Some really are a stretch. For example here we have the Waldmuller painting of "Scots-Irish" Jesus and Aryan Samaritan woman.
Posted on 12/22/2023 1:19:32 PM PST by nickcarraway
IT’s nearly here! The birthday of the selfless one himself. The man, the myth, the legend, saviour of all humanity, Jesus Christ.
However, it is actually widely debated that, if he did exist in flesh and blood, his birthday was actually on December 25. One theory suggests that the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ may have been Venus and Jupiter coming together to form a bright light in the sky, a rare event that occurred in June of 2 B.C. Another possibility is that it could have been a similar conjunction between Saturn and Jupiter, which was in October of 7 B.C. So nobody really knows.
Anyway, whenever that famous night was when there was ‘no room at the inn’, the birth is agreed to have taken place in Bethlehem, which was just south of Jerusalem, in the Middle East. If this is something that is not debated by scholars, then isn’t it a little strange that most modern depictions of Jesus Christ in the western world show him to have fair skin and light hair? Whilst not impossible, if we take a look at people native to the Middle East, typically they have dark hair, and olive to dark brown skin. So why would we assume that Jesus looks any different to the average person of that area? The Bible does not mention anything about the appearance of Jesus, apart from stating that he did not stand out in any particular way. Even more reason to assume that he was not a pale, white man roaming around!
In their book, ‘Legacies of likeness’, Scholar Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey argue that in ‘the centuries after European colonisation of the Americas, the image of a white Christ associated him with the logic of empire and could be used to justify the oppression of Native and African Americans’. Another theory of this possibly inaccurate image is that it is mostly white people who have painted these depictions.
Whatever he looked like, he is a symbol of selflessness, forgiveness, and an inspiration to how man can embody his goodness and true human nature. However, representation matters, and viewers of his image should ponder and understand the complicated history of these portraits of Christ that they consume.
It’s important to remember that Jesus lived in the Middle East, in the region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel and Palestine. People in this region have diverse skin tones, ranging from light to olive to dark.
Since we don’t know how Jesus looks like, all we can do is speculate.
Who knows, but He was God’s only begotton son so there’s that.
I remember seeing an Inuit rendition of Jesus and he looked and dressed like an Inuit.
He lived in the Middle East. Odds are he wasn’t blonde and blue eyed. It just quite frankly doesn’t matter.
No. If he was the only white dude for hundreds of miles, they scarcely would have needed a Judas to point him out in a crowd, or anywhere else for that matter!
Q. Was Jesus white, black, or somewhere in between?
A. Yes.
So if you’d prefer to see Him as being somewhere specific in that continuum, why not?
Brighter than the Sun..................
Jesus was Middle Eastern and Jewish. I doubt that He was very light skinned, although He could have been a ginger (ruddy) like King David.
Making Him white in paintings was the artists making Jesus look like themselves and is understandable.
Supposedly the Men of Gallilee were a bit darker than average, so that is what I imagine that Christ looked loke.
Not only are liberals obsessed with skin color, as if that’s all that matters when judging a person, but they expect and assume that everyone else is as well. And if we don’t believe it’s all-important, there is something wrong and we must be racist or something. But is anyone truly “white”?
“IT’s nearly here! The birthday of the selfless one himself. The man, the myth, the legend, saviour of all humanity, Jesus Christ”
Well bless her heart.
Just a wild guess here but I’m guessing little Jenny’s not a devout Christian.
I suspect the whole story was written just to suggest Jesus is a myth.
We are all Africans.
Likely Olive skinned.
Some really are a stretch. For example here we have the Waldmuller painting of "Scots-Irish" Jesus and Aryan Samaritan woman.
He was depicted as black in the early Ethiopian church.
What does white mean?
If you mean the old European definition which says white is only someone who is English or southern German, no.
If you are going by the modern definition of anyone with skin lighter then a paper bag on the untanned portions is white, maybe.
He was probably not black, was not Han Chinese, Native American, Aborigine or any number of other things.
He also was not good looking. That we do know from scripture. The rest is speculation. Every culture has drawn Him like them. That is fine.
Exactly. It is like the Christmas song: “Some Children See Him.”
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