The Real Face of Jesus? 2

The post with the most page views on this blog is “The Real Face of Jesus?” which is based on the HISTORY channel special. This maybe because both believers and unbelievers alike are interested to see what’s probably the most accurate image ever made of Jesus.

The creative team behind the awesome images are the graphic artists from Studio Macbeth headed by Ray Downing. Upon visiting their website, I found out that they have made new renderings based on the Shroud of Turin.

HISTORY channel also collaborated once again with Studio Macbeth for a new special titled “Jesus: The Lost Forty Days”. While the new visuals are stunning, the same cannot be said of the documentary. The running time is overly extended by rehashed content from “The Real Face of Jesus”. The documentary also jumps on the “Da Vinci Code” bandwagon and gives too much attention and credence to the heresy of Gnosticism and the so-called gnostic gospels. We must remember that the early Christian Church, naturally the best judge of which stories about and which teachings of Jesus were authentic, condemned the gnostic or “lost” gospels as heretical. Nevertheless, the new images depicting our Lord are worth seeing.

All images courtesy of:
www.raydowning.com
www.history.com

The Real Face of Jesus?

“The Real Face of Jesus?” is a HISTORY channel special that seek to answer the question - What did Jesus look like? It shows the journey of Ray Downing (Studio Macbeth) and his team of graphic artist as they attempt to create a 3D image of Jesus based on The Shroud of Turin *.

Downing states: “Anywhere you go in the world people will recognize the face of Jesus. And the irony is nobody actually knows what he looks like… There’s been a long history of people depicting the face of Jesus over the centuries. Whatever was available to them - oil painting, frescos, you name it. And it’s only natural that we would use the technology of today to do the same thing.”

After 6 months of hard work and using the latest in 3D software, Downing and his team came up with what maybe the most accurate face of Jesus Christ ever made.

The special however, perhaps to add a kind of "X-Files" atmosphere, attempts in vain to link the Shroud with the “ancient wisdom” of the Gnostics. I find these parts unnecessary, distracting and misleading as there is no historical evidence that Gnosticism had anything to do with the Relic. That aside, I find the documentary informative and a “must see” for believers and skeptics of the Shroud’s authenticity alike. As John Jackson, lead scientist of STURP (Shroud of Turin Research Project) ponders: “If anyone is interested in Jesus, if anyone loves Jesus, (then) why wouldn’t they want to see what he looked like 3 dimensionally, 2 thousand years ago?”

The following are some images from the documentary:

* The Shroud is a Christian relic bearing the image of a man many believe to be Jesus Christ.
I’m planning to post a more detailed blog about it in the future.