Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Is it too far fetch that Jesus could had looked like any of them, given most of them are descendants of people that were already there (even if called something else) when Jesus was born?
Jesus did NOT look like the popular depiction of him, looking like a German. Ethiopians had their own depiction of Jesus. Looks much like the depiction of Haile Selassie. I would be curious about how those Christians in India, the ones who became Christian BEFORE the arrival of the Europeans would have depicted him.
Those who lambaste or praise Christianity do so on the basis that it is a "white man's religion". Judaism, Christianity and Islam arose from the same roots. Look to today's stereotypical Muslims to see what Jesus most likely looked like. Not sure if people know this but Muslims do recognize Jesus. He was seen as Christians view John the Baptist.
Africa south of the Sahara was mostly small independent villages spread over a large region, and their religions were decentralized.
None of the villages ever got big enough and economically powerful enough to consolidate regional religious practices into a large organization.
This is a piece of nonsense propagated by racists. There were African kingdoms with MILLIONS of people. There were others based around village systems. Africa is a very diverse and complex continent, even if we define it in terms of that which exists south of the Sahara.
If the kingdoms around the Gold Coast were small villages the Portuguese would have conquered it instead of trading with it for Gold. It took the British towards the end of the 19th century to fully conquer the Ashanti.
This is a piece of nonsense propagated by racists. There were African kingdoms with MILLIONS of people. There were others based around village systems. Africa is a very diverse and complex continent, even if we define it in terms of that which exists south of the Sahara.
If the kingdoms around the Gold Coast were small villages the Portuguese would have conquered it instead of trading with it for Gold. It took the British towards the end of the 19th century to fully conquer the Ashanti.
The issue is "Africa" covers too wide of an area, so I'll just focus on a specific region.
We could ask a question like "Why didn't the West Africans develop a large centralized religion that could compete with Islam and Christianity to gain followers?"
If you ask why they don't develop a religion right now, the answer is simple. Islam and Christianity are already established there and satisfying local religious needs, so there is no incentive to develop a replacement religion.
But, a more interesting question is why didn't West Africans develop a large centralized religion before Islam and Christianity got introduced.
So, for West Africa, many centuries ago, I don't think the economy got big enough to develop their own central religion. An organized religion is like running a large business, it takes a lot of resources. I think it's the same reason why West African writing systems never developed as much as they could have.
Overall, I think it's all related to food production. Historical West Africa couldn't produce food efficiently enough to expand their economy, further develop indigenous writing systems and establish a centralized religion.
West Africa was mostly a yam-based society. Yam farming isn't as efficient as wheat and rice farming in the temperate zone. Look at the major world religons and where they developed. In the temperate zone, in wheat and/or rice growing regions. Even modern West Africa is a net food importer, and if you look at what type of food they import, it's mostly wheat, rice and corn from the temperate zone countries.
But, a more interesting question is why didn't West Africans develop a large centralized religion before Islam and Christianity got introduced.
So, for West Africa, many centuries ago, I don't think the economy got big enough to develop their own central religion. An organized religion is like running a large business, it takes a lot of resources. I think it's the same reason why West African writing systems never developed as much as they could have.
Overall, I think it's all related to food production. Historical West Africa couldn't produce food efficiently enough to expand their economy, further develop indigenous writing systems and establish a centralized religion.
West Africa was mostly a yam-based society. Yam farming isn't as efficient as wheat and rice farming in the temperate zone. Look at the major world religons and where they developed. In the temperate zone, in wheat and/or rice growing regions. Even modern West Africa is a net food importer, and if you look at what type of food they import, it's mostly wheat, rice and corn from the temperate zone countries.
Until recently most of Europe consisted of principalities hardly larger than the African kingdoms which existed in the lower Guinea region (Ghana to Cameroon). In fact Africans were basically self contained in ways that Europeans were not, so didnt have to go exploring in search of resources.
Given that most of the wars of Europe from 1000AD to the early 20th century had a religious base, and almost always involved Christians fighting each other. Indeed many who fled to North America arrived because they were being persecuted because their interpretation of Christianity varied. So clearly there wasnt some centralized Christian reliogion.
I think the main difference with West Africa is that it lacked a writing system, so transmitting ideas to distant lands became difficult. But we ought to remember that Europeans adopted Asian religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Much as Africans also adopted similar religions.
So in this Africa is more like Europe than we want to think. There indigenous religions couldnt compete with those powerful Asian religions! We must really stop fooling ourselves that Christianity was a European religion. In fact it belonged to Turkey as much as it belonged to Rome.
Until recently most of Europe consisted of principalities hardly larger than the African kingdoms which existed in the lower Guinea region (Ghana to Cameroon). In fact Africans were basically self contained in ways that Europeans were not, so didnt have to go exploring in search of resources.
