"It's Not So Funny..."

A Christmas Gift: "The Truth About The Real Face Of Jesus Christ..."

The Real Face Of Jesus
Advances in forensic science reveal the most famous face in history.

By Mike Fillon
Popular Mechanics
Jan 23, 2015

From the first time Christian children settle into Sunday school classrooms, an image of Jesus Christ is etched into their minds. In North America he is most often depicted as being taller than his disciples, lean, with long, flowing, light brown hair, fair skin and light-colored eyes. Familiar though this image may be, it is inherently flawed. A person with these features and physical bearing would have looked very different from everyone else in the region where Jesus lived and ministered. Surely the authors of the Bible would have mentioned so stark a contrast.

On the contrary, according to the Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane before the Crucifixion, Judas Iscariot had to indicate to the soldiers whom Jesus was because they could not tell him apart from his disciples. Further clouding the question of what Jesus looked like is the simple fact that nowhere in the New Testament is Jesus described, nor have any drawings of him ever been uncovered.

There is the additional problem of having neither a skeleton nor other bodily remains to probe for DNA. In the absence of evidence, our images of Jesus have been left to the imagination of artists. The influences of the artists' cultures and traditions can be profound, observes Carlos F. Cardoza-Orlandi, associate professor of world Christianity at Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta. "While Western imagery is dominant, in other parts of the world he is often shown as black, Arab or Hispanic." And so the fundamental question remains: What did Jesus look like?

An answer has emerged from an exciting new field of science: forensic anthropology. Using methods similar to those police have developed to solve crimes, British scientists, assisted by Israeli archeologists, have re-created what they believe is the most accurate image of the most famous face in human history.

THE BODY AS EVIDENCE

An outgrowth of physical anthropology, forensic anthropology uses cultural and archeological data as well as the physical and biological sciences to study different groups of people, explains A. Midori Albert, a professor who teaches forensic anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Experts in this highly specialized field require a working knowledge of genetics, and human growth and development. In their research they also draw from the fields of primatology, paleoanthropology (the study of primate and human evolution) and human osteology (the study of the skeleton). Even seemingly distant fields like nutrition, dentistry and climate adaptation play a role in this type of investigation.

While forensic anthropology is usually used to solve crimes, Richard Neave, a medical artist retired from The University of Manchester in England, realized it also could shed light on the appearance of Jesus. The co-author of Making Faces: Using Forensic And Archaeological Evidence, Neave had ventured in controversial areas before. Over the past two decades, he had reconstructed dozens of famous faces, including Philip II of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great, and King Midas of Phrygia. If anyone could create an accurate portrait of Jesus, it would be Neave.

RECONSTRUCTING JESUS

Matthew's description of the events in Gethsemane offers an obvious clue to the face of Jesus. It is clear that his features were typical of Galilean Semites of his era. And so the first step for Neave and his research team was to acquire skulls from near Jerusalem, the region where Jesus lived and preached. Semite skulls of this type had previously been found by Israeli archeology experts, who shared them with Neave.

With three well-preserved specimens from the time of Jesus in hand, Neave used computerized tomography to create X-ray "slices" of the skulls, thus revealing minute details about each one's structure. Special computer programs then evaluated reams of information about known measurements of the thickness of soft tissue at key areas on human faces. This made it possible to re-create the muscles and skin overlying a representative Semite skull.

The entire process was accomplished using software that verified the results with anthropological data. From this data, the researchers built a digital 3D reconstruction of the face. Next, they created a cast of the skull. Layers of clay matching the thickness of facial tissues specified by the computer program were then applied, along with simulated skin. The nose, lips and eyelids were then modeled to follow the shape determined by the underlying muscles.

A MATTER OF STYLE

Two key factors could not be determined from the skull—Jesus's hair and coloration. To fill in these parts of the picture, Neave's team turned to drawings found at various archeological sites, dated to the first century. Drawn before the Bible was compiled, they held crucial clues that enabled the researchers to determine that Jesus had dark rather than light-colored eyes. They also pointed out that in keeping with Jewish tradition, he was bearded as well.

