Was Jesus white?

[A window to the soul]

Jesus was whatever color of skin you think he should be.

Did you get the memo that Jesus existed in real life? I think the OP is serious.

 

[onemoretime]

Did you get the memo that Jesus existed in real life? I think the OP is serious.

The ethnicity of a carpenter/itinerant preacher from Roman Palestine named Yeshua ben Yosef has practically no bearing on this subject. That guy most likely had a swarthy complexion, like Palestinian Arabs or Mizrahi Jews of the present day.

What makes this question so compelling to so many isn't about that guy, but the Jesus archetype.

 

[A window to the soul]

The ethnicity of a carpenter/itinerant preacher from Roman Palestine named Yeshua ben Yosef has practically no bearing on this subject. That guy most likely had a swarthy complexion, like Palestinian Arabs or Mizrahi Jews of the present day.

What makes this question so compelling to so many isn't about that guy, but the Jesus archetype.

Agreed! For some, the only acceptable answer lies in the question, "what do you want to hear?"

 

[Southern Kross]

When I lived in Israel I found the majority of Arabs and Jews (of varying origin) are virtually indistinguishable in terms of physical features. When first greeting someone, I was often was confused as to whether "shalom" or "salaam alaykum" was in order.

I imagine Jesus would have looked rather like many modern day Israelis, certainly not lilly white.

 

[wolfy]

I know he had a white halo.

 

[Ginkgo]

Is Ginkgo's dick white?

 

[Riva]

What does it matter what colour he was? Well.... I am wrong. It would be a nice point to discuss. Discussing history is a fun thing to do. But people getting their blood boiled due to his skin colour is a pretty sad thing.

 

[Ginkgo]

Given the list of his supposed descendants and where they were from (between the Tigris and Euphrates, around the area where Turkey meets Iran, Egypt, around Palestine and Israel before the 1940s-50s diaspora made it a lot whiter), it stands to reason he wasn't. I don't know a lot of white people who are both born in and descended from those regions, personally. Generally Middle Eastern looking seems like a safe bet.

Most Christian nations tend to portray Jesus as looking like their most prominent ethnic background. Very white, very black, whatever. These are of no use as evidence.

Some years ago there was a sort of study done to try and approximate what Jesus would've looked like given what we know about his geneology in the Bible, the time, and the place. Their final model looked like this:

They should have made him smiling from ear to ear.

 

[Fluffywolf]

 

[Red Herring]

Obviously Latino!

 

[Lark]

We are all made in God's image, this is why all theories of racial superiority and hierarchy based upon appearence are heretical and wrong thinking.

 

[Lark]

Nah, he was definitely a dude. And a jew. Therefore semitic. Whether that's white or brown is up to... Eugenics or whatever crap.

Genetics.

Eugenics is the good which any knowledge of genetics ought to achieve.

 

[Gish]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-07/uom-grc071411.php

 

[Fluffywolf]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-07/uom-grc071411.php

Awesome. So it's finally proven now. :O

 

[Stanton Moore]

There is an old Catholic mission in St.Ignatius, Montana,on the Flathead reservation. A priest there painted a portrait of Jesus in which he is depicted as native-American, complete with halo and buck skin coat. It's actually quite beautiful.

Surely the historical Jesus he didn't have blue eyes. He was also part neanderthal:

http://news.discovery.com/human/genetics-neanderthal-110718.html

You won't find that in your catechism...

 

[FDG]

part neanderthal? what kind of shit is that?

 

[Gish]

If you're not pure native african, you're not pure human, you are part neanderthal.

 

[Lark]

The transfiguration of Jesus interests me and what it could involve or mean, the passages describe him glowing or becoming brighter than the sun. I wonder if there was any change in appearence at that point. There are more than one of the passages involving people meeting him before and after the crucifixion which indicate that they did not recognise him right away but he eventually revealed himself to them.

I'm never sure whether this is a case of him revealing himself as in master of disguise reveals his true identity, the scooby do reveal, or a more esoteric sense, the old testament is full of instances were people meeting angels unawares and there's even counselling or support for the view that you should treat all strangers well as they could be prophets or angels unbeknownst to you. I really like the continuity between those ideas and Jesus description of the final judgement in Mathew in which he describes people who refused to assist him saying "if we'd known it was you" kind of things and it not going down well or being a valid reason for their choices.

I liked the idea that Jesus was semitic when the articles testifying to this end first came out and thought it was fine, I know of some Irish people, southern Irish, who really didnt like it and prefered their own iconoclastic renditions of him as a caucasian of vaguely european descent. What spoiled it for me was when some more hardline jewish elements used the "Jesus was a jew" message to smuggle in some really hardline anti-Christian rants, I mean real angry, this "mere mortal wasnt even that popular a rabbi and Christianity is the invention of anti-semites and self-hating jews anyway".

 

[Craft]

If you're not pure native african, you're not pure human, you are part neanderthal.

What are you talking about? It's widely understood that the neanderthal came from Africa and is probably best categorized as a type of homo sapien. The latter is due to the fact that if a species is able to reproduce with another then it shouldn't be considered as a separate species.

 

[Gish]

What are you talking about? It's widely understood that the neanderthal came from Africa and is probably best categorized as a type of homo sapien. The latter is due to the fact that if a species is able to reproduce with another then it shouldn't be considered as a separate species.

Defining species is not that simple. Polar Bears and Grizzly bears can reproduce fertile offspring, yet they are separate species. The first "proto-neanderthal" traits also first showed themselves in europe around 400,000 years ago, not Africa.

I should note that my previous link explains that a bit.