Pictures of Jesus!?

Question

Why do Pictures of Jesus depict him as having light skin with light hair, when he was from Isreal. wouldn't he have the features as a middle eastern man?

Answer 1

Another person answered that Jesus was a Nazarite whose custom it was not to cut the hair. This is incorrect. Jesus was a Nazarene, a person from Nazareth.

The reason that Jesus is typically portrayed with light skin and light hair is due to two letters excerpted below:

This description of Jesus is from a letter by Publius Lentullus, a Roman Governor:

"A man of stature somewhat tall, and comely, with very reverent countenance, such as the beholders may both love and fear, his hair of (the colour of) the chestnut, full ripe, plain to His ears, whence downwards it is more orient and curling and wavering about His shoulders. In the midst of His head is a seam or partition in His hair, after the manner of the Nazarenes. His forehead plain and very delicate; His face without spot or wrinkle, beautified with a lovely red; His nose and mouth so formed as nothing can be reprehended; His beard thickish, in colour like His hair, not very long, but forked; His look innocent and mature; His eyes grey, clear, and quick- In reproving hypocrisy He is terrible; in admonishing, courteous and fair spoken; pleasant in conversation, mixed with gravity. It cannot be remembered that any have seen Him Laugh, but many have seen Him Weep. In proportion of body, most excellent; His hands and arms delicate to behold. In speaking, very temperate, modest, and wise. A man, for His singular beauty, surpassing the children of men"
http://www.thenazareneway.com/likeness_of_our_saviour.htm
In a letter from Tiberius to Caesar
"His golden colored hair and beard gave to his appearance a celestial aspect. He appeared to be about 30 years of age. Never have I seen a sweeter or more serene countenance. What a contrast between Him and His bearers with their black beards and tawny complexions!"

Another historical description is:
While he is nothing but a man, there is something about him that distinguishes him from every other man. He is the picture of his mother, only he has not her smooth, round face. His hair is a little more golden than hers, though it is as much from sunburn as anything else. He is tall, and his shoulders are a little drooped; his visage is thin and of a swarthy complexion, though this is from exposure. His eyes are large and a soft blue, and rather dull and heavy....'

Answer 2

Think country of origin of the artists: white European artists depict Jesus as a white European. I've seen Jesus drawn as a deeply beautiful black man in Africa. Born as a Jew in Israel, yes, Jesus on earth probably looked as you suggest. He is a personal savior and so it is not strange that people would depict Jesus as looking very much like themselves.

Check out the lyric of this Christmas song :
http://www.alfredburtcarols.com/burt/Web%20Pages/This%20Is%20Christmas/Childrensee.htm

Answer 3

Jesus was a Nazarite: a vow of Nazarites was to never cut his hair but “let the locks of the hair of his head grow.” (Nm. 6:2,5, Lev. 19:27; 21:5) The word Nazarite is from nazar, meaning unshorn. Woolly nappy hair, if simply washed & dried but never combed or brushed, will naturally entwine into long locks as it grows. Samson, the most famous example of locked hair, had seven locks. (Jg. 13:5, 16:17,19)

Hair is a really antenna that can receive and transmit energy! A Rastafarian explains that dreadlocks are a quality of Black people; they “are high-tension wires,” which transmits divine energy and inspiration from Jah [God], the creator, to Rasta, the mirror.” (Nicholas/Sparrow: Rastafarian -A Way of Life) As Blacks awaken to true self-knowledge and self-acceptance this brings, the negative racist conditioning with respect to their natural spiraling, nappy hair as “bad” and straighter hair as “good” will cease!

Whites blew off the Africoid nose of the Sphinx! And destroyed much ancient Africoid art.

Carved from a single rock, the Sphinx was a portrait of the Black Pharaoh Khafre (Cephren). The blatant, undeniable evidence of Black African achievement blew off the Africoid nose and part of the lips with cannon fire! Reporting on the “riddle” of the racial identity of the ancient Egyptians, Count C. Volney, a distinguished French scholar who visited Egypt in the late 1700's, wrote with astonishment “...when I visited the Sphinx, its appearance gave me the key to the riddle. Beholding that head typically ***** in all its features...” He later added “...the Egyptians were true Negroes of the same type as all native-born Africans.” The Sphinx’s broad nose and full lips are evident in an early drawing of the Sphinx as it was found in the 19th century.

The willful and systematic destruction of Africoid art has also occurred in the Americas, Asia and India: Inscriptions and hieroglyphics are defaced or bleached, noses are shot off or chiseled down, confusing nomenclatures are pasted over the evidence, photos are taken from misleading angles or filters, and some evidence is outright destroyed. Europeans replaced the African inscriptions with new ones that credited themselves for the achievement.

Answer 4

Just the point of view of the artist. Is there any racial implications here??? Possibly. But none of that has anything to do with the good news of the gospel. Keep looking to the Bible and Jesus and not to man.

Answer 5

The pictures & movies I've seen portray Him with brown hair, medium brown skin and brown eyes but I don't think anyone really knows for sure what He looks like. Looks are skin deep. The important thing is what He did in His life.

Answer 6

that is the exact same question I ask every time I see a picture of a man thought to be Jesus. I agree wit you 100%

Answer 7

The white skin Jesus was originally used as a tool to keep African Slaves in check. White slave owners forced the belief of a white God to black slaves to make thme feel inferior and to make white people look like Gods themselves.

The book of revelations in the bible states that Jesus had skin the color of brass and hair like wet sheeps wool. This descriptiuon would denote a person of color, not a white skined person

Answer 8

there is amazingly little in Scripture to point what Jesus relatively gave the impact of, yet some OT references to his being a undeniable guy. We get maximum of our photos from Reconnaissance artwork. the truthfully Jesus might have had short hair, as in basic terms lady had long hair in his day (Scripture is sparkling in this). He might, or won't, have had a beard. Many, of no longer maximum men then did shave, yet, many had beards too.

Answer 9

Jesus was Jewish, so he wouldn't have looked Middle Eastern persay, but would have had olive skin with dark hair.

Answer 10

Or a black man.

If there even was one person called Jesus, chances are he would have looked a little like the late Yassir Arafat. But that doesn't sit well with Jerry Falwell, and it didn't sit well with the Renaissance painters!