What did Jesus look like, what date was he born and where did he die on the cross?

JESUS would have looked very different from how he is portrayed in paintings and films, an expert has said.

Here's what the Son of God would really have looked like - plus the most likely dates of Christ's birth and death as calculated by scientists and historians.

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What did Jesus Christ look like?

In paintings the baby Jesus often has curly blond hair, and as an adult He usually has flowing locks, pale skin and blue eyes.

Fair-haired Willem Defoe and blue-eyed Robert Powell are among the actors who have played Him on the big screen.

The Bible referred to Jesus as a Galilean Israelite, and scholars believe He would have resembled a modern day Middle Eastern man.

Joan Taylor set the record straight in her book, What Did Jesus Look Like?, which examines His many depictions including the fabled Turin Shroud.

The author concludes Jesus was probably around 5ft 5in tall with a slight yet muscular physique.

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While she admits we will never know for certain, Taylor she says His features would have been "Jewish" and He would have had olive skin, dark hair and brown eyes.

For a likely resemblance, she points to an artist's impression by the anthropologist Richard Neave, who recreates the face of a man of a similar age whose skull was found in the area where Jesus lived.

The man is thick-set with brown skin, dark eyes and black hair.

Another hotly contested topic is whether Christ would have a long beard as He is often depicted.

Taylor previously said He may have had a short beard, which was then considered the "natural look", and with quite short hair on His head.

A new Amazon Prime documentary claims that Jesus "was Greek not Jewish".
The doc's claim suggests a Greek man named Apollonius may have been the true face behind the New Testament.

The preacher, who was born around the same time as Jesus in Central Anatolia, is said to share a number of striking similarities.

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When was Jesus born?

The modern calendar is based on the supposed date of the birth of Jesus - with years before called BC (before Christ) and years after termed AD (Anno Domini, Latin for the year of our Lord).

This system was devised more than five centuries after the event, and scholars reckon it could be out six years or more.

Accounts of the Nativity in the Gospels of St Luke and St Matthew do not mention a year or a season.

Matthew says Jesus was "born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king".

Some historians believe King Herod the Great died around 4 BC, based on when His heirs dated their reigns from after the kingdom was split between them.

Matthew's gospel also suggests Jesus could have been up to two years old when he was visited by the Magi (wise men).

Herod is said to have ordered the massacre of all boys in Bethlehem up to the age of two "according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men".

That would mean Jesus was born in 6 BC at the latest.

However, other historians say Herod may have died as late as AD 1, and the mass killing of infants never happened.

St Luke says Jesus was born during the Census of Quirinius, which is believed to have happened in the first year after Quirinius became the Roman governor of Syria in AD 6.

Some scholars have suggested Luke may have made an error and Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem because of another census ordered by a different ruler.

December 25 is the date of Christmas for most people, although Orthodox churches in Russia and Ethiopia celebrate it on January 7.

It is believed the date was chosen by the early Catholic to tie in with pagan midwinter festivals.

The real date may have been spring or autumn if shepherds were in the hills with their flocks.

One scholar says the most likely date for Jesus' birthday was April 17 in the year 6 BC.

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Where did Jesus die?

All four Gospels says Jesus died when Pontius Pilate was governor of Roman Judea.

He is said to have ridden on a donkey into Jerusalem, the major city of the region, on the Sunday before the Jewish festival of Passover.

According to the Bible, Jesus and His disciples had their Last Supper on the Thursday evening, which counts as the Friday in the Jewish calendar (a day runs from sunset to sunset).

After the Passover feast, Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.

In the morning he was sentenced to death by Pilate. He and two crooks were taken to be crucified at a place outside the city called Golgotha ("place of the skull" in Aramaic"), also known as Calvary.

Jesus died a few hours before the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath, according to the gospels. This means he died around 3pm on Friday.

He is said to have risen from His tomb on Sunday, which is celebrated by Christians as Easter Day.

The second century writer Tacitus said Jesus was crucified on the orders of Pilate during the reign of Tiberius, who was Roman Emperor until AD 37.

Passover begins on the night of the first full moon after the spring equinox, or sometimes the second in a "leap month".

Isaac Newton used astronomical data to estimate the most likely date of Jesus' crucifixion was therefore Friday April 3, AD 33.

Other astronomers have suggested Friday April 7, AD 30, as another possible date.