28 Thoughts on a Biblical Theology of Race

I’ve just finished reading From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race (Apollos, 2003) by J. Daniel Hays. It’s under 250 pages, but it took me about 6 months to complete. I’m not fussed by that. I’ve come to believe in slow reading. I personally like to have at least three or four books on the go at once, of very different types. One or two easy-readers (for me, normally biographies or travel books), for bed-time or beach-time, one or two more stretching theological books on different topics (to be read sitting at a desk with a pen), and maybe something else different. That way, whatever the occasion, moment, mood, there’s something appropriate to read. Anyway, I digress.

Any thoughtful Bible reader will be aware that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is God over all, and has a big and massive plan for the whole world. But to slowly consider the breadth and depth of biblical material on God’s design and plan for the nations is something many Christians can easily go a long time without doing. Hays is keen to speak into that, especially motivated by the lack of serious biblical exegetical material addressing race-relations. He thus has two aims in the book - first, to present an overview of the Bible’s teaching on race and the nations, and secondly, to apply that teaching to the dominant race issue of Black and White division in present-day America, by particularly focussing on the Black Cushites in Scripture.

(I found the book often fascinating and very stimulating. One small niggle I have is Hays’ usage of the language of ‘race’. I know it’s hugely complicated deciding appropriate language in this area, and what seems to be culturally acceptable keeps shifting at a dizzying rate. Hays is absolutely respectful and admirable in his writing throughout. Personally I just find it more satisfactory to speak of one human race, rather than different races; the one human race being made up of many ethnic or cultural or social groups.) 

What follows is a not especially refined list of quotations or points I found to be the most interesting or compelling or significant from the book. 

