The oft-asked question "What did Jesus look like?" is sometimes paired with related questions like "Was Jesus black?" or "Was Jesus a man of colour (color)?" Our difficulty is the sheer scarcity of the source materials that would help us to give properly informed answers to these questions. Nevertheless, it seems likely that it is appropriate to describe the historical Jesus as a person of colour, but appreciation of this likelihood has been impeded in
much Christian art, culture and scholarship for several reasons:
- There exists no early description of Jesus akin to the one we have, for
example, of Paul in The Acts of Paul and Thecla. The few short descriptions
we do have tend to focus more on his stature than on his appearance (Justin
Martyr, Tertullian), and those are most likely derived from inferences based on
Isaiah 52:14 and 53:2-3.
- The description of the heavenly, apocalyptic Jesus in Revelation may have
exercised an undue influence. The Jesus of Revelation 1 has hair "white like
wool", though one might draw attention to the fact that Ethiopians in antiquity
were characterised as having "woolly" hair,(1) in which case the mentions of the
word "white" (leukos) here should be seen purely as informed by the
apocalyptic nature of the passage. But ultimately this passage tells us much
more about apocalyptic than it does about first century Galilean peasants like
Jesus.
- Politics of omission: recent New Testament scholarship has drawn attention to
a shameful politics of omission in both Biblical authors (e.g. Luke-Acts) and
modern Biblical scholars, the tendency of which is to exaggerate the role of
Rome and the Roman orbit and to marginalise darker races outside of that
orbit.(2)
- Reconstructing Jesus in their own image: the perennial problem of historical
Jesus research, highlighted nearly a century ago by Albert Schweitzer yet still
prevalent - and historical Jesus scholarship, as a sub-discipline of Biblical
Studies, has been carried out primarily by white, male American, German and
British scholars working with the modernist historical-critical approach. A
quick survey of the depictions of Jesus on the covers of recent books on the
Historical Jesus, most of which have portraits in the white, western artistic
tradition, confirms how far most of these scholars are from even tacitly
acknowledging that Jesus was a man of colour.(3)
The New Testament itself tells us nothing directly about Jesus' appearance. No doubt
many of the first tradents, themselves Jews emanating from the same part of the world,
would have taken for granted that Jesus, like them, was a person of colour. But for
many a contemporary western audience, some rethinking needs to be done, not least
given the legacy of Anglo-Saxon Jesuses presented by so many for so long. There is a
marked influence, for example, from the Jesus films emanating from America and
Europe in the 20th Century, all of which use American or European actors of a
particular hue, tending to prefer sandy-haired, blue-eyed Jesuses. When black actors
appear in the films, they are placed opposite Jesus and in contrast with him (e.g. Judas
in Jesus Christ Superstar (dir. Norman Jewison, 1973). The Miracle Maker (dir.
Derek W. Hayes & Stanislav Sokolov, 2000) marks a distinct and welcome departure
from this trend in its depiction of a dark, swarthy Jesus who, it might be added, is
probably supposed to evoke the notion, in contemporary viewers, that he is Jewish.
But what is the evidence that Jesus might be described as a person of colour?
- The region in which Jesus lived: the African American Biblical Scholar Cain
Hope Felder(4) makes the case that we should see the Middle East of Jesus' day
as a kind of eastern extension of Africa, using archaeological and linguistic
evidence to demonstrate the interaction between these peoples in these
regions.(5)
- Jesus' General Ancestry: A key element in the narrative of the Hebrew Bible
is the Hebrews' move to, sojourn in and liberation from Egypt. Felder claims
that they were a mixed race of Afro-Asiatics. Moses had a Cushite, or
Ethiopian wife (Num.12:1); a son of Aaron, the one who begot the priestly
line, was Phinehas (Ex.6:25), which in Egyptian means "the Nubian", referring
to the area of Sudan or Ethiopia (Jer.38:7).(6)
- Jesus' Genealogy - four Afroasiatic women are mentioned in the Genealogy
that opens Matthew's Gospel: Rahab. Tamar, Ruth and Bathsheba. (Matt. 1.2-17)
- Jesus' Connection with Egypt: in both Christian and non-Christian texts, Jesus
is placed in Egypt during his formative years. Celsus, a Jewish critic of
Christianity from the second century, reported the tradition that Jesus learnt his
magical powers in Egypt (Origen, Contra Celsum, 1.28). And Matthew's
Gospel famously reports the holy family's flight to Egypt (Matthew 2) and
announces the return with the scriptural "Out of Egypt I have called my son"
(Matt. 2.15).
