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Jesus was a middle-eastern Jew- you want to know what he looked like? Look at the tv, because goodness knows there's enough news coverage going on over there.

Now that that is settled, now that we're sure that Jesus had that olive skin and dark hair, large dark eyes and a full beard, that he kept his head covered out of respect for God, that he spoke Aramaic and Hebrew and followed the dietary restrictions of the Old Testament, we can move on and say we're pretty sure that, having been trained as a carpenter long before the advent of power tools, he had some serious arms and probably some old injuries, and that, seeing as how he was a pretty much homeless itinerant teacher, he was probably dusty and usually tired and hot and sweaty.

He treated prostitutes as human beings, and called the religious authorities vipers. It wasn't until after the ascension that the Word was shared with Gentiles, so I expect if he came into contact with a non-Jew, he had to undergo the same purification rituals as anyone else.

We tend to forget these things about Jesus. They don't fit in with the modern Sunday-school vision of him with long wavy brown hair and blue eyes, wearing a blue-and-white nightgown and cuddling a sheep as he taught a delicately composed semi-circle of children carefully selected according to race and aesthetic appeal.

What we need to remember about him is what he taught, what he has given us. What other religion has done what Christianity has, both good and bad? Return to the bible, and read his teachings, don't try to fit him into our narrow, preconceived notions. Try to see him as his contemporaries would have- as something wholly new and inspiring.

Learn more about this author, Kellie Hall.
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