If you were asked to describe what Jesus looked like, you'd most likely say that he has fair skin, light-colored eyes and long flowing hair.  

It is this 4th century Byzantine Era depiction of the Messiah that has been etched in our minds from a young age.  

I hate to break it to you but there's a very high chance that he looked nothing like this at all.

So what did Jesus really look like?

A group of British forensic anthropologists led by Richard Neave are convinced that they have the answer.

Neave and his team recreated what Jesus looked like by examining Semite skulls from Israeli archeological sites, analyzing Bible texts and historical evidence.

The forensic artist told BBC that he "made a plaster cast of the skull" as a starting point for his reconstruction of the most famous face in history.

The scientists presented their results on the 2001 Discovery Channel/BBC documentary titled Jesus: The Complete Story and it certainly is very different from the figure we're used to seeing.

See what the Son of God really looked like!

The forensic reconstruction of the Savior's face revealed a starkly different man.

This version is dark-skinned with deep brown eyes and short curly locks that looks like any other 1st century Jewish man living in Israel.

Take a look:

Neave's version of Jesus may be controversial but according to other experts, it may actually be the closest depiction we've ever had.

"Jesus certainly looked far more like that person than me and other males who live in the West," James Charlesworth, professor of New Testament languages at Princeton Theological Seminary, said in the documentary.

"We in the West have for about 2000 years been wrongly influenced by an Aryan Jesus., who looks like us. Nothing is more unfaithful to Jesus," he added.

Do you think Neave's version of Jesus is accurate? Let us know in the comments!