Some Useful Quotations
"If the truth be insisted upon, the family stock of Jesus himself was none other than
Afroasiatic. His parents probably resembled the typical darker Palestinian, Egyptian or
Yemenite of today; many African-Americans would have similar features . . . It may
not be going too far to suggest that the "Sweet Lil' Jesus Boy" of the Negro Spiritual
is probably most accurately described as an Afro-Asiatic or "a person of color." While
the Negro spiritual intones: "We didn't know who you was," it paradoxically reminds
many modern Christians that what Jesus actually looked like may come as a surprise."
(Cain Hope Felder, "Blacks in the Bible and in Bible Lands", Sphinx (Summer 1999),
on-line journal, http://www.apa1906.org/sphinx/sum99/p069.htm)
". . . Jesus and his family spent more than a fleeting moment in Egypt. It is not
inconceivable, for example, that Jesus might well have learned to walk and talk right
here in Africa. Further, Jesus and his Jewish family, being Afro-Asiatic in colour and
culture, would have appeared more chocolate-brown than Caucasian in complexion --
more like a typically miscegenated African American, Kenyan Kikuyu or South African
'coloured'." (Gosnell L. Yorke, "Biblical hermeneutics: an Afrocentric perspective",
Religion and Theology 2/2 (1995), pp. 145-158; reproduced on-line at http://www.unisa.ac.za/dept/press/rt/22/theol2w.html)
Select Bibliography
Randall C. Bailey & Jaquelyn Grant (eds.), The Recovery of Black Presence: An Interdisciplinary Exploration. Essays in Honor of Dr Charles B. Copher (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995)
Charles Copher, Black Biblical Studies: Biblical and Theological Issues on
the Black Presence in the Bible (Chicago: Black Light Fellowship, 1993)
Cain Hope Felder (ed.), The original African heritage study Bible (Nashville: James
C. Winston Publishing Company, 1993)
Cain Hope Felder (ed.), Stony the road we trod: African American biblical
interpretation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991).
Cain Hope Felder, Troubling Biblical Waters; Race, Class, and Family, (New York:
Orbis Books, 1994)
Cain Hope Felder, "Blacks in the Bible and in Bible Lands", Sphinx (Summer 1999),
on-line journal, http://www.apa1906.org/sphinx/sum99/p069.htm
Rosemary C. Rodman and Vincent L. Wimbush (eds.), African Americans & the Bible: Sacred Text and Social Texture (New York: Continuum, 2000)
Gosnell L. Yorke, "Biblical hermeneutics: an Afrocentric perspective", Religion and Theology 2/2 (1995), pp. 145-158; reproduced on-line at http://www.unisa.ac.za/dept/press/rt/22/theol2w.html
Notes
1. Frank M. Snowden, Jr., Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman
Experience (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979), p. 23.
2. See, for example, Cain Hope Felder, "Racial Ambiguities in the Biblical
Narratives," in Gregory Baum and John Coleman (eds.), The Church and
Racism, (Concilium 151; New York: Seabury, 1982); and Clarice J. Martin, "A
Chamberlain's Journey and the Challenge of Interpretation for Liberation,"
Semeia 47 (1989), pp. 105-135.
3. I can think of only one possible exception to this rule, John P. Meier, A
Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus: Volume 2: Mentor, Message,
Miracles (Anchor Bible Reference Library; New York: Doubleday, 1994),
which depicts a Jesus with a dark complexion, with long black hair and beard.
4. Felder is professor of New Testament languages and literature at Howard
University Divinity School in Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
5. Cain Hope Felder, Troubling Biblical Waters; Race, Class, and Family,
(New York: Orbis Books, 1994), pp. 8-14.
6. Ibid
