How Yeshua Was Whitewashed – A Critical Analysis of The European Jesus Meme
The following was written by Daniel Oliver, a Pan-African Alliance Media Correspondent. Daniel holds a B.A. in Sociology from Columbia University, and currently resides on the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf.
The popular West Asian and European icon that represents Jesus is a fake. According to their own sources, the awaited Messiah of Christians and Muslims is an Africoid man with long locks. But do they know this? And what are the wider implications for African theology?
“It doesn’t matter what Jesus looked like.”
This is an automatic response whenever the discussion is about someone being dark-skinned or African. Whenever that person is pale-skinned, the matter is taken at face value. That is the author’s opinion, but since the evidence is only anecdotal, we will explore this claim of colorblind religion according to the sources.
The authors of several books of the Old and New Testaments were very careful to describe the skin color and hair texture of Jesus. The founders of Christianity, who debated hotly about which books to include in the Bible, chose to include these descriptions. If Jesus’ skin color and hair texture didn’t matter in Christianity, the founders of the faith would have thrown these descriptions out.
And with regards to Islam, the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) carefully described Jesus’ skin color and hair texture to his companions. These companions, in turn, were carefully recorded and related these statements.
In later centuries, entire sciences developed to check the authenticity of these narrations, and throughout, the skin color and hair of Jesus was deemed important and authentic enough to be kept in books.
In Christianity and Islam, skin color and hair texture are important. But why?
Both Christians and Muslims believe in the coming of a false messiah. In Christianity the false messiah is called Antichrist, and in Islam he is called Al-Masih ad-Dajjal. And according to those faiths, the arrival of false messiahs will be followed by the return of the true messiah. In order for the believers to not be deceived, it is important to know what the real and false messiah look like.
He [Jesus] is a Sign of the [Final] Hour. Have no doubt about it. But follow me. This is a straight path. (Qur-an, Suratu zZukhruf (43):61)
If the reader has a further interest in Islamic and Christian eschatology, they can most quickly be compared in these two Wikipedia articles:
According to Islamic tradition, every prophet and messenger warned his followers about the false messiah, sometimes by describing him.
Once Allah’s Apostle stood amongst the people, glorified and praised Allah as He deserved and then mentioned the Dajjal saying, “l warn you against him (i.e. the Dajjal) and there was no prophet but warned his nation against him. (Sahih Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 55, Number 553)
It is important to digress here long enough to illustrate how Islamic scholarship has a stance on Jewish and Christian scriptures and literature that tends towards acceptance.
While, as the title indicates, the purpose of this paper is to prove the appearance of Jesus’ hair, it will be seen that particular attention must be paid to his skin color for the purposes of clarification. There are two basic descriptions of the hair of Jesus: either scanty and tightly-curled, or long.
All descriptions of his skin are either ambiguous or allude to a dark brown color. Ambiguous descriptions have been omitted. For example, the biblical verses describing his hair as “white like wool” or his feet “shining like bronze” are ambiguous as regards hair texture and skin color.
