I was a stranger, and ye took me not in.

[MoreCoffee]

While having lunch in a local bakery "pie shop" I struck up a conversation with two elderly ladies sitting at the table next to mine. They'd been chatting about women wearing Burkas. Now, it is worth noticing that very few women wear a Burka in Australia, I've seen only one in all the years I have lived here. But the ladies were complaining about "foreigners" wearing such things. Oddly enough one of the two ladies was born in England and had a discernible English accent so I silently wondered "foreigners? isn't that what one of you is?". Anyway, in the conversation we had the ladies continued with their theme, one saying that "They ought to go home, them Muslims". I replied that a good number of them were born in Australia so "home" was right here. With some effort and careful choice of words the conversation was steered towards the gospel and we chatted a little about God and Jesus Christ and church life. That improved the conversation and the ladies were visibly happier on the new topic. The ladies self-identified as Christians, though they do not go to church.

In retrospect I wondered to myself if a great many people in their age group shared their fears and dislikes. And I got to wondering how the Lord Jesus Christ, his mother Blessed Mary, and his father saint Joseph would have been perceived by the ladies. They'd be Arab looking people, a "foreign family". I was a stranger, and ye took me not in.

 

[Lamb]

What did Jesus look like?

 

[MoreCoffee]

What did Jesus look like?

Like a Semite. Why do you ask?

 

[psalms 91]

Only God can answer that but going by where He was born and to who and allowing that the Jewish were Gods people we can guess at certain things

 

[Andrew]

While having lunch in a local bakery "pie shop" I struck up a conversation with two elderly ladies sitting at the table next to mine. They'd been chatting about women wearing Burkas. Now, it is worth noticing that very few women wear a Burka in Australia, I've seen only one in all the years I have lived here. But the ladies were complaining about "foreigners" wearing such things. Oddly enough one of the two ladies was born in England and had a discernible English accent so I silently wondered "foreigners? isn't that what one of you is?". Anyway, in the conversation we had the ladies continued with their theme, one saying that "They ought to go home, them Muslims". I replied that a good number of them were born in Australia so "home" was right here. With some effort and careful choice of words the conversation was steered towards the gospel and we chatted a little about God and Jesus Christ and church life. That improved the conversation and the ladies were visibly happier on the new topic. The ladies self-identified as Christians, though they do not go to church.

In retrospect I wondered to myself if a great many people in their age group shared their fears and dislikes. And I got to wondering how the Lord Jesus Christ, his mother Blessed Mary, and his father saint Joseph would have been perceived by the ladies. They'd be Arab looking people, a "foreign family". I was a stranger, and ye took me not in.

Much respect for you MC. It's silly that mankind are such territorial animals in general, racism is a disease of pride and judgment. We don't see each other as brothers and sisters outside of our culture but we should at least greet one another as neighbors and to LOVE your neighbor.
Jesus could have been any color and what does that matter? Does it change his message? I hope not.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Much respect for you MC. It's silly that mankind are such territorial animals in general, racism is a disease of pride and judgment. We don't see each other as brothers and sisters outside of our culture but we should at least greet one another as neighbors and to LOVE your neighbor.
Jesus could have been any color and what does that matter? Does it change his message? I hope not.

I knew a chap who was a Calvinist and then started to consider Catholicism and finally decided that his "tribe" was the religion of his teen years - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I suspect that tribe really does count for a lot with people. But most people may be reluctant to admit it.

 

[Albion]

In retrospect I wondered to myself if a great many people in their age group shared their fears and dislikes. And I got to wondering how the Lord Jesus Christ, his mother Blessed Mary, and his father saint Joseph would have been perceived by the ladies. They'd be Arab looking people....

None of them was an Arab.

 

[MoreCoffee]

None of them was an Arab.

Israelites and Arabs are Semites. Not hard to figure out since the bible spells it out for people. And Israelites looked a lot like Arab people. No biggie is it? It is not as if saying that Israelites looked like Arabs makes them into Muslims or something. Right? It is merely a matter of appearances.

 

[MoreCoffee]

White people are not the only ones who have altered Jesus' appearance to fit their own. Chinese people did it too and Africans too.

 

[Lamb]

White people are not the only ones who have altered Jesus' appearance to fit their own. Chinese people did it too and Africans too.

Being an artist I will tell you that artists tend to draw other people in their own image and that's not always done purposely. Unless the artist is of great magnitude in his skills you will always find parts of his own face when he draws portraits of other people.

 

[Josiah]

What did Jesus look like?

... and why does it matter?




.

 

[Lamb]

... and why does it matter?

Because MC wrote this in his OP:

And I got to wondering how the Lord Jesus Christ, his mother Blessed Mary, and his father saint Joseph would have been perceived by the ladies.

 

[MennoSota]

White people are not the only ones who have altered Jesus' appearance to fit their own. Chinese people did it too and Africans too.

Jesus had a halo?

 

[psalms 91]

Funny thing, if the bible is accurate which I believe it is then Jesus was far from theportriots of Him. According to the bible there was nothing desireable in His appearance

 

[tango]

What did Jesus look like?

We don't have pictures but given the general area it's not unreasonable to assume his skin tone was somewhere between olive-colored and what we would currently call black. He almost certainly had black hair, again based on geography. It seems highly unlikely he was the fair-haired, pale-skinned, blue-eyed man so often seen in posters.

 

[MoreCoffee]

We don't have pictures but given the general area it's not unreasonable to assume his skin tone was somewhere between olive-colored and what we would currently call black. He almost certainly had black hair, again based on geography. It seems highly unlikely he was the fair-haired, pale-skinned, blue-eyed man so often seen in posters.

Agreed. The locale in which Christ lived, was born, and from which is natural parent (the Blessed Virgin Mary) was born is the middle east and the people of that region are brownish today and were back in Jesus' day when the Romans depicted them as brownish people with dark hair. Some mosaics of the early centuries of this era (AD era) show such people

This fresco of Christ Among the Apostles is in an arcosolium of the Crypt of Ampliatus in the Catacombs of St. Domitilla in Rome. The Catacombs of Domitilla date from the 2nd through 4th centuries. According to W.F. Volbach, "The extent to which the type of the apostolic group as been developed suggests a 4th-century origin" for this particular fresco.

 

[Andrew]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_appearance_of_Jesus

This was actually a good read