Discussion » Questions » Religion and Spirituality » Who came up with the popular image of Jesus?
Stu Spelling Bee

Who came up with the popular image of Jesus?

It's a clearly European-looking image — fair-skinned, light-haired, blue-eyed, his softly handsome demeanor suggesting a teen idol, if a serious-minded one. You’d figure a guy like that would have been a real sore thumb in first-century Judea. So where’d we get the idea that that’s Jesus?

Posted - January 18, 2018
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Responses


  • Artists, whether they be a sculptor or painter, tend to depict Jesus or any other Bible personality for that matter, the way "they" believe He should look. Because Jesus was a Jew from 2000 years ago, something tells me that He wouldn't look like a European or American.
      January 18, 2018 1:33 PM MST
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  • 3375
    There is no question that the European artists depicted him to look like themselves.  Considering where he lived in reality, they were way off with the shiny, light colored hair and blue eyes.
      January 18, 2018 1:38 PM MST
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  • 3719
    For centuries, European artists modelled Biblical scenes and characters on the only things and people they knew - their contemporary fellow-Europeans. Mediaeval religious paintings especially, do look odd as a result. It's only fairly recently, historically, that artists realised it would be more realistic to imagine them in something like modern Arabic robes and with Middle-Eastern complexions.

      January 18, 2018 1:45 PM MST
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  • 7795
    Apparently, European artists thought everybody at the time were Caucasian.
      January 18, 2018 1:47 PM MST
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  • 343
    Don't go poking our beloved religion now Mister. We Christologists prefer not to look at certain cobwebby corners of religion, for certain reasons and because of threats against our person. We concentrate instead on the perfect record for truthfulness and ability of scribes who wrote in a hard-to-translate, imperfectly understood, dead language, about those who, long, long ago, claimed to have actually followed around, and closely observed, the comings and goings of Jesus and his retinue of voluble claimants to insider information. Later, they somehow made the whole holy saga entirely invisible throughout the vast depth and breadth of minutely recorded history.

    PS. I should mention the fabled Galloping Donkey God of Newton le Willows has lately been declared nothing but an entirely made up scurrilous hoax.    
    PPS.  Guess what! As I was finishing off this post, there came a ring on the doorbell. It turned out to be two Jehovah Witnesses. I ignored whoever it was and let my wife answer. Afterwards she said to me 'How do they always find us' (we used to get them calling a lot at the other house). I said ' There must be a secret sign over the door' - I guess I could have said 'Perhaps they received a quick text from God that there was someone here who needed to be dealt with'.   



     
      January 18, 2018 1:52 PM MST
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  • 591
    One of these should eradicate your JW infestation.
      January 18, 2018 5:24 PM MST
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  • 343
    Thank you Sir. I assure you the next Jehovah Witness to darken my doorstep will witness something no messenger of God should ever have to see.
      January 19, 2018 8:57 AM MST
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  • 46117
    Joe the Plumber.

    The same one that gave us Santa Claus.

    WHITE.

    Jesus was not WHITE nor BLOND.

      January 18, 2018 3:54 PM MST
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  • 5835
    The only eye witness historian recorded that he was blond. That is the only clue we have about his appearance.
      January 18, 2018 11:12 PM MST
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  • 34436
    Who is that?
      January 19, 2018 9:14 AM MST
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  • 492
    Here you go Stu, a real sore thumb in 21st century Judea.

      January 18, 2018 7:24 PM MST
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  • 13277
    LOL!
      January 18, 2018 9:42 PM MST
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  • 5835
    Every artist renders a face that looks like his own people. But since the discovery of the shroud of Turin, every detail in that face has been included in every artist's rendering, even though the shape and color of the face change to agree with local expectations.
      January 18, 2018 11:38 PM MST
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  • 3719
    And even though the shroud is not even likely to have been old enough - if anything it is probably Mediaeval. Nor is the  image clear enough to describe any particular person credibly. But then religion's nature is such that you can make  anything you like - including art - fit it, however spuriously, in order to make it suit your own purposes.

    I don't think anyone can possibly know what Jesus and his contemporaries really looked liked other than broadly Middle-Eastern. I have never heard of anyone really suggesting Jesus was blonde but there are no accurate portraits of anybody from that land and time. The nearest anyone came to portraiture were the Romans and Greeks. The Egyptians' art in tombs was too stylised to be called portraits.

    I don't however agree with Walt O'Reagun's blanket charge of racism in Christianity even if there are artists now making paintings that wilfully show Christ as looking more Scandinavian than Arabic. It could not certainly not apply to the Mediaeval and Renaissance artists because they genuinely did not know. 
      January 19, 2018 2:33 AM MST
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  • 34436
    Looks clear to me.
      January 19, 2018 6:03 AM MST
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  • 3719
    It's clearly a human face. but that's about all.
      January 19, 2018 1:40 PM MST
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  • 5835
    When you say "Mediaeval and Renaissance", that means Italian mostly. You can tell by the hair that the painters used Italian models, not Jewish models. 
      January 19, 2018 4:15 PM MST
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  • 34436
    Most people imagine Him to look similar to those around them. We do have the shroud of Turin. 

    I don't know what color His hair was but when He returns be will be white. No, He does not have white skin.
    Rev:
    His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; .....
      January 19, 2018 9:13 AM MST
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  • 2657
    Don't think the Shroud is authentic. Radiocarbin dating appears to be pretty accurate in dating things for the last 4,000 years or so.

