Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: biblewonk
Is Jesus considered white?

Absolutely NOT. More likely that he was ( is ) dark skin and dark hair. On early ikons from Orthodox Church he is almost black.
19 posted on 02/06/2004 1:48:27 PM PST by Fredy (Ne moze nam niko nista jaci smo od sudbine - No one can not hurt us, We are stronger than a destiny)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies ]


To: Fredy
No, Jesus was not black. He was Semite, darker in skin color than, say, a Norwegian, but not anywhere close to a Swahili. In earlier times, Semites were considered Caucasion. Now they're generally accorded a racial classification of their own.
51 posted on 02/06/2004 2:20:00 PM PST by Hootowl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies ]

To: Fredy
Is Jesus considered white?

Absolutely NOT. More likely that he was ( is ) dark skin and dark hair. On early ikons from Orthodox Church he is almost black.

It's admittedly a difficult case to make absent of any accurate painting or other artistic record of Jesus by a contemporary. That said however, the simple and known fact of the region where he came from suggests with virtual certainty that he was neither black nor pale white blue eyed/blonde haired. If we assume Jesus shared the genetic traits of Mary, we can know for certain that he was ethnically Jewish and from the north of Israel, a region where the people of the time are known to have shared Jewish and Roman-to-southeast-European genetic traits.

So what is the most likely image? Brown or black hair and moderately pigmented though caucasian skin. Orthodox icons are also somewhat unreliable for the reasons that (a) the oldest ones have with time itself darkened in all of their shades due to about 1,800 years of candle smoke and (b) the art styles and paints at the time, as with most pre-renaissance paintings, paid substantially less attention to realism than the art of more modern periods. For this same reason, you can find all sorts of icons today of medieval saints from northern russia that appear black as well.

61 posted on 02/06/2004 2:44:11 PM PST by GOPcapitalist
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson