why is jesus depicted as a white person?

Question

nearly 99.99% of pictures always show jesus as a white person and with blonde(ish) hair. surely if you look at where he came from this could not possibly be. i know some of you will say he was concieved with god, if so are you saying god is a white/ blonde also. i am in no way ridiculing what people believe, but i think we have to open our eyes just a little bit more. no offence

Answer 1

You know what? I feel the same way. I have always wondered why as well. I honestly don't think it is right. I can't truthfully answer your question because I don't know why myself, but I will keep on checking back to see what other peoples response to your question is.

Answer 2

We all know there is know way Jesus was a white man.

However Jesus has been humanized to look like the people who are going to that church or what not.

America is the top in capitalization of anything, even religion we pretty much have the market on it too. Jesus is a huge money maker, even if some do not want to admit it. A dark colored Jesus from the far east may not bring in as much money as a white colored Jesus with blue eyes....

Of course this is a touchy subject too. No offense should be taken or received about this topic. It is just what we think and what is.

Answer 3

Revelation 1:14 describes him. He has white hair. Remember reading his eyes was red. And his skin was copper colored.
So I guess he was the color of a penny.
But that is just an illustration. Because spirit creatures which angels are don't have flesh and blood bodies. So he wouldn't actually be any color. Genesis 6 says the angels materialized into human bodies and took wives. So a spirit creature can look anyway he wants. Jesus came back in many different bodies.
Acts 1; says he stuck around for 40 days and showed himself to the people. When Thomas wanted to see where the nails were driven into this hands all the sudden there was the nail holes.
So they don't have a skin color.

Answer 4

These kind of images come about becuase Christianity as we know it today developed in a place where white people lived, Europe. If you look at Ethiopian Orthodox churches, Jesus is Black. If you go to a church in the Yucatan, he looks like an Indian. Even remnant Jesuit churches that went underground in Japan had images of an Asian Jesus. You just see the white one most of the time because the European model is the most popular. The image however should not matter. In fact I think images of people like Jesus just lead to more conflict and misinterpretation than necessary. What's important is what he said.

Answer 5

Actually, I've seen more of Jesus as a white guy with dark brown hair. I've never seen a blonde Jesus. And, there's Bruce Almighty where God is black. Some people also believe that Jesus and or God are women.

Answer 6

I've never ever seen a blonde Jesus! How ridiculous. He's always dark brown haired. True, Jesus was semitic, but think about where Chrisitanity spread. It's not like they could just goole the characteristics of a Jewish man.

Answer 7

He probably wasn't. But when he began to be depicted, who was painting him? White people. Since as far as whites were concerned back in ye yonder year, no other race was good, their savior became a white male with blonde hair, the most acceptable look for him. But you are right. Considering where he came from, he probably had a much darker complexion.

Answer 8

It is because the "image" that people have of jesus is that which was originally portrayed by Rennisance Artists, especially Leonardo DaVinci's "Last Supper" and The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel painted by Micheal Angelo.

In reality, Jesus was described in the bible as short and not particularly good looing. He probably had dark olive or brown skin with an untrimmed beard.

Answer 9

I'd say it's because the first people to paint depictions of him were white Europeans. If the Chinese had been the first, we'd have a totally different picture. Personally, I'd guess he looked Middle Eastern since that's where he was from.

Answer 10

Artists paint what they want to paint, and white artists want a white Jesus, black artists want a black Jesus. His looks weren't mentioned in the bible because for one, they weren't important, and for another, because He didn't look much different than any other Jewish man of that time.

Revelations described Him after He "changed", so that's not accurate during His life. Also, the first humans have already been proven to have been black, so if we're created in God's image, then it would make more sense if God ideed has a racial color, it's black. Our skin, hair and eyes lightened as we moved to colder climates and didn't need so much pigmentation to protect us from the cold.

Answer 11

I agree, Jesus was NOT white. Some people want to believe that Jesus was black but he wasnt black either. He would have looked middle eastern. I think its just because people see what they want to see. Back in the day the peach crayon used to be called 'flesh'. and why? Because the people who came out with crayons were white. Not trying to be racist here but its true in a sense.