Jesus was Black?

[Thy Geekdom Come]

When I was a little kid, one of my teachers mentioned that Jesus may have been black.

I went home and asked my parents.

They said, "no, I think he was dark skinned, but not black."

I was sad and insistent and crying and wanted to see a His picture in the Bible so that I could make sure He wasn't black.

They got worried, "what little kind of racist are we raising, here?"

Then they asked me why it mattered if Jesus was black.

I replied, "if He was black, then maybe He'd be playing out in the street at night and get run over by a cart!"

Apparently, I wasn't racist, but they were also teaching us street safety in school at the time..."always wear bright colors...dark colors make it hard for drivers to see you..."

[jimbo]

ROTFL

[MichaelFilo]

Some Jews are light-skinned...

He probably was middle Eastern colored though. The claims that the guy who helped Him carry the Cross (I can't remember the name right now... I'm sorry) was black however.

Amongst Black Catholics (Not neccessarily African-American) there is an understanding of all the Black Catholics of prominent position(Four early popes, the guy who helped Jesus carry the Cross, some even say St.Augustine). None claim Jesus was black.

God bless,
Mikey

[musturde]

[edited: see post below]

[musturde]

Actually, I don't believe any of you read his comment. I posted before reading it too.


[quote]A friend sent this article to me recently (probably because I'm black and he thought I'd enjoy it). I thought this statement by the Pope was really cool - especially the last line refrencing Christ in his body is...African. I love the fact that the Jesus Christ in the church embodies and embraces culture. I believe this is how we need to bring Christ to the world - bringing Christ into "the very center of peoples culture" not replacing their culture. Too often I think we perceive Christ as an American and we have a hard time seperating his person from western culture. Christ is bigger than that.[/quote]

He's not taking the Pope literally. The part of him saying "more proof Jesus was black" was just a joke.

[Crusader_4]

He most likely had olive coloured skin similar to the palestinians or some jews in Israel today.

[nikkan_hanil]

Umm...dumb question but what [i]does[/i] a Hebrew look like? :/

[musturde]

[quote name='nikkan_hanil' date='Feb 19 2005, 06:51 PM'] Umm...dumb question but what [i]does[/i] a Hebrew look like? :/ [/quote]
They can look like this
[img]http://www.afropop.org/img/world_music/african_music/eur/medfest/MS-4-Launeddas%20of%20Sardenia.jpg[/img]

Or they can look lighter like this:
[img]http://my.brandeis.edu/news/images/guy1.jpg[/img]

The guy on the left is Jewish:
[img]http://www.offoffoff.com/film/2001/images/promises.jpg[/img]

I think most people expect him to look around this color:
[img]http://www.kinofenster.de/ausgaben/kf0303/img/promis3.jpg[/img]

[argent_paladin]

We have nothing more than guesses. There is far too much variation to make an accurate guess. The variety of skin colors today in Israel is great and extropolating back 2000 years makes it basically impossible. Those who point to Christ being black look to Revelation where he is described as the color of "burnished bronze" and with "hair like wool". So, if he had an afro, and dark skin, then he was black. I interpret the description as more metaphorical, that he was bright like metal and his hair was white and shining as well.
I also like how Mary is depicted as every color and race under the sun. She is Our Mother.

[MichaelFilo]

[quote name='musturde' date='Feb 18 2005, 06:54 PM'] Actually, I don't believe any of you read his comment. I posted before reading it too.




He's not taking the Pope literally. The part of him saying "more proof Jesus was black" was just a joke. [/quote]
You are right on the money. Righteous B says "And I think my boy Jesus is a polack too."

Righteous B doesn't actually believe Jesus is black. Either that or he believes Jesus is a Polish guy who happens to be black and was born and raised in the middle East. Very absurd. As far as Jesus, he was probably semitic looking. His familial line is Jewish, so they'd be look very semetic. I'd assume more like an Arab than a Jew of today though, because of the many places that Jews came from, and the Israel of today didn't exist consistently as a country from Jesus's time to todays time.

God bless,
Mikey