"And when they had found Him on the other side of the sea, they said unto Him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?" (John 6:25).

The paintings by Clara Marie Goldstein, which are cited above and accessible at her "Rabbi Jesus Art Museum", envision the life of Jesus as an ethnic Jew.

Back in 2006, Goldstein's paintings were briefly displayed at the Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center gift shop in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The exhibition ended badly. The Medical Center removed the paintings after only two days, after it received complaints from patients and families who found the paintings offensive.

There's certainly an initial shock in seeing Jesus depicted as a Jew, although the shock quickly subsides. But, what I find creepy about Goldstein's "Rabbi Jesus" (reproduced above to the left) is the way we know the painting depicts Jesus, even though it doesn't follow the iconography established by Warner Sallman and his "Head of Christ" (above to the right). Goldstein pulls this off by giving her Jesus a gratuitous smile that tips us off to the painting's didactic intent. After that, it's not hard work to connect the dots and see Jesus.

It's also not hard work to see the hole that Goldstein's exhibition fell into at the Medical Center. Warner Sallman's portrait makes no concession to Jesus's Judaism, but Goldstein's portrait makes no concession to his Christianity.