I’m seeing this picture floating all over FB of late–I normally ignore ALL images attempting to depict Christ as inherently superfluous. However I saw a post earlier asking the question: “I’m hearing that many are taking this photo depicting Jesus and the 12 Disciples as offensive. Why?”
My Answer?
1 Because any depiction is false.
2 Scripture clearly states He is not at all handsome.
3 It is completely irrelevant what color His skin is.
So… my answer is it is not so much offensive as it is childish, who cares what He looks like, His finished work on the cross is what matters.
Within the thread, someone wrote pithily; “Bronze skin. Hair of wool. That’s the scripture!” another responded with a color chart depicting all the different shades of the color bronze, asking” “I wonder how they got wrong all these years.” [sic]
I responded: if you think “That’s the scripture” you probably never read it for yourself. Let’s change that right now.
Revelation 1:
13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.
14His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
15 And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.
There is zero indication of His race in the verses you referenced, just a description of Him in a supernatural form John attempted to relate… that is of course unless you think He walked around on earth during His ministry with His eyes and face glowing with a sword sticking out of his mouth.
Pictures like the one above have nothing to do with truth and everything to do with man’s desire to elevate himself often through racial identity, (Black, or White) generally in a self serving way such as the pursuit of power over others, or a need for misguided self affirmation. The Lord’s skin color is completely meaningless.
Acts 17:
24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25 Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
P.S.
Scripture said brass not bronze–bronze is a brownish copper and tin alloy. brass a yellowish copper and zinc alloy. So if you were going to torture Revelation 1:15 into indicating race, His complexion would be more Asian. So drop it!
Hassan Nurullah lives in Hapeville, Georgia, and writes as Digital Publius, he comments on American society and challenges the latest liberal and secular affronts. His views are conservative and strongly influenced by an unapologetic Christian world view.
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Thanks for the article. I had always thought Jesus was a well-groomed and good-looking guy. I do believe in his Supernatural appearance. You’re 100% correct.
In today’s culture, if there’s no link, or no picture, it just didn’t happen, which tells us how shallow our society has become.
If there is a picture, I wonder how they got it?
One depiction I have seen is one with a lion and a lamb, depicting the Father and the Son on a cloud. I always get a good feeling seeing that one.
In the only real description we have, Yehoshua — sometimes rendered Yeshua — ben Yosef was so unremarkable in appearance that Judas Iscariot had to physically point him out to the soldiers who came to arrest him. That means he would have been seen as a Middle Eastern Jew of Middle Eastern Jewish appearance: Caucasian, though slightly darker of skin than northern Europeans, with dark hair and brown eyes.
In Jesus Christ Superstar, Judas asks:
But if Jesus had come in modern times, we would have photographs of him, we’d have recordings of his voice. Because we have no real images of Jesus, it is possible for every culture and every race to see him as their own. This is a good thing.