    [The Shroud of Turin—Authentic?
    Perhaps the most famous feature of Turin is the shroud that some believe is the winding-sheet in which Christ’s body was wrapped. A travel guidebook explains: “The most famous—and most dubious—holy relic of them all is kept in Turin’s duomo [cathedral].” It is permanently exhibited in one of the duomo’s chapels, locked in an airtight, bulletproof glass case filled with an inert gas. The book goes on to say: “In 1988, however, the myth of the shroud was exploded: a carbon-dating test showed that it dates back no farther than the 12th century.”]

    [For example, the radiocarbon “clock.” This method of radiocarbon dating was developed over a period of two decades by scientists all over the world. It was widely acclaimed for accurate dating of artifacts from man’s ancient history. But then a conference of the world’s experts, including radiochemists, archaeologists and geologists, was held in Uppsala, Sweden, to compare notes. The report of their conference showed that the fundamental assumptions on which the measurements were based had been found untrustworthy to a greater or lesser degree. For example, it found that the rate of radioactive carbon formation in the atmosphere has not been consistent in the past and that this method is not reliable in dating objects from about 2,000 B.C.E. or before.]54


    Don't think that Revelation is literally describing the color of Jesus. Rev 1:1
    [10 John’s description continues: “Moreover, his head and his hair were white as white wool, as snow, and his eyes as a fiery flame.” (Revelation 1:14) His snow-white hair indicates wisdom due to length of life. (Compare Proverbs 16:31.) And his fiery eyes show that he is sharp, alert, as he searches, tests, or expresses indignation. Even Jesus’ feet catch John’s attention: “And his feet were like fine copper when glowing in a furnace; and his voice was as the sound of many waters.” (Revelation 1:15) In the vision, Jesus’ feet are like copper, glowing, bright—properly so for one who walks zealously and with a fine standing in the presence of Jehovah God. Moreover, while in the Bible divine things are often pictured by gold, so things human are sometimes represented by copper. So Jesus’ glowing feet like fine copper remind us of how “comely” his feet were when he walked the earth preaching the good news.—Isaiah 52:7; Romans 10:15.]
      January 19, 2018 1:22 PM MST
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  • 34436
    The dating for it has been all over the place. From the 1200ad. To 300-400ad. There is reason to believe the dating to be inaccurate because of a fire it had been exposed to. 
    I don't believe that part of Rev is figuritive. 
      January 19, 2018 1:36 PM MST
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  • 2657
    The Catholic Church has a history of finding relics of Jesus to worship.

    What about the surrounding verses? Do you think he has a white body of flesh with copper colored feet or feet of a metal like copper?

    (Revelation 1:12-16) I turned to see who was speaking with me, and when I turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands someone like a son of man, clothed in a garment that reached down to the feet and wearing a golden sash around his chest. 14 Moreover, his head and his hair were white as white wool, as snow, and his eyes were like a fiery flame, 15 and his feet were like fine copper when glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. 16 And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth a sharp, long, two-edged sword was protruding, and his countenance was like the sun when it shines at its brightest.
      January 19, 2018 4:06 PM MST
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  • 492
    LSD is good.
      January 19, 2018 7:10 PM MST
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  • 1393
    Q "Who came up with the popular image of Jesus?
    It's a clearly European-looking image — fair-skinned, light-haired, blue-eyed, his softly handsome demeanor suggesting a teen idol, if a serious-minded one. You’d figure a guy like that would have been a real sore thumb in first-century Judea. So where’d we get the idea that that’s Jesus?"



    I think Christianity [the name came after the departure of Jesus from earth] would have disappeared had it not been for the Romans. They adopted the religion and adapted it to blend in with their Pagan beliefs, to make it more readily acceptable among themselves and when they introduced it into their empire as the only officially recognised state religion.

    The foundation of the Roman adaptations were laid down by Paul who changed the focus of the religion from the law of Moses, strict monotheism and a readily forgiving God [as in Jesus' parable of the prodigal son] to a religion that would be more easy to attract gentiles to. For that purpose it was changed into a religion free of the burdensome Mosaic laws and one in which Jesus was the son of God who entered earth to die for the sins of man and had he not done so man would have had no hope of salvation from the wrath of God.

    This was appealing to the Romans whose gods had sons. Yehoshua the son of Mary [short form, Yessou] became Jesus the son of God, a Roman God, with a Romanised name and looks. 

    A few centuries later, the spirit of God was admitted as God, the Holy Spirit, to become the third person of the new Holy Trinity.

    There were of course other Pagan traditions that were introduced into Roman Catholicism, the new Roman religion, such as Christmas.
      January 26, 2018 3:19 PM MST
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  • 3719
    That was an enormous change of heart for the Romans, after their almost paranoid persecution of the early Christians, but it is easy to see why this new religion should have seemed more logical and appealing than the vainglorious soap-opera pantheon it replaced. 

    Just so ironical and tragic that a few centuries later, established Christianity should become just as paranoid, persecuting not only other religions but also fellow-Christians merely for differing theological opinions and liturgical practices - or suppressing those who chose to be born female. Even in the present day, some cults still use it as an excuse for similarly-minded bullying. I don't believe in gods and angels, but to paraphrase, "I find no fault with this religion", and I am sure Paul and his fellow founders of the religion never intended it to be so used and abused. 

    Returning to the question, I remember as a boy being given a Bible illustrated with modern paintings of Jesus and other characters. These did pay the subjects the respect of dressing them in robes essentially similar to traditional Arabian, though a bit more colourful. I can't recall exactly how they depicted Jesus' complexion, but I think they did try to make him look Middle Eastern bronzed.
      March 4, 2018 11:10 AM MST
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