With the exception of a few small minority groups, I don't know of anyone that actually thinks that Jesus was "white". And "black" is not the only alternative to "white". .
No one, to my knowledge, has said that Jesus had to have looked "black"...unless it can be directly quoted. What was noted was how many depictions in churches across America consistently portray Christ with European features and have media depicting the Hebrews looking the same. The consideration of many Hebrews being of dark complexion or features found in black culture is never considered in many places..and saying that is not the same thing as claiming the Hebrews themselves had to be "black." It is simply that it would not be impossible for them to look such.
As it concerns people/churches thinking s that Jesus was "white", the South in the U.S.A is full of churches that've advocated that directly. If necessary, I'll go back and compile a list of all the churches that've done so that I've come across. There are others with corrupt movements such as
British Israelism that advocate the same thing when saying Caucasians are the original Hebrews ...and there are others on the opposite side of the fence doing the same thing, such as the
Black Hebrew Israelites, who say that blacks are the only ones who are the original Jews. Both are mistaken on a number of fronts...
Abraham was a Chaldean. Isaac married a Chaldean. Jacob married a Chaldean. The Syrians and Iraqis are modern-day Chaldeans. They are not "black", nor are they "white".
When Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt, they likely looked something similar to modern-day Iraqis.
As it stands, there's already debate on the issue of how people evolve in their ethnic looks...as just because a people group looks one way today doesn't mean they always looked like that. There's no evidence at all to verify that the sons of Jacob in any way looked like modern-day Iraqis when the areas they came from had people known to have African-features. If they married people from areas near Iraq, that's different.
Throughout history, there've been many variations of Hebrew people in all colors/shapes and sizes, be it Chinese Jews or Indian Jews or Sephardic and many others. They came from people all over the world. Moses married a woman from Cush (
Numbers 12:1-3 ) and there were many others in the OT who came from countries all over where the complexion was of a dark nature
Song of Songs 1:5
Dark am I,
yet lovely, daughters of Jerusalem,
dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent
curtains of Solomon.
Do not stare at me because I am dark,
because I am darkened by the sun.
My mothers sons were angry with me
and made me take care of the vineyards;
my own vineyard I had to neglect.
Song of Songs 1:4-6
And of course, when seeing the Jews who come from an Iranian background, one can easily see how the Jewish people had complexions back then as they do today. There was actually a book I had investigated at one point entitled
Esther's Children: A Portrait of Iranian Jews (more shared
here ) and what life was like for the Jewish people in Babylon (modern Iran) and what often happened with them when they were either involved in Crypto-Jewish lifestyle or intemarrying with them while still trying to keep their Jewish culture.....and it really made me think on how many of those within the scriptures may disagree with some of the practices that are done today when it comes to mixed families.
Their descendants over the next several generations likely picked up a little bit of new blood in Egypt, but their genetic baseline would not have shifted all that much. After all, north Africa was not "black". You had to go a little farther south for that. Not even Ethiopia was "black" the way that Africans farther south and west would have been.
The Israelites looked like Middle-Easterners, from the days of Abraham until the days of Christ and beyond. They were neither "white" nor "black
That's not historical, as Northern Africa is full of others who are black and have been noted for being dark. Even in Egypt this has been the case....often an issue when people outside of the culture assume All Egyptians are light-skinned and end up shocked seeing the numerous
cases of Egyptians that are dark, just as there were Dark skinned Pharoahs depicted throughout history...
many in fact. Obviously, there are many Egyptian Jews who have lighter complexion....and many are not aware of that (more
shared here). But the ones that are darker often get overlooked.
Had that confirmed once before when talking to light-skinned Coptic Christians at a Coptic Orthodox church I visited and they alerted the visitors how often people assumed all Egyptians looked like them, one of them noting how one of the churches he was with shocked others when they went in/saw many looking black....and it was assumed that they weren't Egyptian.
For the many Hebrews who intermingled/mixed in with the Egyptians (especially during the Exodus account and prior to that, considering Hagar and Abraham in their relationship and the areas Abraham came from..and Joseph marrying an Egyptian in
Genesis 39-45 plus SOLOMON marrying a Daughther of Egypt), having dark complexions would not have been odd.
The same goes for Ethopian, which is full of a diversity of color and yet has a overwhelming population of dark-skinned people. One sees that often when working with Ethopians and seeing them make note of it, especially Ethopian Jews.
There is no scientific basis saying that all the Israelites, from the days of Noah to the days of Christ, looked like Middle-Easterners only.....especially in light of the basic reality of how the Hebrews spread all over the world/were noted to be in differing places throughout scripture and took on those characteristics. ..and seeing where the scriptures originated at: Africa. Even if the Hebrews did look like Middle-Easterners, that'd not exclude having dark complexion since many Middle Easterners were deemed to have those features throughout history..
The Jewish people have always been diverse/coming from so many backgrounds. The upper room does come to mind, in regards to what happened with how many Jews of differing ethnicities were all present when the Holy Spirit came down in power:
Acts 2:4
The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost
2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[
a] as the Spirit enabled them.
5
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabswe hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues! 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, What does this mean?
You had God-fearing Jews from Egypt, Arabic Jews, Libyan Jews, Parthian Jews and so many others all present in one place. How they all seemed vastly different from one another is truly amazing...although it's hard to truly understand the words present without a visualization of what each group may've looked like. As offered before, one of the best places to go for learning/seeing that reality is .
Be'chol Lashon | Advocating for the Growth and Diversity of the Jewish People 
