Race And Appearance Of Jesus
The race and appearance of Jesus have been discussed on a number of grounds since early Christianity, although the New Testament includes no description of the physical appearance of Jesus before his death and its narrative is generally indifferent to racial appearances.
Despite the lack of direct biblical or historical references, from the second century, various theories about the race of Jesus were advanced and debated. By the Middle Ages a number of documents, generally of unknown or questionable origin, had been composed and were circulating with details of the appearance of Jesus. Now these documents are mostly considered forgeries. While many people have a fixed mental image of Jesus, drawn from his artistic depictions, these images often conform to stereotypes which are not grounded in any serious research on the historical Jesus, but are based on second or third hand interpretations of spurious sources.
By the 19th century theories that Jesus was European, and in particular Aryan, were developed, as well as theories that he was of black African descent. However, as in other cases of the assignment of race to biblical individuals, these claims have been mostly subjective, based on cultural stereotypes and societal trends rather than on scientific analysis. For two millennia a wide range of artistic depictions of Jesus have appeared, often influenced by cultural settings, political circumstances and theological contexts. Beyond being Jewish, there is no general scholarly agreement on the ethnicity of Jesus.
Read more about Race And Appearance Of Jesus: Biblical References, Early Church To The Middle Ages, Emergence of Racial Theories, Acheiropoieta and Reported Visions, Artistic Portrayals, See Also
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“Ye say they all have passed away,
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There rings no hunters’ shout;
But their name is on your waters,
Ye may not wash it out.”
—Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791–1865)
“[It is possible] that the race of red men ... will, before many generations, be remembered only as a strange, weird, dream-like specter, which has passed once before the eyes of men, but had departed forever.”
—James A. Garfield (1831–1881)
“You speak of poverty and dependence. Who are poor and dependent? Who are rich and independent? When was it that men agreed to respect the appearance and not the reality?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“He was carrying our blood.
One blood.
To pray, Jesus knew,
is to be a man carrying a man.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)