An ancient description of Jesus

I found this in my dad's things, it appears to be cut out from some sort of magazine by the type of paper and has a date of "1972" on the back with some church listings. I thought it was pretty cool so here it is!

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ANCIENT ACCOUNT DESCRIBES JESUS OF NAZARETH

Description of Jesus by Publius Lentulus, Governor of Judea, addressed to Tiberius Caesar, Emperor of Rome, found in an excavated city, written in Aramaic, on stone.

There lives at this time in Judea, a man of singular virtue, whose name is Jesus Christ of whom the barbarians esteem as a prophet, but his followers love and adore him as the offspring of the Immortal God. He calls back the dead from the graves and heals all sorts of diseases with a word or a touch.

He is a tall man, and well shaped; of an amiable and reverend aspect; his hair of a color that can hardly be matched, the color of chestnut full ripe, falling in waves about his shoulders. His forehead high, large and imposing; his cheeks without spot or wrinkle, beautiful with a lovely red; his nose and mouth formed with exquisite symmetry; his beard thick and of a color suitable to his hair, reaching below his chin. His eyes bright blue, clear and serene, look innocent, dignified, manly and mature. In proportion of body, most perfect and captivating; his hands and arms most delectable to behold.

He rebukes with majesty, counsels with mildness; his whole address, whether in word or deed, being eloquent and grave. No man has seen him laugh, yet his manner is exceedingly pleasant; but he has wept in the presence of men. He is temperate, modest and wise; a man, for his extraordinary beauty and divine perfections, surpassing the children of men in every sense.

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Enjoy!

I must say this is an appealing description of Jesus. I would love to think it genuine. The only possible thing at this point that comes to my mind that might dispute this is I remember somewhere in the Bible where it says there was nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him, insinuating it was not physical attractiveness that made Him desirable but His wisdom and spiritual attributes.

This is generally not considered authentic by Bible scholars. Secular Historians also don't believe Publius Lentulus even ever existed as a Governor of Judea. Although historians once questioned the existence of Pontius Pilate too until archeologists uncovered a stone tablet with his name inscribed on it in an ancient Roman amphitheater in the early 60's. The tablet was authenticated and dated to the 1st century. There have since been ancient coins discovered with his likeness and name as well. So I suppose just because there's a lack of current evidence that Lentulus existed, that doesn't mean he definitely didn't. Still, Bible scholars don't usually consider this letter authentic.

Two things about it strike me as odd, personally. One, it calls Him Jesus Christ. Would someone refer to him in a letter as Jesus Christ during His own lifetime? Many people clearly thought He was the Messiah, but it wasn't common to call Him Jesus Christ until after the ressurection. And secondly it would seem strange for Him to have blue eyes. I thought semetic people of that time always had brown eyes. I could be wrong about that though and also since Jesus didn't have a human biological father, He could have had any color of eyes. It's certainly not impossible. I just assumed He looked common and like a regular person. As Sonofjay817 mentioned, the Bible seems to say He was a common person with nothing about His appearance that would draw people to Him or make them admire Him. It was His Words and Deeds that did that. It's funny that the Bible doesn't give much of a description of Him at all until we see the risen Christ of Revelation who is shown in His full power and Glory. Some of the Disciples saw a glimpse of Him in that true nature during the Transfiguration too.

It would be really cool if it was authentic, but I guess His earthly looks are not important. It's His words, His miracles, and most of all his Work on the Cross that paid the price of salvation that matter. And His looks now are described in Revelation as I mentioned. Snow white hair...eyes of fire, feet like bronze, and face shining with light etc.

Yeah I don't know how authentic it is, I just thought it was a pretty cool description of him, even if it was conjured up, someone did a good job then.

But yeah, the blue eyes struck me as weird too...