I know, probably not what you expected! Certainly not the face that's hanging up in churches or your grandma's house. But according to AI, Jesus probably looked more like this than your hippie neighbor.
I mean, it makes sense. For one, just think about where he was born. Do you really think he came out with pale, white skin? Also, this AI program was fed descriptions of Jesus taken from the Bible, so, who are we to argue with a non-biased technology? I give you, Jesus.
Mary Magdalene, sometimes called Mary of Magdala, was a woman who traveled with Jesus as one of his followers. She is one of the witnesses of his crucifixion and resurrection. She's mentioned by name more than most of the apostles and more than any other woman in the gospels, besides Jesus's family.
Like much of the Bible, she's yet another Biblical figure that is shown as being fair-complected with long, red hair. The red hair is a Western portrayal meant to communicate sinful lustiness. But as you can see here, she is darker-complected—and though her hair is covered, it's safe to assume it's a dark brunette.
Versions of Moses have been depicted for quite some time. From portraits to movies to animations to books, Moses is a popular figure! Considered the most important prophet in Judaism and one of the most important prophets in Christianity, Islam, and other faiths, he's known for the plagues in Egypt, parting the Red Sea, and receiving the Ten Commandments straight from God.
Usually seen as an old man with a long, gray beard and a kind of wild head of hair with an expression to match, the AI image shows us a slightly different take. Here, we see him not only with a long white beard and long white hair, he's also quite bald on top. That's a bold take on the prophet!
Adam and Eve were the first people to walk this earth, according to the Bible. So what did the first man and woman look like? Most portraits depict them as light-skinned, with an average build. Eve has long, flowing hair, while Adam has what we may consider an average-looking male hairstyle. Oh, and they're naked, of course.
AI thinks of these two figures as having darker skin than other portrayals, dark hair, and an average to slender build. Eve is not entirely sans-clothes, sporting a necklace—did she make it, or did Adam make it for her? Based on this analysis, I'd say we had some attractive ancestors!
Martin Luther is most well-known for his criticisms of the Catholic Church in his famous Ninety-Five Theses, which eventually led to his excommunication and the development of a whole new branch of Christianity named after him. While he was by no means the only important figure in the movement, he is often considered one of the biggest figures in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.
We actually have quite a few artistic depictions of Martin Luther, and this AI-generated image seems to be pretty similar to those, but with much more detail...and a few questionable elements. The high degree of texture in his skin makes poor Luther look like he's just gotten home from a wild night out. And what happened to the guy that made his irises different sizes?
In Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods who reside on Mount Olympus and everyone's favorite deadbeat dad. After narrowly managing to escape being eaten by his father, Zeus would go on to become the god of thunder and the sky in the pantheon of the numerous Greek deities.
This AI-generated image does a pretty good job of depicting this famous deity. The background, coupled with his flowing white hair and beard, definitely give off some serious sky god vibes. But once again, the finer details leave us with some major questions—like why his index finger looks like it's a big toe.
Mother Teresa was a Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity, a religious organization still in operation today that aims to provide "wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor." She was officially canonized as a Catholic saint by Pope Francis in 2016, a little less than twenty years after her death.
The AI program was fighting an uphill battle with this image, considering we have so many real-life photos of Mother Teresa to compare it to. And let's just say that these results are a bit...interesting. We understand that Mother Teresa lived to be almost 90 years old, but in this image, it looks like the poor woman is so old she's started to petrify in place!
In the Gospels, Peter is one of Jesus' twelve disciples and often features frequently in the stories from these books. Unfortunately for Peter, his biggest claim to fame is denying Jesus on the night of his crucifixion after repeated assurances that he would do no such thing. Peter is also considered to be the first bishop of Rome, according to Catholic tradition specifically.
Considering that no one actually knows what Peter looked like (or if he existed at all), the AI program's guess is as good as anyone's! And we have to say that this image isn't half bad by AI standards—all of Peter's body parts are in the right place and are the right shape and size, which is not always something you can say about these photos!
Paul the Apostle is one of the most important figures in early Christianity, and fourteen letters found in the New Testament are attributed to his authorship. According to the Book of Acts, before his miraculous conversion to Christianity, Paul was a pharisee known for his persecution of and violence towards Christians.
Considering that Paul is one of the biggest figures in his religion, this AI-generated image kinda did the man a little dirty. No one else on this list looks remotely as slovenly or chubby as Paul does—if you look closely, it sort of appears that Paul is just standing there with his tongue sticking out! This is definitely one of the funnier results of AI image generation we've seen.
When it comes to Buddha, the first thing that comes to mind are the golden statues. But if we look past that, to the paintings of him, we often see him cross-legged, eyes closed, with a serene look on his face.
