# 40 People of Color in the Bible

Biblical Revelation of Racial Identification

# 40 People of Color in the Bible

by

Vernon M. Herron

Today, we begin a three-part discussion on the Biblical revelation of race.

We will discuss the identification of races, purpose and destiny. We will briefly reflect on the Israel/Palestine Arab conflict, and God’s use of all peoples, so stay tuned and don’t turn your dial.

According to demographic and statistical reports, there are five billion peoples on the face of the earth and the majority of them are people of color. Modern man often wonders about the origin of races. Biblical records significantly include people of color in God’s panorama of history. First, we must get certain geographical concepts in place and therefore must have some insight of the lands of the Bible. There are overwhelming facts designating Africa as the birth place of humanity. According to Kun-jun-fu, “the original man was an ETHIOPIA.” He continues, “Africans lived almost 4 million years ago; Asians lived over 700 thousand years ago; Europeans lived over 70 thousand years ago.”

During the Great Flood, the ark with its eighty occupants was lifted from the continent of Africa and rested on the continent of Asia-Mt. Ararat. All human life after the flood is credited to Noah’s family. His three sons SHEM, HAM AND JAPHETH are responsible for the fathers of all races.

Gen. 9:18-19.

“And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.” These are the three sons of Noah: and of them the whole earth was overspread.

In Genesis 11:7,

God confounded their language, which compelled them to separate according to Noah’s sons. By this act, new nations were formed.

Japheth and his family traveled north, settling north of the Mediterranean Sea. He became the Father of the Caucasian race in Europe.

Shem and his family moved southeast occupying Syria, Assyria, the Persian Gulf and a large part of Arabia. He is the father of the Hebrews.

Ham had four sons, (Cush, Mizraim, Phut and Canaan. Gen. 10:6) but only three of them went with him south to Africa. His youngest son, Canaan settled an area known, today as Palestine, which was originally called Canaan. The Canaanites were a Black race of people who ruled Canaan- land for nearly one thousand years before losing it to the children of Shem. In Gen. 9:18. God called Ham, who was Noah’s third son, the father of Canaan before His children entered the land of Canaan.

Ham’s descendants settled Palestine, Africa, Asia, India, Islands of the Pacific, Australia, Central and South America. 2/3 of the world’s population is brown and dark skinned. This is why people of color are numerous in the Bible.

Gen. 10 tells us about Nim-rod, the grandson of Ham. It was Nimrod who built the towel of Babel.

II Samuel 11, names a black Hittite—Uriah, whose dark skinned wife was Bathsheba.

Caphtor: Crete was the grandson of Ham and father of the Black Philistines. (Jer. 47:4).

According to I Sam. 17, the most popular Black Philistine in the Bible are Delilah and Goliath.

Moses was a Black skinned Hebrew living in the Negro land of Egypt during the period of Israel’s enslavement.

Ex. 2, tells us how Moses out of fear fled Africa to the land of Midian, where he found his Black wife Zip-porah.

Three wise men journeyed to Bethlehem to greet the savior. One of the three, Balthazar-(Ba-tha-zar) was Black. Matt:2:1 reports that gold, frankincense and myrrh were the gifts presented to the newborn King

Luke 1 speaks of Mary: “The Black Madonna”. Mary was the mother of the Immaculate Christ. She was a distant relative of David and Solomon who were of the lineage of Boaz, direct son of Rahab. “the Black Canaanite.” (Ruth 4:13)

Then there is “Jesus: Salvation” His existence can be found from Genesis to Revelation since He is Alpha and Omega. His earthly maternal genealogy can be traced from Adam to Noah and Ham.

Mark 15:21 tells of Simon, a Black Cyrenian helped the Messiah bear his cross.

There are many more, but last example I leave with you is that of Solomon and Mekeda, the Queen of Sheba. Solomon was one of Judah’s earliest kings to have Negro blood in his veins. His great-great grandmother was Rahab, the “Black Canaanite” who was an offspring of Ham. (Gen. 10)

The Queen of Sheba was a Black woman who resided in Africa and Arabia. She was an Ethiopian by blood, land and culture; a descendant of Ham’s first son Cush, same as Ethiopia. (Gen. 10:7) The visit of the Queen of Sheba is one of the most enchanting stories of the Bible found in II Chron.9 and I  Kings 10:

Solomon had a throne set up for Mekeda beside his. He called her the “Beautiful Queen of the South.” Solomon at that time had 700 wives, all princesses and 300 concubines. To the great dismay of all of these, Solomon now made Mekeda his favorite queen.

Some of them began to reproach Mekeda about her darkness of her skin. Mekeda’s responds:

Song of Solomon 1:5

I am black but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem,

as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon,

look not upon me, because I am black, because

the sun hath looked upon me:

they made me the keeper of the vineyards;

but my own vineyard have I not kept.

“Comely” means “beautiful” and the “but” gives a negative connotation. “Black but beautiful is a poor translation. Using "and" instead of "but" or "yet" as the operative conjunction, the verse should read, “I am Black and Beautiful.”

From identification, we move to purpose and then on to destiny. These will be our discussions in blogs to follow.