to kill the Messiah, God told Joseph to take the child into Egypt. Why? to hide among the sons of Ham/Mizraim. A white or really light skinned person or persons could not hide in Egypt without being notice. When Jacob died in Egypt, he requested to be buried in his own country. When the funeral procession was observed by the Canaanites, they said, this is a sad day for the EGYPTIANS. Why, because they could not physically distinguish the Egytians, (sons of Ham,) from the Hebrews, (sons of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, son of Shem)
@LESTEE – thxs, need more comments!
I wondered the same as well and yes the dots do connect. …….. revelations 2:9
For those of you searching for the truth its right in the bible. You don’t need all this extra. The bible tells you what the Messiah looks like and IS the king of the Jews. Revelation 1:13-15. He had wooly hair and skin the color of brass burned in a furnace. He was a so called black man. Please read for your self and ask The MosThe High God for understanding.
Have a blessed day.
AMEN KD!!! AMEN!!!!
brass, not coal
And what color is brass. It’s brown. And what color is brass when you through it in a fire. It becomes very dark.
It becomes light actually. Not white, but more of a yellow, tan-ish color.
Well Put.
hi, i had a ukraninan bible showing the anciet israelites. there the ancient israelites wore colourful robes of many colours that were loose, with fancy beautiful sandles. they all had long hair. sometimes they levitated in the air. they had hair colours of all kinds and skin types of all kinds as well as eye colour. it is an old bible. women wore make up and pierced their ears and noses as much as possible. they loved jewellery. the had little pots of make up that they put henna in for their lips. they sometiems wore loose pants instead of loose robes. i gave away this book though. the modern jews are nothing like the ancient israelites. they also never had slaves. never. it was uncommon. i don’t know where the slave myth came from. everyone lived with lots of animals in their farm and covered their heads. the women loved rings and bracelets. they also had ankle bracelets. men wore colourful clothes as well. they were basically peasants. they wanted to be strong. childhood was considered a time to survive. people lived long, until the ages of 120. they drank grape juice instead of wine. they used herbal remedies instead of chemistry to help themselves with their illnesses (see mary magdalene). i have old herbal remedy books at home. anything was not permited. this was a sign of prostitution. tattoos were also not permited, except henna. i went to a private religious school and this is what they taught us.
Jonathan, thanks.
I am one of your students of Exploring the Biblical Land of Israel.
So at the end, Jesus could have be:
-Dark wavy hair,
-Olive complexion
-Beard (may be not long because he was not a priest, but a carpenter, a craftsmen), as it is shown in the Egyptian fresco.
-Large eyes
-Quite large nose
Is there any apocryphal text that describes Jesus?
It would be too much ¿isn’t it?
The large nose comes across as anti-Semitic. Jews from Israel are know as Sephardic and have darker complexion, short in stature and small noses most of the time. European Jews are Ashkenazi from Russia and eastern Europe. (They have large noses sometimes because of the region but not always) The whole nose thing goes back to Nazi Germany degrading Jews and should be avoided because it is very anti-Semitic!
I get that but we are looking for the truth whether or not it is flattering. Once you infect your research with fears of being anti-semitic or anything else like that you poison the result. You must focus on the truth and follow it wherever it goes. Then you can be confident in your results.
Hello johnathan, you may like to check out Just Genesis index of topics by Alice C. Linsley you will find this VERY informative, she is a biblical anthropologist and archaeologist for 30 yrs.Take a look.
Great post! But regarding the appearance of St. Paul – you conclude that his beard must have been so obvious so there was no need to mention it. I was wondering what other evidence (other than him being a jew) is there to have a beard? He was a roman citizen who grew up in a Hellenistic town and spent much of his time outside of Judea – is it possible that he was beardless?
Thanks for your comment. It is possible but not likely that Paul was clean shaven given that the beard was not only a sign of Jewish identity but also the fashion among Greek intellectuals. Philosophers were known to have long unkempt beards, a sign of their rejection of the material world. These two spheres (Jewish scriptural authority and Greek philosophical methodology) are precisely the ones Paul sought to belong to and so a beard would have made a lot of sense for him.
Please send me more teachings,they are wonderful. Thank-you
Thanks for reading!
Very interesting. What do you thing about igbos they are judah’s lost tribe
Thank You I enjoyed that Oh please dont stop there ive allways been looking to learn and get to know as much as i can about god and the jews have allways been pulled by my lord jesus to care about a nation of peaple Israel all my life wish i could go there but if you will please tell me more. Thank You
So glad you enjoyed the post. I hope I can provide you with more interesting content in the future!
Hi, I come from Viet Nam. I do not really know how exactly the hair of Israel’s man at that time look like. Or did I miss something in the post? Cause’ my english is not so good.
Im looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks.
I wonder why no one mentions DNA? The various Jewish groups, Sephardi, Ashkenazi, Mizrahi are related through Y-DNA that goes back to the Israelite, Aaron, brother of Moses! Also its been proven Palestinians are related to modern Jews! Palestinians (not all) are the descendants of the ancient Jews forced to convert to Islam
They are the sons and daughters of Ishmael. This is why they are related.
You need to read the truth. You are utterly mistaken. Since Roman times, the land of Israel was referred to as Palestine. The reference “Palestinian” is a modern word. To use it correctly is to refer to a person as one from Palestine. That means all the people in the area that was considered at one time to be the land of Israel before being carried away to Babylon. Today, the reference to a Palestinian is a misnomer. They are Arabs, Christian’s and Jews who came to Palestine from all over. Since ancient times different groups have come and gone, intermarried and there is no pure descended line from anyone. Those that claim to be Palestinians are not a race or ethnic group. They are people from an area who assembled in an attempt to create a nation. Not very successful so far.
As a devoted Christian, I enjoy the research into ancient history but I have a few critical points to make that every Christian institute seem to get wrong due to bias ignorance!
First of all stop approaching from a Christian point of view (Get it wrong every time) Why? It is all based from Jewish point of view not the Goyim (Outsiders) The Law of Moses dictate in 613 mitzvoth (Commandments, not to be confused in what we call 10 commandments because they are not 10 commandments but declarations of the law.)The actual commandments dictated through Deuteronomy state a man must not shave five points on his face and no ornamentation. His head must be covered (Man cannot walk five paces uncovered) This symbolizes respect to the creator over us! He must wear Talit Katan with 4 ztizit (Fringes or knotted chords {613 knots}) to obey law of respect to Hashem! On days (Not Sabbath) The prayers 3 times a day (Sharcharit, Mincha and not the evening maariv) He would wear Tefillin on the head and arm to obey law of the Shima (Deut 4 6-9) The life of a Jewish man is about the law not the faith.
@ROBERT RUSSELL – thxs & pls need more comments!!!