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Comment by thrifter | Hacker News Reader

I've been fascinated with how the countenance of Christ has been a tool for racial (and racist) propaganda. As a Jew from the Middle East, He certainly wasn't the fair-skinned, blue eyed, blond hair rock star depicted by some Christian denominations. I also doubt He was black, although some Rastafarians believe He was because it says so in Jeremiah 8:21.

I discussed "Black Jesus" and the Rastafari on my podcast : https://soundcloud.com/jesusinbooks/black_jesus_rastafarian_... and for those who want to deep-dive into the topic, I highly recommend The Color of Christ by Paul Harvey and Edward J. Blum. It's a knockout book.

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> I also doubt He was black, although some Rastafarians believe He was because it says so in Jeremiah 8:21.

That's an odd interpretation. The word in Hebrew stems from qadar, which does mean dark, but is often used to indicate mourning (https://biblehub.com/hebrew/6937.htm). And that follows the context of the verse: "Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn (qadarti), and horror grips me" (NIV). As far as I recall, the Bible never uses skin color to indicate race. It always goes by ancestry ("Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, . . . "). Speaking of which, it spends a great deal of time, across several books, to tell us that Jesus is Jewish. Most Jews I know of are fair skinned. Skin color doesn't mean any kind of superiority to me. I'm just talking about the accuracy of paintings.

> He certainly wasn't the fair-skinned, blue eyed, blond hair rock star depicted by some Christian denominations.

I've been a Christian all my life, and visited churches of many denominations. Most depictions show him with brown hair and brown eyes. I can't remember seeing any depiction with blond hair. Now blue eyes I have occasionally seen, but isn't it possible for any race to have any eye color?

> Most Jews I know of are fair skinned.

It has been a while since Jesus’ time, and chances are most Jews you know work inside, unlike Jesus.

Sarcasm aside, all of the Jews I know can trace their lineage through Europe after the diaspora in the early second century. One would expect that a pre-diaspora Jew in Judea and a modern Jew who’s family had traveled through Northern Europe for 1800 years would have significantly different skin tones.

When you look at natives of the Levant they pretty much look like the depictions of an Mediterranean Jesus you will find most commonly in churches around the world. Fair skin and light eyes are not a unheard of trait in that region either. I have a Jordanien friend who has the bluest eyes and blonde hair. The Levant is not Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, these people are well in the phenotypical spectrum of most Mediterranean people, like Greeks, Italians, Turks or Lebanese people.

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