Quote:
Originally Posted by Oxcoug
It's a fad in current visual representations - documentaries etc - to depict Jesus as having bit of an Arab appearance.
The rather simplistic thinking seems to be "heyyyy look at that part of the world - they're all Arabs, they've got dark hair and dark skin! Jesus must have looked THAT way!" It becomes a kind of political correctness to make the point that Jesus and his boys were NOT white.
My instinct is that this is garbage. That a genetic pool even in a very large and populated area can be overwhelmed and changed in a very short period. That the Bible isn't kidding when it describes David as being "ruddy" and that the genetic makeup of 1st century Jews could well have had a lot of fair-haired, fair-skinned people. That Mohammed's conquest of the Levant and subsequent incursions from various Muslim dynasties cld have eliminated many of those recessive genes in the region.
And that at the end of the day it's not the least bit implausible that Jesus was just a white dude. Not that it matters to me - I just find it annoying that we now are all expected to assume that he wasn't.
But that's my relatively uninformed view. Anyone? Am I wrong?
|
Whatever the answer, the Israelites were a cloistered community from Jacob on down. When they went into Egypt it was looked down on to marry with the Egyptians althought Joseph did marry the Princess. So who knows how much intermarrying they did.
When they left Egypt, then they really got into the, "don't marry outside" thing. Even in the land of Israel, I believe they were encouraged to marry amongst their own tribe. Judah itself had some distinct characteristics. But did they intermarry during the Babylonian captivity.
Since the Arabs originate with Ishmael, who knows what he looked like.
Somehow I doubt that JC was fair skinned and blonde hair. It statistically and genetically seems a long shot. Although I suppose anything is possible.