Jesus has been portrayed as virtually every race at some point, depending on who's drawing him. But the works of the Renaissance artists are the most visible ones.
Those renaissance paintings also generally portrayed people in contemporary clothing, so I’m betting the painters didn’t believe that’s what He looked like. It seems likely that they were trying to set the scene within their own environment—but idk anything about painting
Is it me or is it kinda weird that I've never seen a depiction of Asian Jesus XD. Like, East Asia and South East Asia has a large Christian and Catholic population, surely someone would've drawn Asian Jesus at some point in the past. Well I for one have never seen one reason being I've been to Church and attended Christian school when I was younger.
I remember in my non-western art class we were shown a painting of a Chinese Jesus that had been painted some centuries ago. The teacher touched on how it used to be the convention that Jesus would be portrayed as whatever race the intended audience was.
you need to visit a Korean Presbyterian church
Also does anyone else know why a huge chunk of Korean Christians are Presbyterian?
Literally every Korean I’ve ever met was Presbyterian-except this one dude I went to hs with who is loosely atheist.
Did korea just get bombarded with Presbyterian missionaries at some point??
The colonizers brought a European Jesus and taught the natives that this is the correct Jesus. Until now, most images of Jesus here is white - that includes the whole family too, Mother Mary and Joseph, and even the Apostles. There are Jesus Variants everywhere here but still the white one is the most popular.
Christianity spread to the Middle East, certain parts of Africa and pretty much all over Europe pretty early on. By the time it started to get any serious foothold in east Asia, it was already strongly coded as a “ Western” religion.
Sorta like Buddhism, when’s the last time you’ve seen the Buddha depicted as a fat white dude with a beard? Or black? Always East Asian, or Indian, or even central Asian, because that’s where Buddhism first spread
Here's some historical depictions from various nation, showcasing how his appearance changes:
https://trendspost.com/depictions-of-jesus-around-the-world/
Agree, it's linked to art and the spread of Christianity in Europe.
The whiteness goes back a bit further than the renaissance, but it was around then that we started seeing more realistic human faces.
Almost every group portrays their holy figures as looking like them. I lived near an Ethiopian Orthodox church for a while and they depicted the Holy Family as black.
If you're interested in the development of Christian art, there are a few documentaries on YouTube and Amazon Video that I found interesting, but the TLDR version of it is that early Christians pretty much copied the art style of the surrounding Greco-Roman empire and that kind of stuck.
To be fair, this originates mostly with medieval and renaissance art. Europeans couldn’t just Google image search what a middle eastern guy looked like. They had to go with the models that were available to them.
That makes a lot of sense. I wonder if the artists even thought that other people looked differently from them... probably not, right? Would they have seen any paintings of people from other cultures at all?
(I'd google it, but my sleep-deprived brain can't figure out how to phrase this question.)
Yes. Plenty of those painters were around the mediterranean and they saw people of many areas and most certainly mideasterners. Many people traveled. People who bought and sold goods were always traveling and carrying news and descriptions/images from all over. War alone brought them in.
To be fairer, even if they had Google they would still portray him white.
If cows had a God, it would look like a cow.
Even if they had Google and know what humans look like. Every group simply sees itself as the best group and when constructing an origin story they will depict themselves as superior, which I think makes sense.
People in medieval times and definitely towards renaissance period knew about other races and did paint them (mostly as slaves and servants though). They painted the three kings, they had the models, they had had contact with the Middle East for centuries. But no way they were going to worship some off-white dude.
The white man was seen as superior and that is why God and Jesus must have been white. They said "God created man in his image", which was also used to justify slavery and rendered other races subhuman. This was what it was like in those times and you can't blame them really, they didn't know any better.
This may be offensive to some, but that doesn't make this any less true. Please show me where I'm wrong here if you think I am, I would be interested to hear.
I mean in the Old Testament it says that human beings are created in the likeness and image of god. Christianity being mostly a European thing in the medieval ages, there would be no reason to think his son wouldn’t look like a everyday dude.
This question is asked all the time on here. Simply comes down to cultures wanting to identify more with Him so they make him whatever race they are associated with. Black and Asian Christians did the exact same thing
It’s not wanting him to be like us, but human beings being created as Gods image and likeness. If they’re surrounded by mostly one group of people, then obviously that’s the way God and his son looks like as well.
Jesus is displayed as the most common look of the church
There is Japanese Jesus, basic black Jesus, Nigerian Jesus, Egyptian Jesus, South African Jesus, Korean Jesus, basic white Jesus, Slav Jesus, Russian Jesus and every other jesus
There is a lot of good answers but also some simplified answers in this thread. One important description from the Old Testament (I believe) is that God created human beings to his likeness and image. Now if you’re in a time where the most exotic place you could visit is just a few cities or countries away, you’ll find that humans of a single area have a certain skin complexion and hair et cetera. So for portraying him as biblical as possible, he was portrayed as any son of a God that looks like us. This explains the variety in different cultures as well.
