• kromem@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    There’s literally a Dead Sea Scroll talking about how Noah was a redhead, 2 Kings 5:27 is about how the descendants of someone among them are all “white as snow,” and the only sample of ancient Jewish hair from 1st century Judea was reddish brown.

    The whole “there weren’t white people in the middle east when Jesus was around” is one of the most misinformed popular “confidently incorrect” phrases to be thrown out these days.

    There’s a decent chance he was olive skinned and dark haired based on the demographics, but there was a much wider array of appearances in the region than most people realize.

    Edit:

    but tanned obviously

    Well, I wouldn’t be too sure about that either.

    Take for example Lamentations 4:7

    Her nazirites were purer than snow, whiter than milk; their bodies were more ruddy than coral, their form cut like sapphire.

    Considering this in light of things like Strong Founder Effect in Israeli Oculocutaneous Albinism Type I (OCAI) Populations, along with the modern consideration of Biblical leprosy as melanoma something that occurs at a 1,000x rate of the non-albino population in Africa (redheads develop it at a 10 to 100x rate), and there may well have been pale people in the time and place who just looked sunburned most of the time (until inevitably developing skin diseases).

    The reddish brown haired fellow from the 1st century had been exposed to lepers, and the 2 Kings 5:27 reference also referred to the descendants with skin as white as snow as being lepers.

    So even the assumption of having a tan may be out of touch with the historical reality.

    • DavidGarcia@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      Putting aside from the albinism.

      their bodies were more ruddy than coral, their form cut like sapphire.

      I’m thinking this is referencing any usually covered parts of their body. By tanned I mean, the part of the skin exposed to sunlight, so mostly their hands, face and feet.

      • kromem@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Just for additional context on the Lamentations 4:7 line, the Nazarite vow involved taking a cow that was entirely red, without a single hair that wasn’t red, and sacrificing it.

        And part of those vows involved being unable to cut one’s hair.

        With a number of people having been identified as being Nazarites from birth.

        So putting aside albinism/redheads might not be prudent in analyzing this particular passage.