Jesus, what did he look like?

[FM Arouet666]

I am not a believer, and I wonder if Jesus has become a marketing commodity for the Christian Right. The blue eyed, blond haired Aryan stud muffin. Does anyone else find this to be unsettling. If Jesus was a real man he would look more like Yasser Arafat than Brad Pitt. Has Christian America made god in their own image?

[rwenos]

1. Well, OF COURSE!

And God is an old white guy, with wizened fingers and a long white beard. (Think Sistine Chapel.)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Here's what some forensic scientists think he looked like:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1244037.stm

Not exactly your blond Aryan sorta guy.

[Mistress Quickly]

3. Middle eastern

since that what he was.

[jobycom]

4. This

[Jim Sagle]

5. A Purple Rain's a'comin!

[FM Arouet666]

8. Definitely closer than the modern version.

If I recall correctly, Jesus was portrayed as black in most representations before about 1000 A.D. I wonder, if christianity had gone eastward, would Jesus look Asian? The arrogance of the human species to make himself the center of the universe with god modeled upon himself.

[Davis_X_Machina]

6. My mom...

...who taught religion for years to white, mostly Irish, Catholic kids, had a whole portfolio of pictures of charismatic Middle Eastern leadership types -- an Israeli paratrooper captain, an Egyptian soccer striker, etc -- up around the room, specifically to try and un-William Holman Hunt the little darlins.

[Jim Sagle]

7. Here's CNN's take:

Michael Savage, is that you?

[FM Arouet666]

9. Damn! It does look like a younger Savage

If Savage picks up on this we will have to crucify him. I'll bring the hammer and nails, someone get the wood.:evilgrin:

[Holly_Hobby]

10. Decide for yourself

[FM Arouet666]

12. Damn

You mean he didn't die on the cross. He died on the Holy Crapper passing the blessed forty pound turd. Get a memo out, crosses are out crappers are in, melt down all those relics we got some poopers to build. :evilgrin:

[Lexingtonian]

11. David Schwimmer

...or Gilbert Godfrey :D

[no_hypocrisy]

13. Semitic, Middle Eastern. Not European, Aryan, Nordic.

Maybe even closer to African.

You can get most Causasian "Christian" people upset by portraying their Savior as anything but lily white because they can't stand the idea of worshipping anyone who doesn't resemble them, especially "black".

[butterfly77]

14. Hallelujah!

[sakabatou]

17. Remember when Madonna put a black Jesus in her video?

The uproar was hilarious.

[Odin2005]

15. He would of looked just like any other person...

...from the eastern Mediteranean from the time, brown skin, short cut black hair. The "European" look usually given to Jesus is not a result of racism, but the result of the ignorance of medieval artists.

[ManiacJoe]

16. Maybe I am lucky enough to see only the quality

movies and TV shows with reasonable casting. Where has Jesus ever been portrayed as a "blue eyed, blond haired Aryan stud muffin"?

[methinks2]

19. I grew up seeing paintings that portrayed Christ as blond

with blue eyes. Although I think Eve had pale skin and very dark hair in the painting. Not that pale skin was rare in the region. That part of the world has always had a little mixing of the bloodlines. Mary Magadelene was a redhed, as was cleopatra. But the biblical description of Jesus was definitely dark skinned (like brass) and hair like wool.

[methinks2]

18. He was a middle-eastern Jew

I believe the gospels contain a description. I think it was skin like brass and hair like wool.

[Bill McBlueState]

20. it's in Revelation

which was written quite late, by someone who had probably never met the historical Jesus. So that particular passage may not be useful.

[nemo137]

22. It's also allegorical.

I don't think John's vision was necessarily "boy howdy, there's Jesus, looking exactly as he did in life" as much as "I am standing awestruck in front of a supernatural vision of something not-entirely-human."

[SteppingRazor]

21. Our common image of Christ is supposed to be based on the statue of Zeus..

in Olympia. It was a 50-foot-tall affair, made entirely out of solid gold and ivory by a process now unknown. Completely pillaged in later centuries.

In any case, the image we now know of as Jesus was apparently taken from the appearance of Zeus. It makes sense, given that our modern Bibles were interpreted from the Greek.

[Vietnam68]

23. He looks like a local most places

Images around the world tend to make him look like a local.