Why is Jesus depicted as a white guy in mostly all paintings?

[Augustus]

How do you know how arab people looked in 33 BCE?

He wasn't an Arab though.

The idea of the Middle East as "Arab" is the product of Arab/Islamic imperialism and is a linguistic designation, not a genetic one.

The Eastern Mediterranean region Jesus was from shares its genetic roots with people from modern day Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, etc.

Some of these people are now considered 'white' Europeans, and others 'brown' Arabs, but this is about modern geopolitics, not genetics.

 

[MNoBody]

This question is absolutely not meant as any form of mocking Christian art or portraits
But i always wondered about why Jesus was painted as a white european looking person??

Was he really a white guy?
What does the Christian scripture say about it?

because it is a Roman invention and they are Caucasian
one must get their tropes right when designing social engineering mechanisms/devices.

 

[Augustus]

I don’t. But I do understand through anthropology and evolutionary science that appearances change over time.

Still, in most cases, the best way to understand roughly what people looked like in the past is to look at people who live in that region today.

Population genetics are relatively stable compared to things like cultural changes.

 

[Starlight]

He wasn't an Arab though.

The idea of the Middle East as "Arab" is the product of Arab/Islamic imperialism and is a linguistic designation, not a genetic one.

The Eastern Mediterranean region Jesus was from shares its genetic roots with people from modern day Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, etc.

Some of these people are now considered 'white' Europeans, and others 'brown' Arabs, but this is about modern geopolitics, not genetics.

Ok, i did not know that. But many modern day people from Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon has very light skin, so maybe Jesus had light skin too.

But we are all humans all God's children. All equally important. Jesus skin colours do not really matters. Skin colour is just a colours. no more important than hair colors really.

 

[exchemist]

This question is absolutely not meant as any form of mocking Christian art or portraits
But i always wondered about why Jesus was painted as a white european looking person??

Was he really a white guy?
What does the Christian scripture say about it?

Because the painters were in Europe, painting for European sponsors. Also, Jesus was a Jew. So he would have probably have had a typical Middle Eastern Arab/Jewish appearance, which is part of what we broadly term "white".

 

[PureX]

Because white guys painted them.

 

[Eddi]

I've heard the typical white-guy Jesus who is depicted in Western art called "Swedish backpacker Jesus"

That has always amused me

 

[Starlight]

Liker jesus veldig godt uansett hvilken hudfarge

 

[Starlight]

I've heard the typical white-guy Jesus who is depicted in Western art called "Swedish backpacker Jesus"

That has always amused me

That was a racist term against whites..

 

[Spirit of Light]

Liker jesus veldig godt uansett hvilken hudfarge

Hudfarge er ikke viktig, læren som blir gitt er hva som er viktig

 

[Starlight]

Hudfarge er ikke viktig, beskjeden som blir gitt er hva som er viktig

Mener du hva Jesus forkynte? hans budskap? Ja det er jeg enig i

 

[Spirit of Light]

Mener du hva Jesus forkynte? hans budskap? Ja det er jeg enig i

Just to answer so others can understand
The question here was asked to me in Norwegian language and the question is about if i see Jesu teaching as important too.
And yes of course i see it as important to the Christian people

 

[Vee]

This question is absolutely not meant as any form of mocking Christian art or portraits
But i always wondered about why Jesus was painted as a white european looking person??

Was he really a white guy?
What does the Christian scripture say about it?

I think it's because the first portraits of Jesus were painted by white Europeans who had never travelled far and probably didn't realize not everyone looked like them, so they used their own image as a source of inspiration. Being from the middle east Jesus was probably darker than the way he's usually portraited. I'm not convinced about the long hairstyle either.

 

[JustGeorge]

Because white guys painted them.

I don't deny that people tend to draw/paint pictures of people the same race as them, but wny? This has always confused me.

In high school, I painted a mural on the wall, of an unconventional(probably would have been coined 'goth')angel. When I began to work on her skin, the whole school was just completely surprised that I'd painted her as being Black(not my race). I didn't get it. We live in very diverse city, and the school was diverse itself. Why should I have painted her to depict myself?

As an artist, I found it much more interesting to work on people that looked different...who wants to paint the same person all the time?

 

[PureX]

I don't deny that people tend to draw/paint pictures of people the same race as them, but wny? This has always confused me.

Images of Jesus are made for the purpose of providing easy conceptual/emotional access to people. That's what icons are all about. They are tangible representations of a set of intangible ideals. And they can become false idols if we fail to recognize them as artifice, and begin treating them as if the are the thing they were intended to represent.

In high school, I painted a mural on the wall, of an unconventional(probably would have been coined 'goth')angel. When I began to work on her skin, the whole school was just completely surprised that I'd painted her as being Black(not my race). I didn't get it. We live in very diverse city, and the school was diverse itself. Why should I have painted her to depict myself?

As an artist, I found it much more interesting to work on people that looked different...who wants to paint the same person all the time?

Artists have exploratory imaginations that other people do not have, or do not develop. It's partly why artists are so important to any healthy society. But it also tends to make them stand apart, and outside the main stream of social thought.

