The search for Jesus' face has baffled researchers since the earliest days of Christianity.
But one British scientist claims to have an idea of what Jesus looked like and it is causing shockwaves.
Far from the classical white-skin, blue-eyed bomb shell that persisted throughout Renaissance art, Richard Neave's interpretation is drastically different.
The retired medical artist from the University of Manchester first released his image, which is based on forensic anthropology, in 2015. But it has resurfaced on the internet and on The Sun's website.
Using similiar tecniques to police tracing criminals, Neave reconstructed what a typical man in ancient Palestine would have looked like. He stresses it is a general figure and not based on any DNA or new evidence of what Jesus specifcally looked like.
He used a Semite skull from the same period found in Jerusalem and used X-Ray technology to create a 3D construction of what Jesus might have looked like.
His team took drawings found in archeological sites dated to the first century for an idea of Jesus' eye colour, skin and hair colour. The average height for a male at the time was around 5ft 1 with a weight of about 110 pounds.
The result is a thickly bearded man with dark hair and dark eyes. Given Jesus' profession as a carpenter, Neave's team portray Jesus as muscular with a weather-beaten face making him look older than his 30-years.
Last year, academics announced that a detailed led portrait found in a cave in Jordan and analysed by scientists using the latest techniques could be the actual face of Jesus Christ.
