22 Day of Easter - Up From the Grave He Arose

Isn’t it wonderful that a group of Indian gentlemen are singing a hymn in barbershop harmony with a gospel-like piano accompaniment?

Up From The Grave - Voice of Eden

Isn’t it interesting that the little video clips included show such an Anglo Jesus? It appears to be an official video of the group, not added by someone who posted the song. India was evangelized by the British and certainly influenced by European art aesthetics, but it makes me a little sad that the Bible scenes weren’t acted out by Indians. The Bible characters in my head tend to look like southern Italians or, if I’m honest, like the most recent video version I’ve seen in which Jesus looks at least a little bit Jewish. Blue eyes rarely appear in my imagination, even among the Romans. But we get used to imagining what we see in pictures, and Jesus looks very Northern European in most stained-glass windows.

While teaching English to high school students at The Bridge Academy two years ago, I showed the students a scene from Franco Zeffirelli’s  Jesus of Nazareth. We were reading through the book of John, and as I set up the scene I told them that Zeffirelli wanted the movie to look like classical depictions of Bible scenes from European art. He wasn’t going for realism, so the actors wouldn’t look like folks who lived on the edges of the Mediterranean.

As soon as Jesus appeared on the screen, it was apparent that at least one student hadn’t absorbed my introductory statement.

“Mrs. Evans, hold up, hold up, hold up. Are you saying that Jesus had blue eyes?”

“Didn’t you listen? She said it would look like European paintings, not real life,” chimed in another student.
 But I stopped the tape and we talked about it. All of the students in the small class were African-American boys, and we had a thoughtful discussion about realism. But that student was bothered, and it was understandable. Jesus was a real Jewish man, and the student and I like him to look that way in modern depictions that are striving for a degree of realism.

But Zeffirelli’s movie is a masterpiece, and you can watch the clip I showed the students Here.