why does jesus still get portrayed as slightly tanned white person?

Answer 1

no one knows

Answer 2

For the same reason Santa Claus is a jolly fat guy in a red suit - the media!! And by that I mean not only modern media but everything since cave men scrawled on the walls. It is in our nature to portray our heroes, myths, Gods etc. in our own image or at least an image that we are most comfortable with. The Jesus you're referring to is the one promoted by the Vatican and taken up by the other branches of Western Christianity.

As a result we like the idea he looks like a tanned, healthy looking white guy not Jewish or black or Arabic. It's a bit like the saying "history is written by the victor" in that the people in power create and control our perception of the world around us. For many centuries the "power" was the Catholic Church.

Just as an aside and you probably already know, Santa Claus has only been in a red suit since Coca Cola put him in one for their advertising campaign in the 1920's or 30's......

Answer 3

If he was black or tanned darkly it was seen as an insult to Christianity. Jews and Blacks were considered "scum of the Earth" when really we are supposed to be equal...

It was seen that Arabs and Caucasian people were higher up on the spectrum of who was "pure". Jews and Blacks were at the bottom. Having dark skin in those days meant that you were "impure" and black was NOT seen as a positive colour.

Like people nowadays say they don't like the rain because it turns everything "dark" or "grey" or "black", it is still considered negative due to the darkness of the surroundings.

People say the sun is good because it is bright and makes everything "light up".

If you imagine these opinions on people and race you can see why it was considered bad to call Jesus black or tanned: Caucasians were the highest on the list/spectrum.

There was a lot of racial prejudice in those days...

I hope that helps...

Answer 4

Because Jesus the man was of Semite ancestry and He lived in the Middle East. That olive toned skin from the region of the Mediterranean usually tans easily. And from the Gospels, we know he ministered outside a lot.

And, yes, you are right...
Depictions of Him are purely imaginative, and rarely represent the few vague descriptions in the Bible.

Answer 5

Is it because Middle Eastern folk are white, slightly tanned people?

Answer 6

Because that is the "historical" portrait of Jesus. Early Europeans wanted the Savior to look like them. Although the Bible is quite clear that he "had hair like lambs wool". He would have simply looked like your everyday Jewish man 2000 years ago.

Answer 7

because put it this way jesus is a product that people have to advertise so that other people like believers believe in jesus, so the people in charge of advertising jesus have to make a good presentation about jesus....thats why they put it a bit tanned and everything.........

Answer 8

cos in the days when the bible was written, and when the first pictures of jesus were created, people still thought that black people were like animals, and should be treated as such. stupid, huh? i guess the idea just sorta caught on. to be honest, i have no idea. this is just a stab in the dark. lol

Answer 9

Because he is anglo-saxon and spoke the english of King James silly.

I'm being sarcastic...

Check this out:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcfa.htm

Answer 10

Why are the women on commercials always beautiful? It's marketing Baby! Give'um what they want, and they'll want what you're selling.

Answer 11

Jesus was, Is, a Jew. All Jews have like olive colored skin.