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So many people are asking if Jesus was white. Many of the answers I found were based on opinions. It takes a little bit of…

Was Jesus White? Written by admin in Q & A,Uncategorized So many people are asking if Jesus was white. Many of the answers I found were based on opinions. It takes a little bit of effort to find the facts, but they are there to be found. So was Jesus white? Jesus Christ is the creator of all things. He will for all eternity be identified with the Jewish people. Jesus is a Jew. Jews throughout history have reflected the diverse looks of the people from those places. Jesus could have looked like any one of most of the worlds population. So why doesn’t the Bible tell us what he looked like? Part of the fallen nature of man is to try to create God in our image. But here’s the reality: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” -Genesis 1:27 There is such a desire on our parts to make Jesus look a certain way and behave a certain way. But God created us in His image. He doesn’t look at the outer man but he sees the heart. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” -1 Samuel 16:7b What Nationality is Jesus? We’ve seen art depicting him in various ways. He is often depicted in ways that reflect the ethnicity of each nation in which the conversation takes place -but we all wonder –what did he really look like? It’s a fascinating question, so let’s take a little bit of time to look into the details. According to his genealogy in chapter 1 of the gospel of Matthew, Jesus had ancestors from many different ethnicities, yet he was unmistakably Jewish. And if you look at the Jewish people today you can see some amazing diversity. The most important thing I found out when researching this is that the color of Jesus’ skin didn’t matter then. And it doesn’t matter now. Stick around a little bit and you’ll soon know why. What was the Race of Jesus? In fact the Messiah absolutely, positively had to be a Jew. Many Old Testament prophecies said so. There’s just no way the Messiah could have been anything else. For example, God promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would bless the whole world through them. Then he promised David the Messiah would come from his line. “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” 2Sam 7:16 In the hundreds of years before his birth, the Jewish people had seen quite a few upheavals. The result was that many, many of the Jewish people at this time in history lived outside Israel in other nations and mixed into other people groups. We continue to see amazing diversity in these wonderful people to this day. What Did Jesus Look Like According to the Bible? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him”. -Isaiah 53:2, NIV He is “lowly and humble of heart” Matthew 11:29 so we know he did not take on a regal air. Jesus blended into a crowd well. He looked unremarkable. There was nothing splendid about his appearance. When Judas betrayed Jesus, even though he was well-known and had taught in the temple his captors did not know what he looked like and had to depend on Judas to point him out. Here’s the scripture reference: In that hour Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. –Matthew 26:55 Judas did so with a kiss -a common Middle-Eastern greeting even today. Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them: “The one I kiss is the man; arrest him.” –Matthew 26:48. Here’s a different example: Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. -Acts 13:1, NIV In Acts 13:1, the writer takes pains to mention the origin of most of these prophets and teachers. In particular he mentions Simeon called Niger. Scholars universally affirm that Simeon was of African origin. If Jesus was of African origin, wouldn’t he also have been noted to have such an appearance? Probably. So since Jesus is never described as such, it’s probably reasonable to say he did not appear African, otherwise he wouldn’t have blended into the crowd very well. Saul and David We are given descriptions of King Saul and King David. Saul was a strikingly handsome man who stood a full head taller than any other man in Israel. David was described in the Bible as ruddy or red –but not necessarily a redhead. By the accounts of Saul’s and David’s exploits, it is likely they were both very strong men. David even killed a lion and a bear before his victory in battle over Goliath. Jesus was also a strong man during his days in Israel. As a carpenter, he would have had plenty of experience working with his hands. He turned the tables on the money changers in the temple. He ...

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