Our Olive-Skinned Gospel

CHRISTIANITY TODAY 
By Abdu Murray
Henry Ossawa Tanner's "The Savior" (1900-205) - Smithsonian American Art Museum
When I was a Muslim, I thought that the Bible whitewashed Jesus, while the Qur’an depicted his Middle Eastern quality. When I read the Bible to really explore it, however, I discovered the opposite. What struck me during that exploration—and still strikes me—is Christianity’s Easternness and Middle Easternness. On every page of both the Old and New Testaments, I hear the Levantine accents of those speaking. As a Middle Easterner, every time I read Bible stories, a smile crawls across my face because its aphorisms sound so much like those my relatives use. [More
As a Middle Easterner, I can't read the Bible without a smile of recognition crawling across my face.

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