As Jesus was a Palestinian Jew, why do many pictures and paintings depict him as an Anglo Saxon.?

Question

I had 6 strokes of the cane when I asked this question in Religeous Education for being Blasphemous, and a further six for suggesting that the Teacher was a bigott.(45 years ago).

Answer 1

u know why!!!!

Answer 2

I remember seeing a TV documentary some years ago saying that the traditional blonde, long-haired White portrayals of Jesus that we see are actually based on Alexander the Great, who was a very handsome blonde Greek. (there are lots of statues of him so we know what Alexander really did look like) On the documentary was shown a recently discovered mural or engraving of Alexander dating back to just a few centuries after Jesus, which has Alexander's well-known features - with a halo added on some centuries afterwards. So someone there has turned the face of Alexander into Jesus. This probably went on all the time and spread across the 'white' Christian parts of the world. Jesus would almost certainly have looked pretty much like a normal middle eastern person, rather than a blonde Greek, but this was no doubt a more pleasing image for westerners.

Answer 3

There are no contemporary depictions of Christ nor descriptions about His Looks. Christianity, although born in the Middle East, became strong in Europe before spreading to other parts of the world. European artists had no reference when creating images of Christ so they painted him with European looks which were familiar to them, the same as they did with many other non European historical figures. There was little knowledge about what went before, so if you look at medieval paintings of historical pre Middle Age events, you will see all the scenes as contemporary medieval images (Middle Age European clothing, armour, buildings even if the depicted scene was in ancient Egypt or Rome). Later on, during the Renaissance and posterior periods, the euro-centered (not necessarily Anglo-Saxon, the majority of the paintings are Italian) conception of Jesus became the norm. Your teacher was a bigot but so were most of the people then.

Any picture of Christ is inaccurate, as no one knows for sure how He looked. The image that can be glimpsed from the Holy Shroud of Turin, if authentic, would show the approximate features of someone heavily beaten and deprived of food and rest, hardly a likeness.

As to the Jewish blond people, the time they lived in Europe after the Diaspora and the marriages with other ethnics explain that. Also, see Arthur Koestler's "The Thirteenth Tribe" for a controversial but interesting theory about European Jewry.

Answer 4

They are the image of Zeus. Christianity pick up a few pagan traditions in it's early day. It's also why Christmas is celebrated so close to the winter solstice.

In the middle ages artists were told by the Pope how many hair should be in Jesus' beard etc. which is why art in very old Catholic churches looks so similar.

My sympathies on have much a sadistic teacher. Especially for a subject which is all about asking questions it seems especially cruel.

Answer 5

I think it was not by chance that Jesus came to a part of the world which is the meeting place for so many racial types. Throughout history artists have identified Him with their own kind. If you go to the Far East, for example, He will look very Asian. In India He will look Indian and my own favourite picture of the last supper shows Him and His disciples as East Africans. I think your RE teacher had problems. My teachers would have discussed your point intelligently and probably concluded that pictures of Jesus looking like an Anglo Saxon were singularly unrealistic.
Rembrandt had the right approach. He used to go to the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam and get real Jews to pose for his pictures.

Answer 6

This is just an opinion mind you... but most of the artwork done of Christ was done by or for the Catholic church (the ones blasting the 2nd commandment out of the water), and a vast majority of that at the time of the Holy Roman Emperors. Since that time, I cannot think of a Palestinian Emperor or Pope. In fact, I seem to recall much animosity between Rome and the Middle East all throughout history.

Answer 7

Hello,

Many of the great paintings were done in the middle ages and the vast majority of the people of Europe never ventured more than 10 miles away from their towns or cities. Their world and concepts of life were thus very limited so they identified with what they knew. Even the Romans had the wrong appearances and uniforms 1000 years out of date when you examine the pictures and the architecture was northern European and not in the least similar to Roman Palestine.

Michael

Answer 8

First of all, it must be said that we have no data whatsoever on the basis of which to make a pictorial representation; we have no descriptions of his physical features which would enable even the most accomplished artist to make an approximate portrait. In view of the profound influence exerted by a picture, especially on the minds of young people, we should perceive the peril involved in a portrayal for which there is no warrant, a portrayal which is the creation of pure imagination. It may help to point up the folly to ask: what would be the reaction of a disciple, who had actually seen the Lord in the days of his flesh, to a portrait which would be the work of imagination on the part of one who had never seen the Saviour? We can readily detect what his recoil would be.


No impression we have of Jesus should be created without the proper revelatory data, and every impression, every thought, should evoke worship. Hence, since we possess no revelatory data for a picture or portrait in the proper sense of the term, we are precluded from making one or using any that have been made.


Secondly, pictures of Christ are in principle a violation of the second commandment. A picture of Christ, if it serves any useful purpose, must evoke some thought or feeling respecting him and, in view of what he is, this thought or feeling will be worshipful. We cannot avoid making the picture a medium of worship. But since the materials for this medium of worship are not derived from the only revelation we possess respecting Jesus, namely, Scripture, the worship is constrained by a creation of the human mind that has no revelatory warrant. This is will worship. For the principle of the second commandment is that we are to worship God only in ways prescribed and authorized by him. It is a grievous sin to have worship constrained by a human figment, and that is what a picture of the Saviour involves.


Thirdly, the second commandment forbids bowing down to an image or likeness of anything in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. A picture of the Saviour purports to be a representation or likeness of him who is now in heaven or, at least, of him when he sojourned upon the earth. It is plainly forbidden, therefore, to bow down in worship before such a representation or likeness. This exposes the iniquity involved in the practice of exhibiting pictorial representations of the Saviour in places of worship. When we worship before a picture of our Lord, whether it be in the form of a mural, or on canvas, or in stained glass, we are doing what the second commandment expressly forbids. This is rendered all the more apparent when we bear in mind that the only reason why a picture of him should be exhibited in a place is the supposition that it contributes to the worship of him who is our Lord. The practice only demonstrates how insensitive we readily become to the commandments of God and to the inroads of idolatry. May the Churches of Christ be awake to the deceptive expedients by which the archenemy ever seeks to corrupt the worship of the Saviour.

Answer 9

I think that people picture Jesus as themselves and for the most part we have paintings and movies about Jesus from an anglo-saxon point of view and so we see Him through their eyes. I'm sure that there are some who are a bit racist but for the most part I believe that people just haven't thought the whole thing through---that he was dark skinned with black hair and middle-eastern features.

Answer 10

And since when is art an accurate depiction of reality?

Even Rembrant, when painting some biblical scenes, put in a lot of anachronisms (such as a Dutch door which was not around at the time).

People painted Jesus as they themselves looked, which wasn't Jewish.

Answer 11

Every culture tends to picture their heroes and idols as being "one of them". So if you are looking at painting of Jesus done by Anglo-Saxon people, you will find that most look Anglo-saxon. If you were to travel to other parts of the world, you would find that Jesus as part of their culture.

Simple human nature.