Given that most of the wars of Europe from 1000AD to the early 20th century had a religious base, and almost always involved Christians fighting each other. Indeed many who fled to North America arrived because they were being persecuted because their interpretation of Christianity varied. So clearly there wasnt some centralized Christian reliogion.
I think the main difference with West Africa is that it lacked a writing system, so transmitting ideas to distant lands became difficult. But we ought to remember that Europeans adopted Asian religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Much as Africans also adopted similar religions.
So in this Africa is more like Europe than we want to think. There indigenous religions couldnt compete with those powerful Asian religions! We must really stop fooling ourselves that Christianity was a European religion. In fact it belonged to Turkey as much as it belonged to Rome.
I think Africa will follow a similar path as Europe by importing a foreign religion, adding its own local customs and characteristics to create a distinct African religion. It could take many centuries for versions of African Christianity to diverge enough to be considered a separate religion.
I think Africa will follow a similar path as Europe by importing a foreign religion, adding its own local customs and characteristics to create a distinct African religion. .
You mean like Europe recently importing Islam and places like France beocming bastions of Islam? That is an interesting point. Something similar is happening here in parts of Canada with Sikhism.
in the horn of East even below Kush were political states like Punt and Aksum etc going back BC, this influence the later Ethiopia and Somali states. As well further down Swahili city states existed pre Islam.
Even in Central and Southern Africa. You had different pollical states build these large stone wall Ruins like Great zimbabwe, Naletale, Mapungubwe, Blaauboschkraal, Khami etc. Then before Portuguese invaded and even before become becoming Christian The Congo/ Angolo are was under The Kingdom kongo sphere of influence. Build it's capital city of M'banza-Kongo
---
What made Christianity spread across Europe or even islam spread in diffrent parts of world was trade and conquest. The Roman Empire spread Christianity across Europe when in coverted. Maghreb spread Islam across North Africa, trans saharan trade brought it to the Sahel.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jvalens
The issue is "Africa" covers too wide of an area, so I'll just focus on a specific region.
We could ask a question like "Why didn't the West Africans develop a large centralized religion that could compete with Islam and Christianity to gain followers?"
If you ask why they don't develop a religion right now, the answer is simple. Islam and Christianity are already established there and satisfying local religious needs, so there is no incentive to develop a replacement religion.
But, a more interesting question is why didn't West Africans develop a large centralized religion before Islam and Christianity got introduced.
So, for West Africa, many centuries ago, I don't think the economy got big enough to develop their own central religion. An organized religion is like running a large business, it takes a lot of resources. I think it's the same reason why West African writing systems never developed as much as they could have.
Overall, I think it's all related to food production. Historical West Africa couldn't produce food efficiently enough to expand their economy, further develop indigenous writing systems and establish a centralized religion.
West Africa was mostly a yam-based society. Yam farming isn't as efficient as wheat and rice farming in the temperate zone. Look at the major world religons and where they developed. In the temperate zone, in wheat and/or rice growing regions. Even modern West Africa is a net food importer, and if you look at what type of food they import, it's mostly wheat, rice and corn from the temperate zone countries.
That is whole a lot of nothing, concluding from nothing.
Christianity is not native to Europe, before Christianity European native religion were just a broad and diverse as in Africa. European them selves didn't develop a native large centralize religion.
The Celtics, The franks, Norse people, slavic culture etc had there own religions before Christianity no deferent then Mande, fulani, Hausa etc did before islam.
Basically Christianity spread to Europeans the way Islam spread to West and East Africa. Heck the way the way Christianity spread to Ethiopia.
Heck buddhism is not native to East and Southeast Asia.
----
Lastly rice Cultivation massively existed in West Africa.
Enslaved Africans and African Americans cultivated rice along the Atlantic coast from North Carolina to Florida for nearly 200 years. Many came from regions in West Africa with long histories of rice farming.
Look to today's stereotypical Muslims to see what Jesus most likely looked like.
Jesus/Yeshua (His Hebrew name which means God's Salvation) was, and still is Jewish from the tribe of Judah. He never was an arab. Nor was He a Malibu Jesus. Look at modern Jews to see what He looked like, and still does. We will all get a chance to see Him as He is at His soon return. The world stage is being set for that return, but much of humanity is sleeping through it. It will be just like in the days of Noah, only evil continually.
Keep your eyes on Israel for she is God's Timepiece of the End Times. The church will never take Israel's place in God's eye's. The church, and God's Covenant people Israel are two different things.
He was God in the flesh, not just a prophet like is-lam believes falsely. He had to be God in human form in able to be tempted in every way yet remain sinless. He is called "The second Adam". That in order to be an sacrifice acceptable to God Almighty to pay the debt of humanity for our rebellion against him. Eve was decieved, but Adam was not.
Yeshua is our Passover Lamb so that the wrath of God will pass over us.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
