[Just mythoughts]

My point was about why He is portrayed artistically so often as European in appearance.

Since the word Adam means ruddy - to show blood in the face and Adam's genealogy can be traced to Christ there should be no surprise. From Adam to the birth of Christ the Bible describes over and over again the protection of that blood line to Christ... Reason for the flood. Note Judah (Genesis 38) who he married and how it was that Judah thinking he was bedding down with a harlot instead of knowing it was his daughter in law Tamar, continued the blood line. Christ was to be perfect as that final sacrificial lamb for one and all time. And the Old testament traces the Adam his offspring and the other families of this earth they came into contact with up to Christ.

What is rarely discussed is that before Christ came into a flesh body, the House of Jacob/Israel had a civil war. The family became two houses also called House of Israel and House of Judah. The House of Israel consisted of 10 tribes also called 'lost sheep' of the House of Israel, Christ notes them in Matthew 10:5-6 with His first instruction to the 12 disciples. The House of Israel, ten tribes, Ephraim (son of Joseph, and called Ephraim because that was the largest of the ten tribes) were divorced by the Heavenly Father and sent captive unto the Assyrian king. That group in the majority still to this day do not know who they are.

House of Judah, (Judah and Benjamin) (Saul - Paul was of Benjamin - Romans 11:1) were sent into captivity to the king of Babylon, yet it was this group that returned to Jerusalem during Ezra and Nehemiah time and remained there until after Christ earthly time. The tribe of Levi... Moses was the priest line and there would have been some of Levi that went with each of the tribes as that was their duty.

[Caesar Soze]

Since the word Adam means ruddy - to show blood in the face and Adam's genealogy can be traced to Christ there should be no surprise.

Adam's genealogy can also be traced to everyone else on the planet, so appealing to his purported complexion isn't very helpful.

[informavoracious]

Thank you, that is informative. Still, I believe most of the artists were not necessarily painting Him as they did to achieve historical accuracy, but to achieve transcendence through their own cultural lens of beauty. Again, witness African and Asian images. No one alive knows what He really looks like, so claiming any portrayal as authentic and another not is pure speculation.

[Cronos]

That group in the majority still to this day do not know who they are.

duuuh, read the later books of the Bible talking about how the Persian/Zoroastrian kings (Shahenshahs) led the Judeans and other related peoples go back. The northern tribes were taken by the Assyrians and migrated to lands in Iraq (standard Assyrian practise to keep people disconcerted). Many would have come back after the Assyrian Empire fell 2 centuries later and would have intermingled with the Judaeans, Benjaminites, Simeonites etc. who remained. Many others would have merged with the Iraqi and Irani peoples. Hence, the true 12 tribes, the "purest bloodlines" would be in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Eastern Turkey.