Please stop with the, “the Bible doesn’t say how Jesus looked” and “we just don’t know”. The Bible clearly says he had feet of brass and hair like lamb’s wool. Josephus states He was short, dark, with an underdeveloped beard. It’s time for us to stop ignoring the evident!!!! It is obvious that Jesus was not blonde haired and blue eyed like most of you would like to believe, but quite probably was a man of color. Why is that so hard to admit? For me personally, what he is/was is not important, but when you see young children of color who think that all they can be is sports stars, rappers, or pimps, or that all black folks have ever been was slaves except for Martin Luther King, Jr., they especially need to know that not only did Jesus most likely look like them, but so did many other prominent historical figures. Yours in Christ, Chuck Smith
I appreciate your sentiment, wishing to find a hero to whom black youngsters can look and imitate. However, misconstruing Scripture is not the way to do it. The color of our Lord’s skin or the color of anyone’s skin is immaterial to God or right-thinking Christians. Jesus is the spiritual hero for every man, woman and child irrespective of one’s race or skin pigment.
The passage to which you refer uses figurative language about Jesus Christ in heaven. It reads: “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; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 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” (Revelation 1:14-16). Phrases “eyes were as a flame of fire,” “in his right hand seven stars” and “out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword” should indicate to readers this is figurative language, not a literal description of Jesus Christ on earth. Incidentally, the passage refers to our Lord’s hair in this figure as “white,” hardly in agreement with your assertion. The reference to “white” in the passage implies purity and has nothing to do with anyone’s race. The reference to “fine brass, as if they were burned in a furnace” also refers to purity in the figure of metal heated until it is white-hot and glowing. Again, there is no reference to race here.
The Gospels of Matthew and Luke respectively give the family tree of his adoptive father, Joseph, and his mother, Mary (Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38). None of the enemies of Jesus made any accusations regarding his parentage. Both Matthew and Luke conclusively teach that both of our Lord’s parents were Jews. Therefore, Jesus, during his earthly habitation had the appearance of other Jews. He was not a black man, but spiritually, his ethnicity and skin pigment are immaterial.
