Have you ever noticed how,for a Jewish guy,Jesus looks a lot like a Viking?

Question

Just another example of Christianist bigotry,or did Scandinavians live in ancient Judea?

Answer 1

Although I am inclinded to agree with pacrady that this is probably just a "rhetorical question to ... knock some one else's religion", I'm going to go ahead and treat it as if you really want to know and answer it as honestly as I can.

First off, I want to say I also agree with A high ez target, who said, "I'm sure he is portrayed as the same color as the residents whereever his followers are." That is very true. I've seen portraits of Christ from Ethiopia that are black, from Mexico that are brown, and from China that are decidedly oriental. This makes sense given the message of the Gospel that God became "one of us" in human form in the person to Jesus Christ. Therefore, to paint Christ in the image of your ethnic group is not bigotry per se, but rather intense personalization of the "one of us" aspect of who Christ was.

That said, you are probably thinking of this portrait of Jesus called "Head of Christ", painted by Warner Sallman in oils in 1941, based on his earlier 1924 charcoal drawing called "Son of Man":
http://www.warnersallman.com/

Two things are interesting about this portrait in relation to your question. First, it is said that Dr. E.O. Sellers, the dean of the Bible School that Sallman attended for a time, encouraged him to produce a more "manly" image of Christ; that all the current images were "too effeminate." Second, Sallman was born, raised and lived in Chicago, but he was of Swedish and Finnish decent and attended the Evangelical Covenant Church, which was a Swedish Protestant demonimation.

So, yes, you could said it looks "viking" since it was produced by someone decended from the same ethnic group as as produced the vikings. However, contrary to what someone else suggested, this image was not produced by the Catholic Church.

As for why it got so popular, first it was picked up by the Baptist Book Store and used extensively for giftware. Then during World War II, both the Salvation Army and the YMCA had small copies of the picture printed up and distributed to soldiers leaving for the fronts of Europe and the Pacific. In this way, literally millions of copies of the picture made their way around the world. Not surprisingly, since the image was so well known, it was extensively copied, both in other paintings and drawings and in most (but I should note, not *all*) movie portrayals.

As for the long-haired Jesus, the tradition appears to be about a thousand years old, dating from a time when longish hair was popular on men in Europe. Again, if you are painting Jesus, the Immanuel (which, BTW, means "God with us"), as "one of you" then it makes sense to paint him that way. And long hair on men remained popular right up through the 18th century (think of all those American Revolution figures with their ponytails).

However, earlier depictions, such as this one from the 3rd century, don't have long hair:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Good_shepherd_02b_close.jpg

And this Byzantine mosaic from the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (which also does not have particularly long hair) is decidedly more Mediterranian looking than Sallman's version:
http://www.daily-seo.com/turkish-culture/hagia-sophia-1.jpg

For completeness, here are some other non-Nordic portrayals:
http://www.picturesofjesus4you.com/images/black_christ_with_child_lopez.jpg

http://www.gomersall.net.au/AustralianTravels/OzTravelPics/BlackChrist.jpg

http://rastaites.com/images/news/hearticals/wpe16.jpg

http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/~ladelia/images/Jesus%20(India).jpg

http://www.mtso.edu/slancaster/jesus_14.gif

http://www.saintmarys.edu/~incandel/Jesus3.GIF

http://www.saintmarys.edu/~incandel/Jesus1.GIF

http://www.religion-cults.com/images/heart-jesus.jpg

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Answer 2

First of all the "Jesus" portrayed in movies and in pictures wasn't what jesus would have looked like. Second, I'm dating a Dane from Denmark and that's where Vikings came from and no, none of those pictures of jesus looks like a viking.

Answer 3

However people have depicted Jesus' looks, does it really matter? We can assume that the region he was from, he would look like that region's indiginous people. What is the problem? Get past how others choose to depict the Lord and move on.

Answer 4

Have you ever noticed how 95% of the questions asked in Religion & Spirituality are not really questions? But, that they are self serving rhetorical question to either knock some one elses religion to show the rest of the internet how holyier than thou you are.

Answer 5

Yeah cause Jesus was Danish. The Jews thought it was odd, that a Dane should be in their midst, conversant in the scriptures and all that. Yeah, and if you're so smart, how do you explian it?

Answer 6

Totally agree he doesn't look Jewish, there is a conventional image, long fair colored hair, beard, quite thin, white skin- a European look probably popularized by the Catholic church since they published the bible

Answer 7

JUST A ANOTHER ARTIST RENDITION OF WHAT HE LOOKED LIKE HE WAS NOT LONG HAIRED AND HAD FEMININE FEATURES HE WAS A CARPENTER AND THAT BACK THEN WAS A HARD LABOR THAT REQUIRED STRENGTH AND SWEAT HIS HANDS WOULD OF BEEN CALLUSED AND RUFF HE WOULD OF HAD THE LOOK OF PEACE AND UNDERSTANDING ON HIS FACE THAT IS WHY HE WAS FOLLOWED SO EASILY HE LOOKED LIKE SOMETHING THAT PEOPLE NEVER SAW

Answer 8

Because the most commonly known images of him were drawn / painted by Europeans who believed that if there was anything good in the world, it had to be European.

Answer 9

My bloodline comes from the Vikings, so that must mean that I am a descendant of Jesus....but wait, Jesus never married....so....now I'm confused.

Answer 10

You have seen a photo of Jesus? I have been trying to imagine the face of my Savior all of my life and YOU get to see him? So unfair!