Just what did Jesus look like?

Slave owners justified what they were doing by using scripture. It didn’t make sense to the slaves that their savior was white.

That’s not surprising. People have depicted Jesus to look more like themselves throughout history, in order to make him easier to “connect” to. As a matter of fact, if you look at old Oriental images of Him, He looks suspiciously Asian…

“He had hair like a lamb, skin like bronze, and averaged 42 points a game”
Chris Rock

I’m reminded of an old Second City sketch, where God and Jesus are discussing his upcoming ‘mission’ to Earth:

God: Most artists will paint you to look like a gay Norwegian.

Jesus: What will I really look like?

God: Frank Zappa.

From Robert Graves’ novel King Jesus (London: Cassell & Company, 1946), Chapter 16: