Jesus' Physical Appearance

Right...George Plagenz, writing for the Williamson County Review Appeal, asks "What did Jesus look like?" and apparently with a straight face, and barely rising to any sort of skepticism, cites the work of Bradley Durbin and Frank Adams for the "two sides" of the story...but comparing and contrasting the views of two cranks does not make for a "fair and balanced picture"...Durbin thinks he has found a kind of photograph made by a Roman-era camera obscura; and Adams (whose book, incidentally, was apparently the one Elvis Presley had with him when he died) appeals to supposed contemporary sources:

...a letter from Publius Lentulus, a Roman, to the Senate in Rome; Pontius Pilate's letter to Tiberias Caesar (before Pilate met Jesus face to face at his trial; and a report by Gamaliel, a Jewish teacher (and St. Paul's teacher), to the Sanhedrin.

[UPDATE: As the RogueClassicist points out, the "Australian anthropologist" Durbin was cited in the Weekly World News of 9 Nov. 1999, as cited by this webpage (and is otherwise strangely absent from the web)...I wanted to believe that wasn't Plagenz's source, but...]

Comments

[Christopher Culver]

I've never heard of works such as those with mentions of Jesus. Could be that they do exist, forgeries by later scribes like some portions of Josephus' works. Seems like something interesting to look into.

[jim]

There's the book "edited" by William Percival Crozier [1879-1944] in the twenties called Letters of Pontius Pilate: Written During His Governorship of Judea to His Friend Seneca in Rome.

[Mischa]

Yes, there is certainly apocryphal correspondence of this kind floating around--e.g., a purported "report" by Pilate to Tiberius is mentioned as early as Tertullian (ca. A.D. 200); and more famously, the correspondence between Seneca and St. Paul. I'm not sure exactly what Adams is using, however, but I may try to find a copy of his book...should be possible to find here in Memphis, given the Elvis connection, I would think...?