Was Jesus black?
Questions about the skin colour of Jesus usually reach for evidence the Bible never supplies. What Scripture does tell us is where He came from, whose family He entered, and who He came to save — and those answers matter far more than the one people argue about.
Scripture Gives No Physical Description
The Gospels record His words, His movements and His sufferings in detail, yet never once tell us what He looked like.
A. J. PollockWe have kept the greatest example to the last, that of our Lord Himself. No words can exaggerate the greatness of His undiminished Deity, nor the graciousness of His stoop down to man's condition, nor the affectionate care of the Father over His every word and action. And yet there is no account of His physical appearance given to us in the Scriptures. We do read that "His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance" (Isaiah 52:14), a prophecy made centuries before our Lord was born at Bethlehem.
That silence has not stopped people from filling the gap with images, and one writer warns that such pictures do damage rather than good:
W. TrotterLook at every picture of Him you ever saw. Is He shown as having His appearance more marred than any man, and His form more than the sons of men? As one in whom there was no form or beauty — or is He shown in a kind of superhuman humanity?
Every portrait of Jesus, ancient or modern, is guesswork. That applies equally to the pale European Jesus of old paintings and to any rival portrait offered today.
What the Bible Does Say: His Descent
Scripture is specific about His human ancestry, and it names a people, not a complexion.
Michael HardtIt is stressed that Mordecai was a Jew. It is striking how often this is repeated. Christ was — as He Himself said — the salvation "from the Jews" (John 4:22). He was the Son of David, the Son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1). As far as His natural descent through Mary is concerned, He had come out of Israel (Romans 9:5).
Outsiders Inside His Family Tree
The genealogy that opens Matthew is not a record of pure national pedigree. Four women appear in it, and their background is the point:
Samuel RidoutLook at that genealogy for a moment, at the names of the women in it. There are only four, and every one of them is the name of a Gentile. They are not "mothers in Israel" in the ordinary sense. First there is Tamar. She is a Gentile, and sadly her sin is what is brought before us most prominently. Then we have Rahab, the poor woman of Jericho, another Gentile. Then you have Ruth who is a Moabitess, another Gentile. Then you have Bathsheba, and Uriah her husband was a Hittite.
One Blood, One Human Race
Behind the question of race lies a bigger claim Paul made in Athens — that mankind has a single origin.
William Kelly"And has made of one blood": here again he is at odds with man's ideas, especially with those of Greek polytheism, for the unity of the human race goes together with the truth of the one true God. Among men it was held that different races each had their own national god, and so the falsehood of many gods was bound up with, and encouraged, the matching claim of many independent races of men. This was a favourite idea of the pagan world.
God Shows No Partiality
Peter had to be taught this by a vision before he would enter a Gentile home:
Leslie M. GrantPeter's opening words are precious: "Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him." Clearly he had himself thought that God was partial, for his upbringing gave Israelites a higher place in God's sight than all other nationalities. In the church of God all of this must be completely levelled, and God used this miraculous way of impressing such truth on Peter.
The spread of the message in Acts was deliberately wide, and one writer traces it back to the three branches of Noah's family:
A. J. PollockThe Ethiopian official represented the family of Ham; Saul of Tarsus the family of Shem; and Cornelius, the Roman centurion, the family of Japheth. It is remarkable that this is so — without making a display of the point, it nevertheless shows how God would reach all mankind with the message of the gospel of His grace.
Where the Question Finally Lands
For those who belong to Christ, the categories people fight over are set aside:
Norman AndersonIn the new man there are no racial distinctions whatsoever (Greek or Jew), no religious distinctions (circumcision or uncircumcision), no social distinctions (barbarian or Scythian) and no secular distinctions (slave or free). What stands out about the new man is his blessed character and the blessed fact that to the new man Christ is the entire absorbing object.
Summary
- Silence — Scripture never describes His face, His build or His colour; the only note it makes is that His appearance was marred beyond that of any man.
- Descent — What it does state is His line: salvation is from the Jews, Son of David, Son of Abraham, come out of Israel.
- Grace — Even that line carries four Gentile women, so His pedigree is a monument to mercy rather than to racial purity.
- Unity — God made every nation of one blood; the idea of separate, independent races belongs to paganism, not to Scripture.
- Reach — He shows no partiality, and the gospel went to Ham, Shem and Japheth alike — so in the new man no racial distinction remains, and Christ is everything.