It was the Bible, however, that resolved the question of the length of Jesus's hair. While most religious artists have put long hair on Christ, most biblical scholars believe that it was probably short with tight curls. This assumption, however, contradicted what many believe to be the most authentic depiction: the face seen in the image on the famous—some say infamous—Shroud of Turin. The shroud is believed by many to be the cloth in which Jesus's body was wrapped after his death. Although there is a difference of opinion as to whether the shroud is genuine, it clearly depicts a figure with long hair. Those who criticize the shroud's legitimacy point to 1 Corinthians, one of the many New Testament books the apostle Paul is credited with writing. In one chapter he mentions having seen Jesus—then later describes long hair on a man as disgraceful. Would Paul have written "If a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him" if Jesus Christ had had long hair? For Neave and his team this settled the issue. Jesus, as drawings from the first century depict, would have had short hair, appropriate to men of the time.

The historic record also resolved the issue of Jesus's height. 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.

Computer models (left) and modeling clay enable Neave (right) to create a forensically acceptable facial reconstruction. (Photographs by Keith Kasnot/National Geographic Image Collection [left] and The Unit of Art in Medicine/The University of Manchester, UK [right])

AN ACCURATE PORTRAIT

For those accustomed to traditional Sunday school portraits of Jesus, the sculpture of the dark and swarthy Middle Eastern man that emerges from Neave's laboratory is a reminder of the roots of their faith. "The fact that he probably looked a great deal more like a darker-skinned Semite than westerners are used to seeing him pictured is a reminder of his universality," says Charles D. Hackett, director of Episcopal studies at the Candler School of Theology in Atlanta. "And [it is] a reminder of our tendency to sinfully appropriate him in the service of our cultural values."

Neave emphasizes that his re-creation is simply that of an adult man who lived in the same place and at the same time as Jesus. As might well be expected, not everyone agrees.

Forensic depictions are not an exact science, cautions Alison Galloway, professor of anthropology at the University of California in Santa Cruz. The details in a face follow the soft tissue above the muscle, and it is here where forensic artists differ widely in technique. Galloway points out that some artists pay more attention to the subtle differences in such details as the distance between the bottom of the nose and the mouth. And the most recognizable features of the face—the folds of the eyes, structure of the nose and shape of the mouth—are left to the artist. "In some cases the resemblance between the reconstruction and the actual individual can be uncanny," says Galloway. "But in others there may be more resemblance with the other work of the same artist." Despite this reservation, she reaches one conclusion that is inescapable to almost everyone who has ever seen Neave's Jesus. "This is probably a lot closer to the truth than the work of many great masters."

*******

They tried to tell us way back in 1974...

Me and Michael were about the same age in 1974,

so this was a powerful message for me back then...

"This Made Me Smile..."

"This Made Me Smile..."

I'm accustomed to the "whitewashing" of American history...

I'll wait to see "Stonewall" on Netflix, in the meantime, I'll watch the black man die first in almost every film I've seen

(That's if there is a black man in the film...)

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"The Imitation Of Life..."

(Click to enlarge)

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"Truth About Love And Freedom..."

From Boy Box Rebellion

"Someday we can get married. Boys can do that now. We'll live in a tree house. We'll have 14 dogs and 9 cats. And we'll eat chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast every day."

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"Tell The Truth, What Would You Do...?"

Warning: This short film will disturb you and leave you asking yourself, "What would I do?"

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"A Thought To Ponder..."

What if there is a hell... and what if this is it?

A fascinating film, Room 8 is one of five different films from the same script. As part of Bombay Sapphire's Imagination Series, Oscar winner Geoffrey Fletcher wrote a script stripped of any stage direction and asked people to imagine their film.

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"The Truth About Science Fiction..."

Those good folks at SKYNET DARPA are still at it...
This time I'm reminded of one of my favorite films, "Déjà Vu"  
"Snow White" seems a little less far fetched now...

SKYNET becomes self-aware in 2016!

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"The Imitation Of Life..."

(Click to enlarge)

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"The Truth About Science Fiction..."

As you can see, "The Rise of The Machines" has begun...  
Did this unnerve you as much as it did me?

See more scary robots being developed by the good folks at SKYNET DARPA here.

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"The Imitation Of Life..."

From the CBS series "Cold Case."  A sad love story set in 1968, but very much worth watching.



"Fear Eats the Soul"

"The Imitation Of Life..."

An interesting and engrossing short film that begs as many questions about "What if..." as it answers.

"Fear Eats the Soul"

"A Story to Share..."

