Why is Jesus Often Depicted as White?

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SUMMARY

The forum discussion centers on the historical and cultural representations of Jesus Christ, emphasizing that he likely had a darker skin tone and features typical of a Middle Eastern man, rather than the common Western depictions of him as white. Participants argue that early church traditions influenced these portrayals to appeal to European audiences, leading to a long-standing misrepresentation. The conversation also touches on the implications of race in art and the importance of accurate depictions in modern representations of Jesus, with references to various cultural interpretations, including "Black Jesus" and Asian representations.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of historical context regarding Jesus Christ's life and the cultural geography of 1st century Israel.
  • Familiarity with the evolution of religious iconography and its impact on cultural perceptions.
  • Knowledge of racial and ethnic diversity in the Middle Eastern region during biblical times.
  • Awareness of the role of art in shaping societal views on race and identity.
NEXT STEPS
  • Research the historical accuracy of religious iconography in early Christianity.
  • Explore the cultural significance of race in religious art across different societies.
  • Investigate modern depictions of Jesus in various media and their reception among diverse audiences.
  • Examine the implications of racial identity in religious narratives and their impact on contemporary faith practices.
USEFUL FOR

The discussion is beneficial for theologians, historians, artists, and anyone interested in the intersection of race, culture, and religion, particularly in understanding how these factors influence the portrayal of significant historical figures like Jesus Christ.

Char. Limit
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Considering his birthplace and homeland, one would expect Jesus Christ (yes, THAT Jesus Christ, the one from the movie and, incidentally, the God for two billion people) to be sun-darkened, and have almost dark skin. Really, Jesus Christ should have the same hair color and skin tone as Salah Al-Din, considering how close their birthplaces are.

In other words, dark tan skin and black or very dark brown hair.

So why is Jesus invariably shown as white with light brown hair?

My only possible answer is quite cynical, and thus possibly not the right one (my answers are never quite right): He was represented that way (FYI: "Thou shalt not worship any graven image") to appeal to Europeans so that the church would spread more in the early stages and tradition took hold from there.
 
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You're absolutely right. He did not look at all like his modern depictions. I'd even guess that he looked more like Bin Laden than Salah Al-Din. He looked distinctly middle-eastern and he probably had short curly dark hair (there are even some lines in the New Testament to the effect that it's improper for a man to have long hair!)

Why is he represented that way then? The early church did not use icons or depictions of Jesus Christ at all. Icons did not become widespread till the Dark Ages. During the Dark Ages, people were quite naive and their knowledge of the world was poor. Very few westerners knew what people in far away lands looked like. When they drew icons and pictures, they used people around them as references.
 
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Well, although the Chinese and Korean (Choson or Koryo?) pictures do not, in my opinion, portray an accurate Jesus, the so-called "Black Jesus" looks to me to be the closest one to the real person.

Although Jesus would look a lot like the Prophet Muhammad, if you think about it... anyone have an image of the Prophet?

Now, before a mob of angry Muslims show up demanding my head (or worse, an apology), it was a joke. I know about the forbidding.
 
Char. Limit said:
Well, although the Chinese and Korean (Choson or Koryo?) pictures do not, in my opinion, portray an accurate Jesus, the so-called "Black Jesus" looks to me to be the closest one to the real person.

Although Jesus would look a lot like the Prophet Muhammad, if you think about it... anyone have an image of the Prophet?

Now, before a mob of angry Muslims show up demanding my head (or worse, an apology), it was a joke. I know about the forbidding.

You jest about Muhammad? Do you know the penalty for this?
 
I'm guessing... I run free because of the anonymity of being on a forum.

But enough about a little jest (it wasn't really about Muhammad, but those Danish guys).
 
My Arabic professor was born in Nazareth, so he postulated that Jesus would have looked a lot like he did. He was a medium-to-light skinned Arab.
 
I'm glad this question/thought is put in the context of logic, and not in the (tiring) context of political correctness.
 
Jesus was middle eastern, and that is how I see him whenever I go to church, or whenever I pray. The whole white Jesus, as it has been said before, is because it is far easier to have someone accept someone as their savior when they are the same skin colour as you are. As far as I know, the church is moving towards a more accurate depiction of Jesus.

Most of the shows about Jesus on various history channels, has shown him as a dark, middle eastern man, with shorter curlier hair. Which looks way better than some albino dude walking around!
 