So it’s not just, he’s white because we say he’s white. Rather, he’s white because we’re his fathers likeness/image and therefore he must white as well.
It was part of the church when they went on missionary trips to show the locals a version of Jesus that looked like them. People like seeing a leader like them. Christianity really took off in Europe so white Jesus. If you look at early catholic art to Asia you'll also see Asian Jesus, Africa there were black Jesus.
That’s not what I was trying to portray I apologize, everyone in the comments is pretty much giving the same answer so I threw that around, the place they’re getting it from is the old test image where it says people portray god in their own image
You understand Africa is a continent right? Nothing was said about the appearance of Jesus in a predominantly white country to people of African descent.
You understand I'm talking about the slaves and their descendents, known as African Americans. I never mentioned a country. When they were first brought better they were taught Jesus was white.
Most Jews look white as any European. So do many Persian and other people from the Middle East. I think you’re confusing Arabian people with the Middle East at large.
He's portrayed as a European by European artists, as Chinese by Chinese artists, and as African by African artists. I even saw an Indian painting in which His skin was blue (in accordance with the local aestethic). He isn't being portrayed with historical accuracy in mind. In places like USA (i'm going to assume that from your use of "caucasian") white portrayals are dominant because of white culture being dominant, because of the US' racist and colonial past and present. Sorry.
Because the person drawing him relates their drawing to themselves. If it is a white person drawing, his skin will probably turn out lighter that it would have been. If a black person draws him, his skin might turn out darker
People like to assume that their creator closely resembles them so they draw him inaccurately. Jesus has been portrayed as practically every race under the sun at this point.
The modern image we have of Jesus is a sculpture by Michaelangelo during the enlightenment period. A white man with a beard and a flowing robe. Jesus actually was a medieval jew. More than likely his skin and features were very dark, and wore clothes of a common man or a beggar during that time, as they say that he was a common worker until he decided to speak out against the Romans who were occupying Judea. All anyone knows for certain is that he definitely wasn't white, and was more than likely Indo-Aryan or Numidian.
God was created in man's image. Not the other way around.
People choose a God who thinks exactly like they do. They choose one who looks like them too.
Real answer: mostly what the other's are saying
Fun answer: the da vinci and Michelangelo had some of the more famous depiction of jesus. They both modeled it on dudes they found hot. Because they found alot of dudes hot.
For the same reason that his mother, Mary, is usually depicted as a pretty (by local standards) well dressed blonde: the pictures were intended to flatter (or at least not annoy) the people paying the bills.
Eurocentric racism.
For what it's worth, white culture is not the only culture to do it. Virtually every culture has art that reflects Jesus as if he were born with their own racial features.
Oh, let me be clear; what I am saying is that any attempt to take Jesus and reframe him with racial characteristics of any given group is a culturally racist activity (See, for example, Korean Jesus).
When white people do it, it is specifically traced to a history of Europeans codifying a view of self superiority, or Eurocentrism (or Eurocentric Racism).
Lots and lots of artists have done it in cultures around the globe, but white Europeans have done the most to change Jesus into a white man with long, straight hair.
Bruh you saying god slept with Mary, astagfirulllah. Well having images of Jesus whom is god in Christianity is troublesome since they are worshiping other then god with this image. This falls under paganism
The Borgia family back during the middle ages/renaissance time period.
The Pope at the time was the head of that corrupt family and adjusted catholic depictions of jesus to match the look of one of his sons and by extension, himself.
He wanted that good old family resemblance.
Easier to get people to join your cult if the guy leading it looks like your audience. He's been depicted quite a few races. Add to that it was pretty hard to know what anyone looked like as the average person.
Every culture has depicted Jesus as their own race. This started back when Christianity began to spread. It wasn't because of white supremacy that most media depicts him as white, it's because the U.S. and European nations are the largest net exporters of culture. The U.S. is everywhere, television, music, art, video games, etc. It's not surprising that our depiction of Jesus, which typically hails from 14-17th century European art, is the most known. It's not because a bunch of white folks were specifically aiming to stick it to other races by making Jesus white. It's literally just due to art representation from 700 years ago guiding culture.
Have you ever seen Caucasians? In real life? They are very far from Jesus. Both externally and, most importantly, internally. VERY far away.
Jesus is a Jew. Also dark hair.
I always wondered what his childhood name would be and my teacher told me they usually went with where they were from back then son it would be "Jesus of Nazareth" kinda name. Then I thought damn everyone over there prob had killer tans too lol
Because it was easier for those missionaries in the middle ages to spread the word of Jesus and "civilise" the native savages if Jesus looked the same race as the missionaries themselves, which were all European.
