I remember as a kid my grandma told me the Hebrews were Black people. Not being particularly religious I didnt think much about it but always believed it. I've been researching this topic for a while now and it seems to be something so easily proven that I am astounded there is a controversy about it. The ancient Hebrews were obviously Black people. The evidence in the Torah/OT is pretty convincing.
Job 30:30 KJV: My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat.
"My skin is black upon me and my bones are burned with heat"
The only people that would suffer from this condition known as starvation induced hyper pigmentation enough to turn Black are dark skinned people such as this type VI person at the end of the Fitzpatrick Skin Type scale
Being an agnostic/atheist the only reason this discussion holds any interest for me is because it's usually dominated by white Christians based on nothing but lies and oral stories passed down through families, generation to generation, without any true history as evidence. I'll never forget the great laugh I got out of Fox News when Megyn Kelly insisted Santa and Jesus were white (They just are.). If you think about Megyn's pronouncements for a couple minutes though the fact that God (Jesus) is assumed to be white is a gruesome corollary to white supremacism and white priviledge. How many millions of Indigenous peoples were slaughtered all over the World by the Biblical justification of Manifest Destiny driven on by white preachers interpreting that it wasn't Man who was given dominion over the World, it was a small group of those Homo Sapiens God had created, for some mysterious reason known only to God I guess, it was those men born with white skin. Now if that isn't the ultimate genetic handicap for people of color I don't know what is. There is no antibiotic cure, no surgical procedure to relieve the terrible effects. No, it's lifelong and incurable. The symptoms and prognosis are obvious and debilitating. Without extraordinary good luck and slavish hard work if you are born with this genetic marker you are probably doomed to a life near or under the poverty line. The school you attend will be underfunded and run down. The white people around you have traded stories of why you are to be hated and feared for hundreds of years. While you're growing up you won't understand why your neighborhood doesn't have the swimming pools and playgrounds the white kids enjoy. You won't understand the shouts of "Go back to your dirty Ghetto you dirty N*****" They seem to hate you and it'll be a couple more years until you're sure they do. By the time you're six years old you may start to figure out that hate doesn't need a reason. Because the judicial system has been suspicious of "your kind" for generations one or more of your relatives may be incarcerated, there's a good chance your father was in jail at one time, is now, or will be. The color of your skin may influence the judge to the point where that white boy just ahead of you got probation for holding a couple of joints, yet there's a good possibility you might get a year or more in a real jail for the same transgression. Maybe it'll be one of those new "private" jails who's profits increase the worse they treat you. If you manage to stay out of trouble and don't show any "disrespect" to any officer of the law who decides to question you for any reason you might be one of the lucky ones to get through your teen years without a "rap sheet". That's a good thing because you'll have a hard enough time finding a job. Black high school graduates have twice the unemployment rate of white graduates. Those black students who through some miracle manage to graduate college will face about the same unemployment rate as whites who only graduated high school. Okay, so anybody with an honest bone in their body knows that black people start the Great Race from a starting point anywhere from fifty to a hundred yards behind those white people. Back to the justification for this state of affairs. Religion isn't the only leg that Racism rests on but it was the prime moral compass used by Antebellum slave owners and just plain racists when the great notions that define American Exceptionalism were first written into the greatest documents produced by the mind and hand of Man . And the true north that moral compass pointed to was unfortunately White Supremacy. God apparently made his choice of skin color clear to the Great Founders of America, for although He inspired these great words -
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
somehow He communicated to these great enlightenment thinkers that "Psst...you know we're talking White men here...right?"
And so with the tacit acceptance of this evil by the greatest men in history until this point, the evil agreement that Black people weren't to be beneficiaries of God's grace and bounty and benevolence, the ugly schism of the races that continues to this day in the most blessed country on Earth, began. I could go off on a tangent and suggest this was possibly the Original Sin of Capitalism because a good case could be made slavery was simply determined to be an economic necessity by greedy landowners and avaricious cotton traders. Does everyone know that George Washington became the richest man in America through his landholdings? Anyway that's too long a story. I'll just suggest every God-loving Capitalist should wear a bracelet engraved with Mark 8:36 "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" Back to the point of the OP finally. Were the Jews white? Were the Hebrews white? Was Jesus white? For some of this we're going to have to trust some parts of the Bible that can be judged historically accurate and for some information we're going to have to rely on contemporary and near contemporary Historians.