  • #10
Some arabs look like they could be white. Just because you can look at somebody and say "hey, he looks white", doesn't mean they are. "White" isn't exactly a good description.
Race is a vague description of somebody. Most black people that aren't in Africa have other races mixed with them, yet they're still considered black. Why? Because they look black. If a black person and white person have a child and the darker skin is inherited, the child is black because he looks black. But if those same people have a child and he inherits the light skin of the white parent, that makes him white, because he looks white. Two siblings of two different races, simply because they look different.
Here's a common picture of Jesus:
http://www.photoethnography.com/blog/images/jesus.jpg

Is he white? How do you know? Because his skin looks too light? I've seen Arabs with that shade of skin. Is it because of his hair color? I've also seen Arabs with that hair color. So what makes him white?
You need to widen your own scope.
Chinese Jesus
Korean Jesus
Black Jesus
I could see Jesus looking white or even black, since Africa is right there. But come on, Asian? That just doesn't make any sense.
I'm guessing... I run free because of the anonymity of being on a forum.

But enough about a little jest (it wasn't really about Muhammad, but those Danish guys).
I'll say whatever I want, Muslims don't scare me. If they're reading this and have the wherewithal to track me down and defeat me in battle, they earned it.
 
  • #11
Boy. You're really pushing the realm of new topics to debate. How long has this been around? Every culture has their own interpretation. What is so wrong with that? It has been shown that other cultures have their own. Why hype on the "caucasian version?" How about thinking critically and not hop on the bash-the-white-man bandwagon?
 
  • #12
Not just Jesus, but look at how Mary is depicted! She is also very Europeanized!

Edit: The Native American Christians depicted Jesus as: http://mattstone.blogs.com/photos/christian_art_native_amer/native_american_jesus1.jpg

Also, it is no secret that Jesus was European-wise, not just the skin and hair color, but his facial features, plus it would be ridiculous to say that this depiction:
http://media.bestlatin.net/jesus_teaches_prayer_76f5.jpg
looks Arabic.
 
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  • #13
Mark Twain wrote a short essay relating how he shocked his wife and daughters by asserting Jesus must have been a "negro". He insisted all the locals were dark skinned when he visited the Holy Land, but they accused him of being irreverent for purposes of making mischief.
 
  • #14
Why should Jesus be any other way? He was born in Israel which at the time was jewish land not arabic. jewish =/= arabic.

He was born to a virgin mother. So he's half jewish and half... ?
I think jesus was probably a tanned person but I don't think he was dark like that African American depiction. The way that I see Jesus in most art is as tanned... and you can't talk about his facial features being non-arab because his birthplace was NOT arab at the time so why must he be born with arab features?
 
  • #15
zomgwtf said:
Why should Jesus be any other way? He was born in Israel which at the time was jewish land not arabic. jewish =/= arabic.

He was born to a virgin mother. So he's half jewish and half... ?

Half Arabic ... Doesn't his name has Hussein in it?
Jesus Hussein Christ :biggrin:
 
  • #16
leroyjenkens said:
Some arabs look like they could be white. Just because you can look at somebody and say "hey, he looks white", doesn't mean they are. "White" isn't exactly a good description.
Race is a vague description of somebody. Most black people that aren't in Africa have other races mixed with them, yet they're still considered black. Why? Because they look black. If a black person and white person have a child and the darker skin is inherited, the child is black because he looks black. But if those same people have a child and he inherits the light skin of the white parent, that makes him white, because he looks white. Two siblings of two different races, simply because they look different.

I don't know about other people here, but generally if I consider what race someone is, I look at skin color first, then their facial/bodily features second, then I decide what I think they are. After that I usually ask just to see, but I'm pretty good at knowing from looking. Every race has distinctive features about them that are clues to where they are from, regardless of what color they are. Color is just a good clue to go by, at least for me. If they're dark skinned they could be a form of Spanish, Black, Native American, Middle Eastern, Indian, or Italian (I might have left a couple out). I work in a customer-facing job, so I see a lot of different types of people come through. And I've seen people from all of the "races" that have had the same skin color. So going by skin color is a really bad way of telling what race they are, and you're going to offend a lot of people if you just assume you know someone's race just by the color of their skin.

Here's a common picture of Jesus:
http://www.photoethnography.com/blog/images/jesus.jpg

Is he white? How do you know? Because his skin looks too light? I've seen Arabs with that shade of skin.I've also seen Italians with that color skin, and Spanish people, and Indian people, and white people, and black people. Is it because of his hair color? I've also seen Arabs with that hair color. So what makes him white? The structure of his face. It has a lot more European tones to it than a middle-eastern would.

