Jesus is always portrayed as a white guy. It seems that, being Palestinian, he might have been olive or even dark skinned? I really do not know, just looking for thoughts. Israelis are basically white, so I guess maybe it makes sense that Jesus was as well.

I think Israelis today are white because a lot of them are the descendants of WW2 era displaced European Jewish emigrees.

I think Jews of Jesus's time looked like other Levant people, likely a diverse mix of skin tones, but likely not Nordic levels of pale, such as are commonly associated with whiteness today.

If there was an actual "Jesus" (which is by no means certain), nobody knows what he looked like.

If he was typical of the people in his time/place, he was probably fairly brown-skinned, looking nothing like the LDS portray him. Then again, other churches do the same thing -- I always get a kick out of the dozens of different Filipino Jesus portraits I see in the Philippines :)

Here's what, historically, seems likely if he existed:

https://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/styles/nodeimage/public/blogs_2015/12/jesus_reconstruction.jpg?itok=S1LqXHGx

A white lie, perhaps.

But was he delightsome...aside from drowning, burning, and burying several cities in the New World?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2017 03:49PM by GregS.

Mamacita Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Jesus is always portrayed as a white guy. It seems
> that, being Palestinian, he might have been olive
> or even dark skinned? I really do not know, just
> looking for thoughts. Israelis are basically
> white, so I guess maybe it makes sense that Jesus
> was as well.

In 587 BCE, when the ancient Jews in what is now the general area of Israel were forcibly removed from their homeland and taken to Babylon, a dispersion/"diaspora" was created which, in various permutations, continues to this day. Before 587 BCE, Jews MOSTLY looked like any other of the many other peoples from that general-Israel part of the Middle East.

So far as the "more white" Jewish Israelis of today: most of them are descendants of European Jews who have lived in Europe in the times after 70 CE (when the Romans began forcibly dispersing them throughout the then Roman Empire).

There is a complication in the story, however: in ancient times and then continuing in medieval times, Jews both continued, as well as began, many different Jewish migrations to eastern Africa (Ethiopia, in particular, but there are evidently black Ugandan Jews too), the Indian sub-continent, China, etc., which very often resulted in succeeding Jewish descendants in those areas looking very similar to the historically traditional peoples who had "always" lived in those places. (Jewish traders and Jewish sailors, in particular, began many new Jewish communities in the places where they traveled to.)

Today, in Israel, there are large numbers of Israeli Jewish nationals of just about all skin colors, from very black Ethiopian Jews and other descendants of centuries-old African Jewish communities, to Jews of very white, northern European descent...plus the Asian-descended Jews of China, the areas surrounding what is now China, and the Indian sub-continent. (I do not know of any Jews of Australian aborigine descent, or from native Papuan New Guinea descent, or of Native American descent, but I wouldn't be surprised if some turned up in the next few years...it would be very Jewish if some did. :D )

The answer to your question is: In the Middle East, the Jews of the time of Jesus looked exactly like the other peoples of the Middle East looked (for example: a typical Palestinian of today, only probably a bit swarthier).

Today???

Jews today are a mosaic of a good share of the world's many peoples...and there are, indeed, a whole lot of very pale-skinned, blonde- or light brown-haired, blue and green-eyed Jews, because of those particular Jews' biological ancestors. (There is also a good deal of Jewish inter-cultural intermarriage going on, so within a century or two, many of these apparent differences today are going to be muted, and the Jewish offspring of that time to come are likely to be particularly attractive, in the ways that (among non-Jews today) biracial kids typically are.)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2017 03:58PM by Tevai.

Isn't this like arguing about Horus and how he might have had golden skin, because his dad was a golden dildo?

Or how about how Romulus was super hairy because his wet nurse was a wolf. After the king threw him into the river with his brother because their mom was a vestal virgin.

Depends.

It's reasonable to use historical resources to determine what a person from that time/place would probably have looked like.

It's not to claim that likely appearance was "what Jesus looked like." :)

Depends on the culture you're in. I went to the Caribbean Islands for my mission. The christmas cards there depicted a black/ african Jesus.

When he was transfigured I think he was glowing bright white. That's some sort of incandescent trick, so don't do it near a gas pump or your propane tank.

Other than that, he probably looked like his neighbors.

He looked exactly like Joseph Smith described him: "Joseph was asked what color the Savior's eyes were, without hesitation, he said, "The clearest blue."

I know this to be true because I testify that I read it on Donny Osmond's website.