Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Jesus the Black Icon

Yesterday's Guardian featured this article, the result of a poll in black newspaper New Nation:

Jesus the black icon tops list of greatest
Hugh Muir
He [Justin Onyeka, deputy editor] said many of the paper's readers would think of Jesus as having been black. "In the Bible he is described as dark skinned. Throughout history we have been presented with him having blonde hair and blue eyes, but that idea is not commonly believed.

"He never wrote a book, never recorded a hit song, never made a movie, never sought political office, nor did he ever have his own official website - yet he remains a major figure in the world's two leading religions."
I think he'll find that the Bible doesn't describe Jesus' appearance at all, but I am in favour of informed speculation on this.

2 comments:

Peter Boaz Jones said...

It's basically true as Mark Goodacre says. However, through deduction - since Jesus was from the Tribe of Judah - Jewish, and was descended from the Royal Jewish genealogical line, the weight of the evidence would indicate as most Jews are white, and that they originated from Shem (Sem: Douay spelling)- hence the term anti-Semitic, and are classed as Caucasoid (Caucasian), as well as Jesus having to be pointed out who He was, from the disciples when He was arrested, indicates otherwise.

Anonymous said...

Jesus was Middle-Eastern. It is likely he looked like a present-day Palestinian. For instance, given a choice between Yasser Arafat (chosen as an example of the best-known Palestinian) and Robert Powell, I think it's more likely Jesus looked like Arafat. Also, do not assume Jews of the diaspora look like their ancestors of 2000 years ago.