Other Crap

When, why and how did history start making Jesus look like a Western European?

In all likelihood, what they were was olive-skinned, dark-featured Semitic Jews living in Israel. Yet depictions of them as such are exceedingly rare compared to the countless number of images that have proliferated through the millennia portraying them as Caucasians.

In addition to the points made by the article, there is also no solid justification for the typical portrayal of Christ's long, straight hair. It is more likely that he had short hair, since 1 Corinthians says, "If a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him." As for the texture, the only description of it in the bible compares it to wool, so it would not be unreasonable to picture it curly. Several forensic anthropologists and biblical scholars addressed this issue a few years ago and came up with a "most likely" scenario for Christ's appearance.

Why the difference between reality and evolved tradition? As Xenophanes wrote, five hundred years before Christ's time, "If cattle or horses had hands and could draw, then the horses would draw their gods like horses, and cattle like cattle."