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I’m curious about the origin of the modern depiction of Yahweh, or God the Father, if they are the same. For that matter, what is the origin of modern depictions of Jesus as a Caucasian with long hair and wearing a sash?
According to the commentary for Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the iconography for God is based on an old English cricketer named W.G. Grace. But I suspect that might not be entirely accurate.
More seriously, as for Jesus being Caucasian, he was Semitic. Semitic peoples (arabic, jewish, etc.) are Caucasian. Why did artists depict him as a more northern-European Caucasian than a Levantine Caucasian? Because that’s where they lived and who their audience was. Wherever you live, a Christian wants to think of Jesus as “one of us.”
Depictions of God the Father are unheard-of until the Renaissance – prohibitions against idolatry were strictly enforced in the Middle Ages. Given their fascination with Ancient Greek culture, I suspect Renaissance painters patterned their depictions of God after Zeus. It’s also worth noting that between Zeus/Jupiter, Odin and Marduk it’s fairly common for Europeans and Middle Easterners to portray their main god as an old man with a beard.
If you’re interested, I recommend Zulfiqar Ali Shah’s book, Anthropomorphic Depictions of God: The Concept of God in Judaic, Christian and Islamic Traditions—Representing the Unrepresentable. At least for the moment, the full text is free to read on Google Books.
Very interesting.
Ain’t it, though?