So What Colour Was Jesus?

It's half term week here in the UK, which means the desperate attempt to juggle an already overloaded work schedule with the kids being off school. Still, I did manage to fit in a five or ten minute telephone conversation with a BBC reporter on Wednesday morning, in between classes and meetings, who asked me for my comments as a follow-up to the New Nation poll that listed Jesus as the top black icon (on which, as it happens, I blogged on Tuesday -- see Jesus the Black Icon). The piece has been mentioned in a couple of the blogs and has given birth to a thread on Xtalk; thanks too to those who sent me over the link to the article, including Giles Wilson who wrote it:

So What Colour Was Jesus?

And I am not so self indulgent that I will quote myself here! But I will add a whimsical side note from that article -- Jesus' eye colour. The article concludes with a comment that the world of film is slowly catching up. I am not in quotation on this bit, but it was something that I explained to the reporter. In Jesus of Nazareth, Robert Powell was chosen for the role for his piercing blue eyes, which he never shuts once, on camera, for the entire piece, one of the reasons he has a rather spaced-out look. Jim Caviezel, who plays Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, also has piercing blue eyes -- it's one of the reasons he was chosen for the
role in Angel Eyes. But Gibson digitally altered the colour throughout to brown.