Sermon Illustrations

ANTHROPOLOGY AND JESUS' APPEARANCE

This past week I attended a series of lectures at Anderson University in which the presenter, Dr Rodney Sadler, Jr from Union Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina showed this picture. (Slide 2) Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/1282186.html

It is a composite done by a retired English medical artist, Richard Neave. Neave and his team measured the skulls of Galilean remains from the time of Christ, and with a sophisticated computer program, developed this composite model of what a first century Galilean may have looked like.

The article, which was the cover story in the December 2002 Popular Mechanics concluded with this statement, "From an analysis of skeletal remains, archeologists had firmly established that the average build of a Semite male at the time of Jesus was 5 ft. 1 in., with an average weight of about 110 pounds. Since Jesus worked outdoors as a carpenter until he was about 30 years old, it is reasonable to assume he was more muscular and physically fit than westernized portraits suggest. His face was probably weather-beaten, which would have made him appear older, as well."

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