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Jesus Christ has been an object of veneration and worship for nearly 2,000 years. As the central figure in Christianity, images of him fill churches, homes, and museums around the world. But why is Jesus white in most of these depictions?As Jesus following spread out of the Middle East starting in the first century C.E. sometimes via devoted missionary work and sometimes by more aggressive methods people across western Europe started casting Christ in their image and white Jesus depictions began to proliferate.Public DomainA 19th-century depiction of a white Jesus Christ by Danish painter Carl Heinrich Bloch.Doing so was relatively easy because the Bible contains only a few (contradictory) words on what Jesuss race was and what he looked like. However, scholars have a better idea of what people, in general, looked like in the Middle East around the first century and they werent light-skinned.Yet, a white Jesus remains the standard in most modern depictions. Why?What Race And Color Was Jesus? Analyzing The Early Depictions Of ChristThough the Bible tells the story of Jesus Christ whose real name was actually Yeshua it says little about his appearance. In the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah describes Jesus as having no beauty or majesty. But the Book of Psalms directly contradicts this, calling Jesus fairer [more beautiful] than the children of men.Other descriptions of Jesus Christ in the Bible offer few other clues. In the Book of Revelation, Jesus is described as having hair like white wool, eyes like flames of fire, and feet like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace.Despite this lack of concrete descriptions, depictions of Jesus Christ began to emerge in the first century. Unsurprisingly given the persecution of early Christians one of the earliest known depictions of Jesus Christ is a mockery.This graffito from first-century Rome shows someone named Alexandros worshipping a man with a donkey head who is being crucified. The inscription reads Alexandro worshiping his god.Public DomainOne of the earliest known depictions of Jesus Christ is actually a mockery.Known depictions of Jesus Christ with a more positive slant date back to the third century. Since Jesus Christ is alleged to have said, I am the good shepherd the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep in the Gospel of John, many early depictions show him with a lamb.The Callisto catacomb in Rome, for example, contains a famous third-century image of Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd with a lamb over his shoulder. Significantly, he is depicted here without a beard. Though this was a common look among Romans of the age, most Judean men had beards.Public DomainJesus Christ as the Good Shepherd in the Callisto catacomb in Rome.In this image, one of the oldest known attempts to depict him, Jesus appears Roman or Greek. And as Christianity began to spread in the centuries after Jesus crucifixion at Golgotha, images like this began to appear throughout Europe.Was Jesus White? Depictions Of Christs Race Under The RomansThough early Christians worshiped in secret passing along clandestine images like ichthys to share their faith Christianity began gaining prominence in the fourth century. Then, the Roman emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and depictions of Jesus Christ began to proliferate.Public DomainA depiction of Jesus Christ in a fourth-century catacomb near Constantines Roman villa.In the fourth-century fresco above, many elements of traditional Christian iconography make an appearance. Jesus has a halo, hes in the top-center of the composition, his fingers are held in a benediction, and hes clearly European. He and Peter and Paul wear European-style clothing.Significantly, Jesus also has the wavy, flowing hair and beard seen in many modern-day depictions.This depiction grew so popular that it ricocheted back into the Middle East, where Christianity has its roots. Thats because white Christians were moving aggressively across the globe colonizing and converting as they went and they brought images of a white Jesus with them.Wikimedia CommonsJesus Christ as depicted in the sixth century at Saint Catherines monastery in Egypt.For colonizers, white Jesus had a dual purpose. Not only did he represent Christianity which colonizers hoped to spread but his fair skin put the colonizers themselves on the side of God. His race helped enforce caste systems in South America and the suppression of indigenous people in North America.The Modern Look Of The White JesusAs the centuries passed, depictions of white Jesus became enshrined in popular culture. Since early artists wanted their audiences to recognize Jesus and feared accusations of heresy similar images of Jesus Christ were reproduced across the centuries.In 1940, the idea of a white Jesus got a special boost from American artist Warner E. Sallman, who painted Jesus Christ as white-skinned, blonde-haired, and blue-eyed.Sallmans original image, meant for a youth magazine called Covenant Companion, swiftly gained in popularity, appearing in churches, schools, courtrooms, and even on bookmarks and clocks.Warner E. Sallmans Head of Christ.His Head of Christ, noted New York Times journalist William Grimes, achieved a mass popularity that makes Warhols soup can seem positively obscure.Though Sallmans white Jesus faced backlash during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, contemporary depictions of Jesus continue to show him as fair-skinned. Frescoes may have fallen out of style but modern-day portrayals of Jesus certainly appear in films and TV shows.Film depictions often take more liberties, but most of the actors chosen to play Jesus Christ are white. Jeffrey Hunter (King of Kings), Ted Neeley (Jesus Christ Superstar), and Jim Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ) were all white actors.FacebookTed Neeley as a light-eyed, blonde-haired Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ Superstar (1973).Even Haaz Sleiman, a Lebanese actor who played Jesus Christ in National Geographics Killing Jesus is light-skinned.The whiteness of Jesus Christ has faced pushback in recent years as more and more people grapple with what race Jesus was. Activists equating white Jesus with white supremacy have called for a change, with one noting that the Jesus you saw in all the black Baptist churches [looks] like the people who were beating you up in the streets or setting dogs on you.And, indeed, a number of alternative images of Jesus Christ have appeared in the past several decades. Korean artist Kim Ki-chang depicted Jesus Christ in traditional Korean dress, artists like Robert Lentz have depicted Jesus as Black, and Sofia Minson, a New Zealand artist, even created an image of Jesus Christ with a traditional Maori face tattoo. Their depictions of Jesus Christ as a person of color are somewhat closer to the truth. People of his time and place likely had dark hair, dark skin, and dark eyes.Though its all but certain that images of white Jesus will continue to appear, many people are open to new depictions of Christ. After all, the story of Jesus Christ and the rise of Christianity is a complicated one. Certainly, its one with room for plenty of interpretation.After this look at the myth of a white Jesus, read up on the tomb of Jesus and how tall he was and when he was born, as well as the true story of who wrote the Bible. Then, learn about how old the Virgin Mary was when she had Jesus.The post How White Jesus Became The Default Image Of Christ appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Calling Soviet doctor Vladimir Demikhov a mad scientist may be undercutting his contributions to the world of medicine, but some of his radical science experiments certainly fit the title. Case in point though it may seem like myth, propaganda, or a case of photoshopped history in the 1950s, Vladimir Demikhov actually created a two-headed dog.Vladimir Demikhovs Pioneering Career In Medical ResearchEven before creating his two-headed dog, Vladimir Demikhov was a pioneer in transplantology he even coined the term.After transplanting a number of vital organs between dogs (his favorite experimental subjects) he aimed, amid much controversy, to see if he could take things further: He wanted to graft the head of one dog onto the body of another, fully intact dog.Bettmann/Getty ImagesLaboratory assistant Maria Tretekova lends a hand as noted Russian surgeon Dr. Vladimir Demikhov feeds the two-headed dog he created by grafting the head and two front legs of a puppy onto the back of the neck of a full-grown German shepherd.Starting in 1954, Demikhov and his associates set about performing this surgery 23 times, with varying degrees of success. The 24th time, in 1959, was not the most successful attempt, but it was the most publicized, with an article and accompanying photos appearing in LIFE Magazine. This is thus the two-headed dog that history remembers most.For this surgery, Demikhov chose two subjects, one a large stray German Shepherd that Demikhov named Brodyaga (Russian for tramp) and a smaller dog named Shavka. Brodyaga would be the host dog, and Shavka would supply the secondary head and neck. With Shavkas lower body amputated below the forelegs (keeping her own heart and lungs connected until the last minute before the transplant) and a corresponding incision in Brodyagas neck where Shavkas upper body would attach, the rest was mainly vascular reconstruction other than attaching the vertebrae of the dogs with plastic strings, that is.Bettmann/Getty ImagesVladimir Demikhovs lab assistants feed the two-headed dog made from Brodyaga and Shavka after the surgery.Thanks to the teams wealth of experience, the operation took a mere three and a half hours. After the two-headed dog was resuscitated, both heads could hear, see, smell, and swallow. Although Shavkas transplanted head could drink, she was not connected to Brodyagas stomach. Anything she drank flowed through an external tube and onto the floor.The Sad Fate Of Demikhovs Two-Headed DogIn the end, this two-headed dog lived only for just four days. Had a vein in the neck area not accidentally gotten damaged, it may have lived even longer than Demikhovs longest-living two-headed dog, which survived 29 days. Even setting aside the deaths of the canine subjects, the moral implications of Demikhovs experiment are tricky. This head transplantation, unlike some of his other advancements in the field of transplantology, had no real-life applications. Yet there were certainly very real implications for the dogs.Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty ImagesVladimir Demikhov with his two-headed dog.However, as outrageous as this all sounds, a head transplant wasnt even that radical for the 1950s. As early as 1908, the French surgeon Dr. Alexis Carrel and his partner, American physiologist Dr. Charles Guthrie, attempted the same experiment. Their dual-headed canine initially showed promise, but degraded quickly and was euthanized within a few hours.Today, Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero believes that head transplants will be a reality in the very near future. He is closely involved in the first human attempt, which is slated to occur in China, where there are fewer medical and ethical regulations. Canavero said, They have a tight schedule but the team in China say they are ready to do it.Nevertheless, most everyone else in the medical community believes that a transplant of this kind is still science-fiction fodder. But in the not-too-distant future, such a surgery may actually become a reality.After this look at how Vladimir Demikhov created a two-headed dog, see some astounding photos of two-headed animals found in nature. Then, read up on Laika, the Cold War-era Soviet dog who was sent into space and became the first animal to orbit the Earth.The post How Vladimir Demikhov Actually Made A Two-Headed Dog appeared first on All That's Interesting.

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