Was Jesus Christ black?

1. Was Jesus Christ dark in complexion? This might have been the case, if anthropologist Richard Neave is to be believed. Neave, formerly a professor at Manchester University, used modern forensic methods to recreate the Christ's face from skulls found in Israeli archaeological sites. And the result is starkly different from the image that has been traditionally portrayed.

2. According to the new image, Christ may have had sturdy features, with short black hair, and not the flowing blonde locks he is traditionally depicted with.

3. The Bible doesn't offer a physical description of Jesus. The Old Testament makes it quite explicit that god looks most unfavourably on "graven images".

4. Italian experts claim to have revealed how Jesus looked as a child – based on computer forensics and the the Turin Shroud, the supposed burial cloth of Jesus.

5. The new portrayal of the Christ seems to be more realistic than the pearly white, and almost equine features accorded to him, and more suited to the desert climates in which he was believed to have lived.

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