The first images of Jesus as an adult date
back to the fourth century, showing him
with short hair, a beard and "dark" skin,
Ramsey said. BBC's television series
"Son of God" reconstructed Jesus' facial
features using forensics, early artistic
portrayals and ethnic traits to get a better
idea of what Jesus may have looked like
and came up with this:
It wasn't until the Middle Ages when
artists began depicting Jesus as white
because Christians didn't like the idea of
Jesus having Jewish features, even
though he was Jewish. Ramsey also said
that many speculate that Biblical
passages that referred to lightness
symbolizing purity and darkness
symbolizing sin and evil played into how
people perceived Jesus' appearance.
"Again, we see this narrative of
dark skin people being bad, thus
needing to be tamed or killed in
order to confirm to the good, or
white, standard," Ramsey said.