Aleethia!

Race is certainly a “hot button” in our society. With the recent election of Barack Obama as our President though, many feel we have overcome “racism” at last.

And so we turn to the Bible to see what it says about race, and where these different races come from.

To begin with, let me say that my conclusion may seem shocking to some. This is something I’ve been thinking about off and on for some time now and attempting to answer this question forced me to sit down and study it out to see if my thoughts were, in fact, Biblical. I believe they were.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:26-27

Here in the opening chapter of Genesis the Bible asserts that all of mankind was created in the image and likeness of the Creator himself. Chapter 2 tells the story of the creation of one man, Adam, and one woman. In chapter 3 we are told the woman’s name.

The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. – Genesis 3:20

Scripture is claiming a common ancestry for all mankind. In scientific circles this is called, monogenesis (monogenism). Many secular, evolutionary scientists believe this as well. Darwin himself believed this. The opposing view would be polygenism, the belief that the races evolved distinctly. Of course, the Bible is claiming creation, not evolution, as the origin of the species. The truth of mongenesis is a necessary truth to affirm in a discussion of “race” because believing otherwise results in the view that the races are actually distinct species.

The New Testament affirms this truth. Speaking to the philosophers in Athens, Paul makes this claim.

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, – Acts 17:26

Returning to the Old Testament and following the Biblical timeline, we can move to Genesis 9 for the continuing story of the human race. Following the flood, the only humans on the planet were Noah and his family.

And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

“Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.

Genesis 9:5-6

This is further affirmation of the claim of Genesis 1, that all humanity is united as image bearers of their creator.

Truth #1 –  all humans are united in Adam, through Noah. We share common ancestry, making us all one big family.

Shortly after the flood we are given the geneology of Noah’s descendants, and the story of the Tower of Babel. Some have tried to use this story of Noah’s three sons to account for the origins of three races: Caucasian, Negroid, Mongoloid. But looking at chapter 10, one thing I noticed was the bookends of the first and last verses.

These are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood. – Genesis 10:1

These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, y and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood. – Genesis 10:32

It seems that the unity of the various tribes and clans is the main point of the passage. Their unity in Noah is the focus here.

Chapter 11 tells the story of the Tower of Babel, where God scattered mankind across the face of the earth. Up till this point all people spoke the same language and lived in the same locality. But here God comes down and confuses the language so that different clans/tribes speak different languages. With the confusion, they begin to spread out across the globe. As they do so, they marry within the family group. As this happens, certain traits that the family possesses are reinforced (skin tone, hair color, eye color, head shape, etc.). This easily accounts for the differences we notice in physical appearance between people groups, but should these people groups be called “races” or not?

How, exactly, is race defined? When man start to use this term/definition to distinguish between people groups?

In 1684, a man by the name of Francois Bernier published a book entitled “New Division of Earth by the Different Species or Races Which Inhabit It.” In this book he used the term “race” to distinguish between people groups based on physical appearance.

in 1859 Charles Darwin published his influential work “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life.” Following this work, he published “The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex” in 1871. In this book he concluded that the various races were actually sub-species. He saw distinct differences in nature between the races and strongly suggested that the European (or Caucasian) race was superior to the others.

In addition to suggesting the superiority of particular “races”, he also claimed both intellectual, creative, and physical superiority of men over women.

Through such works, “race” came to be defined as a natural biological category. Generally, when we use the word “race’ we are referring to differences of: biology (skin color being primary, but also, hair, skull shape, etc.), culture, nationality, and language. At times it has even been suggested by some scientists that the different “races” have different mental capacities.

Yet modern biology would put the lie to this definition. Genetic research has found a variation of only 0.1% in single base-pair DNA between any two random humans globally. 85% of the variations occur within any given population, 7% of the variations occur between populations on the same continent, and only 8% of the variations occur between populations on differing continents. In other words, the difference between any two human beings is 0.1% genetically. If the genetic make up of any given population is averaged, the differences between that group and any other are less than 8% of the 0.1%. Biologically, we’re all the same.

This research has led organizations, such as the American Anthropological Association to conclude that

These facts render any attempt to establish lines of division among biological populations both arbitrary and subjective.

“race” as it is understood in the United States of America was a social mechanism invented during the 18th century to refer to those populations brought together in colonial America

Racial myths bear no relationship to the reality of human capabilities or behavior. Scientists today find that reliance on such folk beliefs about human differences in research has led to countless errors.

It is a basic tenet of anthropological knowledge that all normal human beings have the capacity to learn any cultural behavior. ¹

and

differentiating species into biologically defined “races” has proven meaningless and unscientific as a way of explaining variation (whether in intelligence or other traits) ²

Truth #2 – “Race” doesn’t exist!

If “race” does not exist, if there is nothing intrinsically meaningful about skin color, if all people are descended from Adam and Eve and God has made us from one blood (Acts 17:26), then a worldview and public policy predicated upon “race” as an objective reality–on skin color as the primary determinant of personal and group identity–is insane. It opts for an illusion over what God says is true–we are one human family. ³

Differences between people groups do exist though. So how should we speak of them. I agree with many scientists and pastors who suggest we should use the term “Ethnicity” rather than “Race”.

Ethnicity includes factors such as: language, nationality, culture, and religion.

This is how Scripture categorizes people.

…every tribe and people and language and nation… – Revelation 13:7

Ethnicity is more fluid that “race” because a person can change their language, nationality, culture, and religion. In fact, once a person becomes a Christian, most of that does change.

Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all. – Colossians 3:11

Unity with Christ breaks every barrier between men except that of language. Our citizenship is now in the heavenly Kingdom, our culture is now that of Christ, and our religion consists of the worship of the one true God. Only language separates us…and languages can be learned!

Truth #3 – As Christians, we have a unity in Christ that breaks down even the barriers of ethnicity.

All humans are the same. We are all fallen creatures in need of a Savior. There is no difference between us based on any physical, biological factor, the only differences between us are easily overcome. Let’s get to work on the Great Commission and engage in cross cultural missions, taking the truth and grace of Christ to all peoples!

For further reading.

Many Ethnicities, One Race

Enlightened Racism

The Bible and Race