Is it possible that Jesus was a white man?

[madaz]

I have seen some pictures depicting Jesus Christ as a Caucasian, some even depict him having blue eyes.

Do you think it was possible he was actually white?

 

[circuitrider]

No, if by "white" you mean "Caucasian." These are just artistic renditions of Jesus from the culture they were created in.

I've also seen paintings from Africa in which Jesus is painted as an African. You can't go by artistic material as evidence for Jesus' ethnic makeup.

 

[Etheri]

Is this even important?

 

[Eudaimonist]

Do you think it was possible he was actually white?

I don't think that Jesus had even existed.

However, if he had existed, I doubt that he was white, unless you include "Jewish" in the category "white".


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[madaz]

I don't think that Jesus had even existed.

However, if he had existed, I doubt that he was white, unless you include "Jewish" in the category "white".


eudaimonia,

Mark

Cheers Mark. I don't believe the Jesus as depicted in the gospels ever actually existed but that's an entirely different discussion and I don't include Jewish in the category of "white" either.

 

[Albion]

I have seen some pictures depicting Jesus Christ as a Caucasian, some even depict him having blue eyes.

Pictures like that one exist because we all like to think of Jesus as looking like a person of our own race. In other parts of the world, he's depicted as looking Asian or African.

Do you think it was possible he was actually white?

It's very unlikely, but there is an argument that he might have been. However, it assumes that he was either born of a human father or that Mary was not Jewish.

 

[Iosias]

Jesus was Jewish, thus he would not have been white.

 

[keith99]

Yes it is possible. I'd say about 10 times as likely as him really being a Vulcan.

 

[jayem]

Jesus was Jewish, thus he would not have been white.

Depends on how you define "white." If the Biblical account of Jesus's ancestry is accurate, he would be of Middle Eastern Semitic lineage. If white means exclusively European, then he would not be white.

The vast majority of modern Jews are of European (Ashkenazi) ethnicity. The most current DNA analyses confirm they have combined Semitic, European, and Caucasian ancestry. (Meaning from the Europe/western Asia border region.) So modern Jews are clearly a mixed substock of the white race. And in the US, something like 50% of Jews now marry non-Jews. If this trend continues, in several centuries there may be very few ethnically "pure" Jews left.

New study sheds light on the origin of the European Jewish population

 

[madaz]

Is this even important?

No more important than discussing if Santa suit was possibly green instead of red, but Jesus skin colour maybe of some importance to the anti-middle eastern christians in the bible belt of America possibly?

 

[keith99]

Is this even important?

It rather depends where someone is going with it.

To take the extremes. If a White Jesus is used as an image to white people and the intent is simply that Jesus was in a way a man just like you and me, no problem.

If the same white Jesus is used preaching to Black or brown (or most ironic middle eastern) people and the message is Jesus was white, not like you, then there is a big problem.

And the later does happen, sometime by intent sometimes by accident.

 

[benmaarof]

Was Jesus an albino?

 

[OldWiseGuy]

For the purpose of identifying Jesus with what is known as the white race (as in WASP), Jesus was 'white'.

 

[Dusky Mouse]

I have seen some pictures depicting Jesus Christ as a Caucasian, some even depict him having blue eyes.

Do you think it was possible he was actually white?

Given where he was born? No.

 

[Cearbhall]

I have seen some pictures depicting Jesus Christ as a Caucasian, some even depict him having blue eyes.

Do you think it was possible he was actually white?

No.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

If you really want to be confused read this.

White people - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[RDKirk]

For the purpose of identifying Jesus with what is known as the white race (as in WASP), Jesus was 'white'.

Jesus was a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant?

 

[OldWiseGuy]

Jesus was a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant?

Carefully dissect my post and all will be clear.

 

[RDKirk]

It rather depends where someone is going with it.

To take the extremes. If a White Jesus is used as an image to white people and the intent is simply that Jesus was in a way a man just like you and me, no problem.

If the same white Jesus is used preaching to Black or brown (or most ironic middle eastern) people and the message is Jesus was white, not like you, then there is a big problem.

And the later does happen, sometime by intent sometimes by accident.

I was listening to an NPR program a couple of Saturdays ago in which a middle-aged black Catholic man was describing how the predominantly white Catholic (Chicago) neighborhood his parents moved to became predominatly black over the years.

He went to a Catholic school, and one morning sometime around the point the neighborhood swung "predominantly black," the school principal--a short-but-imposing Irish-American nun--marched into each classroom and replaced each crucifix (at that time depicting a white Jesus) with a crucifix depicting a black Jesus.

In his class, someone dared ask her "why." She replied simply, "Because Jesus probably looked more like you than like me."

The man telling the story made an additional point: She could have had the janitor replace the crucifixes during a weekend. She could have had someone else do it.

But she--the principal, the chief local authority--made the change, and she made it in a way that made it clear she was fully in step with it.

 

[circuitrider]

Good post RDKirk!