Zone1 How Asian Artists Picture Jesus’ Birth From 1240 to Today

[JustAGuy1]

Jesus was born in Asia. He was Asian. Yet the preponderance of Christian art that shows him at home in Europe has meant that he is embedded deeply in the popular imagination as Western.
Jesus was born in Asia. He was Asian. Yet the preponderance of Christian art that shows him at home in Europe has meant that he is embedded deeply in the popular imagination as Western.

The artists in this photo essay bring him back to Asia—but not to ancient Israel. They make the birth a local event, translating the story into their own cultural contexts. And so we see Jesus wearing, for example, the bone necklace of an Igorot chief (the Indigenous people of northern Luzon, Philippines) or greeted by water buffalo at a roadside pavilion in Thailand.

Some may object to depicting Jesus as anything other than a brown male born into a Jewish family in Bethlehem of Judea in the first century, believing that doing so undermines his historicity. But Christian artists who tackle the subject of the Incarnation are often aiming not at historical realism but at theological meaning.

How Asian Artists Picture Jesus’ Birth From 1240 to Today

Through Nativity art, the Word takes on flesh across diverse Eastern cultures.

www.christianitytoday.com

Good lord, too funny.

 

[Unkotare]

???

 

[JustAGuy1]

???

Christianity Today no less.

 

[Woodznutz]

Most depictions are wrong, especially traditional 'nativity scenes' with shepherds, animals, angels, wise men, in a wintery scene, and baby Jesus with his arms outstretched, none of which are accurate according to the Biblical account.

 

[JustAGuy1]

This would be something surada would spout.

 

[surada]

Jesus was born in Asia. He was Asian. Yet the preponderance of Christian art that shows him at home in Europe has meant that he is embedded deeply in the popular imagination as Western.
Jesus was born in Asia. He was Asian. Yet the preponderance of Christian art that shows him at home in Europe has meant that he is embedded deeply in the popular imagination as Western.

The artists in this photo essay bring him back to Asia—but not to ancient Israel. They make the birth a local event, translating the story into their own cultural contexts. And so we see Jesus wearing, for example, the bone necklace of an Igorot chief (the Indigenous people of northern Luzon, Philippines) or greeted by water buffalo at a roadside pavilion in Thailand.

Some may object to depicting Jesus as anything other than a brown male born into a Jewish family in Bethlehem of Judea in the first century, believing that doing so undermines his historicity. But Christian artists who tackle the subject of the Incarnation are often aiming not at historical realism but at theological meaning.

How Asian Artists Picture Jesus’ Birth From 1240 to Today

Through Nativity art, the Word takes on flesh across diverse Eastern cultures.

www.christianitytoday.com

Good lord, too funny.

From the link....

I believe Jesus Christ is present in every culture, and I have chosen to celebrate his presence in our lives through Thai traditional cultural forms,” Chinnawong said. “My belief is that Jesus did not choose just one people to hear his Word but chose to make his home in every human heart.

 

[JustAGuy1]

From the link....

I believe Jesus Christ is present in every culture, and I have chosen to celebrate his presence in our lives through Thai traditional cultural forms,” Chinnawong said. “My belief is that Jesus did not choose just one people to hear his Word but chose to make his home in every human heart.

Where was our Lord born?

 

[Woodznutz]

Most depictions are wrong, especially traditional 'nativity scenes' with shepherds, animals, angels, wise men, in a wintery scene, and baby Jesus with his arms outstretched, none of which are accurate according to the Biblical account.

Correction. There were shepherds present, but not the others.

 

[Woodznutz]

From the link....

I believe Jesus Christ is present in every culture, and I have chosen to celebrate his presence in our lives through Thai traditional cultural forms,” Chinnawong said. “My belief is that Jesus did not choose just one people to hear his Word but chose to make his home in every human heart.

Chinnawong didn't read the Bible.

"I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." -Jesus Christ

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

People who choose to believe the original Jews are "brown" are deceived. They make this common mistake because of their Arab cousins inhabiting the region. But Arabs and Jews have different mothers. Sarah was white. She was believed to be blonde. The mother of Ishmael was Egyptian.

Jesus wasn't as "brown" as many want to believe. But neither was he Nordic.

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

Chinnawong didn't read the Bible.

"I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." -Jesus Christ

And the House of Israel includes many more than the Jews.

 

[Woodznutz]

People who choose to believe the original Jews are "brown" are deceived. They make this common mistake because of their Arab cousins inhabiting the region. But Arabs and Jews have different mothers. Sarah was white. She was believed to be blonde. The mother of Ishmael was Egyptian.

Jesus wasn't as "brown" as many want to believe. But neither was he Nordic.

Most in that region likely had a good suntan. When I was a kid I looked like a little Cro-Magnon man, I was so dark from the sun.

 

[Crepitus]

Jesus was born in Asia. He was Asian. Yet the preponderance of Christian art that shows him at home in Europe has meant that he is embedded deeply in the popular imagination as Western.
Jesus was born in Asia. He was Asian. Yet the preponderance of Christian art that shows him at home in Europe has meant that he is embedded deeply in the popular imagination as Western.

The artists in this photo essay bring him back to Asia—but not to ancient Israel. They make the birth a local event, translating the story into their own cultural contexts. And so we see Jesus wearing, for example, the bone necklace of an Igorot chief (the Indigenous people of northern Luzon, Philippines) or greeted by water buffalo at a roadside pavilion in Thailand.

Some may object to depicting Jesus as anything other than a brown male born into a Jewish family in Bethlehem of Judea in the first century, believing that doing so undermines his historicity. But Christian artists who tackle the subject of the Incarnation are often aiming not at historical realism but at theological meaning.

How Asian Artists Picture Jesus’ Birth From 1240 to Today

Through Nativity art, the Word takes on flesh across diverse Eastern cultures.

www.christianitytoday.com

Good lord, too funny.

He was supposedly born in the middle east, not the far east. Even a christian magazine should be able to figure that out.

 

[Woodznutz]

And the House of Israel includes many more than the Jews.

The "house of Israel" Jesus spoke of had no Jews.

 

[surada]

Where was our Lord born?

Bethlehem

 

[surada]

People who choose to believe the original Jews are "brown" are deceived. They make this common mistake because of their Arab cousins inhabiting the region. But Arabs and Jews have different mothers. Sarah was white. She was believed to be blonde. The mother of Ishmael was Egyptian.

Jesus wasn't as "brown" as many want to believe. But neither was he Nordic.

Arabs are white...especially inland.

 

[JustAGuy1]

Bethlehem

There ya go, He wasn't Asian.

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

Most in that region likely had a good suntan. When I was a kid I looked like a little Cro-Magnon man, I was so dark from the sun.

I'm as dark as most Arabs and my ancestry is 100% British. Of course I'm pasty white at Christmas time until around June. But so are most Arabs and their cousins the Jews. Jews are part of the white race

 

[JustAGuy1]

I'm as dark as most Arabs and my ancestry is 100% British. Of course I'm pasty white at Christmas time until around June. But so are most Arabs and their cousins the Jews. Jews are part of the white race

Growing up in Cali I had a natural predisposition to Tan. I loved it.

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

There ya go, He wasn't Asian.

This is the problem with substituting the term "oriental" with the more broad term "Asian.". Jesus was certainly Asian, but not oriental