“Was Jesus A Black
Man?”
By
Messianic Pastor
Ariel Ehrmantrout, Temecula, California
Race is a social
construct, which is a Sociological way of saying that as a group, we
agree—either passively or aggressively that a person’s race
determines their characteristics and behavior. Noted Sociologist George
Fredrickson defines “Racism” as “The doctrine that a man’s
behavior is determined by stable, inherited characters deriving from
separate racial stocks and usually considered to stand to one
another in relations of superiority and inferiority. Racism
according to this definition is a matter of conscious belief and
ideology and can be distinguished from prejudice, which is a matter
of attitude or feeling, and discrimination, which is the description
of behavior.”
This definition goes a
long way to establishing a social construct that is a silent
under-current within the Church community today and has not changed
a great deal between the end of the Civil Rights Movement of the
1960’s and 2008.
The largest change is that
these “differences” in what Dr. Fredrickson calls “racial stocks”
are a “perceived” difference and are not really biological or
spiritual. The advent
of modern Christianity, having been helped along with the expansion
and conquest of the Roman Empire
went a great deal to spreading a racial perception of these same
perceived differences into the practice of the Roman State Religion
from approximately 70CE to 2008.
How is it that one
classification of race sees their Savior, the Holy One of Israel, as
a “Tall, White, Slightly
Effeminate Eastern European Man with long straight hair” and
that this social classification is passed from one generation to the
next without challenge or even much scholarly research on the
matter. No one to ask
“does this portrayal of Jesus Christ—create a latent message to
people from other racial backgrounds that says that when God took on
human flesh—he chose by an act of will to take on the Caucasian skin
tone of the Eastern Europeans that does not look like any people of
color?’’ It has been
said among scholars in this field that the social construction of
“blackness” is the
counter—or opposite of “whiteness” that has stemmed
all the way back to Noah’s son Cham—who was allegedly “cursed” for
his actions and that this biblical reference became the
justification for the slavery of black people throughout the
world. However Dr. D.M.
Goldenberg, a Princeton Scholar is quick to put this idea to rest
that it was Judaism’s faith that placed the stigma upon “blackness.” Dr.
Goldenberg contends that the Bible is not a racist document.
According to Goldenberg, such interpretations came from the
post-biblical writers of antiquity like “Philo” and “Origen” who
equated “blackness” with
“darkness of the human
soul.” This social
construct is not just mean, but it is intolerable and wicked in the
eyes of God who made all men.
Having suffered at the hands of Origen and Philo as a
Messianic Pastor, I am all too familiar about the damage that these
ancient post testamentary writers have caused for me in my own
life. Philo and Origen
were pagan gentiles, who had taken on the teachings of Jesus Christ;
except that they removed the Hebrew roots of the teachings in favor
of support for the Roman State. This separation had come
from the growing sect of Judaism called “Christianity” in the late
1st century period until the time of its cooptation as
the basis for the establishment of the Roman State Religion, which
we call “Roman Catholicism” today. In 325CE Constantine, the
Roman Emperor, made “Christianity” into its own separate
religion—eternally separating “Christianity” from its Jewish
foundations and from certain truths that are well known among Jewish
Scholars about the racial make up of the early Israelites. It is sad that I have to do
this study in the first place as a social commentary on the mindset
of the Church Universal, but this is something that God has called
me to complete and so I will be faithful to discharge the
information that he has given to me.
To understand the race of
Jesus it is important to start from the beginning and build a solid
case as we examine the evidence in the
Scriptures:
1. Adam was the Son of God and
He was made from what the Torah (Bible) describes as the “Dust of
the Earth;” a simple way to say this is that Adam, the prototype for
all human beings was
made from the “dirt” or “soil” of the Garden of Eden by the very
hand of God Himself.
The Garden of Eden was shear perfection and as soils go; and
Tree Biologists write of this ‘perfect’ soil in which they write
that it was “Rich loamy
soils are usually found in flat or low lying areas. The soil is a
blackish or black-brown color and is rich in organic matter
(humus).” Adam was made from this same “loamy soil” that was dark
brown or black soil that was nutrient rich in the Garden of Eden;
and since Eve was a genetic copy of her husband, made from his own
RNA and DNA, it should be safe for us to conclude that they were
both black and they gave birth to three sons that are listed in the
Torah (Bible) named Cain, Abel and
Seth.
