Is this what Jesus of Nazareth looked like as a boy?
Forensic experts in Italy have come up with this computer-generated sketch of a fair-skinned young Jesus with wavy hair and dark eyes, based on historical data and images from the controversial Shroud of Turin.
The image was created with the same technology used by police to age the faces of long-time missing people or wanted criminals.
Using the reverse of ageing technology, the police experts gauged how the man wrapped in the shroud might have looked at the age of 12.
Facial proportions between the nose and eyebrow, and the shape of the jaw are identical to those on the shroud, a piece of linen some believe is the actual burial cloth of Jesus about 2000 years ago.
“While some features, such as the colour of the eyes and the hair’s length, cut and colour, are arbitrary, others come directly from the face impressed on the shroud,” the forensic experts said in a statement.
– From science and computers, a new face of Jesus
“We made a rigorous effort based on the Shroud of Turin. But it’s clear that the data at our disposal were limited. Let’s say we have made an excellent hypothesis.”
Computer enhancement has revealed the imprint of a face of a suffering man on the Turin cloth.
The Italian team took that faint image and used computer modelling to develop a picture, making assumptions about the features at a younger age.
The sketch was revealed on a documentary about Jesus shown on Italian television.
This picture was created at the same time new research was published on the shroud.
Scientists are casting doubt on some carbon dating testing made on strips from the shroud in 1988. They now believe it could be at least 2000 years old.
The shroud, with the image of a man that can only be seen in negative form, is venerated by many Christians as physical evidence that Jesus was resurrected.
An “autopsy” by doctors on the shroud reveals a 180cm bearded Caucasian male about 77kg, with puncture wounds on the head.
The speculative picture contrasts with a recent attempt to reconstruct Jesus’ face using a 2000-year-old Jewish skull, software and the latest forensic techniques. That revealed a dark-skinned man.