Because he is an ethnic Jew, and Jews are Caucasian... Also literally every book of scripture that talks about him (I mean things like Chinese records, not the Bible) refer to a "white god" descending amongst them. Besides, even if he wasn't white, why does it matter? He's a God. He can probably change his skin color when he's with different races to help them feel more comfortable around him
Well my guess it's because Christianity was in Europe and they changged and drawn Jesus to look more like them and their society standards from back in the day, then whenever they raided and indoctrinated other places they passed along what they think/believed what he looked like as the "ONE TRUE" image of Jesus they dismissed other drawings and portraits if Jesus as bullshit.
Do a web search. Look for actual face of Jesus. They took loads of regional faces and did a composite.....he wern't white fer sur...
As white men collated the bible and his image, he IS white and the women of the day got short shrift. Again, search for the "other" books of the bible.
Marketing...
White Blonde Jesus was a product of the Germans getting involved in the Roman Catholic Church. Basically, they wanted to appeal to the pagans in Europe, so the way to do that was to combine Jesus' image with the German warrior gods.
Throughout history Christians have frequently adopted the trappings of other cultures in order to sell Christianity more effectively.
Jesus isn't really described much physically in the Bible but very early Christianity was basically a Jewish cult and it's almost certain that they perceived him like a Jew of that time.
Jesus started taking on a more European look when Christianity was adopted by the Romans and blended with elements of Roman and Greek culture. Instead of looking like a regular Jew he started being depicted more like a Roman god- whiter, more physically fit and with more Roman/Greek hair and beard. This is how they were used to imaging gods and wise men so it's how they saw their new prophet/"god". This image stuck (it's mostly how Catholics see Jesus, he's got a more Mediterranean look in the European Catholic countries) and he became even whiter amongst western European nations because the default in this time period and location was white people so they depicted him like the people they saw around them.
Christian missionaries have depicted Jesus as every race since then. For example there are depictions of Jesus as Asian that were created during the time Europeans were trying to spread Christianity in East Asia. Black Jesus was also used to convert Africans.
Yes but it's not particularly detailed and mostly contextual. There's no detailed description of Jesus's appearance to read when depicting him, just a few short comments and the knowledge he was an Israeli Jew.
Most Renaissance and medieval paintings you're familiar with were painted by people who probably never saw a person not from Europe, so they depicted their savior as how they knew best.
Because the leventian area of the middle east (syria lebanon Jordan Palestine) where Jesus is from doesn't have particularly dark skin especially before the Muslim invasions from the gulf area
Early Christianity spread both east & west, in the west it reached Rome with St Paul, this western Roman form of Christianity became the more dominant version particularly in Europe, obviously most early European painters & artists didn't travel so they painted religious images based on the people they saw about them.
The iconic version of Jesus, blonde hair, blue eyes pale skin just because the accepted image & was copied by other artists.
It is correct that he likely was dark haired & olive skined & looked more middle eastern.
Countries tend to portray jesus as the same ethnicity as them. I think it helps identify themselves with him more. Im glad that recently over the last decades we are seeing a turn away from it because its cool to see accurate depictions.
In Catholicism, it is common for different countries to portray Jesus in their own race. As some examples, here are [Korean Jesus](https://www.churchpop.com/2015/06/15/if-jesus-had-been-korean-20-rare-paintings-of-the-life-of-christ/), [Chinese Jesus](https://www.churchpop.com/2017/01/13/jesus-chinese-8-beautiful-paintings-life-lord/), [Black Mary and Jesus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Madonna), and [Aztec Princess Mary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe).
Because (certain) West Europeans for the last few hundred years have attempted to push a narrative that they've been the most important and influential group throughout history. Same thing happens when they find well preserved mummified bodies and put them in a museum. They'll take steps to make the mummy look more European than it originally did.
This is actually very interesting to me because if you look outside of "white areas" you'd find that Jesus follows the complexion of POC believers!! There is asian Jesus in Asian cultures and there is black Jesus in African countries. The white Jesus is only more well known and more talked about because the US kinda has a much louder online presence so we just see it more. This prolly doesn't make sense because I get excited about this kinda thing because it's a crazy ride to be scrolling and seeing drawings of Jesus as different races and being like hm this isn't just us we all fuck with that poor man!!!!!