"Ernesto was impressed with the tiny apartment. Flex’s music collection was eclectic but mostly all Black: jazz, blues, R&B, hip hop, and some gospel. The art on the walls was amazing and inspecting further, he saw that most were signed with the name Flex. Because the place was so small, every square inch of space was utilized. Oddly enough, the place didn’t look cluttered at all; it might have been small on space but it was big on style. The timer on the oven went off and Flex was still in the shower so he decided to take out whatever was in there. Opening the oven door, a fantastic aroma came wafting out. He pulled out the dish and it was some sort of dip that had been heated to go with the tri-colored chips that had been put out on a platter. Ernesto was blown away. “This guy can play ball, he can quote James Baldwin, he has a great apartment, he’s creative, he can cook, and he’s sexy as hell. Damn, I think I just met my future husband,” he said under his breath."

This is an excerpt from one of the best same gender loving stories I've read in a long while... although it contains explicit sexual imagery, its premise is clear from the excerpt above, its a love story.

Read this great story in its entirety here: AfroerotiK

"The Imitation Of Life..."

1998 British film, "Get Real" Starring Ben Silverstone and Brad Gorton

Perhaps the best coming out and coming of age film I've ever seen...

"Fear Eats the Soul"

World Cinema Review - Mexico

“Dona Herlinda and Her Son”
(Dona Herlinda y Su Hijo)

Mexico- 1985

Director: Jaime Humberto Hermosillo (1985).
Writers: Jaime Humberto Hermosillo and Jorge López Páez
Starring: Marco Antonio Trevino, Arturo Meza, and Guadalupe del Toro

Dona Herlinda is a wealthy widow from Guadalajara, Mexico, who chooses to turn a blind eye to her son Rudolfo's unconventional relationship with his "significant other," Ramon. She even invites Ramon to live with them, while simultaneously arranging for her son's marriage to a young woman she's picked for him. What at first seems to be a recipe for tragedy and heartbreak becomes an entertaining and suprisingly loving comedy of tolerance, acceptance, and keeping up appearances.

"Same Gender Loving People - No. 294"

"Our Lives And Love Are Real Too..."

Positive images of people like me... The truth of the matter is that we all need to see people like ourselves. So everyday, I'll post a photo, drawing or some other artwork that depicts Same Gender Loving People as what we are... Only Human.

"Truth Is Wherever You Find It..."

A Case of Holmesophobia?
The chemistry between Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Watson is no mystery, yet there seems to be no end to the outrage over the film's homosexual overtones

Ben Walters
Wednesday, 6 January 2010

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle famously had a soft spot for fairies. The same cannot, it seems, be said of the keepers of his literary flame – not, at least, of Andrea Plunket, who lays claim to the remaining US copyrights relating to Conan Doyle's most iconic creation.

According to IMDB, Plunket has reacted with fury to Robert Downey Jr's suggestion on The Late Show with David Letterman that Sherlock Holmes, whom he plays in Guy Ritchie's film, could be perceived as "a very butch homosexual". Introducing a clip in which Holmes lets off some steam bare-knuckle boxing after offending Watson, Downey also floated the possibility that Rachel McAdams's character, with whom the detective is apparently besotted, "could be a beard. Who knows?"

"I hope this is just an example of Mr Downey's black sense of humour," Plunket reportedly fumed in an interview with Total Film. "It would be drastic, but I would withdraw permission for more films to be made if they feel that is a theme they wish to bring out in the future. I am not hostile to homosexuals, but I am to anyone who is not true to the spirit of the books."

It's hard to think of the last time so much befuddled, hateful knee-jerk reaction was funnelled into so few words. Oh, wait, no, it isn't – Jan Moir's Daily Mail article on Stephen Gately will be hard to top on that front for some time. Still, Plunket does awfully well, insisting that the idea of a beloved character being gay is not just a joke but a sick joke before offering a declaration of tolerance to stand alongside "I've nothing against black people" and "Don't get me wrong, I love women".

To an extent, it's silly even to take note of the outburst. If the movie's nine-figure takings do spur the production of a sequel, then it seems questionable that Plunket would have the power to nix it and even more questionable that it would include anything sufficiently offensive to her sensibilities for her to try. Certainly, the new movie makes Holmes and Watson's intimate bond plain, showing them squabbling over housework and making explicit the jealousy the former feels at the latter's engagement to a (barely-written) woman. The director has even stated that "these guys are sort of in love with each other." But this is fairly standard buddy-movie homosociability; the chances of Richie et al taking the couple's domestic partnership into explicitly romantic let alone sexual territory seem vanishingly small.

