Jesus's Race (yeah I'm taking it there)?

Question

Why is it when the issue of Jesus's race come up, people always say "It doesn't matter if he was purple or green or blue" or they say "No one really knows what race he was" but almost every picture u see of Jesus whether its on TV, church, or at someone's house(white or black), he's portrayed as white? No one ever actually comes out and says "Jesus is white", if they did no one ever said it to me. Obviously it is most peoples opinion that Jesus is white right? So excactly how do we know what race Jesus's race really is? And if we dont know, why is he portrayed as white, is that like the default race?lol

Answer 1

Of course Jesus was not caucasian! Mary was from the line of David, and she was a Jew. Jesus was Jewish. White is not the default race. WHO on earth actually thinks Jesus was white??
In Jesus's time, anyone that wasn't a Jew was called a Gentile, and a caucasian person would be considered a Gentile.

Answer 2

Religious paintings began in the Middle ages and continued through the Renaissance until today.

Although some where done in mediterranean and byzantine areas of the world where people where more tan, the majority where created by European white people.

That's why they are white. Because the people that created them were white, and back then context wasn't thought about and neither was the concept of being political correct.

Also, unfortunately, some European countries believed that people in the Middle East were less civilized then themselves, so it would have been a disgrace to make Jesus dark or black.

Nowadays, the image of him as white has been around so long it is seldomly changed.

Although scholars and anyone educated agree that he was most definetly dark if not black. He lived in the desert for 40 days!! Hello?!?!

Answer 3

When Moses and the other Jews left Egypt they like Moses were brown skinned same as the Egpytians. The Jews frowned upon race mixing with Caanites that were most likely tanned.
Invasions by different cultures mainly the Macedonians enslaved Jews and the races mixed. After this Rome conqured Israel.
Jesus was born at this time who I say must have had a light-medium brown complexion.
During the Diaspora when Rome destroyed Jerusalem the Jews were sent and/or ran to different countries.
Hey, but didnt some Jews stay? Yes they did and when the Muslims conquered Jerusalem some became Muslims others were allowed to follow their religion. The big kicker here is what happened to the brown skinned Jews? Well when the European crusaders conquered Jerusalem they slaughterd them along with Muslims and every other brown skinned person in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. It is true! Even in that movie The Kingdom of Heaven Orlanda Bloom said to Suleyman that they slaugheterd every Muslim there.
'THE JEWS TOOK REFUGE IN THEIR SYNAGOGUES AND WERE ALL BURNT WITHIN. MUSLIMS WERE KILLED AS LONG AS THE BLOOD LUST LASTED" A Christian Witness at the crusades time.
"OUR MEN FOLLOWED THEM KILLING AND BEHEADING ALL THE WAY TO THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON. THERE WAS SUCH SLAUGHTER THAT OUR MEN WADED IN BLOOD UP TO THEIR ANKLES..." Duke Godfrey
With all the Jews dead in Jerusalem the European Crusaders could make Jesus any color they choose.
The Jews that are in Israel today are European Jews not the original ones at the time of Jesus.

Answer 4

Well, Jesus is of Mediterranean descent (Aramaic), so he would most likely have had a somewhat Olive complexion. That isn't hard and fast, as King David was said to have been a ruddy youth with red hair. Today, there are many blond haired, blue eyed Jews (intermarriage?). Since most Mediterraneans are considered Caucasians, the odds are Jesus was too. Despite what Chris Rock said in "Dogma."

Answer 5

Jesus is portrayed as white because Leonardo Da Vincci painted the first picture of him, it's his idea of what Jesus looked like. Everyone after that just kept the illusion. I have seen though some portraits where Jesus isn't white, I've seen black, tanned, just depends of the ethnic background of who's it it.
As for Jesus' race, he was born of a Jew, so he's Jewish. And remember, the Jews are the chosen people. So kinda works.

Answer 6

People obviously like to recreate Jesus in their own image.

Jesus was likely very semitic-looking, with typical middle eastern coloring and features.

He probably wasn't either white, or black.

You can certainly find pictures of Jesus that reflect virtually every race and/or culture.

Click the link to see what some people think he might really have looked like:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcfa.htm

Answer 7

Jesus was a liberal Jew, olive skin tones, dark brown eyes, black hair......

The white default jesus was the creation of artists in the middle ages that painted a Jesus that looked more like the local king, several pictures of jesus may in fact be portraits of the rulers at that place and time and were done to curry favor at court.

The Aryan nation guys will tell you that Jesus was a Viking prince, blond, blue eyes that came to Palistine to unmask the Jews. There are Africans that portay Jesus as a black dude because it helps them relate.

Answer 8

It's pretty easy. He was a Jew. The Bible says he was a Jew. His parents were Jews, his siblings were Jews. Jews still exist in this world. Look one (or many) up and see what color they look like to you. Portrayals of Jesus in the past were made to look white because the artists were white and the church fathers who commissioned them were white.

Answer 9

he's just portrayed to be white because the huge churches that built cathedrals and such were all made by white catholic people, so naturally they made all of the depictions of jesus white, and i think that's where it started. had those churches been built by africans or something and had discrimination not been such a big issue back in the day, i'm sure modern day views of jesus would be black. i personally think jesus was more arabic looking (he was from the middle east, after all).

Answer 10

Being that Jesus lived in the Middle East, I have never thought he was white.