Dear Roger,
I was recently asked when people of skin tone other than white as an indicator of racial or ethnic affiliation first appeared in the Bible. Was it before the tower of Babel?
Sincerely, Matt
Dear Matt,
The first time I rode on a bus there were “colored people” on it. I was only five. I’d never noticed there were colored people until my mommy warned me. “When we get on the bus,” she said, “colored people will be sitting at the back. Keep quiet. Don’t say a word about it. I’ll explain later.”
When we got on the bus I looked for the colored people. Sure enough, there they were in the back of the bus. I guess that I expected to see a rainbow of colors like in my crayola box. It didn’t take long to see that I only needed three crayons: black, brown and flesh colored. My introduction to racism had begun.
“Most Americans, white and black, see racism as a lingering problem in the United States, and many say they know people who are racist. But, just 13 percent of whites and 12 percent of blacks consider themselves racially biased” (“Most Polls See Lingering Racism in Others.” CNN.com, December 12, 2006).
Matt, before I answer your question about skin color and the Bible, I want to share a series of questions on how to determine if you are racially biased.
Peter Scazzero, pastor of New Life Fellowship in Queens, New York, developed what he calls The Racism/Bridge Builder Test.
1. Is there a particular group of people/ethnicity/race that you simply can’t stand?
2. Is there any particular group of people/ethnicity/race that you wished your child wouldn’t marry? Or you wouldn’t marry?
3. Are there types of people who cause you to cross the street if you are walking alone?
4. Does anything happen inside you when you see interracial couples? What types or combinations of couples?
5. When was the last time you visited in the home or apartment of someone from a different culture or race? When was the last time you invited them to your home or apartment?
6. What is your attitude towards people/groups whose musical preferences are different than yours? (e.g. Classical, classic rock, hard rock, Pop, Jazz, Hip-Hop, R and B (rhythm and blues), gospel, heavy metal, etc.
7. What type of person would you most trust to invest or steward your money? What type of person would you least trust to invest or steward your money?
8. When you meet people from another race/culture who do not fit your stereotype (i.e. nicer, smarter, dumber, aggressive, passive, and/or more articulate) than you expected, are you surprised?
9. When a driver of a different ethnicity/race than yours is driving their car too fast, too slow, or makes a mistake, do you say to yourself, “Well that figures!”
During my last two years of college I pastored the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Penelope Texas. It was there that I first encountered “colored town.” My wife Julie and I were driving around one Sunday afternoon visiting people to invite them to come to our church. We drove down a dirt road we’d never been on before, crested a hill we’d never noticed before, and spread out before us was Penelope’s “colored town.”
I was shocked. I didn’t know Penelope had a “colored town!” We were delighted-a whole new set of prospects for our little congregation! We had a wonderful time playing with the children, petting the dogs, talking with people and drinking cokes in the kitchen.
Several hours later it was time to depart. We had an evening church service to lead. Mr. Green, our deacon (we only had one) was standing on the church steps waiting for us. “We hear you’ve been to colored town,” he said. “Those people aren’t welcome here.”
“OK,” I said.
I suppose that there are two ways to handle racism. One is to climb on a “high horse” and angrily judge and condemn those obviously racist. The other is to take time to work on their hearts.
I chose the latter. In fact, I set a goal. Every year our church sponsored what we called, “Vacation Bible School”. For two weeks each summer children came every morning for fun, games, crafts and Bible lessons. Bible School for this year had just ended. I decided that next year the colored children would be welcomed.
So, I preached compassion and love and acceptance—and worked on our hearts. One year later eleven African-American children attended our Bible school. Mrs. Beard was one of our Vacation Bible School teachers. The next Sunday two African-American families came to worship with us in or church. No one turned them away. In fact, the fellowship we had was sweet.