^^ See above
 
  • #17
FredGarvin said:
Boy. You're really pushing the realm of new topics to debate. How long has this been around? Every culture has their own interpretation. What is so wrong with that? It has been shown that other cultures have their own. Why hype on the "caucasian version?" How about thinking critically and not hop on the bash-the-white-man bandwagon?

One thing I want to clear up here: This was NOT my intent. In fact, this was so far from my intent that my intent can't see it. Radou's comment that it is illogical is so far closer to the truth that it is not funny.

Oh, wait, it is, because my politics include hating those
who irrationally bash white (Christian) men. And I'm accused of bashing... white men.
 
  • #18
Since no one brought this up, I will. Here's a supposedly scientific reconstruction of his appearance:

faces_bbc.jpg
 
  • #19
zomgwtf said:
Why should Jesus be any other way? He was born in Israel which at the time was jewish land not arabic. jewish =/= arabic.

He was born to a virgin mother. So he's half jewish and half... ?
I think jesus was probably a tanned person but I don't think he was dark like that African American depiction. The way that I see Jesus in most art is as tanned... and you can't talk about his facial features being non-arab because his birthplace was NOT arab at the time so why must he be born with arab features?

i'm not sure you had ashkenazi jews at that time, they would have been sephardic and not really distinguishable from their arab brethren. jews that have wandered from their homeland are somewhat more intermarried with the locals.
 
  • #20
hamster143 said:
Since no one brought this up, I will. Here's a supposedly scientific reconstruction of his appearance:

"Scientific" based on what?
 
  • #21
In old cairo - is a little town from the first century near Cairo, There are frescoes on the church from the 3rd C.
Jesus was Aramaic and looks almost Ethiopean (black skin but thinner more european features) in the earliest ones, arabs came slightly later.

But it should be easy to know what he looks like - given that he appears in just about every food stuff on a daily basis in the US
 
  • #22
mgb_phys said:
In old cairo - is a little town from the first century near Cairo, There are frescoes on the church from the 3rd C.
Jesus was Aramaic and looks almost Ethiopean (black skin but thinner more european features) in the earliest ones, arabs came slightly later.

But it should be easy to know what he looks like - given that he appears in just about every food stuff on a daily basis in the US

And these were painted in the 3rd century? You mean 300 years after Jesus lived? I somehow doubt their accuracy after so much time has elapsed. That'd be like trying to paint somebody today who lived in 1700.
 
  • #23
True but it was at least painted by the same ethnic group.
So a painting of a pilgrim father by a modern (white) American would at least be vaguely accurate, compared to a modern American painting of a pre-columbian Indian
 
  • #24
Jack21222 said:
"Scientific" based on what?

Based on what historians know about appearances of lower-class residents of Israel in the 1st century C.E., and an actual skull recovered in a dig in that area.
 
  • #25
mgb_phys said:
In old cairo - is a little town from the first century near Cairo, There are frescoes on the church from the 3rd C.
Jesus was Aramaic and looks almost Ethiopean (black skin but thinner more european features) in the earliest ones, arabs came slightly later.

But it should be easy to know what he looks like - given that he appears in just about every food stuff on a daily basis in the US

But the painters of that fresco may have been doing just what people do now, projecting their own likeness on Jesus.
 
  • #26
zomgwtf said:
Why should Jesus be any other way? He was born in Israel which at the time was jewish land not arabic. jewish =/= arabic.

He was born to a virgin mother. So he's half jewish and half... ?

:smile::smile::smile::smile::smile: Good point!

Clearly God is European.
 
  • #27
hamster143 said:
Based on what historians know about appearances of lower-class residents of Israel in the 1st century C.E., and an actual skull recovered in a dig in that area.

Ah, I see.

"We found a skull"
"Zoom in and enhance"
"He's brown"
"Zoom factor 12 million"
"JESUS!"
 
  • #28
How did Jesus' DNA differ from that of other people?
 
  • #29
zomgwtf said:
Why should Jesus be any other way? He was born in Israel which at the time was jewish land not arabic. jewish =/= arabic.

Failure. Remember that modern Israelites =/= ancient Israelites because of the mass immigration of EUROPEAN and AMERICAN Jews to there after WWII. :p

Jesus was probably not white, and if he was, that would probably be mentioned the Bible because it was so obscure.
 
  • #30
Loren Booda said:
How did Jesus' DNA differ from that of other people?

Well since you ask, I happen to have a picture of it:

10zxq3t.jpg
 

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