I got this info mainly from here and here.
THE PHYSICAL APPEARANCE OF ANCIENT ISRAEL
THE HEBREWS &
THE SONS OF HAM
And the sons of Ham, Cush & Mizraim & Phut & Canaan. "Genesis 10:6"
For years, scholars, theologians and archaeologist have debated the answer to the question, "How did the ancient Israelites look physically?" Although the scriptures and other historical documents, have left a lot of evidence that confirms the physical appearance of the Israelites, much of this information is still unknown to the masses. The popular belief today among Christians, scholars and theologians, is that the people known as "Ashkenazi Jews" are the direct descendants of the ancient Israelites. But, can this be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt?
The answer is NO.
The scriptures which will be used here as the main source, supported by history and archaeology proves that these Jews are not the physical descendants of the ancient Hebrew Israelite nation. In addition it reveals who the true descendants are. The answer may leave you in shock.
Israel is mentioned in scripture over 2,500 times. The scriptures contain the Hebrews' entire history. In fact, no other people on the face of the earth have such an extensive recorded history, not even the ancient Egyptians. Every thing we need to know about the ancient Hebrews is contained in Scripture. So, let's examine these facts, information that to this day remains unknown or hidden to many "bible" readers.
ISRAEL IN THE LAND OF EGYPT
The history of the Israelite nation began in Egypt, the land of Ham. They entered Egypt 66 in number, (not including Joseph, his wife and two sons who were already in Egypt), and left numbering over two million people. Ancient Israel spent 430 years in Egypt. For half that time they enjoyed good favor with the Egyptians, but for the remainder of those years they were enslaved and horribly mistreated by them.
One of the facts scripture gives us about Israel (Ysrayl in the Hebrew tongue), is in regard to their physical appearance. Throughout scripture Israel is described as looking like the sons of Ham (Khawm in the Hebrew tongue), in physical appearance.
Ham was one of Noah's three sons, Shem and Japheth were the other two. Noah's descendants repopulated the earth after the Great Flood. Ham's descendants are traced to the families of Africa. Ham (Khawm) in Hebrew means BLACK, HOT AND BURNT.
Ham had four sons,
1. CUSH (Ethiopians / Cushites & Nubians),
2. MIZRAIM (Egyptians / Khemet),
3. PHUT (Ancient Libyans or Somalia),
4. CANAAN (Canaanite, the original inhabitants of the land of Israel) genesis 10:6-19.
All four of Ham's sons and their descendants settled in and around the continent of Africa, this includes the so called Middle East which is also a part of the Continent of Africa. Ham sons are the people of the African continent, the Ancient Egyptians, Ethiopians, Somalia's, Canaanites etc.
The Israelites are descendants of Noah son SHEM, through Abraham, he is the father of the Hebrew Israelite Nation. Abraham is the father of Isaac, Isaac is the father of Jacob, Jacob had twelve sons and these sons are the progenitors of the Israelite nation. The Twelve tribes of Israel are as follows:
REUBEN GAD
SIMEON ASHER
LEVI NAPHILTI
JUDAH ISSACHAR
ZEBULON JOSEPH
DAN BENJAMIN
Each one of Jacob's sons became a tribal nation, that made up the greater nation of Israel. EXAMPLE: Reuben's descendants became known as the tribe of Reuben. Judah's descendants became known as the tribe of Judah and so on and so forth. The nation of Israel are the descendants of Jacob who had his name changed to Israel by the Most High (Gen 28:32). That's the basics, lets move on to the meat of our lesson.
