Board Thread:Community Engagement/@comment-43329801-20190730042922/@comment-5175866-20190730205331

You are exactly right- Christ probably wasn't (dare I say most certaintly) not white. The Bible does not actually describe what Jesus looked like- we just know that Jesus would have had the same skin color as everyone else around him.

The image of Christ on our Jesus article is not really white as much as it is more of an olive skin color. The Mediterranean skin color of the area Jesus lived has a white tint to it- but certainty is not "Caucasian".

The reason Jesus is often depicted as white is for two reasons:

1. Europeanized artwork- The catholic church commissioned a lot of artwork during the Middle Ages, which featured white Bible people. The look of Jesus being white with a brown beard flowing down his face and long hair comes from this era and has stuck

2. (Related to #1), White-majority, Western countries thinking of Jesus in their own skin color- This sometimes is unintentional (usually) and sometimes intentional. The reason why the medieval portraits are all whites is because it reflected what people wanted to see and may have showed ignorance to the region of Jesus having a different ethnic makeup.

I think naturally everybody envisions somebody to look like them or the majority of people they know. I and most other American Caucasians, probably don't naturally imagine a man named "George" to be Hindi- I would probably imagine him to be a White man. This isn't right- but its our natural tendency.

I think there is much wider awareness now that Jesus wasn't white. Sadly, there are not a lot of great images that compare to the medieval artwork we have. They contain many inaccuracies but are still some of the most beautiful portrayals of biblical scenes we have.

Diversity and appreciation of all people regardless of race, culture, ethnicity and nationality is biblical. Ironically, it seems that conservative ideology tends to get lumped with racism, prejudice and nationalism when a really a biblically faithful understanding of the world realizes that one is not better simply because of nationality or skin color. Diversity is most often championed by liberals and secular society, but I wholly agree that value is something that God holds himself (so long as it doesn't become extreme). Racism and prejudice is something we all do naturally as part of our sinful tendencies- but the beauty is that Salvation is for everyone.

In Christ, Superdadsuper, Sr. Content and Community Manager (Bible Wiki) 20:53, July 30, 2019 (UTC)