Why is Jesus always portrayed as a white man?

Answer 1

He's not always.

Some of the earliest Christian icons, especially from the East, portray him with olive skin and dark hair and brown eyes.

What you are referring to is the later Western traditions (Middles Ages, Rennaissance, etc.) of painting Jesus with fair skin, as a caucasian. The reason for that was simply that you had caucasian artists painting Him to appeal to a caucasian audience.

It's not complicated.

You see Jesus painted as an Asian or a black man for the same reasons. Artists are trying to make Him more relevant to their culture.

Maybe not accurate, but certainly understandable.

Pax Vobiscum+

Answer 2

He's not. It depends are where you're from. I've seen him portrayed in many different images. I've travelled around the world, and he's usually portrayed in whatever nationality is prevalent.

If you're talking about television or movies, than you're right, but think about when many of the most famous movies portraying Jesus were written.

Answer 3

The Christian (Catholic) church was ''of the West''-------Europe was the first to embrace it. These people were of the lighter white, so they saw Jesus as they were. He really was a Semite, and a darker shade of Caucasian, but this would not fit in with those who were preaching for the church. Prejudice began a long time ago.

Hypernyms ("Semite" is a kind of...):
Caucasian; White; white person (a member of the Caucasoid race)

Sem•ite

Pronunciation: (sem'īt or, esp. Brit., sē'mīt), [key]
—n.
1. a member of any of various ancient and modern peoples originating in southwestern Asia, including the Akkadians, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs

Answer 4

He isn't always portrayed as White.
Look at the earliest Icons of Jesus Christ for the correct answer.

Answer 5

Many black artists have painted Jesus as a black man; I've also seen him portrayed as Asian! Depends on whether the artists wishes to portray Jesus as a reflection of the artist's culture, or as Jesus would have been--a Jewish man of 1st century Palestine.

Personally, the Scandinavian-looking Jesus pictures really puzzle me.

Answer 6

The church's advertising and strategic demographic advertising departments desperate that a prettyboy might attraction to extra clientele in the eu sector. The white guy is extra like a spokesmodel, or a vanilla Milli Vanilli for Jesus.

Answer 7

Well, since the Catholic Church is in Rome (Vatican) they probably didn't like people from the Middle East during the middle, they made Jesus white instead of looking Middle Eastern.

Answer 8

Because that's the way that the famous Italian and Dutch painters imagined him to be .
Nobody has ever described Jesus who knew him personally . We have no idea of his size - - tall or short , we don't know is he was thin or rolly-polly , we have no idea of the shape of his nose - - a little button or a big banana . What kind of chin did he have ? Any answer is only a guess .

Answer 9

he is usually portrayed as a middle eastern man because bethlehem is in the middle east. if you saw him as white then it was probably a white movie with white people. what a pointless question.

Answer 10

Most artists paint what their audience is comfortable with. The majority of art depicting Jesus that we still have was painted by western Europeans and naturally they would depict Him as like unto themselves.

However, He is was and always will be, in His humanity, a JEW! Olive-skinned, dark-haired, perhaps even curly or wavy, dark-eyed, and the Shroud of Turin shows us a man of 6' in height, athletically built and strong of face and form. In short, He was a hunk! Ain't that grand!?