2. Upon Cain’s
killing of Abel, Cain was given “a mark” that was visible to all as
a warning from God Himself not to kill Cain. This “mark”—say Biblical
Scholars was the loss of “Melatonin”—the key
ingredient to darkened skin color. Cain’s “mark” was a “whitening of his skin” on
his forehead—likened unto a birthmark which was “a very distinguishable white
mark”—because a black man, with black parents who had a dark
mark—could not be seen by anyone from far away—as the text
indicates, and thus would be a deterrent to no one. Cain’s killing of Abel
results in his being left out of Adam’s lineage as recorded in the
Torah (Bible). (This same
phenomenon is seen when Moses sister Miriam was turned “white” with
leprosy after slandering Moses Nubian Wife
Zipporah.)
3. Seth was Adam
and Eve’s 3rd child and the first child listed in the
lineage of Adam, and since Adam and Eve were black skinned—then Seth
too had black skin.
4. Seth was
given several children by the Lord, and one of them was named
“Lemech.” Lemech was
the Son of Seth—the Son of Adam—the Son of God. If Adam was black and Seth
was black—then Lemech was black as
well.
5. Lemech had a
son named Noah; Noah was indeed Black for the same reasons as set
forth above. It takes
at least 5 generations for black skin to change to what we would
call “white” today—and that the Middle
East refers to as “red.” Now counting backward then
from Noah to Adam—there were only 4 generations; thus Noah was a
Black man—the only one God saved and repopulated the earth
with.
6. Noah had only
one wife according to the Torah—and He had three sons, Shem, Cham
and Japheth. If Noach
and his “only” wife were black—then all three of these young sons of
Noah were black as well; which goes contrary to typical theological
theories of this. For instance, it has actually been taught over the
years that Noah and his wife may have been black, but that through
some miracle—they produced three sons. The first being Shem: the
Father of the Semitic peoples; and Cham: the Father of Black people;
and Japheth: the Father of all Asians. Now before I say how
ridiculous this is on its face, just let me point out that this
theory makes no accounting for Native Americans—our South American
Indian indigenous peoples.
Beside the fact that a black Mother and Father would not be
able to produce three completely different racial superstructures
from the RNA and DNA of the Mother and Father. We know that Cham was black
for certain—as was Shem and Japheth, but for proof, we have Cham
giving birth to his first son—whom He aptly names
“CUSH” which means
“Black.” Now you have
to know for sure that if little “CUSH” was pink or yellow
or brown—they would not have named him “BLACK!” This is not taught in most
Bible Schools, as their focus is on current racial constructs, but
to understand the current construct—we first have to know where and
why the “blackness” was erased from the Historical lineage of the
Biblically recorded peoples in the first place. Because the erasure of the
black lineage of the Biblical peoples allows for justification for
mistreatment of a “cursed race.” Now before you slough that
off too much, remember that it wasn’t until AFTER 1980 the Mormons
stopped teaching that “Black
people had tails;” and that this was a reasonable excuse to
exclude them from their flagship Seminary! And let us not forget the
brutal slave trade of African peoples in the United States that forged this
nation—and resulted in the bloodiest war in the history of the
United States of
America. Erasure creates a “shadow
people”—a people that are out of sight and out of mind—which is
exactly how the slaughter in Darfur and the HIV epidemic in Africa
continue year after year while the Corporate Christians and
Messianic Congregations do almost nothing to help. This is a brutally serious
problem.
7. As I said a
moment ago, Shem, Cham and Japheth were the products of their Mother
and Father—Noah, who had many sons and daughters; one of these was a
descendant of Shem named “Aram” who was black—and from
the lineage of Aram came “Terah”-- the father of
Abraham and Sarah—the Father and Mother of our Judaeo-Christian
Faiths.
8. Abraham
married within his family tribe—meaning that he married a woman who
shared the same Paternal Lineage but different Maternal
lineage. We know that
all the people spoken of in the Bible were black until this point
since following the “Great Flood” the entire world was populated
from the line of Noah and his 3 Sons and their wives—who were all
black. So Abraham’s
wife Sarah was also black—since they shared a common Father—or
paternal lineage.
Abraham had two wives, the first name Sarah and the other
named “Hagar the Egyptian.”
