[spintreebob]

Jews in the time of Jesus looked just like the dark, swarthy Syrians of today. But our ancestors made them light skinned blondes.

When I was young, Christian missionaries from Indonesia said that they changed the blonde appearance of Biblical characters so it was easier to be more relateable.

I suggest the Christian message is not about outward appearance.

[Cronos]

Syrians are not dark and swarthy

the people from Levantine regions are far lighter than real Arabs - from the Arabian peninsula

And Jews of today - you are just looking at the Ashkenazi Jews (who intermixed with northern Europeans), but the Sephardic Jews are darker and the Mizrahi and Bene Israeli (from the middle east and from India) are darker skinned.

The biblical characters were definitely not blonde and blue eyed.

however we can find early icons of Ethiopian and East Asian origin and the biblical characters are depicted as Ethiopian and East Asian

[ansel12]

“””””But our ancestors made them light skinned blondes.
When I was young, Christian missionaries from Indonesia said that they changed the blonde appearance of Biblical characters so it was easier to be more relateable.”””””

I don’t remember such a time, I know that there are examples of artwork, but I don’t remember a time when we thought the biblical figures were blond and Scandinavian white.

Brown and dark hair are not blond.

[TheThirdRuffian]

Except King David had red hair and blue eyes.

Heck, going back, Esau was a rather famously hirsuit red head.

They’ve always been of mixed heritage, as one would expect from a country essentially at the corners of Asia, Africa, and Europe.

Some light, some black, lots in the middle.