The Real Face Of Jesus?

There is not one place in the New Testament that describes the appearance of Jesus and Isaiah is usually quoted by Christians when describing the physical appearance of the "Son of God":

52:14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
53:3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

However, as Isaiah got a lot of other things wrong there's no reason to suppose he was right about Jesus would look.

	Highly stylized rendition of Jesus, usually accepted by those who have not read the remarks of Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:14: Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? The halo, or nimbus, was a symbol of divinity for the person on which it was shown. The halo and aura were not originally christian symbols but were adapted from pagan images for uses in Christianity and are representations denoting the divinity of the person on whom they were portrayed. The aura and the nimbus around the head represent the radiant energy of enlightenment, and is often depicted as a halo of fiery flames.
	From the forged "The Archko Volume". I asked him to describe this person to me, so that I might know him if I should meet him. He said: 'If you ever meet him [Yeshua] you will know him. While he is nothing but a man, there is something about him that distinguishes him from every other man. He is the picture of his mother, only he has not her smooth, round face. His hair is a little more golden than hers, though it is as much from sunburn as anything else. He is tall, and his shoulders are a little drooped; his visage is thin and of a swarthy complexion, though this is from exposure. His eyes are large and a soft blue, and rather dull and heavy.' This Jew [Nazarite] is convinced that he is the Messiah of the world. ...this was the same person that was born of the virgin in Bethlehem some twenty-six years before..."
	In this famous forgery Publius Lentullus, President of Judea, supposedly wrote the following epistle to the Senate concerning Jesus: A man of stature somewhat tall, and comely, with very reverent countenance, such as the beholders may both love and fear, his hair of (the colour of) the chestnut, full ripe, plain to His ears, whence downwards it is more orient and curling and wavering about His shoulders. In the midst of His head is a seam or partition in His hair, after the manner of the Nazarenes. His forehead plain and very delicate; His face without spot or wrinkle, beautified with a lovely red; His nose and mouth so formed as nothing can be reprehended; His beard thickish, in colour like His hair, not very long, but forked; His look innocent and mature; His eyes grey, clear, and quick. This image of Jesus is said to have been copied from a portrait carved on an emerald by order of Tiberius Caesar, which emerald the Emperor of the Turks gave to Pope Innocent VIII as ransom for his brother, held captive by the Christians.
	Does the picture in Popular Mechanics show the real face of Jesus? Israeli and British forensic anthropologists and computer programmers, using the techiques of forensic anthropology, produced this artists' conceptualization and is largely based on the work of Richard Neave, retired medical artist from the University of Manchester in England. The researchers started with an Israeli skull dating back to the 1st century. They then used computer programs, clay, simulated skin and their knowledge about the Jewish people of the time to determine the shape of the face, and color of eyes and skin. The resulting figure has a broad peasant's face, dark olive skin, short curly hair and a prominent nose. He would have stood 5-foot-1-inch tall (155 cms.) and weighed about 110 pounds (50 kilos) "Using archaeological and anatomical science rather than artistic interpretation makes this the most accurate likeness ever created," Jean Claude Gragard, producer of the BBC documentary "Son of God," told The London Times. Gragard used the same image last year in his series. "It isn't the face of Jesus, because we're not working with the skull of Jesus, but it is the departure point for considering what Jesus would have looked like," he added. They turned to the Bible to determine the length of his hair. In the New Testament, "would Paul have written, 'If a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him' if Jesus Christ had had long hair?" the article speculates.