would europe have embraced christianity if Jesus were protrayed as a man of color?

Question

If you look at the indiginous people of the middle east, Jesus did not have blue eyes, and light brown hair, as he is depicted in artwork. He would have fairly dark skin, and north african features. I wonder if euros would have chosen to worship Him if he would have been protrayed as he really looked. I KNOW no one knows exactly how He looked, but paleontologists can come pretty close, at least in general terms, and it aint how He is depicted.

to "old guy" idiot? did you even read the question, if so you must be illiterate

Answer 1

Europe did embrace Christianity.

Answer 2

Yes. Besides, not all European artists always depicted Jesus as a blue eyed blond.

Take a look at the iconography of Russian Orthodoxy. While some do subscribe to the blond/blue imagery, in many of the icons Jesus is depicted with swarthy skin and dark hair and eyes. Clearly Middle Eastern Semitic, neither Northern European nor Sub-Saharan African.

Yet there are several images of Black Jesus throughout Europe that date back to the classic and medieval eras. In the British Museum there is coinage that was minted at the time of the Emporer Justinian which depicts Jesus with Africanized features and hair. In Poland, France, Spain and many other places throughout Catholic Europe there are people who revered a "black Madonna" and child. Those images dating from the Medieval era had dark skin and distinct Africanized/******* features. So obviously some of the white Europeans did embrace the idea that Mary and Jesus and a number of saints like Maurice (Moritz), Augustine and other could be of African descent. They didn't reject the idea of Jesus or Christianity or always insist that Jesus look Anglo-Saxon. Much of that didn't come into play until around the 18th/19th Centuries...when some people tried to justify enslaving people of African descent or to promote white superiority. That's when the images of Jesus as black began to get suppressed. However, when the descendents of those people who venerated the Black Madonna immigrated to the Americas, they brought their imagery with them...so you can find "Black Madonnas" throughout the Americas as well.

In the links I've provided, you can see pictures of some of the Black Madonna and Child...and of an adult Jesus.

Answer 3

Initially it was just another cool religion in Roman times. The big development came much later. Christianism was not embraced by Europeans at all. It was forced upon them, used as a power tool from the early middle ages to control the population. You had to be part of it, or you were out of society. It was not embraced therefore !
A big part of Europe belonged to the Kings of Spain who had a serious problem keeping the Muslims out of the Iberian pensinsula. Christianism is an ideal tool to reunite all the European fractions against the "common enemy" as it was seen then by the rulers of that time. You need some icon that resembles you to make it popular, since the idea was to get rid of foreign treaths. Early marketing skills, no ? So Jesus needed to be local style to make sure of total approval.

Nice detail : on the crusades to liberate the "Holy Land" from the occupation of the Turks, the idea was to deliver the grave of Jesus Christ from such terrible oppression. At the first stop in Germany of the big caravan of "Holy Warriors" they killed all the Jews they found in the city. If I remember well, Jesus was Jewish !

Answer 4

I disagree with His features, but the bust of him made about 200 AD showed him as the Jewish nose and I have been told the tribe was dark, but not *******.

I am American Indian and resent being called white or black.

Jesus was Jesus and the spirit was what mattered if He had been blue or green. His physical body did not matter.

Speaking of the pictures, do you think the apostle Paul would have condemned men having long hair if Jesus had had long hair. You can bet your bottom dollar that he had short hair. Jesus was a Nazarene from Nazareth, not a Nazarite or one with a vow.

Answer 5

I don't embrace Christianity because my mind thinks in a Polytheistic way, not a Monotheistic one. It wouldn't matter if Jesus were Jewish, Germanic, African, or Chinese, a Man or a Woman, I can't think there's only one God.

Answer 6

that's why they did do all that stuff, so it could be easier to accept. (or they were just cocky in what he SHOULD look like)

But i don't think it matters. Religion and all that spiritual jazz transcends the mere color of flesh.

And i must protest because of the "looks jewish" comments. That makes as much sense as justifying Jesus' looks through paintings and sculptures that have never seen him.

Answer 7

Christianity came through Rome, which was the most hated country in the world (as it had taken over all other countries).

Answer 8

I'm pretty sure Europeans were the ones who created the that image of Jesus to match their own culture. I don't think they had to embrace anything, they just changed it.

Answer 9

Nah, if Jesus was a black man, Constantine would have promoted the philosophy of some other long dead dissenter.

Answer 10

Jesus of Nazareth if not Christ because of how He looked but who He is and what He accomplished. The paintings are immaterial.