The Jesus Blog: Jesus was White?

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Jesus was White? - Le Donne

My thanks to James McGrath for this image.
Nobody does Xmas anachronism better than
Dr. McGrath.

Megyn Kelly of FOXNews created a bit of buzz last week when she told the kids of America that Santa is white. There are things that I will get pugilistic about and Santa’s race is… okay… I almost dozed off there.

Kelly then referred to Jesus’ whiteness.

Two quick points about this one. (1) “White” is a modern category. Like most racial labels, this is a post-Enlightenment development. So it’s anachronistic (that’s a real word, Mr. O'Reilly) to call Jesus white. (2) As I discuss in this essay, Jesus did indeed become an Aryan in many post-Enlightenment imaginations. In fact, folks like Ernst Renan expended a great deal of effort trying to prove that Jesus was Aryan. Renan's work was picked up by several theologians with National Socialist tendencies. This was about the same time that Jews were labeled non-Aryan.

For a network that is preoccupied with drawing comparisons between the Nazis and contemporary politics, one would expect a bit more knowledge about Nazi ideology. One would be disappointed.

1 comment:

LarryDecember 17, 2013 at 8:17 PM
Jesus was also fair and balanced.
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James Crossley (PhD, Nottingham) is Professor of Bible, Society, and Politics at St. Mary's University, Twickenham, London. In addition to most things historical Jesus, his interests typically concern Jewish law and the Gospels, the social history of biblical scholarship, and the reception of the Bible in contemporary politics and culture. He is co-executive editor of the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus.

Christine Jacobi studied protestant theology and art history in Berlin and Heidelberg. She is research associate at the chair of exegesis and theology of the New Testament and apocryphal writings. She completed her dissertation at the Humboldt-University of Berlin in 2014. She is the author of Jesusüberlieferung bei Paulus? Analogien zwischen den echten Paulusbriefen und den synoptischen Evangelien (BZNW 213), Berlin: de Gruyter 2015. Christine Jacobi is a member of the „August-Boeckh-Antikezentrum“ and the „Berliner Arbeitskreis für koptisch-gnostische Schriften“.

Chris Keith (PhD, Edinburgh) is Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity and Director of the Centre for the Social-Scientific Study of the Bible at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, London.

Anthony Le Donne (PhD, Durham) is Associate Professor of New Testament at United Theological Seminary. He is the author/editor of seven books. He is the co-founder of the Jewish-Christian Dialogue and Sacred Texts Consultation and the co-executive editor of the Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus.

Brant Pitre (PhD, University of Notre Dame) is Professor of Sacred Scripture at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. Among other works, he is the author of Jesus, the Tribulation, and the End of the Exile (Mohr-Siebeck/Baker Academic, 2005), and Jesus and the Last Supper (Eerdmans, 2015). He is particularly interested in the relationship between Jesus, Second Temple Judaism, and Christian origins.

Rafael Rodríguez (PhD, Sheffield) is Professor of New Testament at Johnson University. He has published a number of books and essays on social memory theory, oral tradition, the Jesus tradition, and the historical Jesus, as well as on Paul and Pauline tradition. He also serves as co-chair of the Bible in Ancient and Modern Media section of the Society of Biblical Literature.

Baker Academic

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Jesus was White? - Le Donne

1 comment:

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