1. It’s shocking how entrenched racism is amongst Western White evangelicals, including in recent academia. It’s not helped by how “evangelicals have a tendency to define problems in simple terms and to look for simple solutions. The race issue, on the other hand, is extremely complex.” (p18) 
2. The White church urgently needs to wake up to the fact that it is not the centre of Christianity. Never mind the Middle-Eastern origins of Christianity, “In 1900 80% of the Christians in the world were in Europe or North America. Today that percentage has dropped to 40%.” (p21-22) 
3. There are very few ‘Whites’ in the Bible! Despite the centuries of art and the plethora of illustrated Bibles and films full of blond-haired Jesuses and blue-eyed Moseses… “Such images play powerful roles in shaping popular perceptions about the Bible, and these popular perceptions in turn have a serious impact on the theology of the Church.” (p25) Not only are White images imported into the Bible but, startlingly, the Black Cushites are often airbrushed out of the Bible, as various Bible Atlases and surveys of biblical peoples reveal. (pp26-27)
4. To clarify the previous statement, the occasional Bible character may have had Caucasian features, like Uriah the Hittite or Goliath the Philistine. But Israel and her Semitic cousins “were not blue-eyed, blond-haired Caucasians; they did not look like White Americans or White Britons. They looked more like modern Arabs.” (p34)
5. The creation account in Genesis 2 underscores most clearly that “all people of all races are created in the image of God… the quality that distinguishes humankind from the animals is shared by all the races of the earth.” (p50) A penetrating implication of this is that “to ridicule someone created in the image of God is to ridicule God”. (p51) 
6. The so-called ‘curse of Ham’ is “one of the mot serious and most damaging misinterpretations of Scripture” on the subject of race. (p51) This distorts the curse God pronounces in Genesis 9:25-27 on Canaan, and “implies very clearly the theological view that the imposition of slavery on Black Africans by White Europeans and Americans was in fulfilment of a prophecy by God as was, therefore, justified.” (p54) Although “Old Testament scholarship today views this position as exegetically ridiculous, the connection between this curse and the slavery of Africans continues to be taught to the church via commentaries that are reprinted and for sale even today.” (p53) 
7. The Table of Nations in Genesis 10 lies within the context of sin and scattering of Genesis 1-11. It “is not an ethnic map tracing the development of three races, but rather a complex picture of people-group affiliations based primarily on political and geographical associations.” (p63) Genesis 10 (Table of Nations) and 11 (Tower of Babel) "hold in tension two opposing aspects: ‘the unity of the tribes and nations as of one blood under God’s blessing and their diversity into many languages under God’s wrath’ (Walkte, 2001: 162).” (p60) 
8. In Genesis 12 onwards, “God focusses on Abraham not to be exclusive, but to use this individual and his descendants to bless and deliver the entire world.” (p61) The promises to Abraham, chiefly that “all peoples on earth will be blessed through [him]” and his offspring (Gen.12:3), are truly foundational for the whole Bible story. 
9. Did you know that earliest Israel included Black people? Hays explores the fascinating historical and cultural context of Egypt at the time of the Exodus, and we observe how “a mixed crowd also went up with them” (the Hebrews) out of Egypt (Exodus 12:38). Brueggeman (1994:781) boldly concludes that “earliest Israel was not an ethnic community”. As the people of God go through their seminal deliverance, and are constituted by God dramatically at Mount Sinai, on their way to the Promised Land, they were actually a multi-ethnic gathering. “Included with the biological descendants of Jacob were other Semitic peoples (probably Arameans, Amorites, Canaanites, etc) as well as Black Africans from Cush.” (p68) Cush is south of Egypt - modern-day Sudan. 
10. Throughout the Torah, once foreign ‘sojourners’ / ‘aliens’ (gērîm) are circumcised, they become equal to Israelites in religious aspects. Even at these earliest stages of the development of the people of God, “participation in the celebration of Yahweh’s great redemptive act was not based on birth or ethnicity, but rather on relationship to Yahweh and his covenant.” (p70) 
11. The massive figurehead Moses marries twice - both times interracially. Both are interesting and instructive. First (with Zipporah), “Moses apparently marries into a Baal-worshipping priestly family!” (p70) This is before Moses encounters God, and there is no indication that Yahweh approves. The pair seem to separate later but are reunited when she joins the Yahweh-worshipping community of Hebrews. The Torah consistently warns against an Israelite marrying someone of a different religion. Such a person joining Israel is a different matter though. 
12. Later (Numbers 12:1) we read about Moses marrying again - this time a Cushite (Black African). This interracial marriage seems to provoke opposition from Moses’ family. (The pairing is not unreasonable, despite the incredulity of older commentators [see 7 above].) Whilst Moses’ sister Miriam strongly disapproves, God clearly approves, welcoming the Cushite and severely punishing the Hebrew Miriam for her rebellious opposition. (pp71-77) 
13. Torah prohibitions on intermarriage are often misunderstood. They have “absolutely nothing to do with race or physical appearance.” (p78) The reason is always theological - about the snare of other gods. When people from other nations come to worship Yahweh there are examples of them being welcomed into the people of God. In fact, given the theological implications of point 10 above, and the entire biblical theology of God’s plans for the nations, “interracial marriage is strongly affirmed in Scripture.” (p80) Any who presently feel uncomfortable must recognise God’s plan of blessing for the nations, and that “inter-ethnic marriage is the litmus test of racial prejudice” (Isichei, 1995: 107). 
14. Which Old Testament figures are recorded as experiencing the wonder of righteousness being credited to them by God? Many will recall Abraham (Genesis 15:6). But also, Phinehas (Psalm 106:31). Who’s he? Phinehas is a priest who plays an important role in the genealogy of Exodus 6, and a vital mediatorial role in the dramatic Numbers 25. The name ‘Phinehas’ is an Egyptian name meaning “the Cushite” - that is, one of the Black inhabitants of Cush. The precise significance of the name is unclear, but “the Egyptian word nehsiu (from which ‘Phinehas’ derives) does not just mean ‘dark skinned’, but is rather an explicit reference to the ethnic inhabitants of Cush.” (p84) It is therefore most likely that this early priest of the Hebrews, Phinehas, was black. If you’re wondering about the relation to Aaron, check out Exodus 6: Aaron’s son seems to have married a Black Cushite and Phinehas is their son. “Imagine the different route American Christianity might have travelled if the translators of the King James Bible had known Egyptian and had thus translated ‘Phinehas’ as ’the Negro’. The early Americans would have read that God made an eternal covenant with ’the Negro’ [Num.25:13], that all legitimate Israelite priests are descended from ’the Negro’, and that God credited righteousness to ’the Negro’. With such clear texts available, it would have been extremely difficult to defend slavery or to maintain any type of superiority-inferiority racial views.” (p85) 
