What Did Ancient Israelites Look Like?

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.

About the author

Jonathan LipnickJonathan Lipnick believes that a truly comprehensive understanding of Scripture must be capable of penetrating beneath the printed words to reveal the authentic world of the Bible: the landscapes, smells and sounds of ancient Israel. He is the dean of the faculty of Holy Land Studies at Israel Institute of Biblical Studies, and is the author of the course "Exploring the Biblical Land of Israel"

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  1. Bob Berry

    Noah was an albino he scared his father when he was born, his father ran to his father to describe his strange son. White, red beautiful eyes and speaking to the creator. Lamech thought he was the offspring of the fallen angels telling his father Noah does not look like us he was truly disturbed at Noah’ s look. If white skin does not look like us” then what does us look like. The fallen were evil doing evil on the earth we know that they were white Lamech was scared, an albino would be remindful of the fallen.

    1. CARlton jones

      Agree with sum of the outformation you mentioned on here.
      So how did albinizm get into the genez of blacks in order 4 Noah to have albinizm??
      Do u believe the white race came about through esau??
      f so what waz the genetic defect that cauzed esau to come out white, stringy hair and all??
      Thank u.

  2. Bob Berry

    There are quite a few murals depicting black Hebrews with the braids like they are styled today nappy hair, nappy beards and cornrows being exiled by Assyria and babylonians why deny it. Red is not white, red is someone like Steph Curry and you know it and his hair is tight and nappy with that reddish skin. And you call him black also you all know it. Quit lying to yourself live a righteous life and show yourself approved.

  3. Bob Berry

    The picture of the bearded afro Semites entering Egypt is a fraudulent deception. I saw the original and the people are dark, very dark brown these lightened versions you show, shock me and you display them as actual knowing they’re lightened whitewashed why why why? Why not show the originals? With the very dark skin if color doesn’t matter? Shame on you. The paintings are old and still retain very dark color so new they were very very very dark. People have seen the originals you know. Dark skinned people with afro what is so scary about that?

    1. al

      He who has the power of the pen, has the power to control knowledge.

    2. Ak

      Can you provide links to these “original” depictions and how do your know they are the originals? Thx

  4. Seathrún Mac Éin

    The main reasons for the variety of physical appearance among Jews today are fairly obvious. (Perhaps you did not specifically mention them because they are so obvious.) First is intermarriage with Gentiles; second, Gentiles converting to Judaism; and third is rape by alien conquerors or anti-Semites; fourth is seduction either of a Jewish woman by a Gentile man or, occasionally, of a Gentile woman by a Jew. No matter how Jewish the descendants might be in religious terms, this would not obscure the mixture of genes causing some of them to have a distinctly Gentile appearance.
    It is well known that the Rabbis normally define a Jew – other than converts to Judaism – as the son of a Jewish woman. I understand that this ruling dates from a discussion between mediaeval Jewish Rabbis where one Rabbi present asked “How do we know that we ourselves are not descended from the Roman soldiers who raped the maidens of Zion at the siege of Jerusalem?” As a result, it seems to have been arrived at to protect innocent Jewish women.
    Further, it should be clear that the range of genetic factors among modern Jews has had advantages. Some of the Jews who survived the Holocaust and other pogroms did so because of their distinctly Gentile appearance. In addition, a Gentile appearance must have helped many Jewish journalists and researchers to obtain vital information. Lastly, the fact that there are Jews of so many “racial” types has been of benefit to Israeli intelligence gathering: black Jews, presumably of Ethiopian origin, are known to have entered Uganda temporarily to assist in the planning of the Entebbe rescue of Jewish hostages held captive by Palestinian hijackers who were favoured by dictator Idi Amin!

  5. Al Wheeler

    Israelites were often mistaken for Egyptians and Ethiopians: Joseph, Moses, and Paul certainly were thought to be Egyptians, and Egyptians were dark skinned people according to the Bible. When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem where did the Jews flee to? Where did Joseph, Mary, and Jesus flee to when Herod sought to kill Jesus? Several tribes in Africa proclaim their Hebrew Israelite heritage ( the Lemba, etc.) Revelation 2:9; 3:9?

    1. Kahvyn Zaire

      We are left w/one conclusion, regarding the color of ancient Hebrews__ they had to be dark skinned!! Though Hollywood’s depictions of many (if not all) biblical characters: Moses, Paul, Adam, Solomon and Jesus are ALWAYS transformed from their native beginnings to a more acceptable/profitable hue. Which suggests that this rendition of history was compromised! Why else in the face of common sense, logic and regional sensibilities can Hollywood promote this inconsistency?

      1. Steven

        Black Race are from Ethiopia bud. Not Israel. The 13 1/2 tribes of Israel migrated through Europe and USA puritans were Tribes of Ephraim, Dan etc.. British in Hebrew translation Brit = Covenant Ish =peoples. Their is a Reason they have Kings of England just like the Kings of Israel.

  6. Ron Elison

    The New Testament says the Apostle Paul was mistaken as being an Egyptian. Acts 21:38

  7. WM

    What color is an olive?

  8. K. B.

    Good evening. You mentioned only the judahites in exile, someone else in the comment mention ebo tribe,yet you seem dead set to not mention the so called African Americans(Judah), the native Americans ( Gadites) or Jamaicans(benjamites). And Paul was a Gentile.Come on, we all know who we are now
    The guys with the funny beard/hats are russian (kazarian)
    It is not good to know that gentiles came into the fold because of the children’s disobedience only to be further kept from their identity

  9. Robert Russell

    Israel was a wayfarers pit stop and all types of people passed through the area so you would have every type of person with wide range of looks but for the Jews specifically they would be subjected to tradition and the law. The law of Moses is what makes up Jewish life not what the world would consider stylish of the period. Jesus would be Short, dark skinned or olive, Short to medium hair that would be dark brown and thick. Not too many barbers around and being a poor carpenter dress very basic but being a Jewish man wear a Kippah or some head covering at all times because of the law of covering the head. He would also wear Talit Katan (Small Talit) Zitzit or Fringes as that is required of men. Prayer three times a day, eat only what is deemed kosher and observe rituals. And During the last supper which was a Passover Seder by the way, there would be no Bread!!! (Festival of un-leaven bread – just flat flour and water cooked rapid fashion for the haste of escaping Egypt) So in kind he would not be this tall handsome Blue eyed Blond haired dude you see in every Christian book store in the US!

  10. Daphna Oren

    Does this review cover the whole of evidence of facial hair among the Israelites in Tanach? How do the rabbis treat it in the Talmud and agada? I once sat on an El Al flight next to a delightful 20-year old haredi yeshiva student (he did not object to sitting next to a woman, perhaps because he was 30 years my junior) and he said that facial hair was optional, but generally more chosen than not. Did facial communicate any specific idea or understanding among the Israelites? Thanks for a very interesting piece!