We will begin with the story of Jacob's second Youngest son Joseph, and his time in Egypt. Joseph was one of the twelve sons of Jacob (Yaaqob in Hebrew). Jacob sired Joseph in his old age, and he was clearly his favorite son. This caused Joseph's brothers to become jealous of him.
Ultimately, their jealousy resulted in Joseph being sold by Arab merchants as a slave to Egyptians.
Over the course of time Joseph became Viceroy (Governor) of Egypt and was second in command to Pharaoh in authority. There was a famine in Canaan, where Jacob and his sons lived. (Pharaoh had a dream which Joseph interpreted. His dream told of the forthcoming famine and gave Egypt an opportunity to prepare by storing food.) So, Jacob sent his ten sons to Egypt to buy bread. When Joseph's ten brothers came into Egypt they were brought before him. Joseph recognized his brothers, but they didn't recognize him (Genesis 42:1-8).
Since the biblical Egyptians were a black-skinned people, Joseph had to be black-skinned also. If he were white skinned, his brothers would have recognized him easily among the "black" Egyptians. His brothers thought Joseph was another Egyptian.
The ancient Egyptians of Joseph time were indeed what we know today as "black", this is a fact attested to by many.
Gerald Massey, English writer and author of the book, Egypt the Light of the World, wrote, "The dignity is so ancient that the insignia of the Pharaoh evidently belonged tthe time when Egyptians wore nothing but the girdle of the Negro." (p 251)
Sir Richard Francis Burton, a 19th century English explorer, writer and linguist in 1883 wrote to Gerald Massey, "You are quite right about the "AFRICAN" origin of the Egyptians. I have 100 human skulls to prove it."
Scientist, R. T. Prittchett, states in his book The Natural History of Man, "In their complex and many of the complexions and in physical peculiarities the Egyptians were an "AFRICAN" race (p 124-125).o
The Ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Egypt in the 5th century B.C.E., saw the Egyptians face to face and described them as black-skinned with woolly hair.
Anthropologist, Count Constatin de Volney (1727-1820),spoke about the race of the Egyptians that produced the Pharaohs. He later paid tribute to Herodotus' discovery when he said:
The ancient Egyptians were true Negroes of the same type as all native born Africans. That being so, we can see how their blood mixed for several centuries with that of the Romans and Greeks, must have lost the intensity of it's original color, while retaining none the less the imprint of it's original mold. We can even state as a general principle that the face (referring to The Sphinx) is a kind of monument able, in many cases, to attest to or shed light on historical evidence on the origins of the people."
The fact that the ancient Egyptians were black-skin prompted Volney to make the following statement:
"What a subject for meditation, just think that the race of black men today our slaves and the object of our scorn, is the very race to which we owe our arts, science and even the use of our speech."
The testimony of the ancients, the scriptures, & many Egyptologists, along with archaeology confirms that the Egyptians during biblical times were a "BLACK" PEOPLE. This is important to know, as we continue, we'll see that the bible on multiple occasions describes the ancient Hebrews as looking like the Egyptians in physical appearance.
Next, in Genesis chapter 50 verses 7-11, scripture will describes ALL the Hebrews as looking like the ancient Egyptians.
After Jacob (who's name was changed to Ysrayl - Israel) died in the land of Egypt, all the Hebrews and Egyptians went down to the land of Canaan to bury him (He asked his son to bury him in the land of Canaan with his forefathers Genesis 49:29-30).
Verses 7-8, states that all the elders of Pharaoh's house and all the elders of the land of Egypt along with all the Hebrews (except for their small children) went down.
VERSE 9 says, "It was a very great company."
VERSE 11 says, that the Canaanite saw the funeral procession and said "THIS IS A GRIEVOUS MOURNING TO THE EGYPTIANS".
But, remember this was a mixed multitude of Hebrews and Egyptians going to bury a HEBREW, and the Canaanite identified them both as Egyptians. WHY? Because, the Canaanite saw a great company of black-skinned people who all look like native (black) Egyptians.