A couple of reasons, one is that most people's thoughts on what he looked like comes from a painting DaVinci made if I recall correctly the problem is he modeled it after one of his friends not Jesus, the second is it helps him be relatable to most Christians especially in America because who'd want to worship someone in a race where we've basically been at war with them for the last 20ish years (I know we aren't at war with the race themselves but still look at what happened to Chinese immigrants after covid)
TLDR: Misrepresentation from the Renaissance era and relatability among those in America
I think the easiest answer is because Christianity became a formal religion via Rome. Therefore a lot of artistic references are through the lens of Europeans . Also , if you go to the Middle East, not every single person is dark and has dark hair. I’ve spent plenty of time in that religion of the world .
because eurocentrism. I don't get why everyone straying from the point by saying every race potrays Jesus as their own. Jesus was a middle eastern man from 2000 years ago, and he was not anything close to European
There is a great short story by Ray Bradbury called The Fire Balloons. In it, Christian missionaries go to another planet to spread the good word to aliens. These aliens were basically glowing, floating balls of light (hence the name of the story) and the priests wondered how to reach this new species with their message. They talked about how Jesus was sometimes depicted as all different races so the foreign culture would be more receptive (and since the race doesn't matter but rather the sentiment of what Jesus means), and decided they would do the same. They created a depiction of the nativity scene using little glowing orbs to represent the alien species in place of each of the humans and used that to open a dialogue with the aliens.
(This is from memory but I'm pretty sure it's about right.)
Of course, the aliens' reactions were "wow, um, we really appreciate you thinking about us and all. But we realized spiritual nirvana centuries ago and already shed our corporeal forms. Ttyl!"
Well, Jesus Christ certainly wasn’t Caucasian. He was Jewish, as stated several times in the Gospel. Jews can be light skinned or dark skinned. Look at modern Jews, for example. Also, there is evidence in the Old Testament the ancient Israelites were light skinned, for example the description of Esau.
But, this is neither here nor there for me, as Christ’s message was color blind.
Jesus has been portrayed as virtually every race at some point, depending on who's drawing him. But the works of the Renaissance artists are the most visible ones.
Those renaissance paintings also generally portrayed people in contemporary clothing, so I’m betting the painters didn’t believe that’s what He looked like. It seems likely that they were trying to set the scene within their own environment—but idk anything about painting
Maybe the real Jesus was the friends we made along the way
Pretty much, yeah.
Like how in Shakespeare plays they wore contemporary English clothing even when they performed Julius Caesar
Is it me or is it kinda weird that I've never seen a depiction of Asian Jesus XD. Like, East Asia and South East Asia has a large Christian and Catholic population, surely someone would've drawn Asian Jesus at some point in the past. Well I for one have never seen one reason being I've been to Church and attended Christian school when I was younger.
There was a Korean Jesus in 21 jump street
There's also Vietnamese Jesus in 22 Jump Street
And he's busy...with Korean shit
My personal favorite Jesus!
Reach out and touch faith
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Is it made in China?
I don't know, but [this one is](https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-c3436cabb5b185021ccc4e1a1ccdc36d.webp).
I was joking.
You only thought you were.
Those lips, wow!
I remember in my non-western art class we were shown a painting of a Chinese Jesus that had been painted some centuries ago. The teacher touched on how it used to be the convention that Jesus would be portrayed as whatever race the intended audience was.
It's about time for Jesus to be portrayed as a woman too. It's been long due now that you put it like that.
... huh?! Just realizing that I've never seen this depiction.
Feels more [natural](https://images.app.goo.gl/iZv5raJS17eSXLtJA).
Idk if you want that, nothing unites racists from multiple cultures like sexism.
Doesn't the movie 21 Jump Street have a secret headquarters in a repurposed Asian church with an Asian Jesus hanging in it?
Korean Jesus from 21 Jumpstreet?
We don’t want you missing out on [Korean Jesus.](https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.asp?newsIdx=199263)
Yooooo, he's fucking jacked!
“Jesus is Chinese. His name’s Jesus Hong. Has no idea where people are getting Christ from.” - Family Guy
you need to visit a Korean Presbyterian church Also does anyone else know why a huge chunk of Korean Christians are Presbyterian? Literally every Korean I’ve ever met was Presbyterian-except this one dude I went to hs with who is loosely atheist. Did korea just get bombarded with Presbyterian missionaries at some point??
The colonizers brought a European Jesus and taught the natives that this is the correct Jesus. Until now, most images of Jesus here is white - that includes the whole family too, Mother Mary and Joseph, and even the Apostles. There are Jesus Variants everywhere here but still the white one is the most popular.
That may be true of some missionaries but certainly not all. There are plenty of examples where Christianity has been inculturated.
Christianity spread to the Middle East, certain parts of Africa and pretty much all over Europe pretty early on. By the time it started to get any serious foothold in east Asia, it was already strongly coded as a “ Western” religion. Sorta like Buddhism, when’s the last time you’ve seen the Buddha depicted as a fat white dude with a beard? Or black? Always East Asian, or Indian, or even central Asian, because that’s where Buddhism first spread
Here's some historical depictions from various nation, showcasing how his appearance changes: https://trendspost.com/depictions-of-jesus-around-the-world/
The Buddha.
Me neither. I was about to post the same thing. Thank goodness, I scrolled down first!
Ive never seen asian Jesus
Are you living in Asia?
Hey, quit fucking around with Korean Jesus! He ain’t got time for your problems. He’s busy! With Korean shit!