In this AI rendition, we see his eyes open, somewhat of a smile on his face, and a much more detailed account of his features. It's very interesting to see the program still found a way to incorporate the gold that is so often associated with Buddha, even if it's just as an aura around his face! As much as we hate to admit it...this Buddha is kind of hot.
Muhammad was an Arab religious, social, and political leader. He is traditionally known as the founder and prophet of the Islam religion. Born around 570 CE in Mecca, there are, of course, no photographs of him, only paintings and portraits, and even those are now frowned upon by certain groups of Muslims.
Thanks to AI, we get a more realistic view of him. His portrayal here looks to be aligned with the majority of his images—dark skin and facial hair, with a serious look on his face. Like many of these images, his eyes just aren't quite right. Unfortunately for him, there were no plastic surgeons in the ancient Middle East!
David is one of the most well-known kings of ancient Israel and is considered to be a major figure in the three Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The two biggest stories associated with him are his defeat of the giant Goliath as a boy and his adulterous affair with Bathsheba while he was king.
The AI program that created this image of him clearly had lots of thoughts about the famous king's hair. His hairline has receded so far back that it's probably time for the monarch to consider just shaving it all off. In contrast, his facial hair is definitely on point in this image!
Abraham is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He's known for the depth of his faith and unquestioning obedience to God—even to the extent of sacrificing his son Isaac. Thankfully, he is not asked to sacrifice his son in the end, a ram is substituted.
Abraham is commonly depicted as an old man with a long white beard and long white hair to match. AI seems to think of him as an old man with white facial hair who likes to keep it trimmed up. Clothing-wise, AI and other portrayals are consistent—he is shown wearing robes and head coverings.
While Jesus is obviously the main focal point of Christianity, his mother, Mary, is another highly-regarded figure from the Gospels. According to the account in the Bible, Mary was visited by an angel who told her that she, a virgin, would give birth to the son of God.
This AI-generated image of Mary is probably one of the best we've seen. Obviously, no one knows what Mary would have actually looked like, but this image does pick up on one artistic tradition associated with the mother of God. In art, Mary is often depicted as wearing blue, which was at one point considered to be a color associated with royalty.
If there's one villain from the Bible that almost everyone knows, it's Judas. This traitor was originally one of Jesus' twelve disciples, but he betrays his leader when he lets the Romans know where Jesus will be so that they can arrest and eventually crucify him. Judas eventually kills himself over his evil deed, and he is replaced as an apostle by Matthias in the Book of Acts.
This AI program better watch itself, or it's liable to find itself accused of heresy! In this image, Judas is depicted as having a halo of light, which is a symbol that is typically reserved only for Christ himself or other important saints in Christian art. Needless to say, traitors normally don't receive such an honor as this.
Kali is one Hindu goddess you don't want to mess with. Though her nature varies from religious tradition to tradition, she is commonly known as the goddess of power, destruction, and time. In one of her most famous stories, Kali emerges from the head of another goddess to devour an entire horde of demons.
This AI image does a decent job of presenting Kali accurately. She is almost always depicted as having dark blue skin, so that part checks out. However, the goddess in this photo just looks way too nice to be someone as fearsome as Kali herself! Does this look like someone who just ate a demon army?
Noah is a prominent figure in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alike, and even outside of those religions, many people are familiar with his story found in the Bible. According to the Book of Genesis, Noah was commanded by God to build an ark in advance of a flood that would kill the rest of humanity.
Unfortunately, the AI really missed the mark with this one, at least if you want to stay true to the religious traditions associated with Noah. Sure, this guy looks like someone you might find in the Middle East. However, according to tradition, Noah lived to be 950 years old and built the ark at around 600. This guy is way too young to be centuries old!
The AI program took another shot at depicting Noah, and this one seems to have got things a bit better. This guy is definitely much older-looking than the first, which is more in line with Noah. However, older as he may be, we're skeptical that even this guy has lived for hundreds of years.
We're not sure why Noah is cueball bald in this image, but it's not terribly out of place. He had a full forty days to kill on the ark, so maybe he spent all of it trying out new and different hairstyles. AI has done worse than this decent depiction of Noah!
According to ancient Greek mythology, Hera is the long-suffering wife (and sister—don't ask) of Zeus himself. She is considered to be the goddess of both childbirth and marriage, which is kind of rich, considering her husband cheated on her all the time. Because of all these affairs, Hera is known to be a very jealous and vengeful goddess.
The woman in this AI-generated image is definitely beautiful enough to be a goddess, but we're not sure that she looks like we imagined Hera. Considering she's the goddess of childbirth, we assumed she'd look a little more motherly. And, considering that Zeus can't keep it in his pants, we assumed she'd look a little more angry too.
