Blacks Of The Bible Essay Research Paper

Blacks Of The Bible Essay, Research Paper

Blacks of the Bible

Any attempt to establish a universally accepted statement as to the presence of blacks in the Old Testament would be futile for several reasons. Firstly, current definitions of a black or Negro person may differ greatly dependent on the context of their usage, and therefore any study aimed to show the presence of blacks in the bible would be limited to the definition used by either the author or the reader of such a study. Also, the concept of race defined on a basis of skin color alone has been the relatively young creation of the Euro-centric western world, post 17th century. Due to this fact, it is sometimes difficult to determine clearly the race of various peoples or persons in the Bible; the people of biblical times do not share the same concept of race that we carry today. In fact the Hebrew peoples themselves seem not to be of a pure racial breed of any color, but rather the genealogy of the Hebrew people, as will be shown later, seems to be scattered with interracial marriages and people of most all races including the Negro race.

Therefore, it is not my attempt with this essay to present an exhaustive or authoritative account of all the black peoples and persons in the Old Testament. Rather it was my hope to begin to explore the significance people of the Negro race hold in these ancient texts, to find out the role that these people held in the rise and fall of the Hebrew nation, and the part that was played by Negroes in the working out of God.s will for his people.

The account that I will provide is based most largely on similar studies presented by African-American biblical scholars Cain Hope Felder and Charles B. Copher. However, I have not taken the words of these men without a grain of salt, and I was sure to read their study with their book in one hand and the Bible in the other. What I found was that people of dark skin played an important role in just about every generation dating almost back to God.s creation of man. I had expected to find a few scattered references to African peoples or a few random accounts of individuals who had traveled from the African continent, but my study revealed that people of dark skin, who very well may be considered black by today.s racial standards, were found scattered about the nations of the ancient world.

Origins of the Negro Race

One of the first or most obvious questions that may be asked when beginning to look for the presence of blacks in the Old Testament is with regard to the origin of dark skinned races. A logical place to begin this search may be in the table of nations presented in Genesis 10:1-14 and again listed in 1 Chronicles 1:8-16. This list begins with Noah and accounts for the dispersing of his sons to begin repopulating the Earth after the great flood account in Genesis. In this table of nations we find that two of the named sons of Ham are known dark skinned races. These being the descendants of Cush and the descendants of Canaan. The most commonly accepted reason for the sudden appearance dark skin within the genealogy is related to the curse Noah set upon Ham in Genesis 9:25-27. Although not explicitly stated in the text, it is generally accepted that Ham.s skin was turned dark as a result of this curse, and his descendants were then destined to carry the same mark.

There are, however, other hypotheses for the origin of the black races. The first of these theories, expressed in ancient Babylonian myth, suggests that Ham defiled himself in a sexual act with the dog while on the ark. For this act of defilement, curses were placed on both the dog and Ham. Ham.s curse was that he and his descendants would be black-skinned.

The next theory suggests that the Negro race actually began back with Adam and Eve.s first son Cain, who was turned black by the ashes of his inappropriate offering to God. The theory that Cain was in fact the father of the Negro race was a somewhat prevalent thought among Europeans back as far as the 12th century, and possibly further as Cain.s descendants are depicted as black skinned in the tale of Beowulf. However, this theory has only been made doctrine in the Mormon church. This theory is closely tied to the story of Ham, by suggesting that Ham took a descendant of Cain as his wife, thereby producing dark skinned offspring in Cush and Canaan.

Still others theorize that the table of nations shown in Genesis and 1 Corinthians is a list of nations that is only inclusive of the nations within the scope of knowledge of the author, and in fact all of the races listed there are Caucasoid races. Among those excluded from this list would be the Indians, Chinese, Mongolians, Malaysians, and the Negroes. The theory suggests that there were other races of independent lineage that were unknown to the author at the time of the writings. It seems that this would be strongly discredited by the established ideal that the great flood was intended to wipe all people from the Earth, save Noah.s family. It would thereby be assumed that all races of the Earth are descendant of Noah.

Whatever the explanation for the origin of dark skinned races, Negro people clearly have been descendant of Noah.s son Ham, and it is told in Genesis that Ham.s offspring were those who settled and built such great ancient cities as Babylon, Nineveh, Sodom, and Gomorrah.

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