As a look at the Letterman clip makes clear, this whole kerfuffle is less about any serious engagement with the stories' homoerotic subtext than about Downey having a laugh at the expense of prurient attitudes to gay sex, including those of Letterman and his band leader, and generating some coverage for his movie at the same time. He pulled off the same trick nearly a year ago, during the film's production, when his tongue-in-cheek assertion that Holmes and Watson "wrestle a lot and share a bed" was quoted by the News of the World under the classy headline "Queerstalker".

Not that there isn't something to the idea of Holmes and Watson as a couple. As with any other number of crime-fighting duos, their bond has long been fertile territory for such speculation; indeed, in Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, the detective himself encourages rumours that he and Watson are lovers. Overall, of course, such intimations are best left sublimated. The most detailed excavation of the original stories can unearth a thousand proofs of the pair's intimate mutual attraction without any hint of fluids being exchanged.

The real inanity of Plunket's objection lies in its philistinic – and hilariously inconsistent – insistence on fidelity to a source text. If Plunket were sincere about the need to stay "true to the spirit of the books", she would be aghast at the introduction of a heterosexual love interest for Holmes; indeed, at the whole edifice of Richie's wham-bam steampunk spookfest.

If the film's depictions of Holmes engaging in underground boxing bouts, rescuing damsels from occult ceremonies through brute force and diving for cover from exploding warehouses are to get a pass – if, that is, it's fine for the physical prowess described by Conan Doyle to be ramped up a few notches – then why shouldn't a similar process of exaggerated extrapolation apply to the intimacy unquestionably enjoyed by the detective and his sidekick in the original stories? It's simply a case of deductive reasoning, observing small clues and imaginatively hypothesising what they might connote. To veto such investigation is not merely prejudiced but counter to the enquiring spirit of Conan Doyle's character; not just homophobic but Holmesophobic.

"It Can Be Like This..."

Coronation Street's 1st Gay Love Story

"A Story to Share..."

In today's encore excerpt - at the end of the 19th century, Charles Dickens' short novel, A Christmas Carol, had readership second only to the Bible's:

"If only Ebenezer Scrooge had not, in the excitement of his transformation from miser to humanitarian, diverged from the traditional Christmas goose to surprise Bob Cratchit with a turkey 'twice the size of Tiny Tim.' But alas - he did, and as A Christmas Carol approaches its 165th birthday, a Google search answers the plaint 'leftover turkey' with more than 300,000 promises of recipes to dispatch it. As for England's goose-raising industry, it tanked. ...

"The public's extraordinary and lasting embrace of Dickens's short novel is but one evidence of the 19th century's changing attitude toward Christmas. In 1819, Washington Irving's immensely popular 'Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent' had 'glorified' the 'social rites' of the season. Clement Moore's 1823 poem 'The Night Before Christmas' introduced a fat and jolly St. Nick whose obvious attractions eclipsed what had been a 'foreboding figure of judgment' as likely to distribute canings as gifts. Queen Victoria and her Bavarian husband, Albert, 'great boosters of the season,' had installed a Christmas tree in Windsor Castle each year since 1840, encouraging a fad that spread overseas to America by 1848. ...

"What is true is that Christmas, more than any other holiday, offered a means for the adult Dickens to redeem the despair and terrors of his childhood. In 1824, after a series of financial embarrassments drove his family to exchange what he remembered as a pleasant country existence for a 'mean, small tenement' in London, the 12-year-old Dickens, his schooling interrupted - ended, for all he knew - was sent to work 10-hour days at a shoe blacking factory in a quixotic attempt to remedy his family's insolvency. Not even a week later, his father was incarcerated in the infamous Marshalsea prison for a failure to pay a small debt to a baker. At this, Dickens's 'grief and humiliation' overwhelmed him so thoroughly that it retained the power to overshadow his adult accomplishments, calling him to 'wander desolately back' to the scene of his mortification. And because Dickens's tribulations were not particular to him but emblematic of the Industrial Revolution - armies of neglected, unschooled children forced into labor - the concerns that inform his fiction were shared by millions of potential readers. ...

"Replacing the slippery Holy Ghost with anthropomorphized spirits, the infant Christ with a crippled child whose salvation waits on man's - not God's - generosity, Dickens laid claim to a religious festival, handing it over to the gathering forces of secular humanism. If a single night's crash course in man's power to redress his mistakes and redeem his future without appealing to an invisible and silent deity could rehabilitate even so apparently lost a cause as Ebenezer Scrooge, imagine what it might do for the rest of us!"

Kathryn Harrison, "Father Christmas," The New York Times Review of Books, December 7, 2008, p. 14.