Why is Jesus portrayed as a white anglo-saxon man?

Question

when obviously, he was not... He was born and bred in the middle-east, so why should he be portrayed as anything other? And why is christianity not the dominant religion of His birthplace? To an un-educated person, learning about the different religions, i would be drawn to the countries where it apparently all happened.
Are westerners so arrogant as to believe we are the ONLY right ones?
What about Muslim, Islam, Buddhism even?
Please dont take my words too literal, you know the question that I am asking.....
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Each culture interprets an alien religion to fit into their own culture when it is forced on them. The Western Europeans did this to make it palatable to themselves.

He is portrayed as western European because it is the western Europeans who went out and forced the majority of the world to believe in Christianity.

Answer 2

"Why is Jesus portrayed as a white anglo-saxon man?"

What makes you think that he is always portrayed as a white man? There is plenty of art depicting Jesus as other skin colours.

"when obviously, he was not... He was born and bred in the middle-east, so why should he be portrayed as anything other?"

Artistic license.Most artists who painted Jesus were Europeans,and they would have painted what they were familiar with.

"And why is christianity not the dominant religion of His birthplace? To an un-educated person, learning about the different religions, i would be drawn to the countries where it apparently all happened."

That's a very complicated issue.Israel has had a long history,and has been under the control of various groups over the centuries,many of which were hostile.

"Are westerners so arrogant as to believe we are the ONLY right ones?"

Uh,what? You mean we can't have an opinion about what is the truth,because that's arrogant?

"What about Muslim, Islam, Buddhism even?"

What about them?

Answer 3

Why is Jesus portrayed as a white anglo-saxon man?
The image of the white Christ comes from Roman
Catholicism. Rome, where they were mainly white. They protrayed Him in the way that most people there looked like. Since Catholicism is the biggest subreligion of Christianity, it's the main image of Christ.

And why is christianity not the dominant religion of His birthplace?
Bethlehem isn't were he lived. He lived in Nazareth. Holy wars caused Jews to flock to Israel, thus making it the dominate religion.

Are westerners so arrogant as to believe we are the ONLY right ones?
That's because the majority of Westerners aren't exactly aware of other cultures and religions. I believe it's more ignorance than arrogance.

What about Muslim, Islam, Buddhism even?
Yeah, those are religions...What about them?

Answer 4

Your Question: Why is Jesus portrayed as a white anglo-saxon man?
God's Answer: Can be found in the Bible that sit somewhere in your home, possibly with its pages still stuck together because no one is studying it.

On the eighth day, God made Et Ha AAdam. The Man. A very special Man. From this man will come Jesus Christ.
The definition of the name, Et Ha AAdam means ruddy complected or able to show red in the face. Who tell me does this call to mind? A what we call today a Caucasian.

You sound so sure of yourself as you go on with the rest of your question. Why should Christianity be the dominate religion of the place He Jesus was born? This makes little or no sense.

Don't ever forget this. Christianity is not a religion, but a Reality. There is such a huge difference between the two.

Instead of searching for religion, do what Jesus Christ wanted us to do. Believe on Him and allow Him to be the Way; the Truth; and the Life.

If you were able to go back to the early days, you would have been able to see God working with all His people. Everyone had the Truth back then. The people fell away and made gods of their own. Fast-forward back to the present and just try to find a person that does not know the name Jesus Christ. We are all called, but few are chosen. (but few make the choice)

When I read here from people like yourself that have no faith in God's Word,(Jesus Christ) it makes me wonder why they would go public with for all the world to see. It just goes to prove that you need to read, study, and rightly devide the Word of God. Hope I have been a help to you.><>

Answer 5

Jesus (pbuh) is portrayed as the Pope wanted so that more Europeans would convert to a religion where the savior looked like them.

But an educated person should see through this because Jesus (pbuh) in the Bible is said to have hair of wool, does that sound like a white guy no.

Jesus (pbuh) was more likely to be Arab or African. At this time in history the Jews looked more Arab not European. The Jews of today living in Israel came from a few 100 years of living and intermarrying in Europe and Russia

Answer 6

I don't think most people think he was white at all. I personally thought is was common knowledge that he spoke Aramaic. He had curly, but long hair. He would of been very bronze.

Aramaic was spoken in the middle east. And the most spoken remaining Aramaic language is Arabic. That should give you an idea what he should look like.

Also in the Bible Jesus was rejected by his own. That's why he started teaching th gentiles. When Jesus died and rose again he opened the door so that ALL could serve Him, and all could be saved by his grace. that is our belief and it based on the Bible, which is where we all of our understanding of Jesus and the heart of Christianity.


Wikipiedia says
Most scholars believe that Jesus spoke Aramaic with some Hebrew, and possibly Greek. Generally, scholars believe that the towns of Nazareth and Capernaum where Jesus lived were Aramaic-speaking communities[citation needed], that he was knowledgeable enough in Hebrew to discuss the Hebrew Bible, and that he might have known some Greek through commerce as a carpenter in nearby Sepphoris. Accordingly, Jesus is believed to have addressed primarily Aramaic-speaking audiences.

Answer 7

good evening! i hope you are well. because, back in the day it was used as justifed racism, that's why 'eesaa (jesus) a.s. was portraded as a white person. let's be honest with ourselves...in life 'eesaa a.s. most lickly looked like an arab, he had olive/beidgh looling skin & dark hair. where would you have found european-looking person in the middle east then?!!!! another point i mean to ask, i don't mean to step on any toes with this statement. the reason the u.s. government & the world is so up in arms about islaam is once islaam is introduced into an area & given enough time, have you ever noticed that it becomes the domanant religion? "just like in the middle east of today" as i write this. right now there are more muslims in the u.s. right now than jews? (a/b 5,000,000,) either from immaghrtion or converts. because with time, islaam tends to displace other faiths, you don't believe me??? look around the world! islaam is the worlds fastest growing religion, just last year alone, there were more converts to islaam, then converts to christianty all it's denoinations combined. in a funny way the strife around the world involving islaam is doing nothing more than spreading it. and further more contary to the myth islaam isn't spread bt the sword...if that's the case why is it spreading so fast in the u.s.??? if it's so oppressive to women, then why are 65% of it's converts women? do they want to be oppressed? of couse not because true islaam up-holds women for the backbone of man-kind that they are, not degrade them. and this statement is from an american born muslim man.

Answer 8

I think the main reason is that the most famous painters of portraits of Jesus were Italian, Dutch or Spanish. Many of those artists never travelled much outside of their own country. Therefore they painted what they knew. I have seen portraits of Jesus a a black man and, in San Francisco there is a portrait of Jesus as a chinese. (That one is kind of cool) some of the famous painters depicted Jesus as a likeness of themselves. Some depicted Judas or Satan as people they did not like. Many artists were commissioned to paint biblical themes with the rich person who ordered it as the bible character. That is kind of arrogant, but it was common in the old days. As for the reason Christiantiy is not the dominant religion, The bible says He came to his own but his own received Him not. Hope that helps

Answer 9

Give the man 2 points. Jesus was NOT white, NOR was he of the Jewish faith, though CHRISTIANITY would have you believe the OPPOSITE of these two points. Prejudice and racism is the answer you seek. What is in the world today is what the "white" man made it. A money making venture which instills excuses for murder and has little to do with the TRUTHS of Jesus.......

Answer 10

Google artwork of Jesus he is of many different shades of skin and many different types of hair color. The most common of course is some kind of middle eastern type.

Hardly Anglo Saxon.