LDS Is Jesus White?

[devin553344]

I was wondering what LDS followers believe about this. Is Jesus middle eastern and therefore dark skinned or white in LDS belief?

I know that the pictures of Jesus in LDS church houses are white. So I wondered about this belief.

Thoughts and debate regarding the OP only please. I would like to keep this a scriptural debate:

 

[devin553344]

I will start: Some argue that since Jesus was literally described as being from the line of David he was darker skin: Matthew 1:1

"The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. "

 

[Silverback]

I was wondering what LDS followers believe about this. Is Jesus middle eastern or caucasian in LDS belief?

I know that the pictures of Jesus in LDS church houses are white. So I wondered about this belief.

Thoughts and debate regarding the OP only please. I would like to keep this a scriptural debate:

No one really knows what the Savior looks like, but I would probably say he looks like someone from the Middle East. The US Census Bureau classifies people from the Middle East (Arabs, Persian, Turkish, Sephardic Jews) as Caucasian, so, I don't know.

 

[devin553344]

No one really knows what the Savior looks like, but I would probably say he looks like someone from the Middle East. The US Census Bureau classifies people from the Middle East (Arabs, Persian, Turkish, Sephardic Jews) as Caucasian, so, I don't know.

Thanks I changed the title to "white" and removed the word "Caucasian".

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

Given he was born on the middle east, I'd assume middle eastern. Never understood why he's always showed as a "white guy".

 

[dzheremi]

He's white in paintings and icons made by white people or in cultures that were heavily impacted by the cultures of white people. In other places, He's other hues:

(Indian/Syriac)

(Ethiopian)

(Coptic/Egyptian, from the monastery of Abba Apollo, 6th-7th century)

Etc.

Following this, I would imagine that if Mormonism has any teaching on Jesus being white, it's probably because Mormonism is a religion founded by and for white people.

 

[Sam91]

Revelation 1 14The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

 

[devin553344]

Revelation 1 14The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

Like this?
View attachment 263638

 

[dzheremi]

Where's the sword? Where are the stars? I like it, but can we get a zoomed-out version?

 

[devin553344]

Where's the sword? Where are the stars? I like it, but can we get a zoomed-out version?

Sorry I realized his face shown as the sun so I removed the pic

Can't seem to get it to link in the post again, says error when I tried to show it here for some reason Must be some internet restriction on the pic. Let me see, just had to reference the link and not upload:

 

[mmksparbud]

Like this?

View attachment 263635

I used to like to think that when Jesus returns He would appear to the lost to be whatever color the observer didn't like! To those who hate blacks, He would look black, to those who hate the Asians, He would look decidedly Asian---I would bust out laughing when I though about it as can't you just hear that very loud gasp and then-- "Oh, Oh!!"
--I've always had a rather warped sense of humor.

 

[timothyu]

. Consider where the other 10 tribes ended up, from Greece to Spain, to Portugal, France and the British Isles. All a tint darker than white although the Isles may have lost a bit due to constant cloud.

 

[Jonaitis]

This question is directed toward the Mormon crowd, but I want to answer it anyways.

How we define race today is different than how they defined it then. The Roman and Greeks did not see themselves in relation to the Germanic peoples that surrounded them, and separated themselves from them, to give an example. Nowadays, we group whole ethnic peoples and cultures under one banner and call it a race.

If we want to be honest, the more or less melanin in the pigment of one's skin doesn't really make us racially different. Jesus wasn't white or black, he was Jewish (an ancient racial category) that was defined by one's heritage. Arabs and Jews were not seen as the same race in biblical times, even though they descend from twins of the same man.

 

[devin553344]

This question is directed toward the Mormon crowd, but I want to answer it anyways.

How we define race today is different than how they defined it then. The Roman and Greeks did not see themselves in relation to the Germanic peoples that surrounded them, and separated themselves from them, to give an example. Nowadays, we group whole ethnic peoples and cultures under one banner and call it a race.

If we want to be honest, the more or less melanin in the pigment of one's skin doesn't really make us racially different. Jesus wasn't white or black, he was Jewish (an ancient racial category) that was defined by one's heritage. Arabs and Jews were not seen as the same race in biblical times, even though they descend from twins of the same man.

Thanks for your input, it is of course an open debate.

 

[devin553344]

I should point out one of the reasons I brought this up for debate in the LDS thread was because I wondered about 2 Nephi 5:21-23 and what implications that would have on a darker skinned Jesus, if any of course:

21 And he had caused the acursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and bdelightsome, that they might not be centicing unto my people the Lord God did cause a dskin of eblackness to come upon them.

22 And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be aloathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities.

23 And cursed shall be the seed of him that amixeth with their seed; for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done.

I'm confused about this LDS scripture and its scope regarding darker skinned people?

When I was an LDS member we were taught that Cain also received that curse. But the scripture in the bible appears contrary to that teaching:

Genesis 4:15 But the LORD said to him, "Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him.

Which teaching comes from the LDS book of Moses 7:22

22 And Enoch also beheld the residue of the people which were the sons of Adam; and they were a mixture of all the seed of Adam save it was the seed of Cain, for the seed of Cain were ablack, and had not place among them.

 

[dzheremi]

I'm not a Mormon, of course, but when I asked about that very issue (the 'curse' of the skin of blackness) on this subforum, our resident Mormons were very clear that this was given in order that the people be separated from each other and not intermarry.

Granted, that doesn't change the fact that the verse is literally saying that black skin is a curse from God (and also what can be taken from that as scriptural support against miscegenation, which is something that we know that early Mormon leaders like Brigham Young were very against), but I think they mean it to have a specific application among these two peoples, and so it wouldn't necessarily apply to Christ. (Since He presumably was not a member of the tribes mentioned there.)

I await what they have to say, but until then that's what they told me before. (I can dig up the relevant threads/posts, if necessary, though it might take a while; it was a few years ago, when I first started interacting with Mormons here.)

 

[Sam91]

Like this?
View attachment 263638

I don't have permission to view it

 

[devin553344]

When I became Christian from LDS I asked about Jesus and whether he was white, and the answer I got shocked me because of my taught version, and eventually had to accept that he was middle eastern. Because I had been brought up with white pictures of Jesus. It was liberating to accept a middle eastern Jesus I found it comforting actually. Like I was finally accepting the truth.

 

[devin553344]

I don't have permission to view it

It should be viewable in post #10, sorry for the confusion

 

[devin553344]

I'm not a Mormon, of course, but when I asked about that very issue (the 'curse' of the skin of blackness) on this subforum, our resident Mormons were very clear that this was given in order that the people be separated from each other and not intermarry.

Granted, that doesn't change the fact that the verse is literally saying that black skin is a curse from God (and also what can be taken from that as scriptural support against miscegenation, which is something that we know that early Mormon leaders like Brigham Young were very against), but I think they mean it to have a specific application among these two peoples, and so it wouldn't necessarily apply to Christ. (Since He presumably was not a member of the tribes mentioned there.)

I await what they have to say, but until then that's what they told me before. (I can dig up the relevant threads/posts, if necessary, though it might take a while; it was a few years ago, when I first started interacting with Mormons here.)

That might be a good thread to reference, let me know if you find it.