Catholicism does not require Jesus to be blonde-haired and blue-eyed, says a New Zealand theologian, in response to a challenge by a US Black Lives Matter activist.
A reconstruction by the BBC of what the historical Jesus may have looked like.
Fr Mervyn Duffy, SM, made the comment to NZ Catholic after the newspaper sent questions about recent statements by activist Shaun King.
Last month, Mr King said statues showing a light-skinned Jesus should be pulled down. He tweeted that they are “a form of white supremacy. . . always have been”.
The New York Post reported that he extended his demands to a include “all murals and stained-glass windows of white Jesus, and his European mother, and their white friends”.
Mr King claimed such depictions are a gross form of white supremacy. “Created as tools of oppression. Racist propaganda. They should all come down.”
“If your religion requires Jesus to be a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Jesus then your religion is not Christianity, but white supremacy.”
He also stated: “In the Bible, when the family of Jesus wanted to hide, and blend in, guess where they went? Egypt! Not Denmark.”
NZ Catholic sought comment from Fr Duffy, who is an Auckland-based theology lecturer at Te Kupenga – Catholic Theological College. The Marist theologian started his response by referring to a BBC reconstruction of what the “historical Jesus” may have looked like (the image is shown with this article).
“There are no pictures or descriptions of the appearance of Jesus from his own lifetime,” Fr Duffy noted.
“The Gospels are oddly uninterested in his physical characteristics – they don’t say whether he was tall or short, whether or not he had a beard, whether he was handsome or ugly. They are very concerned that their readers learn that he is the Son of God, and about his teachings, his sufferings, his death and Resurrection. They are not concerned about his skin colour.”
“Ever since then, Christians have depicted Jesus as belonging to their own culture and conforming to the standards of appearance of their time,” Fr Duffy said.
“During the time of the Roman Empire, Jesus was shown clean-shaven and wearing a toga. Ethiopian Christians depicted Jesus as black. Most European Christians painted Jesus as looking European. Rembrandt was criticised for a painting of Jesus that had him looking Jewish.
Referring to Shaun King’s comment about any religious requirement that Jesus be blonde-haired and blue-eyed, Fr Duffy said: “Catholicism does not require Jesus to be blonde-haired and blue-eyed.”
“There is a vast diversity of depictions of Christ within the Catholic church. Pope Paul VI, in 1975 in a document called Evangelii Nuntiandi wrote: ‘The Gospel, and therefore evangelisation, are certainly not identical with culture, and they are independent in regard to all cultures. Nevertheless, the kingdom which the Gospel proclaims is lived by people who are profoundly linked to a culture, and the building up of the kingdom cannot avoid borrowing the elements of human culture or cultures.’
“We cannot, and should not, portray Jesus without skin,” Fr Duffy added.
“Our statues and paintings of him will look like one culture or another. The important thing, which Shaun King recognises, is that it is idolatry to confuse one type of likeness with the real Jesus.”
Also in response to Mr King’s comments, Bishop Donald Hyland of Madison, Wisconsin in the US, pointed out that, among Catholics, “every culture, country, ethnicity, and race has claimed Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary as their own. Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to St Juan Diego as a mestiza, African art depicts Jesus as Black, Asian depictions of the Blessed Mother, too, take on similarities of both bodily appearance and, often, cultural garb”.
Lifesitenews reported him asking, “In this context, are white representations of Christ and His Mother inherently signs of white supremacy? I think not. Because the Son of God became incarnate in our human flesh, does not all of humanity – every race, tribe, and tongue – have the spiritual ability to depict him through the particular lens of their own culture?”
Shaun King has reportedly received death threats after making the comments.
I enjoyed this provocative piece on the physical appearance of Jesus. When modern-day artists depict him with blond hair and blue eyes, are they being accurate?
In fact, it’s possible that they are.
To be sure, Jesus came out of the Jewish community of the eastern Mediterranean, and so it’s most likely that he had the dark complexion of the region.
But this isn’t entirely certain. The key thing to note is that Jesus came from Galilee rather than from Judea, and the population of Galilee had a tremendous mix of ethnic backgrounds.
I came to this issue while working on a book, The Single Gospel, which is a consolidated version of four canonical gospels, editing them together into a single narrative in chronological order. My goal was to create a scripture-based text that could be easily accessible to the ordinary reader, whether reading it as a work of faith or a work of literature. Clarity was the key. I was therefore troubled by how to translate the non-intuitive phrase “Galilee of the gentiles,” or “Galilee where so many foreigners live.”
It turns out that Galilee was a place quite distinct from Judea. It is about eighty miles north of Jerusalem, with hilly country. Over the years it had been settled by many different people, including veterans of the army of Alexander the Great. In the years 104-03 B.C., Galilee had been reconquered by the Jewish ruler Aristobulus, and its inhabitants, many of whom were gentiles, were forced to convert to Judaism. Others no doubt converted voluntarily.
This complex history means that we know nothing for sure about the physical appearance of Jesus. While he unquestionably grew up in a family that was religiously and culturally Jewish, many parts of his family tree (apart from the particular lines of descent recorded in the gospels) could have been with any of the peoples of the Mediterranean basin.
Of course, as everyone will agree, physical appearance is a secondary issue, and the most important thing about Jesus is his mission and teaching.
But it’s interesting to speculate about nonetheless . . .
Neil Averitt