The Christian Bibile indicates that Jesus’ hair was short with tight curls
…and the hair of his head like pure wool… (Daniel 7.9)
Early Christian Historians
“At that time also there appeared a certain man of magic power … if it be meet to call him a man, [whose name is Jesus], whom [certain] Greeks call a son of [a] God, but his disciples [call] the true prophet who is supposed to have raised dead persons and to have cured all diseases. Both his nature and his form were human, for he was a man of simple appearance, mature age, black-skinned (melagchrous),… prognathous (lit. ‘with a long face [macroprosopos]), a long nose… with scanty & curly hair, but having a line in the middle of the head after the fashion of the Nazaraeans, with an undeveloped beard. (*Halōsis, ii.174).” (Flavius Josephus)[2]
Modern Bible Scholars
“While most religious artists have put long hair on Christ, most biblical scholars believe that it was probably short with tight curls…” [3]
Islamic Prophetic Narrations
Jesus was a curly-haired man of moderate height. (Prophet Muhammad) [4]
Jesus hair was also long, and parted at the middle
Early Christian Historians
with scanty, curly* hair [1], but having a line in the middle of the head [2]
Islamic Prophetic Narrations
“I saw in my dream a man of brown color the best one can see amongst brown color andhis hair was long that it fell between his shoulders. His hair was lank and water was dribbling from his head and he was placing his hands on the shoulders of two men while circumambulating the Kaba. I asked, ‘Who is this?’ They replied, ‘This is Jesus, son of Mary.’” (Prophet Muhammad) [5]No, By Allah, the Prophet did not tell that Jesus was of red complexion but said, “While I was asleep circumambulating the Ka’ba (in my dream), suddenly I saw a man of brown complexion and lank hair walking between two men, and water was dropping from his head. I asked, ‘Who is this?’ The people said, ‘He is the son of Mary.’ Then I looked behind and I saw a red-complexioned, fat, curly-haired man, blind in the right eye which looked like a bulging out grape. I asked, ‘Who is this?’ They replied, ‘He is Ad-Dajjal.'[6]
So Which kind of hair did Jesus have: Tightly-Curled or Long?
Indeed both. A man can have short, tightly-curled hair, and long lank hair… if he’s an African with locks. Wool compares favorably in appearance to (“dread”)locks.
Scanty, Short, and Curly Hair & Short Locked Hair
Only the hair of Sub-Saharan (“black”) Africans, and others like Andamanese Islanders and aboriginal Southeast Asians (“Negritos”, Orang Asli) is (tightly) curled or ‘woolly’ when it is short. It also appears scanty or thin because of the parting of the hair into small knots (also known as ‘peppercorn’ hair texture):
These compare favorably with early depictions of Jesus Christ.
The locked hair of an African (or others with “Negroid”/“Africoid” features) is the only type of hair that can be both short and curly, and long hair. Short locks are initially spread apart (‘scanty’) and tightly-curled, but after growing, their weight causes them to be long and limp (‘lanky’).
Jesus Was Really Yeshua – Dreadlocked African Diasporan
Thus, the seeming contradiction is solved. Yeshua’s hair was sparse and tightly curled when short, and long and lank once it had grown into locks. These are descriptions of different stages of his locked hair.
African males compare favorably with phenotypical features common to Christian and Islamic sources, and also with those unique to each:
Characteristics of Yeshua common to both Christianity and Islam:
- Brown skin
- Woolly hair
- Hair that is tightly curled when short
- Hair that can be parted in the middle when long
Characteristics of Yeshua unique to Christianity:
- Prognathous (having a projecting lower jaw or chin- common among many Sub-Saharan Africans)
- An undeveloped beard (Many Sub-Saharan Africans do not grow full beards)
Characteristics of Yeshua unique to Islam:
- Shoulder-length hair that can drip lots of water
Lastly, the peculiar Islamic description of copious water drops will be addressed in brief. This can’t be a description of long hair of thin strands, because that hair lays flat when wet, and dribbles down the back or shoulders. You would only see droplets if they shook their head violently.
Locks on the other hand, absorb copious amounts of water, and can drip visible droplets for quite some time.
Yeshua And The False Messiahs of the West
The awaited savior of Christian and Muslim prophecy is unmistakably an African man. Billions of people around the world believe that a Black man with dreadlocks will save the world in the end times. That is according to their authentic sources. However, pale (“white”) supremacists have long ago corrupted the teachings of these (and perhaps all) faiths. So if prophecy comes true, will they follow it?
For the reader who is not an adherent of Christianity or Islam, it is clear that both religions literary sources agree that Jesus was a member of an ancient Sub-Saharan African (“Negroid”, “Africoid”) diaspora.
Whatever their spirituality, Africans can reconcile their theology and faith with their identity and cause if they will recognize that everything, even religion, comes from Africans
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