If the Hebrews were a white skinned people, as we have been led to believe. The Canaanite who were familiar with both the Hebrews and Egyptians would have acknowledged them both by saying, "THIS IS A GRIEVOUS MOURNING TO THE EGYPTIANS AND HEBREWS." Without doubt white Hebrews would have stuck out like a sore thump among the black Egyptians. The Canaanites never Identified the Hebrews separately from the Egyptians. Since it was a Hebrew being buried you know the Israelites were the ones who were mourning the greatest. The Canaanites seen this and though those Israelites in mourning were Egyptians.
The scripture goes on to say that the Canaanite named the place where they saw this great mourning for a HEBREW Abel Mizraim which means the meadow of Egypt/Mizraim or Mourning of the Egyptians.
Now lets go to the greatest and most famous story about the Israelites sojourn in the land of Egypt. This would be the story of Moses (Moshe).
Many years after the death of Joseph, His brothers and all that generation that entered Egypt during the time he was viceroy. The Hebrew population in Egypt grew tremendously. Because of this, they were no longer looked upon as friendly neighbors, the Egyptians now considered them hostile enemies and enslaved them.
Because of the Hebrews' population growth the Egyptians decided, they would impose upon them their own form of birth control. Pharaoh decreed that all Hebrew males are killed at birth (Exodus 1), this brings us directly to the story of Moses.
Moses was born a Hebrew - Israelite from the tribe of Levi (exodus 2:1-3). He spent 40 years in the house of pharaoh (Acts 7:23) and was raised as the Pharaoh's Grandson
(Exodus 2: 6, 10).
This was during the same time that Pharaoh ordered all Hebrew males to be killed at birth. So, with Pharaoh, being a black-skinned descendant of Khawm / Ham, it would of course follow that Moses was black-skinned also.
Many Scholars say the Pharaoh who was on the throne of Egypt at the time of Moses' birth, was Pharaoh Seti I. He was the father of Rameses II, the Pharaoh of the oppression, also known as Rameses the Great.
Color struck: America's White Jesus is a global export and false product
By Wesley Muhammad, PhD.
What color was Jesus? Most American Christians—Black and White—would dismiss this question as both irrelevant and unanswerable as the Gospels fail to give us a physical description. The irony is that most of these same Americans in their heart of hearts are pretty confident any way that they know what color Jesus was. They attend churches with images of a tall, long haired, full bearded White man depicted in stained glass windows or painted on walls, and they return home to the same depictions framed in their living room or illustrating their family Bibles.
Further compounding the irony is the fact that America actually has an obsession with the (presumed) color of Christ and has exported her White Americanized Savior around the world, as recently documented by Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey in their book, The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America (2012).
In fact, the world’s most popular and recognizable image of Christ is a distinctly 19th-20th century American creation. It is true that versions of the “White Christ” appear in European art as early as the 4th century of the Christian era, but these images coexisted with other, nonwhite representations throughout European history. The popularity of the cult of the Black Madonna and Black Christ throughout Europe is evidence of the fact that the European ‘White Christs’ never acquired the authority and authenticity that the White Christ now has globally. This Christ and his authority are American phenomena. As a predominantly Protestant nation Early America rejected the imaging of Christ that characterized European Catholicism.
By the mid-19th century, however, in response to American expansion, splintering during the Civil War and subsequent reconstructing, “Whiteness” took on a new significance and a newly- empowered “White Jesus” rose to prominence as the sanctifying symbol of a new national unity and power. As Blum and Harvey observe:
“By wrapping itself with the alleged form of Jesus, whiteness gave itself a holy face … With Jesus as white, Americans could feel that sacred whiteness stretched back in time thousands of years and forward in sacred space to heaven and the second coming … The white Jesus promised a white past, a white present, and a future of white glory.”
As America rose to superpower status in the 20th century she became the world’s leading producer and global exporter of White Jesus imagery through film, art, American business, and Christian missions, and has thereby defined the world’s view of the Son of God. This globally recognizable Jesus is a totally American product. Indeed, he is an American. Warner Sallman’s iconic image of Jesus called Head of Christ (1941) became the most widely reproduced piece of artwork in world history and its depiction the most recognizable face of Jesus in the world.