Biblical Scholars state that the racial construct “Egyptian”
is referring to the descendants from Sub-Saharan Africa that settled
in the North of Africa—and they are commonly referred to as “black”
in both scholarly journals and Biblical writings. Abraham was given two sons,
the first with Hagar and the second with Sarah. After Sarah gave birth to
“Isaac” and Hagar –the Egyptian [which again is Bible code for
“black”] had Abrahams eldest son “Ishmael” they left the camp of
Abraham—and Sarah died.
Abraham remarried a woman named “Keturah” who was black and
gave several sons to Abraham—one of whom was called “Midian” which
is just another name for the CUSHITES—the Black tribes of Cham—the
son of Noah. He had
another son with Keturah names “SHEBA” which is the Kingdom found
later in the Bible as “Ethiopia”—thus, Abraham, the Father of the
faith shared with Christianity and Judaism would be considered a
“Black Man” by our standards today.
9. Abraham went
after his nephew Lot who had been
captured; He had a personal Army of 318 men. Abraham was a fierce warrior
because he defeated 5 eastern kings which no one else could defeat
to get Lot back. This is a tie from Abraham
back to his great nephew NIMROD the son of CUSH—who became a great
“warrior nation” according to the Torah (the Bible)—a descendant of
Cham, who was a descendant of Noah, who was a descendant of Lemech,
who was a descendant of Seth, the son of Adam—the Son of God.
10. Isaac was a
child of the union of Abraham and Sarah and thus He was black. When swearing his servant to
find a wife for his son Abraham made his servant Eliezer swear a
covenant oath that he would not pick a woman for Isaac’s wife from
any other tribal line than the line from which Abraham emerged. Eliezer returns to Abraham’s
original homeland and finds a young maiden named “Rebecca.” Isaac’s wife Rebecca came
from the land of Abraham and was a family
member of Abraham’s tribal line—which meant that she was black as
well. Isaac and Rebecca
produced two sons named Esau and Jacob. Esau was blessed and became
a “mighty hunter”—once again, Biblical code language for the tie
back to NIMROD the descendant of CUSH.
11. Then Jacob
had 12 sons who are our forefathers in the House of Judah. One of these sons was named
Joseph—who is an archetype of Jesus who would come later. Joseph was first sold to the
MIDIANITES; why?
Because if you look closely, Judah had already talked
his fellow brothers out of killing the young man—so they would not
have sold him to a tribe they FOREKNEW would kill young Joseph. Joseph was then sold into
the Egyptian Potiphers house and finally ended up in Pharaoh’s
prison.
12. Joseph was
eventually freed and became second only to Pharaoh himself; Joseph
was certainly black—or he would not have fit in so well among the
Egyptian Royal Society.
He married the Egyptian Pharaohs daughter and had two sons
name Ephraim and Manasseh; who were both what we would identify as
black today in western culture. Further, this establishes the Tribes
of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh as 1/6th of the tribes of
Israel that were
black.
13. Ephraim and
Manasseh were adopted into the lineage of their Grandfather
Jacob—the Patriarch of the Jewish people. Joseph was reunited with his
brothers and they lived out their days together in
Egypt.
14. During
slavery in Egypt, two members of the
Tribe of Levi were married and had three children, Miriam, Aaron and
the baby Moses. Moses
Left Egypt and traveled south in Africa where He married Zipporah the Daughter
of Yitro, the Ethiopian and had a son named Gershom. Moses was black—as Biblical
Scholars agree that the Egyptians of this time period were indeed
black skinned. Moses
could not have been raised in an all black palace—if he were white;
this is impossibility, as he would have been socially recognized as
a different racial makeup than that of the rest of the
Egyptians. So, we can
add the Tribe of Levi to the 1/6th Tribes of Israel and
now we have ¼ of Israel’s original twelve tribes were black; which
is critical for our understanding of Jesus and his racial
construct.
15.
Additionally, Aaron the first High Priest of Israel had 4
sons—two of which died.
Aarons 3rd Son—Eliezar married and had a son named
“PINCHUS” or in English Bibles it says “Phineas.” Phineas was given a
permanent priesthood in the Kingdom of Israel and his lineage is
recorded as the descendants of the “Sons of Zadok.” Phineas means “Black –or
dark skinned.” So if
Phineas was black, then Aaron his Grandfather was black as well and
so was His Uncle Moses and His Aunt
Miriam.
