What color was Jesus?

Most images of Jesus depict him as a white man. Recent events have revealed that some black churches claim that He is a black man. It seems that many Christians want to make Jesus their own image of him, believing that they can relate to him better and that he can relate to them better if he were the same color or race. To determine what color Jesus was, we must first ask ourselves, why do people in different geographic regions have different colored skin? We must ask: Is skin color determined by the climate where people live, or did God plan for them to look that way?

There is a source that answers these questions that have baffled mankind. It is the Book of Enoch. In it, Enoch describes how God took him to heaven just as the Bible describes in Genesis 5:24. Enoch lived in the sixth generation from Adam and describes how he was shown the historical events that would occur on earth. He was given three main visions and in the third vision we are told how the races arose and settled on the earth according to God’s plan for them.

In this third vision, Enoch describes the great flood and how Noah and his family were the only survivors on earth. In chapter 106 of the Book of Enoch he describes Noah as being born white as snow and red as a rose. He doesn’t mention Noah’s wife, but we can assume she was black. We can surmise this because Enoch describes Noah’s sons as one white like Noah, one red like blood, and the third black. Noah’s sons were named Shem, Japheth, and Ham. The commentary in the New American Bible, as well as the Macmillan Atlas of the Bible, tells us that Shem settled in the Middle Eastern region, which would include modern Israel and the Arab countries. Japheth settled north towards the Caspian and Black seas and towards Spain, Turkey and Europe. Cam settled in Egypt and Africa.

 
These are the families of the sons of Noah throughout their generations, in their nations: and by these the nations were divided on earth after the flood. (Genesis 10:32, NIV)

We can see that the races, who settled in the geographical places that God gave them, all came from these three sons. The color of their skins came from three basic colors as follows:

Red (And red skin pigments) – This was Shem. From Shem came Abraham and the Hebrew nation, as well as Jesus and all the nations of the Middle East and East.

Black (and dark skin pigments) – This was Ham. From Ham came the Egyptians and the African people.

White and (light skin pigments) – This was Japheth. From Japheth came the European nations.

When we see pictures of Jesus, they usually show a handsome-looking white man, but Jesus was neither! The Bible tells us this about Jesus:

It has no majestic shape or majesty for us to look at, no appearance for us to be attracted to. Despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, experienced in brokenness; and as the one from whom men hide their faces from him. He was despised, and we do not esteem him. (Isaiah 53:2-3, NIV)

So now that we know the color of Jesus’ skin, does it make a difference? Now that we know He was unattractive on the surface, can we still love Him? The beauty of Jesus was not in his physical appearance but in the Spirit that dwelled in him. He was made that way so that we do not worship him as a man and so that we do not make a graven image that becomes an idol like a man. U.S. Jesus came to earth as a man to show us his Father; not what his Father was like, but who his Father was.

He told us this:

God is spirit, and those who worship him must do so in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24, NIV)

c) 2009 by Robert Johnston, All rights reserved.