Race and appearance of Jesus

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The race and appearance of Jesus, widely accepted by researchers to be a Jewish Galilean from Roman Judaea, has been a topic of discussion since the days of early Christianity. Various theories about the race of Jesus have been proposed and debated. By the Middle Ages, a number of documents, generally of unknown or questionable origin, had been composed and were circulating with details of the appearance of Jesus. These documents are now mostly considered forgeries. A wide range of depictions have appeared over the two millennia since Jesus's death, often influenced by cultural settings, political circumstances and theological contexts. Many depictions are interpretations of spurious sources, and are generally historically inaccurate. By the 19th century, theories that Jesus was non-Semitic were being developed, with writers suggesting he was variously white, black, or some race other than those known to have been native to the Levant. However, as in other cases of the assignment of race...

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