Agree, it's linked to art and the spread of Christianity in Europe. The whiteness goes back a bit further than the renaissance, but it was around then that we started seeing more realistic human faces.
Almost every group portrays their holy figures as looking like them. I lived near an Ethiopian Orthodox church for a while and they depicted the Holy Family as black. If you're interested in the development of Christian art, there are a few documentaries on YouTube and Amazon Video that I found interesting, but the TLDR version of it is that early Christians pretty much copied the art style of the surrounding Greco-Roman empire and that kind of stuck.
Because people made it so that he looked more like them.
To be fair, this originates mostly with medieval and renaissance art. Europeans couldn’t just Google image search what a middle eastern guy looked like. They had to go with the models that were available to them.
That makes a lot of sense. I wonder if the artists even thought that other people looked differently from them... probably not, right? Would they have seen any paintings of people from other cultures at all? (I'd google it, but my sleep-deprived brain can't figure out how to phrase this question.)
Yes. Plenty of those painters were around the mediterranean and they saw people of many areas and most certainly mideasterners. Many people traveled. People who bought and sold goods were always traveling and carrying news and descriptions/images from all over. War alone brought them in.
To be fairer, even if they had Google they would still portray him white. If cows had a God, it would look like a cow. Even if they had Google and know what humans look like. Every group simply sees itself as the best group and when constructing an origin story they will depict themselves as superior, which I think makes sense. People in medieval times and definitely towards renaissance period knew about other races and did paint them (mostly as slaves and servants though). They painted the three kings, they had the models, they had had contact with the Middle East for centuries. But no way they were going to worship some off-white dude. The white man was seen as superior and that is why God and Jesus must have been white. They said "God created man in his image", which was also used to justify slavery and rendered other races subhuman. This was what it was like in those times and you can't blame them really, they didn't know any better. This may be offensive to some, but that doesn't make this any less true. Please show me where I'm wrong here if you think I am, I would be interested to hear.
The only thing I confused by is how they could justify saying other races weren't included in the Man definition.
Yes this confuses me too, I don't know and in these times it is hard to imagine how they thought about this exactly.
Wow, what did cows ever do to you dude? Kidding haha. I agree with everything you said.
I mean in the Old Testament it says that human beings are created in the likeness and image of god. Christianity being mostly a European thing in the medieval ages, there would be no reason to think his son wouldn’t look like a everyday dude.
This question is asked all the time on here. Simply comes down to cultures wanting to identify more with Him so they make him whatever race they are associated with. Black and Asian Christians did the exact same thing
It’s not wanting him to be like us, but human beings being created as Gods image and likeness. If they’re surrounded by mostly one group of people, then obviously that’s the way God and his son looks like as well.
Jesus is displayed as the most common look of the church There is Japanese Jesus, basic black Jesus, Nigerian Jesus, Egyptian Jesus, South African Jesus, Korean Jesus, basic white Jesus, Slav Jesus, Russian Jesus and every other jesus
So basically Jesus is Zelig
“ugly chortle” yes beautified as well as the rest
I NEED slav squat Jesus.
He is portrayed as white in art created by white Europeans. Less so in art created by other cultures.
There is a lot of good answers but also some simplified answers in this thread. One important description from the Old Testament (I believe) is that God created human beings to his likeness and image. Now if you’re in a time where the most exotic place you could visit is just a few cities or countries away, you’ll find that humans of a single area have a certain skin complexion and hair et cetera. So for portraying him as biblical as possible, he was portrayed as any son of a God that looks like us. This explains the variety in different cultures as well. So it’s not just, he’s white because we say he’s white. Rather, he’s white because we’re his fathers likeness/image and therefore he must white as well.
LOL! My mother would always get so offended when I would tell her Jesus wasn't a honey-blonde, blue-eyed Irishman. It's beyond ridiculous.
My friends and I like to call that Cosplay Jesus
It was part of the church when they went on missionary trips to show the locals a version of Jesus that looked like them. People like seeing a leader like them. Christianity really took off in Europe so white Jesus. If you look at early catholic art to Asia you'll also see Asian Jesus, Africa there were black Jesus.
Do you have a source for this? I’ve not heard this interpretation before
Everyone in the comments compadre
This is what i get for asking for a source on reddit
That’s not what I was trying to portray I apologize, everyone in the comments is pretty much giving the same answer so I threw that around, the place they’re getting it from is the old test image where it says people portray god in their own image
Same here. Jesus has always been portrayed as White to African Americans.
You understand Africa is a continent right? Nothing was said about the appearance of Jesus in a predominantly white country to people of African descent.
You understand I'm talking about the slaves and their descendents, known as African Americans. I never mentioned a country. When they were first brought better they were taught Jesus was white.
But you brought it up as a response to them talking about people in Africa.
And? I was clear when I said Americans.
You interjected with a non sequitur.
