Why is Jesus portrayed as a white hippie? (not religious question)?

Question

This question does not deal with religion. It deals with the fact that the image of Jesus is wrong... He doesn't look like that.

Discuss...

I don't know what he looks like... all I know is that image of white Jesus with long hair is wrong.

Answer 1

She was given a picture of Jesus to color
in her Sunday School classroom that day.
If she would have asked me the color of His face,
I wouldn't have known what to say.
Warm brown like her brother's? Or peach like her parents' ?
Or tan like her own golden hue?
But she didn't ask me the color of His face--
she colored it blue.

Would his hair be in black flecked with gray like her Daddy's?
Or would it be copper like mine?
Or silver like Grandma's? Or maize like her cousins,
with a layer of gold for some shine?
Or gray like her Grandad? Or dark like her own,
a cascade of silky black ink?
But she didn't ask me the color of His hair--
she colored it pink.

One ear was turquoise, the other was green.
His beard was the purplest purple that I've ever seen.
She made His lips yellow, His neck was in brown.
Then she looked at His eyes and she stopped with a frown.

Had she noticed His eyes were as round as a marble,
with her Daddy's and mine the same way?
The eyes in her picture were not like the eyes
that she saw in the mirror each day.
But you'd think that by now I would realize
how the world would be seen
through my daughter's sweet, 4-year-old, almond-shaped eyes.
For her whole box of crayons was used to portray
the rainbow of love that she found in the eyes of her Jesus
in the picture she colored that day.

She was given a picture of Jesus to color
in her Sunday School class, but you see--
The Sunday School lesson in love that was learned
was taught by my four-year-old daughter to me.

Answer 2

Jesus is portrayed as people looked 2,000 years ago. "Hippie" has nothing to do with it, or anything else. I get the impression you are using the word Hippie as a derogatory word. You probably aren't even old enough to know what a person society named "Hippie" really was or represented. If you did, you may or may not change the way you perceive these people.
In all actuality, none of us really knows what Jesus looked like for sure. He probably wasn't white at all. But why should this matter? Its what he taught and what he represented that we should learn from, and emulate. Wondering what he looked like, what race he was, are all distractions.

Answer 3

Well,well,I am honored to answer a question from someone who has seen our Lord and Savior.Who does he look like to you,Rush Limbaugh?He is portrayed the way he is because of the renditions of the Bible.His clothing reflects that of the period,as does his facial hair and long tresses.If you are assuming Jesus is black or other race,you must be inferring a racist view of the man.He is an image to behold.Something somewhat tangible to hold forth.Perhaps different people see different likenesses as their Jesus.I'm not saying this is necessarily wrong,but it is rather presumptious of you to state that he doesn't look the way he has been portrayed since the beginning of images.

Answer 4

I too wonder why even the so called scholars(history channel,discovery channel,the learning channel) would still{in the 21st century} portray him as a blond haired blue eyed caucasion, or brown haired brown eyed caucasion,and both would be long haired...the bible describes him as hair like lamb's wool and feet like burnt bronze. that doesn't sound caucasion to me.Also long hair on a man in those times were considered an abomination..so he did not have long hair. The semetic people in the time of Jesus were not as light skinned as they are today..they were black then but have now been mixed with the caucasion so their skin is now much lighter..so lipstick7000 where did you read in the bible that he was white???

Answer 5

Well, most people believe Jesus was either olive skinned or black, but yes, we commonly portray him as a hippy white dude with flowing brown locks and sandals. Many people claim Jesus was in fact a black man, since his hair is described as like lambs wool in the Bible.

It's most likely that he was olive skinned being that he was born in Israel, but who knows? After all, it surely all depends on God's genetics too, since he was the father and is therefore partly responsible for Jesus' skin colour/features etc. I guess if God was a white guy, and Mary was Isreali, maybe Jesus did look like that...

Answer 6

I think it just deals with the fact that images of Christ didn't start to show up really until around Medieval times so they based it off what they based everything off of......the Greeks. Christ actually looks a LOT like the Greek God Dionysus (God of Life and Death; Wine) and it's said that they took the image of Dionysus and created Christ rather than actually portraying him as he was. Every work of art was actually more idealistic rather than realistic back in those days so it was more like what they wanted people to look like rather than what was really standing before them.

But I've seen some pretty bad portrayals...such as the made for t.v. movie that makes him look like a model. Hair blowing in the wind and everything. Now I don't think he looked that clean cut and pretty in those days!!!

Answer 7

Take an art history class. No seriously take an art history class. More religous questions are answered when you learn who and why many of the images we see are created. There was some true in the "Da Vinci Code" as to why and what histroy has shown us.

Answer 8

I think the hippie culture took Him as one of their own - you know - the peace and love thing and made Him look like them (have you ever seen 'Jesus Christ Superstar?')
Though I don't know what Jesus looked like, I don't think it matters if you are more comfortable envisioning Him looking more like your culture - after all - we were created in God's own image - to reflect His glory.

Answer 9

I've always wondered this. Blue eyes? What are the odds???? Still, I love the answers too. He wasn't more like a Mexican, he was Jewish. He looked Jewish or Arab I'm sure. I suppose it's possible that artists in the Renaissance Era had no basis in history to imagine what he looked like. Still, he does look like he should be starring in "Hair" on Broadway.

Answer 10

Your right he doesnt look like that. Hes probably a rotting corpse.

He is portrayed that way because the more recent people in power have drawn him in "their image".

Answer 11

Jesus is portrayed in art many ways