Sunday, June 20, 2010

Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

Over the years I have known several individuals and families who were very much involved with the Catholic church. Along with indirectly worshiping the pope, I remember they always had pictures of Christ in their homes and churches that always showed Jesus as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes. According to the bible and other history resources they say Jesus was of Middle Eastern descent. I was just wondering why the Catholic church makes him look like Al from that show "Home Improvement".



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

it is due to a combination of reasons. Part of which is due to ethnic affinity ( I have seen African American JCs, white, middle eastern, even asian ones), Artist immpressions, peoples ideas, even racism. As Tibeton Buddhist we have done the same thing in regard to Buddha, nobdy realy knows what he looked like as well.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

no one really knows what he looked like because they didn't have digital cameras back then. they didn't even have polaroids.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

well according to the bible he was Jewish %26amp; had wooly hair.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

Because it sells!



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

The images of Jesus are derived from the images of Bacchus - the Greek god of wine - who was depicted as a white guy with brown hair.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

During the Dark and Middle Ages the Catholic Church was on a mission to convert Pagan Europe to Christianity. They new the Pagans would not warm to a God from another part of the world, so they changed his image to suit the region.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

Ironically, Jesus was probably brown. He's shown as such because of the following:



Blue Eyes: comes off as physically appealing and is the generalized look of kindness.



Brown Hair: the majority of the people on the planet have brown hair, giving them something to relate to Jesus with.



WHITE: At the time, the Whites were the global majority, so see above.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

Honestly, does it really matter what He looked like? It's who He is, what He taught, and what He did that's important, not so much what exactly He looked like.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

I'm Ukrainian Catholic to start with, and these are the kinds of icons I grew up with. Here's one of Christ the Teacher.



http://www.stthomas.edu/cathstudies/imag...



This one is very old.



http://www.heritage.org.cy/images/106.jp...



This one is probably the most accurate, and shares attributes with those on the Shroud of Turin.



http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=ht...



(here's an excerpt)



"Saved from the ravages of the iconoclastic period by St. Catherine閳ユ獨 Monastery at Mount Sinai, this icon is reputed by art historians to be one of the oldest existing icons of Christ. More amazing than its age is that modern technology has shown that it shares the same facial structure and proportion which we know from the Shroud of Turin."



In all of them, the guy has dark eyes, dark hair, and one shows dark or very tanned skin.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

You are probably right - Christ was most likely olive skinned with dark or black hair etc. But I'm not sure Hollywood or any red-bloodied Caucasian would be too keen on showing Christ in that light - particularly speaking in Aramaic.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

Because you can't make him look checkered, I mean he has to look like someone---it depends too on what part of the world you are in---I have seen him Chinese and African too so he is all of us. But, originally he was Jewish so in most of the pictures I have seen he could have been Jewish.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

In fact, if you read the bible through and through, and almost any biblical account, you won't find a physical description.



From the area, there were large assortments of people, including Africans, Middle Easterners, and whitey himself. He could have been any of these



Personally, I never could wrap myself around that concept, it says it plain as day in the bible, Thou Shalt not make any graven images, as if God wanted to transend racial boundries, but you know those crazy Christians always changing the rules



Chances are he was average height, brown-haired, middle-easterner, with a short beard and shoulder-length hair. But what if he was a 10' Albino with a purple afro and a van-dyke mustache, would His message be any different?



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

The artist who painted the portraits I guess, you would have thought they would have made him look Jewish, or at least like a roman, makes no sense no one knows what he really looked like.



simply men's interpretation.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

ask Leonardo and Michelangelo they are the ones who portrayed him as such.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

They don't always, the catholics in africa have a african christ and the the asians they same. He is described in the book of revelation and the shroud of turin is sometimes sited as a source.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

It's not just the Catholics, bub.



They ALL portray a blue eyed, light haired Jesus.



Denial........



He was Arabaic and spoke Aramaic.. there are some indication that his ancestors roots were Ethiopian.



Good white christians can't stand that idea.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

The Catholic Church doesn't portray Christ in any particular way. But various artists, some of whom are Catholic, have portrayed Him in a variety of ways. Artists of every culture have portrayed Him in terms of their own ethnic appearance.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

I agree with CLL



Catholics always were there to preach a false god and do not follow the God of the bible and only say it and have no real experience with the God of the bible. They worship virgin Mary who was a pagan goddess and they do not want the truth of God to be revealed to people because the devil is the same and so they killed so many Christians throughout history



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

The Catholic church does not portray Christ any different than any other religion what happened was that most portraits of Christ that we know well were drawn by White people who drew what they were familiar with. Think about it when was the last time that you saw a new Likeness of Christ one drawn in the 18,19,or 20th century's? Most of the portrayals of Christ were drawn hundreds of years ago. People when they draw unless it's modern art draw what they are familiar with and what they see in the mirror.



Wally if you want to put down a whole religious group get your information straight. Catholics don't' worship Mary, they respect her and they pray to her for advise. Don't you ask your mother for advise?? And if she was a pagan Goddess how come she's mentioned in every version of the Bible as the Mother of the Christ??



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

No one really knows what He looks like. I think it's a matter of tradition. A friend of mine is affiliated with a Catholic mission in Thialand and showed me photos of the mission house. Inside, they have paintings of the nativity, stations of the cross, etc. In the paintings, the wise men are of asian descent and are riding elephants, yet traditionally we think of the wisemen as being of Middle Eastern descent and riding camels. It just goes to show that people will sometimes adapt events in the bible with their own culture. Also, we all know Jesus was Jewish, so that should about clear it up.



By the way, we do not worship the pope directly or indirectly. You may think that we do but we don't. That would be idolatry.



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

Nobody knows exactly what Jesus looked like. In the earliest known painting of him, he kinda looks like Rambo. See it here:



http://www.orthodoxphotos.com/graphics/i...



But really, these are all artistic renderings meant to convey concepts like beauty, peace, heroism, etc. -- they aren't meant to be looked at like a photograph. The artist certainly isn't trying to say, "Jesus looked physically like this."



And we don't "indirectly worship the pope." We appreciate him and we pray for him because he's our leader on earth and he answers to Christ. That's not worship.



Really, though, you seem to be attempting to discredit Catholicism with your misleading question. What's up with that? What's your real beef here?



Why does the Catholic church portray Christ as a white guy with brown hair and blue eyes?

The Catholic Church affirms the Jewish heritage of both Jesus and Christianity, "To the Jews belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ.'



No one really knows what Jesus looked like. However we believe that Jesus is God the Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity and we believe that every human being is made in the image and likeness of God. Therefore we can depict Jesus looking just about like anyone, especially when artists use their artistic license.



Even the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared as Our Lady of Guadalupe as a native Mexican with brown skin and wearing native dress.



For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, sections 839 and following: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt1s...



With love in Christ.

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