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The town of Bethlehem in the West Bank, some six miles south of Jerusalem, is revered by millions as the birthplace of Jesus
Originally posted by Agit8dChop
www.archaeology.org...
The town of Bethlehem in the West Bank, some six miles south of Jerusalem, is revered by millions as the birthplace of Jesus
Im sure there's a good explanation 'someone' can give me,
But from what I understand, Palestine is an ARAB land.
Jesus was born in Palestine, so wouldnt he be a dark skinned arab?
whats with all the whiteskinnned portraits?
Originally posted by Agit8dChop
and yes, he had olive skin, scruffy dark hair and eyes, IE Arab.
Tim Wise, progressive writer from Nashville, Tennessee points out that the earliest representations of Jesus, Mary, and Christ's disciples appear in the catacombs of Rome, where the first Christians, known as Essenes buried their dead. All of these portrayals show a dark-skinned Messiah. In addition, the Roman Empire under Emperor Justinian II minted a gold coin that pictured Jesus. This coin, which today can be viewed in the British Museum, shows a man with clearly non-white facial features and tightly curled hair, consistent with the description of Christ in the Book of Revelations, wherein it is stated that Jesus had hair like wool, feet the colour of burnt brass, and resembled jasper and sardine stones: both of which were brown in colour.
Originally posted by XphilesPhan
Originally posted by Agit8dChop
and yes, he had olive skin, scruffy dark hair and eyes, IE Arab.
The Jews and Arabs maybe closely related, but there are differences. Hebrews are not Arabic, yet they share common linguistics. They are considered different racial groups.
Different societies have depicted Jesus and most other biblical figures as their own ethnicity in their art, for example he is primarily white in the West, and black in Africa.
Source.
Originally posted by Implosion
His appearance is of course completely irrelevant, and it is his message which is important.
Originally posted by rocknroll
Originally posted by Implosion
His appearance is of course completely irrelevant, and it is his message which is important.
Great point!
Originally posted by rocknroll
Jesus was born a Jew. God specifically chose the Jewish people to fulfill His plan of redemption and provide a Savior through. Therefore if the Jews wanted to.....although most would rather not.....they could say "He looks like us."
I would imagine he had brown hair, brown eyes, a fairly decent tan from walking about, and was fit (he was a carpenter). He was most likely a very ethnic looking Jew.
Originally posted by wellwhatnow
Jesus' message was indeed important, but a stained-glass picture could be worth a thousand messages.
White folks only wanna hear the good [stuff] — life eternal, a place in God's Heaven - but as soon as you hear that you're gettin' all this good [stuff] from a black Savior, you freak. And that, my friends, is called hypocrisy. A black man can steal your stereo, but he can't be your Savior.
Originally posted by wellwhatnow
Jesus' message was indeed important, but a stained-glass picture could be worth a thousand messages.
It is important to note that Samaritans were despised by the story's target audience, the Jews. The Samaritans were also largely taught by their interpretation of history to hate Jews. Thus the parable, as told originally, had a significant theme of non-discrimination and interracial harmony.
Originally posted by wellwhatnow
I think his appearance is completely relevant.
Consider a few hypothetical examples:
If Jesus had been black and had always been pictured that way, do you think that African-Americans would have suffered so much violence and segregation in the US? Would there have had to be a civil rights movement at all?
If Jesus had been Arabic and had always been pictured that way, do you think we would handle Iraq the same way we are now? Would we have tortured the detainees at Guantanamo?
Jesus' message was indeed important, but a stained-glass picture could be worth a thousand messages.