A curious belief has arisen among some Christians about the origin of black-skin coloring. In Genesis 9:20-25 Ham is cursed by his father Noah for dishonoring his dad during one of Noah’s drunken stupors. Some think that the curse placed on Ham and his descendants was black skin.
Some of Ham’s descendants, Cush and Put, for example, settled in Africa in the present-day countries of Ethiopia and Libya. These misguided people conclude that Cush and Put spread their black skin throughout Africa. Therefore, they conclude that black Africans are a cursed race and thus inferior to white races.
This awful premise was often invoked by white people in the Southern United States as Biblical “proof” to justify the institution of slavery. In fact, in “Dred Scott” v. Sanford in 1856 and a in a series of other cases the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that black slaves could not be citizens, were not real human beings and thus had no protection under the U.S. Constitution. Furthermore, other rulings concluded that slaves were nothing more or less than the property of their owners—little different from horses and plows.
Horribly, many Southern preachers and Christians used this line of reasoning to circumvent the idea that slaves were to be treated as equals for whom Christ died a substitutionary death on the cross. This is not to say that all Southern Christians agreed with this concept. Some repudiated it fiercely! Many operated underground railroads to move run-away slaves to “safety” in the North.
The Southern Baptist Convention split off from other Baptists in 1845 because they wanted to continue legalized slavery in the South.
Thankfully, among most Christians, times and attitudes have changed.
Fighting racism is not easy. It’s built into our genes. In his book, “Genome,” Matt Ridley selects a gene or two from each chromosome pair and overviews the work of our genes.
Several things stand out in his book relating to racism.
First, we are genetically programmed by GOD to be wary of people not like us. This is a survival mechanism that contributes to racism.
Second, skin color is not skin deep. It is less than skin deep. Of the 30,000 or so genes imbedded in human DNA, only a very few have anything to do with skin color. All races are basically alike in mental, emotional and physical make up. Skin color is only cosmetic.
Imagine all of the pain and anguish that have come to mankind over things no more genetically important than blusher and eye shadow.
Third, different skin colors are not a curse. They are in many ways life giving. For example, certainly you’ve noticed that as we move farther north from the sunny tropics, to the less sunny temperate zones, and on to the frigid and unsunny Arctic, skin colors gradually morph from deep black to pale white Think Ethiopia versus Sweden.
Skin color is due primarily to the presence of a pigment in the skin called “melanin.” Dark-skinned people who live in the tropics have more melanin than light- skinned people who live up north because they need it. Melanin acts as a sunscreen to protect against the sun’s ultraviolet rays which often lead to melanoma. The more melanin the darker the skin and the greater the protection.
(By the way, freckles, which occur in people of all races, are small, concentrated areas of increased melanin production.)
Light-skinned people up north don’t need sunscreen. They need vitamin D to prevent rickets in children and osteoporosis in adults.
Since approximately 90% of Vitamin D is synthesized in the skin, people up north tend to be light skinned with little melanin in order to soak in as much sunshine as possible. Since the higher latitudes get much less sun than the tropics, light-colored skin enables people to quickly absorb Vitamin D.
We teach, lecture and model to help overcome racism. We imprison and punish racist extremists in an effort to eradicate the problem.
We must do all we can to reduce racism in our midst.
But, when all is said and done, the love of Christ alone can bring ultimate healing to this sad racial sickness.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:43-44).
“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).
By the way, it’s been a long time since I’ve used the term, “colored people,” or some of the other terms which were so vulgar but normal when I was a child. But, times have changed and I’ve grown up. I know that people aren’t colored or black or white or brown or red or yellow or olive or whatever. They’re people; we’re all alike.
I remember the first time I preached overseas. Julie and I were in Rio and the people were poor and the slums smelled like pee. In a moment of panic I wondered if my stories and illustrations would relate.
Then, it dawned on me. These people were just like me. Their skin was darker than mine but our insides were alike. When they get cut, they bleed, just like me. They want their children to grow up and succeed, just like me. They wanted a job and security, just like me. They had the same hopes, fears and dreams just like me. In fact, they were just like me.
Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40).
Reorienting the human heart around the love of Christ is our only long-term hope for reducing racism in our midst.
Well, Matt, after all is finally said and done, let me answer your question.
As far as I know, varying skin colors are never expressly mentioned in the Bible. Inferences are made today, but no single skin color can be identified in the Scriptures.
Some assume that the Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon was black because she was from the country of Sheba. But Sheba is not in Africa. It was Abyssinia which is located in southwest Arabia on the eastern tip of the Red Sea (1 Kings 10:1-13).
Others have taught that Solomon’s first wife was black because she mentioned her “dark skin.” She sang in Song of Solomon 1:5-6: “Dark am I, yet lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon. Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun.” Notice that even a cursory reading reveals that her skin color was not black; she was deeply sunburned from working outdoors in the fields.
Others have taught that the Ethiopian Eunuch who was baptized by Philip in Acts 8 was black. The Bible never says this. We just assume that he was black because he was from that African nation! He probably was black—although the Bible never says.
Both Esau (Genesis 25:25) and David (1 Samuel 16:12) are mentioned as having “ruddy” or “red” complexions. This obviously refers to a reddening of their Middle Eastern-olive-skin tones. In fact, many say that both Esau and David had red hair and probably freckles to go with their redden skin. It is interesting to note that David’s son, Solomon, was also described as of “ruddy” complexion (Song of Solomon 5:10).
The premise that “people of skin tone other than white as an indicator of racial or ethnic affiliation first appeared in the Bible” is false. The Bible never uses any skin colors or tones as indicators of racial or ethnic affiliation.
The table of nations is listed for us in Genesis 10. By the way, this listing of nations (read races) occurs before the Tower of Babel story of the scattering of the races as related in Genesis 11. The order here is of little significance. The list is given and then the next chapters details how the migrations began. In the listing we see that the descendants of Noah’s three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, migrated to different parts of the world after the subsiding of the Flood.
We know from the countries mentioned that Shem fathered the Semitic peoples who are considered Jewish or Arabic. His descendants settled throughout the Mideast and southern Asia.
Japheth fathered the Japhethite peoples who moved northward into Turkey and Russia and then migrated into Europe and across much of Asia. Today, most of these people are identified as white-skinned Caucasian or browned skinned Asians and Mongolians or more yellow-skinned Chinese.
Ham fathered the Hamitic peoples. His descendants settled from Canaan southward into Egypt and Africa.
A curious belief has arisen among some people about the origin of black-skin coloring. In Genesis 9:20-25 Ham is cursed by his father Noah for his dishonoring Noah in a situation regarding one of Noah’s drunken stupors. Some think Ham and his descendants were cursed with black skin.
Some of Ham’s descendants, Cush and Put, for example, settled in Africa in the present-day countries of Ethiopia and Libya. These misguided people conclude that Cush and Put spread their black skin throughout Africa. Therefore, they conclude that black Africans are a cursed race and thus inferior to white races. The fact that Ham had many other sons who did not settle in Africa is ignored by them.
This awful premise was often invoked by white people in the Southern United States as Biblical “proof” to justify the institution of slavery. In fact, in “Dred Scott” v. Sanford in 1856 and a series of other cases the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that black slaves could not be citizens, were not real human beings and thus had no protection under the U.S. Constitution. Furthermore, other rulings concluded that slaves were nothing more or less than the property of their owners—little different from horses and plows.
Horribly, many Southern preachers and Christians used this line of reasoning to circumvent the idea that slaves were to be treated as equals for whom Christ died a substitutionary death on the cross. This is not to say that all Southern Christians agreed with this concept. Some repudiated it fiercely! Many operated underground railroads to move run-away slaves to “safety” in the North.
Well, Matt, I hope this helps in understanding skin tones and the Bible. Have a good discussion with your friend.
Love, Roger