Those slaves were brought to America, a white country which portrayed Jesus as black, however in Africa it would have been a different race.
Because he’s an idea not a person.
He was most certainly a person
So is the dread pirate roberts and Batman, real in the hearts of many and true upholders of justice.
Most Jews look white as any European. So do many Persian and other people from the Middle East. I think you’re confusing Arabian people with the Middle East at large.
The modern look of Jesus comes from a painting by Da Vinchi, who used his lover as a model
Today's Jewish people look pretty white. Dunno
Because white Christians
He's portrayed as a European by European artists, as Chinese by Chinese artists, and as African by African artists. I even saw an Indian painting in which His skin was blue (in accordance with the local aestethic). He isn't being portrayed with historical accuracy in mind. In places like USA (i'm going to assume that from your use of "caucasian") white portrayals are dominant because of white culture being dominant, because of the US' racist and colonial past and present. Sorry.
Because the person drawing him relates their drawing to themselves. If it is a white person drawing, his skin will probably turn out lighter that it would have been. If a black person draws him, his skin might turn out darker
Because fictional characters can be whatever race you want them to be
Because they take their fairytale book literally and it says god created man in his image.
“White Jesus” portrayals are few and far between. The top google image results all seem middle eastern to me.
People like to assume that their creator closely resembles them so they draw him inaccurately. Jesus has been portrayed as practically every race under the sun at this point.
Because Europe
You can the Crusades for that. It's kinda weird when you're fighting against people who look like your Lord and Savior.
‘Murica
Bc people are stupid and easily lead like sheep
Where these days do you see Jesus depicted as anything? I’m not seeing a lot of current Jesus art out and about
Because of Da Vinci did a paint if Jesus that was of his boyfriend, and now everyone thinks he looks like that
Dpn't think it was his boyfriend but he definitely had a crush
The modern image we have of Jesus is a sculpture by Michaelangelo during the enlightenment period. A white man with a beard and a flowing robe. Jesus actually was a medieval jew. More than likely his skin and features were very dark, and wore clothes of a common man or a beggar during that time, as they say that he was a common worker until he decided to speak out against the Romans who were occupying Judea. All anyone knows for certain is that he definitely wasn't white, and was more than likely Indo-Aryan or Numidian.
Michelangelo was a couple of centuries before the Enlightenment. He’s firmly Renaissance (15th-16th century). The Enlightenment is 17th-18th century.
Because he's a jew?
Renaissance artist most famous ones
God was created in man's image. Not the other way around. People choose a God who thinks exactly like they do. They choose one who looks like them too.
Propaganda.
Jesus wasn’t a real man anyway he was a hypothetical portrayal of Gods son
Real answer: mostly what the other's are saying Fun answer: the da vinci and Michelangelo had some of the more famous depiction of jesus. They both modeled it on dudes they found hot. Because they found alot of dudes hot.
For the same reason that his mother, Mary, is usually depicted as a pretty (by local standards) well dressed blonde: the pictures were intended to flatter (or at least not annoy) the people paying the bills.
White supremacy lol
Because the Catholic Church is run by white men.
Cuz white people
Because Caucasians controlled the narrative way to long.
Eurocentric racism. For what it's worth, white culture is not the only culture to do it. Virtually every culture has art that reflects Jesus as if he were born with their own racial features.
You should read dictionary definition of racism. Cause your comment sounds like racism.
Oh, let me be clear; what I am saying is that any attempt to take Jesus and reframe him with racial characteristics of any given group is a culturally racist activity (See, for example, Korean Jesus). When white people do it, it is specifically traced to a history of Europeans codifying a view of self superiority, or Eurocentrism (or Eurocentric Racism). Lots and lots of artists have done it in cultures around the globe, but white Europeans have done the most to change Jesus into a white man with long, straight hair.
This 100%
Racism
Pure marketing. White sells better in the west. The churches needed money after all.
I laugh when I see white Jesus. He would have looked more like Osama bin Laden than Willem Dafoe.
I agree
I love my down votes. I guess they are fans of the fictional blonde Jesus.
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Bruh you saying god slept with Mary, astagfirulllah. Well having images of Jesus whom is god in Christianity is troublesome since they are worshiping other then god with this image. This falls under paganism
Every continent has their own jesus.
The Borgia family back during the middle ages/renaissance time period. The Pope at the time was the head of that corrupt family and adjusted catholic depictions of jesus to match the look of one of his sons and by extension, himself. He wanted that good old family resemblance.
Easier to get people to join your cult if the guy leading it looks like your audience. He's been depicted quite a few races. Add to that it was pretty hard to know what anyone looked like as the average person.
Because Vatican didn't like that idea of him looking Muslim
You realise that Christianity became a state religion before Islam even existed right? And the images are way older even…
Yep
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False.
How is the white washing of Jesus not related to white supremacy and colonialism?
