# Wait.... Jesus was white? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 2, 2023, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-jesus-was-white/979199 "2023-02-02T09:14:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2023, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-jesus-was-white/979199/102 "2023-02-05T02:15:18Z")
When one says “white” in the context of how Jesus has been depicted, I think we mostly mean straight, light brown hair and beard with a Roman nose and round eyes. Skin color (other than dark brown or black) is pretty indistinct in a 500 year old oil painting. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2023, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-jesus-was-white/979199/103 "2023-02-05T07:37:52Z")
I thought John the Revelator was not the ‘biblical john’ the john that was a desciple? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2023, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-jesus-was-white/979199/104 "2023-02-05T14:54:07Z")
From the Staff Report I linked to upthread: > [@](#): > > The Revelation is often called the Revelation of Saint John. **Tradition says this is the same as the author of the fourth gospel, but that seems implausible.** The style of the Greek is different, and while the gospel author avoids mentioning his own name in order to focus attention on Jesus, the author of Revelation mentions his own name repeatedly. He doesn’t call himself an apostle, as would be his right, but merely a prophet. Exactly who the author was is open to conjecture. There is no real consensus, except that he was apparently a Jewish writer, writing in Greek to the Jewish believers after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. (bolding mine) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2023, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-jesus-was-white/979199/105 "2023-02-05T19:54:39Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > The style of the Greek is different,… Again, meaningless. Since people used scribes. Still, I do not think Revelation was “written” by John the Apostle. ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2023, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-jesus-was-white/979199/106 "2023-02-05T20:15:28Z")
style in this case refers to word usage and sentence structure, not handwriting. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2023, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-jesus-was-white/979199/107 "2023-02-05T20:35:08Z")
You dont think that a scribe can pick the sentence structure and even suggest better words? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2023, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-jesus-was-white/979199/108 "2023-02-05T22:01:32Z")
I’ve gone through this thread and, as far as I can seem, no one’s brought up Lentulus, so I will.Correct me if I’m wrong The letter is one of those interesting bits of late apocrypha that seems to date friom 15th century Italy. It purports to be written by a Roman official who was a contemporary of Jesus, and gives a description: > [@](#): > > Lentulus, the Governor of the Jerusalemites to the Roman Senate and People, greetings. There has appeared in our times, and there still lives, a man of great power (virtue), called Jesus Christ. The people call him prophet of truth; his disciples, son of God. He raises the dead, and heals infirmities. He is a man of medium size (_statura procerus, mediocris et spectabilis_ ); he has a venerable aspect, and his beholders can both fear and love him. His hair is of the colour of the ripe hazel-nut, straight down to the ears, but below the ears wavy and curled, with a bluish and bright reflection, flowing over his shoulders. It is parted in two on the top of the head, after the pattern of the [Nazarenes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazarene_(sect)). His brow is smooth and very cheerful with a face without wrinkle or spot, embellished by a slightly reddish complexion. His nose and mouth are faultless. His beard is abundant, of the colour of his hair, not long, but divided at the chin. His aspect is simple and mature, his eyes are changeable and bright. He is terrible in his reprimands, sweet and amiable in his admonitions, cheerful without loss of gravity. He was never known to laugh, but often to weep. His stature is straight, his hands and arms beautiful to behold. His conversation is grave, infrequent, and modest. He is the most beautiful among the children of men. Of course, being probably from the 1400s, this is pretty useless as real evidence. It’s thought to be influential in later depictions of Jesus, though, and Wikipedia claims it’s at least consistent with earlier works (which were still removed from Jesus’ time by centuries). I note that the earliest depictions of Jesus we have (controversial, because it’s not even clear whether they are supposed to portray Jesus) seem to have been Roman works that portray him as a beardless Roman man. They were almost certainly not basedd on any description they might have had. I’ll agree that Jesus probably looked like some random 1st century Middle Eastern Jew. What else would one expect? No contemporary work says otherwise or gives some odd quirk in his appearance. [Letter of Lentulus - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_Lentulus#:~:text=His%20nose%20and%20mouth%20are,cheerful%20without%20loss%20of%20gravity). ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2023, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-jesus-was-white/979199/109 "2023-02-08T18:49:10Z")
Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib asking “Do I look white to you?” [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/kfCQF5TuE80/hqdefault.jpg "Rep. Rashida Tlaib to U.S. Census Director: "Do I Look White to You?"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfCQF5TuE80) > Circling “White” on the Census changed my lived experience as a person of color in our country, ---
**Author:** ![fordgt100](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fordgt100](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fordgt100)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2023, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-jesus-was-white/979199/110 "2023-02-25T10:42:00Z")
Was there even someone called Jesus? Did Buddha even exist? I don’t think there is any real hard evidence one way or the other. All religions seem to have a need to rely on some sort of belief. According to the writings he was Jewish, so make of that what you will. But sure, the people that dug up a bunch of old scrolls in the desert and magically combined them into book form used all manner of agendas to edit what they put in or left out. He sure looked white in the paintings I saw in Catholic School in Alabama. Maybe he is depicted as Black in Africa, I don’t know. There really is no way to know for sure, but having lived in the desert of Tucson, that sure made me browner than I was before. I’m still Italian American though, no matter what color I may temporarily be. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2023, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-jesus-was-white/979199/111 "2023-02-26T21:00:13Z")
> [@fordgt100](#): > > Did Buddha even exist? IIRC Gautma was a prince. Thus, there is hard evidence that a man by that name exhisted. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2023, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-jesus-was-white/979199/112 "2023-02-26T21:17:28Z")
Closed on February 26, 2023, 9:17pm UTC ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2023, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-jesus-was-white/979199/113 "2023-02-26T21:18:23Z")
**Modnote** : Buddha is off-topic. Please stay on topic especially in **GD** and **P&E**. This is also not the thread for Debating the Existence of Jesus. Just if the Bible says what color skin he had. * * * * * * As it is 16 days later, I think I’ll just leave this one closed now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wait-jesus-was-white/979199.md?page=5)