Why is it that people still think Jesus Christ was a white man? We all know its not true but the lie perists.?

Question

Look at the region from which he was born and raised. It's the Middle East and I'm sorry..middle easterners do not look white. Also, as a child, if you study the bible, you will know that Jesus was hidden in Egypt to avoid slaughter of male children at the time. Egypt is NORTHERN AFRICA..northern Africans also do NOT look white. Yet the depiction of Jesus is some dude who looks like he could ride a Harley with a black leather vest and shades...blue eyes..long brown hair and a beard. Why do we persist with this fake image of Jesus???

Answer 1

Why does anyone care what color he was? What he did trascended race. Don't be so sure you know what race he was either, North Africa was a different place under the romans than it was after the arabs took it over.

I've seen Jesus depicted as Thai, East Indian, Ethiopian, Chinese and more. The pictures weren't what were important, what was important was who the pictures were depicting I've also bought a calendar in Cairo at a christian church that depicted him as he is depicted in the commonly used drawing of the west. You seem to have a bigger problem with the depiction than actual Egyptians do. And for all we know, the Holy Spirit inspired that depiction because it actually was what Jesus looked like.

Answer 2

In the two thousand or so years of religious imagery of Him, He has taken many forms. Typically the image of Him will reflect the characteristics of the culture of the artist who has created the artwork.

There is little to no description of His physical appearance in the Bible.

Check out a documentary called "The Face:Jesus in Art" if you want to see a discussion of your very question.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005BCK2/104-9499435-1527166?v=glance&n=130

It reveals that there is a document discovered (or perhaps written) in the thirteenth or fourteenth century that offers a description of Jesus, and images by European artists after that time tended to follow those extra-Biblical descriptions.

There was also an interesting change over time; depictions of Jesus went from presenting him as a young shepherd boy (as seen in this first century statue of the Good Shepherd house at the Vatican) to a stern, long-haired, bearded man (as presented in this mosaic in Hagia Sophia).

http://www.christusrex.org/www1/vaticano/PC1-Shepherd.jpg

http://www.biblewheel.com/images/christ_pantocrator_hagia_sophia.jpg

This is all very interesting stuff to me. I do not know that HOW He is represented matters, but it is WHAT He represents that is important.

But I certainly understand and share your concerns that you state here.

Answer 3

The Bible is a poorly written collection of mythes. Jesus is just one of many examples of the god-man myth common to the Middle East at that point in history. His story is not much different than that of Osirus, Attis, and/or Tammuz. As a fictional character, his race is irrelevant.

Answer 4

i know! since i was a kid i knew that. because back in the day white people were crazy and thought everything good should resemble them, even some today would like to think jesus was blonde hair, blue eyed, with pink lips and pale skin. If we were to be realistic he was darker, probably with thick eyebrows and look like a lot of middle eastern people today.. but whatever

Answer 5

do no longer cut back the hair on the climate of your head or clip off the perimeters of your beard. ~ Leviticus 19:27 do no longer think of that I even have come to abolish the regulation or the Prophets; I even have not come to abolish them yet to fulfill them. ~ Matthew 5:17 (Jesus Christ) If Christ got here to fulfill the regulation then he could have adhered to the regulation in Leviticus and for this reason does no longer have cut back the hair on the climate of his head or clip off the perimeters of the beard. He had no elegance or majesty to entice us to him, no longer something in his visual appeal that we could continually choose him. ~ Isaiah fifty 3:2 The scripture above is prophesying approximately Christ. So what ever Christ gave the effect of as a guy he exchange into no longer desirable or proper in visual appeal. God purposely did no longer exhibit Jesus' finished visual appeal in scripture so as that it does no longer reason conflict between races and peoples appearances. God is love no longer conceitedness.

Answer 6

If Jesus wasn't white then white skin wouldn't be a sign of superiority. Without that how could you justify crimes against humanity based on skin color? The entire concept of race is nothing more than a meaningless prejudice, ultimately there is only one race, Human.

Answer 7

I have agreed with what you are saying for years now, however I don't think it really matters. There is a song that I have on itunes (a gospel song) that is by Kirk Franklin says that "Some say You're black, you're white
They question if you're real
We treat you like we treat ourselves
I wonder how you feel
To see your children fight inspite
of the tears for us you've shed
Doesn't matter what color youare
As long as your blood was red
."It doesn't matter whether our savior was white, black, or of middleeastern descent. What matters is that he was the lamb that was slain for our sins and that his blood was red.

Answer 8

the evolution of man makes the skin become lighter, thus the "white man" now is what was the first race and the "black man" now is the newest race. Everyone else is in between. This is not to say that jesus was white, i do not know but is possible that he was and it is possible that what his race was is now the "white" race.

Answer 9

how do you KNOW otherwise? does it matter what race he was and what he is depicted as now? Would he want you to concern yourself with this??? there are enough problems in the world to worry about that are far greater on the race of someone... even Jesus

Answer 10

where is this survey showing people think Jesus was white? and why do folks here keep insisting on presenting straw man fallacies as questions?

everyone I've ever talked to knows Jesus was a Jew.