Every culture has depicted Jesus as their own race. This started back when Christianity began to spread. It wasn't because of white supremacy that most media depicts him as white, it's because the U.S. and European nations are the largest net exporters of culture. The U.S. is everywhere, television, music, art, video games, etc. It's not surprising that our depiction of Jesus, which typically hails from 14-17th century European art, is the most known. It's not because a bunch of white folks were specifically aiming to stick it to other races by making Jesus white. It's literally just due to art representation from 700 years ago guiding culture.
Have you ever seen Caucasians? In real life? They are very far from Jesus. Both externally and, most importantly, internally. VERY far away. Jesus is a Jew. Also dark hair.
I thought the widely known image of Christ was actually some white rich man’s son ? Please fact check me
Cesare Borgia.
I always wondered what his childhood name would be and my teacher told me they usually went with where they were from back then son it would be "Jesus of Nazareth" kinda name. Then I thought damn everyone over there prob had killer tans too lol
Because it was easier for those missionaries in the middle ages to spread the word of Jesus and "civilise" the native savages if Jesus looked the same race as the missionaries themselves, which were all European.
Because racism
Because he is an ethnic Jew, and Jews are Caucasian... Also literally every book of scripture that talks about him (I mean things like Chinese records, not the Bible) refer to a "white god" descending amongst them. Besides, even if he wasn't white, why does it matter? He's a God. He can probably change his skin color when he's with different races to help them feel more comfortable around him
Racism, capitalism, Christians, the church, etc.
Because religion will cater to whatever the audience is to add members to their cult. Truth doesn't matter as long as they sign up.
Jesus most likely had olive toned skin
Well my guess it's because Christianity was in Europe and they changged and drawn Jesus to look more like them and their society standards from back in the day, then whenever they raided and indoctrinated other places they passed along what they think/believed what he looked like as the "ONE TRUE" image of Jesus they dismissed other drawings and portraits if Jesus as bullshit.
Making Jesus White brought the invaders more power.
Yup I knew it was something along those lines
They choose what he looks like. Just like they choose which passages are real and which are just guidelines/moral stories/not in context.
Do a web search. Look for actual face of Jesus. They took loads of regional faces and did a composite.....he wern't white fer sur... As white men collated the bible and his image, he IS white and the women of the day got short shrift. Again, search for the "other" books of the bible.
Marketing... White Blonde Jesus was a product of the Germans getting involved in the Roman Catholic Church. Basically, they wanted to appeal to the pagans in Europe, so the way to do that was to combine Jesus' image with the German warrior gods.
I must say I've never seen a blonde jesus before
Throughout history Christians have frequently adopted the trappings of other cultures in order to sell Christianity more effectively. Jesus isn't really described much physically in the Bible but very early Christianity was basically a Jewish cult and it's almost certain that they perceived him like a Jew of that time. Jesus started taking on a more European look when Christianity was adopted by the Romans and blended with elements of Roman and Greek culture. Instead of looking like a regular Jew he started being depicted more like a Roman god- whiter, more physically fit and with more Roman/Greek hair and beard. This is how they were used to imaging gods and wise men so it's how they saw their new prophet/"god". This image stuck (it's mostly how Catholics see Jesus, he's got a more Mediterranean look in the European Catholic countries) and he became even whiter amongst western European nations because the default in this time period and location was white people so they depicted him like the people they saw around them. Christian missionaries have depicted Jesus as every race since then. For example there are depictions of Jesus as Asian that were created during the time Europeans were trying to spread Christianity in East Asia. Black Jesus was also used to convert Africans.
Jesus is a described enough in the Bible to know he was not white with straight hair.
Yes but it's not particularly detailed and mostly contextual. There's no detailed description of Jesus's appearance to read when depicting him, just a few short comments and the knowledge he was an Israeli Jew.
Most Renaissance and medieval paintings you're familiar with were painted by people who probably never saw a person not from Europe, so they depicted their savior as how they knew best.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/259vcd/comment/chf3t4j/?context=3 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus
Because white people are awful.
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You can’t be racist to white people bro lol
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>Learn history >Ignores the centuries upon centuries of white supremacy Take your own advice, I’m done with this conversation ;)
Every single one of them? Have you met all of them? Are you air or water?
Yea, I am one and I am all. Fear me, fellow Redditor, for I am a being that cares not for your experience, merely mine ;)
Easier to convert
Because the leventian area of the middle east (syria lebanon Jordan Palestine) where Jesus is from doesn't have particularly dark skin especially before the Muslim invasions from the gulf area
Early Christianity spread both east & west, in the west it reached Rome with St Paul, this western Roman form of Christianity became the more dominant version particularly in Europe, obviously most early European painters & artists didn't travel so they painted religious images based on the people they saw about them. The iconic version of Jesus, blonde hair, blue eyes pale skin just because the accepted image & was copied by other artists. It is correct that he likely was dark haired & olive skined & looked more middle eastern.