Within Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama is considered their spiritual leader. According to tradition within the religion, each new Dalai Lama is a reincarnation of Avalokitasvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion. Their current leader, Tenzin Gyatso, is Dalai Lama number 14 and was born in 1935.
Once again, the AI program was at a disadvantage for this one because the current Dalai Lama is not an ancient figure, and there are a ton of real-world photos to compare this one to. That being said, the program did a great job depicting him accurately. We're not sure why the skin around his eyes is so wrinkly compared to everywhere else, but other than that, it nailed him!
Gabriel has the distinction of being only one of two angels mentioned by name in the Bible. He makes an appearance in the Book of Daniel, but his most famous story happens in the Gospel of Luke when he appears to Mary and tells her she will give birth to Jesus.
Unfortunately for Gabriel, this AI-generated image is a bit short on details. Obviously, we're looking at an angel because he's got giant, white wings But other than that, who this is specifically is anyone's guess! We're not sure why the program went so shadowy for such a bright, celestial being.
The program took a second shot at depicting the archangel Gabriel and did a much better job this time around. In this image, we see him with the classic halo that shows up in traditional Christian art when depicting Jesus, the saints, or an angel. So far, so good.
However, we're confused why the program decided to make Gabriel look so young and androgynous. When it comes to angels, you don't get many that are more important or powerful than Gabriel, so we always kind of imagined him as a buff dude. However, maybe it's a mistake to think of angels in human terms at all!
In Greek mythology, Ares, along with his sister, Athena, was a god of war. Specifically, he was often associated brutality and bloodlust, which makes him sound like a real fun guy. Ares actually doesn't have as many myths as some of the other major Greek gods, and when he does show up, he's often suffering some sort of humiliating military defeat.
This AI-generated image of Ares is actually pretty interesting compared to some of the others. On the one hand, he doesn't feel very Greek to us—he looks more like a knight straight out of King Arthur's court. However, we could definitely believe that this fearsome-looking fighter dude was a god of war.
In the New Testament, while God is considered to be Jesus' true father, Joseph, the husband of Mary, is still considered to be his earthly father. We actually don't get a lot of stories about Joseph in the Bible, aside from the one where he is understandably confused after an angel tells him that his wife is pregnant and the baby isn't his.
There aren't a ton of artistic traditions regarding Joseph, so this guy that the AI program generated may as well be him. Like most of the people that AI currently render, we've got some serious questions about his eyes and the skin texture on his neck. It's not the most inspiring image ever produced.
Elijah is one of the most important Israelite prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament; however, he's also one of the few that doesn't have a book named after him. His narratives take place in the Book of Kings, and he is one of only two people mentioned in the Bible to be assumed into Heaven before death.
We hope this isn't sacrilegious, but Elijah is looking mighty fine in this AI-generated image. We obviously have no way of knowing what he really would have looked like, but he looks like he would be a hot commodity on the ancient Israelite dating scene. Unfortunately for us, Elijah was also celibate, according to tradition.
Jezebel is such an infamous character in the Bible that her name has come to be used as an insult against women thought to be deceitful or excessively promiscuous. She appears in the Book of Kings as the foreign wife of king Ahab. When she ties the knot, she brings the worship of Baal and Asherah into the kingdom of Israel and eventually gets tossed out of a window because of it.
Honestly, we're kind of disappointed with her depiction in this AI-generated image. She's such a larger-than-life personality that we were hoping for something a little more than just a shot of her back. Also, if you look closely, it appears she's standing in some sort of modern-day city, which raises a few questions about this image as well.
Obviously, there's no figure in the Bible more important than the big guy himself. God is a recurring theme in basically every Bible story, and yet we don't get many physical descriptions of him. In fact, there's one chilling passage in the Book of Exodus where Moses asks to see God, and he replies with, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live."
Because of this, the AI program had a lot of wiggle room and opportunity for creative liberties when depicting God. However, it went a surprisingly traditional route and depicted him as a bright light rising on the horizon. It's not the most groundbreaking image, but it is sufficiently generic and reverent enough that no one would probably throw a fit about it.
We started with a Jesus slide, we'll end with a Jesus slide. Again, AI gave us a very different version the second time around—closer to what many versions portray him as. With lighter skin, but not white, and long, flowing dark hair and facial hair, this is probably the version many people today envision him as.
With a historical figure as prominent as Jesus, you would think we would have his description solidified a little more at this point—however, the fact that he lived so long ago and we only have so many descriptions to go off of, it can be hard to narrow his features down to incredibly accurate details. So, for now, we give you AI Jesus.
