White Jesus modeled on Cesare Borgia?
The theory is that people were generally not too enthusiastic about the Catholic Church’s regular massacres of Jews and Muslims, because the people they were killing looked like Jesus. Pope Alexander VI then ordered the destruction of all art depicting a Semitic Jesus and commissioned a number of paintings depicting a Caucasian Jesus. His son, Cardinal Cesare Borgia, was the model for these paintings. Thus, the nastiest of all the Borgias, became the iconic Caucasian Jesus so loved by Christians today.
In 1995, GZA’s Liquid Swords album featured the solo track by Wu-Tang Clan affiliate, Killah Priest, ”B.I.B.L.E. (Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth)”. The lyrics include the lines; “I even learnt Caucasians were really the Tribe of Edam, The white image, of Christ, is really Cesare Borgia”