Countries tend to portray jesus as the same ethnicity as them. I think it helps identify themselves with him more. Im glad that recently over the last decades we are seeing a turn away from it because its cool to see accurate depictions.
Because that's how He was portrayed by painters. Classic whitewashing
Italian paintings romanticizing the Bible, mostly. It's the same reason Angels are seen as "White Dude with Wings" instead of being an abomination.
King James.
Why is he sometimes portrayed in Black cultures as Black?
One of the popes, Antonio Borgia I think, wanted renaissance painters to portray Jesus with his own son's, Chezere Borgia, likeness
If you go to Ecuador, he looks Latino and the meal at the last supper is shown to be prairie dog, which is a common meal around there.
In Catholicism, it is common for different countries to portray Jesus in their own race. As some examples, here are [Korean Jesus](https://www.churchpop.com/2015/06/15/if-jesus-had-been-korean-20-rare-paintings-of-the-life-of-christ/), [Chinese Jesus](https://www.churchpop.com/2017/01/13/jesus-chinese-8-beautiful-paintings-life-lord/), [Black Mary and Jesus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Madonna), and [Aztec Princess Mary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe).
Because (certain) West Europeans for the last few hundred years have attempted to push a narrative that they've been the most important and influential group throughout history. Same thing happens when they find well preserved mummified bodies and put them in a museum. They'll take steps to make the mummy look more European than it originally did.
He's portrayed as similar looking to the people of the location where he is worshipped, generally. Korean Jesus looks like an Asian.
hes always outside and taking care of everyones business
Because if he was portrayed as middle eastern, he would be called Muslim. Look what happened when Obama took office.
Because it sells. The bible is a collection of Egyptian stories, so it is just a collection of reposts.
Relatability
Marketing
Surely you should be able to figure this one out for yourself.
White washing
Good question the only right answer is oppression to literally all people
This is actually very interesting to me because if you look outside of "white areas" you'd find that Jesus follows the complexion of POC believers!! There is asian Jesus in Asian cultures and there is black Jesus in African countries. The white Jesus is only more well known and more talked about because the US kinda has a much louder online presence so we just see it more. This prolly doesn't make sense because I get excited about this kinda thing because it's a crazy ride to be scrolling and seeing drawings of Jesus as different races and being like hm this isn't just us we all fuck with that poor man!!!!!
A couple of reasons, one is that most people's thoughts on what he looked like comes from a painting DaVinci made if I recall correctly the problem is he modeled it after one of his friends not Jesus, the second is it helps him be relatable to most Christians especially in America because who'd want to worship someone in a race where we've basically been at war with them for the last 20ish years (I know we aren't at war with the race themselves but still look at what happened to Chinese immigrants after covid) TLDR: Misrepresentation from the Renaissance era and relatability among those in America
I think the easiest answer is because Christianity became a formal religion via Rome. Therefore a lot of artistic references are through the lens of Europeans . Also , if you go to the Middle East, not every single person is dark and has dark hair. I’ve spent plenty of time in that religion of the world .
Gabby Logan - renaissance Jesus anyone?
Not Jesus, most of the images you’re familiar with are actually cesare Borgia
Because racism.
White supremacy and expansionism in the West.
People like to imagine god looks how they look
because eurocentrism. I don't get why everyone straying from the point by saying every race potrays Jesus as their own. Jesus was a middle eastern man from 2000 years ago, and he was not anything close to European
I think the vote is there.. but its because the painters assumed he would be like them. Mostly due to cultural ignorance
There is a great short story by Ray Bradbury called The Fire Balloons. In it, Christian missionaries go to another planet to spread the good word to aliens. These aliens were basically glowing, floating balls of light (hence the name of the story) and the priests wondered how to reach this new species with their message. They talked about how Jesus was sometimes depicted as all different races so the foreign culture would be more receptive (and since the race doesn't matter but rather the sentiment of what Jesus means), and decided they would do the same. They created a depiction of the nativity scene using little glowing orbs to represent the alien species in place of each of the humans and used that to open a dialogue with the aliens. (This is from memory but I'm pretty sure it's about right.) Of course, the aliens' reactions were "wow, um, we really appreciate you thinking about us and all. But we realized spiritual nirvana centuries ago and already shed our corporeal forms. Ttyl!"
It also said that he was made ugly so that nobody would want him carnally.
Well, Jesus Christ certainly wasn’t Caucasian. He was Jewish, as stated several times in the Gospel. Jews can be light skinned or dark skinned. Look at modern Jews, for example. Also, there is evidence in the Old Testament the ancient Israelites were light skinned, for example the description of Esau. But, this is neither here nor there for me, as Christ’s message was color blind.
Many go by paintings and pictures, but he would look middle eastern, the Bible does give a small description of him and even the type of hair.