Warner Sallman's Head of Christ
By the 1990s it had been printed over 500 million times and achieved global iconic status. With smooth white skin, long, flowing blondish-brown hair, long beard and blue eyes, this Nordic Christ consciously disguised any hint of Jesus’s Semitic, oriental origin—and departed from the older European depictions. It both shaped and was shaped by emerging American ideas of whiteness. The beloved White Jesus of today’s world was Made in America.
What, then, did Jesus actually look like? Despite the absence of a detailed description of Jesus’s physical appearance in the Gospels (though John the Revelator saw the risen Christ apparently with wooly hair and black feet, Rev. 1:14-15), there are non-biblical evidences that actually allow us to visualize the Son of God from Nazareth.
The first century Jewish writer Josephus (37-100 AD) penned the earliest non-biblical testimony of Jesus. He reportedly had access to official Roman records on which he based his information and in his work Halosis or the “Capture (of Jerusalem),” written around 72 A.D., Josephus discussed “the human form of Jesus and his wonderful works.” Unfortunately his texts have passed through Christian hands which altered them, removing offensive material. Fortunately, however, Biblical scholar Robert Eisler in a classic 1931 study of Josephus’ Testimony was able to reconstruct the unaltered testimony based on a newly-discovered Old Russian translation that preserved the original Greek text. According to Eisler’s reconstruction, the oldest non-Biblical description of Jesus read as follows:
“At that time also there appeared a certain man of magic power … if it be meet to call him a man, [whose name is Jesus], whom [certain] Greeks call a son of [a] God, but his disciples [call] the true prophet … he was a man of simple appearance, mature age, black-skinned (melagchrous), short growth, three cubits tall, hunchbacked, prognathous (lit. ‘with a long face’ [macroprosopos]), a long nose, eyebrows meeting above the nose … with scanty [curly] hair, but having a line in the middle of the head after the fashion of the Nazaraeans, with an undeveloped beard.”
This short, black-skinned, mature, hunchbacked Jesus with a unibrow, short curly hair and undeveloped beard bears no resemblance to the Jesus Christ taken for granted today by most of the Christian world: the tall, long haired, long bearded, white-skinned and blue eyed Son of God. Yet, this earliest textual record matches well the earliest iconographic evidence.
The earliest visual depiction of Jesus is a painting found in 1921 on a wall of the baptismal chamber of the house-church at Dura Europos, Syria and dated around 235 A.D. The Jesus that is “Healing the Paralytic Man” (Mark 2:1-12) is short and dark-skinned with a small curly afro.
Healing the Paralytic Man - Wall Mural at Dura Europos,
This description has now been supported by the new science of forensic anthropology. In 2002 British forensic scientists and Israeli archaeologists reconstructed what they believe is the most accurate image of Jesus based off of data obtained from the multi-disciplinary approach. In December 2002 Popular Science Magazine published a cover story on the findings which confirm that Jesus would have been short, around 5”1’, hair “short with tight curls,” a weather-beaten face “which would have made him appear older,” dark eyes and complexion: “he probably looked a great deal more like a dark-skinned Semite than Westerners are used to seeing,” they concluded. The textual, visual, and scientific evidence agrees, then: Jesus likely was a short, dark-skinned Semite with short curly hair and dark eyes.
Model of what Jesus probably looked like constructed by forensic Archaeologists
"the most accurate image of Jesus based off of data obtained from the multi-disciplinary approach"
That's my two bits worth. All I can guarantee you is Jesus didn't look anything like Warner Sallman's depiction of that golden haired matinee idol Megan Kelly probably has hanging on her bedroom wall.
As for Santa Claus - I'll give her her White Santa - with a little Roger Ailes meme
thrown in for good measure, maybe with the nasty old pervert's raw hamburger
genitals hung in her stocking with care.
She can hang that on her bedroom wall too.
