A copy of what a painter named Sallman may have thought Jesus looked like hung in our home when I was a child in the 1950s. My family attended Gum Springs Pentecostal-Holiness Church, Taylors, SC, where Sunday school illustrations also showed Jesus as fair-skinned.
Warner E. Sallman’s (1892–1968) “Head of Christ,” created in1940, depicts “a gentle Jesus with blue eyes turned heavenward and dark blond hair cascading over his shoulders in waves,” Emily McFarlan says.
Sallman’s “Head of Christ,” called the “best-known American artwork of the 20th century,” became an image of a “white Jesus” that influenced generations.
A backlash to Sallman’s painting began during the civil rights movement that gained speed in 1954 when the U.S. Supreme Court made segregation illegal in public schools in the case of Brown v. Board of Education.
What did Jesus look like? What color was he?
The late Dr. E.V. Hill (1933-2003), a former pastor of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, became a leader in the civil rights movement and was honored by Time magazine as one of the seven most outstanding preachers in the United States died at age 69 in 2019.
Dr. Hill, a black pastor, was asked if he thought Jesus was Caucasian as depicted in paintings. This was his reply:
“I don’t know anything about a white Jesus ... I know about Christ, a Savior named Jesus. I don’t know what color He is. He was born in the brown Middle East; He fled to black Africa; and He was in heaven before the gospel got to white Europe. So, I don't know what color He is.
“I do know one thing: if you bow at the altar with color on your mind, you'll get up with color on your mind. Go back again — and keep going back until you no longer look at His color, but at His greatness and His power — His power to save!”
The Bible gives no physical description of Jesus, but he was a Jew, born of a Jewish mother. His friends were Jews; he worshipped in synagogues. The New Testament names his younger brothers: James, Joses, Simon, and Jude (Mark 6:3, Matthew 13:55, John 7:3, Acts 1:13, 1 Corinthians 9:5).
According to Wikipedia, art of the first centuries showed Jesus with a short beard. The long-haired, bearded depiction of Jesus that emerged in fourth century A.D. was influenced by imagined images of Greek and Roman gods, especially the Greek god Zeus, sources say. By the 1800s, theories that Jesus was non-Semitic (not Jewish) were being developed, with writers suggesting he was white, black, Indian, or some other race. The average Jew from Judea, at the time Jesus was born, likely would have had dark brown to black hair, olive skin, and brown eyes. Judean men of Jesus’ time averaged about 5 feet-5 inches in height. Jesus likely had short hair and a beard, in accordance with Jewish practices of the time, scholars say.
If you wonder about Jesus’ physical appearance, consider “Some Children See Him,” a song by Wihla Hutson (1901-2002). She wrote the lyrics and Alfred S. Burt penned the music in 1951:
SOME CHILDREN SEE HIM
Some children see Him lily white,
The baby Jesus born this night.
Some children see Him lily white,
With tresses soft and fair.
Some children see Him bronzed and brown,
The Lord of heav'n to earth come down.
Some children see Him bronzed and brown,
With dark and heavy hair.
Some children see Him almond-eyed,
This Savior whom we kneel beside.
Some children see Him almond-eyed,
With skin of yellow hue.
Some children see Him dark as they,
Sweet Mary's Son to whom we pray.
Some children see him dark as they,
And, ah! they love Him, too!
The children in each different place
Will see the baby Jesus' face Like theirs,
but bright with heavenly grace,
And filled with holy light.
O lay aside each earthly thing
And with thy heart as offering,
Come worship now the infant King.
'Tis love that's born tonight!
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