Just Looking at an Answer for another question made me think.....?

Question

Why is the image of Jesus always portrayed as White, if he was from the middle east surely he would have been quite dark in complexion?

Answer 1

Have you ever noticed how little the Bible talks about the way people looked? Why aren’t we told what Abraham, Mary, or even Jesus looked like? Obviously, God did not consider it important.

Interestingly, God once rejected for the position of king a young man named Eliab, whose stature was most impressive! Jehovah God explained to the prophet Samuel: “Do not look at his appearance and at the height of his stature . . . For not the way man sees is the way God sees, because mere man sees what appears to the eyes; but as for Jehovah, he sees what the heart is.” (1 Samuel 16:6, 7) What a comfort it is to know that to God, the One who really counts, our looks are not the important thing! “He sees what the heart is.”

Answer 2

The earliest extant images (I think they were Coptic or Egyptian, circa 300 CE) do show Jesus et al as being darker skin.

But the European image is from the art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, when painters used local people as their models. For divine beings, whether classical Greek goddesses or Mary, they used people who met their local idea of what was most beautiful. For men, they were often labourers. The women were quite frequently prostitutes.

So that iconic image we have of Jesus is actually a really hot Renaissance Italian. Who was very probably homosexual.

Answer 3

If Jesus had existed, he would look more like Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden (who bears a striking resemblance to the image on the Shroud of Turin).

See the article here: http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcfa.htm

Answer 4

Point I've been making for years. Thank you for seeing it.

I think that Jesus is drawn to look like the culture the picture is in - to explain - in a white culture, Jesus is white. In Middle Eastern Culture, he's shown with darker skin and predominantly jewish features. In Africa, he's been shown as very very dark. I've also seen a Chinese Jesus, and a distinctly Grecian Jesus.

Answer 5

not all pictures are like that,im a catholic and my picture is that of the divine mercy,the image sister faustina painted of jesus as he appeared to her,he has a darker complexion and brown eyes,the passion of the christ..the guy who played jesus,hes not "white" and he has brown eyes,i think earlier on people just had this preconception of heavenly beings having the typical blue eyed childlike angelic looks,but he was jewish and yes he would have had a darker complexion and dark eyes.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

Jesus very clearly would have looked like Jews and Arabs do today. Its because white artist prefer to look at a white Jesus. Not saying it right but that's why.

Answer 8

Yes. Most scholars think that Jesus would have been dark haired, with olive skin. There is no real proof either way, but the most logical explanation is that he was dark.

Answer 9

Because it's hard to convince nations of white people (dating back to the middle ages/"dark ages" and before) to sacrifice their money and lives for someone they would have viewed as "inferior" because of skin color. Honestly, and I mean think about it and answer HONESTLY, if I told you that god sent his only pet dog to die for you, would you worship his dog? Would you emulate that dog's behavior? Many ignorant, racist people would never have joined the christian church if they thought a being "lower" than them was the object of their worship. I would like to thank you for applying some logic to a religious topic, it's refreshing! And casting aside racial prejudices is yet another plus, as demonstrated by even thinking to broach the subject. It absolutely "kills" me to think of how the jewish community has been persecuted by christians, when, all said and done....jesus was jewish!!! For the record, he was most likely very smelly, and very dirty....in fact, it's quite ironic that most street bums probably have a better chance of representing jesus in his time than any preacher now-a-days, lol...

Answer 10

This is true of all depictions of Jesus from past generations, however you will find plenty of images from recent years of him looking Jewish/ Arabic