Gotta admit, my recollection is that it came from a History Channel doc on the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, said statue of Zeus being one of them.
And unsupported, that don’t cut it.
I’ll hunt around…
A few years back there was a supposedly scientific reconstruction made of how Jesus might have looked, based on archeological and forensic evidence of people who lived in that area at the same time:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/1243954.stm
Of course the problem with this is that that face is a reconstruction of some random person. He could resemble the historical Jesus as closely as I resemble, say, my next door neighbor (which is to say not at all).
What if he was… like one of us?
Just a slob like one of us?
Looking at the statue of Zeus, again, I could easily see it as the template for several paintings or statues of God the Father and at least one statue of Moses. I have a hard time seeing it at the physical inspiration of any representation of Jesus.
Here is a sixth century Italian image of Jesus, seated, at the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, but he does not look much like Zeus.
From the 4th or 5th century at the Catacomb of the Via Latina, here is an image of Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman.
Here are some images from a fifth century baptistry in Ravenna: Jesus between two angels, Jesus before Pilate, and from the Archbishop’s residence, Jesus as a legionaire fighting the serpent.
A quick review of several early images of Jesus (note the clean shaven image and the “Roman” hair styles.
(I have seen images of Jesus in Greek iconography from the period, but I have not had luck, tonight, finding them online.)
He’s Lucius Verinus!! 
Maybe He was a communist?
One of the reasons for the popularity of “WASP Jesus” images is that mass-production of religious tracts for missionaries got going in force among (duh) Western European and USAmerican “white” societies upon early industrialization. You take a look at iconography from the “mission lands” themselves up to like the 15th or 16th centuries and as mentioned you see the convert artists often rendering Jesus and the Saints to look more like the local population. In any case, the archetypal “WASP Jesus” looks oddly uncharismatic, if you ask me…
“neatly trimmed beard” in the OP
As of this post, there’s one for a “Unique crown of thorns” made from the same sort of bushes as grow in the location…
He was The Original Liberal…
I have seen some Christian art in Africa with Jesus and Mary having features and colouring very much like the local populations.
You are observing the long-standing artistic tradition of having the central character resemble the people who paid for the painting.
Regarding Western European art:
I’m not seeing Jesus based on the Zeus from Olympia. Nah.
The earliest images of Jesus show him as a beardless young man-- some time before Galla Placidia-- for example the sacophagus of Junius Bassus and in the old catacombs like the one called “Pietro and Marcellinus.” Later on when western Europeans decided that Jesus looked like they did (for various reasons, some of them less related to an idea of ‘realism’ than devotional functions of art) a forged letter attributed to a fake Roman lieutenant named Lentullus appeared which gave JC’s description much as we know it now-- light brown hair, firm brow, tidy beard, etc etc. This was taken as truth in the medieval era-- a bit of back-engineering for a by-then conventional appearance.
Of course in one of the oldest images of the crucifixion I’ve seen (a bit of 2d c parody graffiti from Rome) Christ appears to have a donkey’s head. . .
Hey, you can use the ;j whenever you please. Observe:
Jesus was white! ;j
Jesus was black! ;j
Jesus was Semitic! ;j
His head and his hair were white as white wool; white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze…
Revelations 1:14, 15
What are we to make of this? His hair was white, and his feet were brown. As any obsessive sunbather knows, that’s just the way you end up by the end of the summer.
Hair like snow, eyes like fire (as in REALLY red), and feet (more than likely) covered in dirt. This was who the man was.
It was because of the “neatly trimmed beard” remark in the OP.
I need a cite for that so much tat, if it is denied, it is enitrely possible that I shall sneeze uncontrollably and continually for hte next 19 years.
I’m certain I saw him on a bus.
a paraphrase from an old Second City routine (the improv troupe, NOT the TV series):
God (telling Jesus of his upcoming assignment on Earth): …and all the artists are going to paint you to look like a Gay Norwegian.
Jesus: What am I really going to look like?
God: Frank Zappa
16th Century English?
So, Jesus in Edgar Winter?