Quote:
Originally posted by Faid1@Oct 27 2004, 11:23 AM
I don't know I assume he would look like a Jew?
No brainer here.
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Just to note, Judaism is a religion, not an ethnicity. The majority of Jews during Jesus' time were Hebrew, meaning that they came from a certain lineage--supposedly that of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Since Jesus was apparently of that lineage, one would expect him to be essentially Semitic in appearance--similar to the appearance of today's Arabs.
Interesting that the one person from the bible widely depicted as being black was Simon from Cyrene, who helped to carry Jesus' cross. Since Cyrene is in Africa, it's no great leap to assume that he was African, but there were Jews of Semitic blood living in Cyrene as well. We have no way of knowing with any certainty that he was black, but Christian artists have certainly always portrayed him that way. The implications of choosing to make Jesus white while depicting Simon as black were fairly powerful for European (and American) churches.