Why is Jesus pictured as a white man?

Answer 1

The man that Christianity reveres was a middle eastern Jewish Rabbi and as such would have looked much much like the Jews of today's Israel.

They portray Jesus the way they do because historically, Christianity was a European religion and the early Christians wanted to make Jesus appear as someone who would be like themselves.

Additionally:

The popular "image" people have come to accept today of a Caucasian Jesus is the result of the works of the Renaissance painters who were primariy commissioned by the church and the wealthy of that time... which had its base in Europe as mentioned above.

The church had the "final say-so," however, as to how Jesus would consistently look in the frescos and paintings before the famous portrait painters and sculptors of the time would have proceeded.

Additionally:

Jesus was most likely a Caucasian, as he was probably a Semitic person. Semites are a class of the Caucasoid race.

Answer 2

The people of first century Palestine were Semitic, so they would have been brown skinned, much like today's Sephardic Jews and Palestinians. If Jesus had been different, either black or white, then this should surely have been remarked upon in the gospels. Portraits may show him as Caucasian partly because the artist was more accustomed to painting white people and partly because the unsophisticated art patrons of the Middle Ages expected him to have been white.

Answer 3

No. Jesus was Jewish. He likely looked similar to Middle Eastern people today in terms of coloring.

Answer:

Yes, as a Jew, He was a Semite - of the line of Shem. It does not necessarily mean 'white' only as a color but can include it. It is more about features than shades:

Semite [ˈsiːmaɪt] less commonly, Shemiten1.(Social Science / Peoples) a member of the group of Caucasoid peoples who speak a Semitic language, including the Jews and Arabs as well as the ancient Babylonians, Assyrians, and Phoenicians 2. (Social Science / Peoples) another word for a Jew [from New Latin sēmīta descendant of Shem, via Greek Sēm,from Hebrew Shem]

Answer 4

Most of the artists who portray Jesus are European. You will also see very European features on Jesus portraits. However, keep in mind that those surrounding the Mediterranean Sea are not incredibly dark skinned.

Answer 5

jesus has been pictured as a black man in some communities. No one know what skin color he was for sure. its unfortunate the christian faith and Hollywood over the past 50 years have pictured jesus as a fair haired blue eyed with moderate to fair skin.

Simply speaking, common sense tells us jesus was most likely of middle eastern decent, meaning he would have had am islamic.indian.muslam look about him as well as that color skin.

Answer 6

Probably artistic bias.

Jesus was from the Tribe of Judah, a semitic peoples. He was said to be common looking. He would look then like most common Jews of Israel today look like - not those who intermarried European or other stock. Though Esau was a brother of Jacob and Ishmael a half brother of Isaac, these are differing family branches on the tree of genealogy - cousins and not brothers after the names/generations mentioned and through marriage would obviously have differing features.

Answer 7

Jesus was Semitic, which is a category of the Caucasoid race.

However, he was not "white".

Answer 8

Jesus TRUE identity has never changed. We know that historically, He was a Jew so His skin colour, when He was on earth, would probably actually have been light brown.