15. According to both biblical and other historical records, “Throughout the entire period of the Israelite/Judahite monarchy (1020-587 BC) Cushite soldiers were frequent visitors in Israel and Judah.” (p103) They even fought alongside the Judahites against Assyria: “Judah, while being ruled by the righteous king Hezekiah, was allied with a Black pharaoh and the Black Cushites against the Assyrians.” (p100) (At that time, Egypt was under the control of the Cushites.) 
16. The prophets and psalms paint a consistent picture of God blessing the nations and bringing them to an ethnically mixed gathering of worship of the LORD (pp105-130). “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no others.” (Isa.45:22) / “Then will I purify the lips of the peoples, that all of them may call on the name of the LORD and serve him shoulder to shoulder. From beyond the rivers of Cush my worshippers, my scattered people, will bring me offerings.” (Zeph.3:9-10) That “shoulder to shoulder” phrase reminds me of Paul’s desire for the no doubt ethnically mixed Philippian church: “that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). 
17. “Ebed-Melech [the Cushite] plays a key role in the story of Jeremiah and in the tragic account of the fall of Jerusalem, as recorded in Jeremiah 38 and 39.” (p130) The people of Jerusalem violently opposed God’s prophet Jeremiah, throwing him down a cistern with royal permission, to let him starve and die a miserable death. Ebed-Melech, a Black foreigner is the unlikely intercessor who saves Jeremiah’s life (38:7-13). “The text stresses his Cushite nationality, referring to him as ‘the Cushite’ four times.” (p131) Sadly many commentators fall back on a common and damningly revealing assumption that Ebed-Melech must have been a slave, even though the biblical text and many other sources show that he was most likely a high-ranking military official. Ebed-Melech subsequently receives a rare and precious personal oracle of deliverance from the LORD, and “becomes the representative of an important remnant - the remnant of faith” (p137) - “I am about to fulfil my words against this city through disaster, not prosperity… But I will rescue you on that day, declares the LORD; you will not be handed over to those you fear. I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 39:16-18) Ebed-Melech “foreshadows the future inclusion of the nations that is prophesied by Isaiah and others, an inclusion of both Blacks and Whites, an inclusion based not on nationality or ethnicity, but on faith.” (p138) 
18. The New Testament is set in ethnically very diverse contexts. Jesus and the Apostles proclaimed the gospel to an ethnically diverse world. (p156) 
19. How ‘pure’ a Jew was Jesus? Matthew’s genealogy of Christ mentions four unusual women: “first, all of them have some type of scandal attached to their entry into their Israelite marriages; and second, all of them have Gentile origins or connections.” (p159) The result of this is to “highlight the mixed nature of Jesus’ lineage purposely.” (Keener, 1999: 79-80). 
20. With the Samaritan woman in John 4, the “first ‘cross-cultural’ evangelistic encounter was undertaken by the Lord himself, thus establishing the pattern he lays down in Acts 1:8.” (p160) 
21. In the New Testament world, there was extremely deep and painful mutual animosity between Jews and Samaritans, stoked by atrocities committed by both sides. “The layman Philip, followed by the apostles Peter and John, carried the gospel successfully across this cultural and ethnic barrier… Sociologically and misiologically, Philip’s action was extremely profound, for he was able to put aside the generations of prejudice and hate that were an integral part of his own culture.” (p164) 
22. Two accounts from the time shed light on this severe animosity. “First, while Copernicus was procurator (AD 6-9) some Samaritans secretly joined some Jewish Passover pilgrims and entered the Temple with them. Once inside the Temple, they desecrated it by spreading human bones in the porticoes and in the sanctuary. This action was ‘about the worst desecration possible’. (Ford, 1984: 83; Joesphus, Antiquities 18:29-30) Second, in AD 51 people from the Samaritan village of Ginae murdered one of more - the sources contradict - Jewish pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem for the Passover. The Jews appealed to their Roman rulers for justice, but the Romans ignored them. An unruly ‘mob’ from Jerusalem then went down to Ginae, massacred all of the inhabitants, and burned the village to the ground. (Josephus, Jewish Wars 2:232-235; Antiquities 20:118-136; Tacitus, Annals 12:54).” (p166) 
23. “Throughout the book of Luke, ‘hearing’ is always authenticated by ‘doing’. Therefore, if we Christians today are to hear Christ in [the story of the Good Samaritan], our theology must be reflected in our actions. We must do racial equality and not just think racial equality.” (p172) 
24. Interestingly, the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 comes “before the conversion of Cornelius in Acts 10, which symbolised the Roman world. The Ethiopian eunuch was also converted several years before Paul received his Macedonian call to take the gospel onto European soil.” (p175) The gospel thus reaches Africa before other Gentiles, Rome, or Europe at large. 
25. In Paul’s letters, he “does not obliterate the differences” between people; but “what are obliterated are the barriers formed by these differences and the relative value and status among the people of God based on these differences (Dunn, 1993: 207-208).” (p186) 
26. In Colossians 3:11, Paul concludes a section on how Christians are to live out the new lives Christ has given: “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” It seems to me that one could appropriately amplify those loaded and succinct last few words as follows: “Christ is all [that defines us, rather than any ethnic or social difference], and is in all [of us who believe, irrespective of our ethnic or social identity].” 
27. The book of Revelation shows the multi-ethnic make-up of the final and redeemed people of God in the new creation several times. “The ethnic races of the world will be mixed together and brought together in worship of God. We in the Church today need to ask ourselves the question as to why our earthly churches differ so much in composition from the congregations depicted in Revelation.” (p199) 
28. The final chapter of the book states seven synthesising conclusions: (1) The biblical world was multi-ethnic, and Blacks were involved in God’s unfolding plan of redemption from the beginning. (2) All people are created in the image of God, and therefore all races and ethnic groups have the same status and unique value that results from the image of God. (3) Genesis 10 and the Abrahamic promise combine to form a theme that runs throughout Scripture, constantly pointing to the global and multi-ethnic elements inherent in the overarching plan of God. (4) Racial intermarriage is sanctioned by Scripture. (5) The gospel demands that we carry compassion and the message of Christ across ethnic lines. (6) The New Testament demands active unity in the Church, a unity that explicitly joins differing ethnic groups together because of their common identity in Christ. (7) The picture of God’s people at the climax of history portrays a multi-ethnic congregation from every tribe, language, people and nation, all gathered together in worship around God’s throne.

In a short while I will try to put together some applied thoughts that flow out of all of this, both for my situation here in West Africa, and for my home context of the UK.