 

[Nimos]

This question is absolutely not meant as any form of mocking Christian art or portraits
But i always wondered about why Jesus was painted as a white european looking person??

Was he really a white guy?
What does the Christian scripture say about it?

He actually changes, its just the most used depiction of him. But you can find versions of him, with clear african features, depending on where you look. Not hard to find them on the internet (real ones and not just people drawing him for fun.)

An asian depiction of him from 1879

Wooden statue from Namibia
Stock Photo - A wooden african statue of Jesus Christ on the cross with crown of thorns on his head, in a roman catholic chapel in Namibia

 

[Harel13]

Not long ago I found out that there's a mishna which dates to around a few decades to about a century after Jesus's time (based on the rabbis speaking in the mishna) which describes the skin color of the Israelites, the context being identifying different types of leprosy which cause impurity by Jews:

"...Rabbi Ishmael says: the children of Israel (may I be atonement for them!) are like boxwood, neither black nor white but of an intermediate shade..."

 

[Shadow Wolf]

This question is absolutely not meant as any form of mocking Christian art or portraits
But i always wondered about why Jesus was painted as a white european looking person??

Was he really a white guy?
What does the Christian scripture say about it?

Pretty much everyone in my old Bibles are, as well as my home school material.
Knowing what I do about the sources (Southern Baptist), the likely reason is very deeply rooted in racism. Here is just a small sample of the garbage I was taught:
How Accelerated Christian Education Is Racist

Although apartheid appears to allow the unfair treatment of blacks, the system has worked well in South Africa
...
If more blacks were suddenly given control of the nation, its economy and business, as Mandela wished, they could have destroyed what they have waited and worked so hard for.
....
The apartheid policy of South Africa is a modern example of this principle. Under the apartheid system, the population of five million Whites controls most of the nation’s wealth. If apartheid were done away with, the twenty million Blacks, who are not taxpayers, would be given the privilege of voting.
....
For many years, Blacks were not allowed to vote in national elections and had no voice in the national government. Reporters and broadcasters from all parts of the world stirred up feelings against the white South African government. These factors contributed to unrest within South Africa.
...
It’s interesting that in the African primitive languages there is no word for wisdom. We in the West find that surprising, but you see, the idea of wisdom came through the Biblical channels of the Judaeo-Christian religion and filtered into all of western culture and society.

And some more sources as to why I don't lean towards this simply and merely being tradition.
The Day - Google News Archive Search
Shocking Christian school textbooks

The ACE curriculum shows insensitivity towards blacks, Jews, and natives.16 Cartoon strips used for the teaching of "Godly character" in the PACEs depict students attending racially segregated schools.17 ACE materials about Aborigines are unacceptable to the Aboriginal people.18 ACE's stance on apartheid is also of concern. During apartheid, ACE claimed that if blacks were given the vote, it would destroy the South African economy.19 Subsequently, they have written about apartheid in terms that are equivocal at best:

"For many years, the four racial groups were separated politically and socially by law. This policy of racial separation is called `apartheid'. South Africa's apartheid policy encouraged whites, Blacks, Coloureds, and Asians to develop their own independent ways of life. Separate living area and schools made it possible for each group to maintain and pass on their culture and heritage to their children."
...
the [Ku Klux] Klan in some areas of the country tried to be a means of reform, fighting the decline in morality and using the symbol of the cross... In some communities it achieved a certain respectability as it worked with politicians."

• "God used the 'Trail of Tears' to bring many Indians to Christ."

 

[lostwanderingsoul]

More questions. Why is Jesus almost always shown with long hair when the Bible says it is a shame for a man to have long hair. And why is Jesus usually shown wearing a long white robe? The Roman soldiers gambled for his clothes because he was well dressed in fine clothing.

 

[Mindmaster]

This question is absolutely not meant as any form of mocking Christian art or portraits
But i always wondered about why Jesus was painted as a white european looking person??

Was he really a white guy?
What does the Christian scripture say about it?

I'd say it's largely impossible to know, and that it doesn't matter very much. Though, it probably matters to the critical race theory stumpers.

Personally, I feel it's likely that Jesus looked the same as people who lived in the Nazareth/Bethlehem region now. Anything else is probably absurd... These are the old days where people didn't move around very much or get away from their families. We know that Joseph, for example, wasn't native to Nazareth but Bethlehem so it's likely Jesus looks exactly like those people even now. I doubt the 'virgin birth thing' completely, as it's obvious how babies are made, lol.

To me it doesn't really matter in the least... If you're a Christian (in the truest sense) Jesus' race is the least important thing to you. If it bothers you, then you got some serious work to do spiritually. The argument is as silly as being miffed that Krishna isn't actually blue... (It's very likely Krishna was a real man based on historical accounts...) People are often drawn in a symbolic way or with accordance to aesthetic but to me it's just missing the forest for the trees to be overly bothered by it. Krishna certainly was not blue and was likely just as Indian looking as anyone else in his region would have been, and Jesus was not white man but a slightly browner skinned man. Does it matter spiritually what they are? If it bothers you I think you're missing the message of both men, lol.