16. Since Moses,
Aaron and Miriam were all black and were from the tribe of Levi—this
would indicate that the Tribe of Levi—the Priestly Tribe-- was a
majority black tribe; and that the Kohen Priesthood of Aarons
descendants was black—thus all the Zadokian Priesthood was or would
be considered black by today’s standards; as intermarriage was a
requirement of the Priesthood of Israel and was strictly controlled
within Israeli society.
17. In Psalm 7
King David writes a Psalm that says He sang to the Lord concerning
CUSH the BENJAMITE. This means that
CUSH—“BLACK” was from the
tribe of Benjamin—indicating that ALL Benjamites were of African
Descent and were black; and this includes King Saul, and the Apostle
Paul!! Adding Benjamin
to our initial statistics of the 12 Tribes of Israel, this brings us
to 4 of the 12 were certainly Black and would be considered so by
today’s standards. We
started at 1/6th of the 12—went to 1/4th of
the 12 and now we are 1/3rd of the 12 Tribes seating
their lineage as black—going all the way back to
Adam.
18. David
married BATHSHEBA in English—or “BAT SHEBA” in Hebrew—which
means THE DAUGHTER OF SHEBA.
Sheba is the Kingdom of Ethiopia and Bat Sheba had been
married to a Hittite General of King David called “Uriah,” and it is
widely known among Scholars that study race and the Bible that the
“Hittites” were a black people in Israel. King David was from the
Tribe of Judah; his descendant grandfather and the beginner of the
lineage of “Judah” did not marry two
women from the Children of Israel, but He married 2 Canaanite
Women. The “Canaanites”
were a black people who lived in the land of
Israel. Additionally, we know that
Joseph was black—and since both Joseph and Judah shared a common
father, once again, the lineage of the tribe of Judah as black can be
safely made. King
David, the great grandson of Judah, was described in
the Bible as “RUDDY” or “RED;” so was he black? To understand this one only
need look as far as this year’s Presidential election in the
United
States and ask yourself would we
classify Senator Barack Obama as “RED” or “Ruddy” today? Of course we would—yet
Senator Obama is a black man—even as King David was a black
man. So if David looked
like Barack Obama and the daughter of Sheba was from Ethiopia—then their son
King Solomon was also Black—as was his Son King Rehoboam. So, we also now know of 5 of
the 12 Tribes of Israel that were black tribes by today’s standards
in the west. Joseph:
Ephraim and Manasseh, Levi, Benjamin, Judah or 42% of the
Tribes of Israel were and would be considered black by today’s
standards.
19. I could go
on and on—naming Nehemiah—who Jewish history clearly identifies as
black and many others--but for the sake of time, fast forwarding to
the New Testament; remember that the High Priesthood was heavily
guarded and intermarriage among the Men of Levi was not
allowed. Zechariah was
the rightful High Priest of Israel who became the Father of John the
Baptist—who too then should have been the High Priest. This means that according to
Luke’s account—Zechariah and Elizabeth were black Kohenite Priests,
Descendants of Zadok, who had a son named John—who would have also
been black by today’s standards. This young man would grow to
be commonly known as the Prophet “John the Baptist” the cousin of
Jesus.
20. Miriam, or
“Mary” as she is commonly known, the Mother of Jesus, has her
lineage published in Luke Chapter 3, while Matthews accounting of
Jesus lineage is kept through Joseph his step-Father. Mary had a grandfather named
“LEVI”—and a cousin named “ELIZABETH” who was married to Zachariah
the Priest; and since they were both black—then it is not too hard
to draw the causation that so too was the young maiden Mary—the
Mother of Jesus. Now,
Let’s just assume for the sake of argument that between King
David—and Joseph-- Joseph from the Tribe of Judah had lost ALL his
skin pigmentation [which you
and I know is ridiculous] but indulge me for the sake of the
illustration; and let’s say Joseph was white and Mary was black—what
color would we call Jesus today? YEP! JESUS CHRIST—YAHUSHUA YHWH
was not the tall skinny white guy with the Van Dyke hairstyle and a
British accent; Jesus—God in the flesh—was born, lived, died and was
resurrected as a Black man.
How does that affect your faith? There is no possible way
that Miriam—Mary—Jesus Mother was a black woman and that Jesus is
reminiscent of the European depictions of the dominant social
class. Jesus –the
Orthodox first century Jewish Rabbi was black and He should be
taught as the Black Jewish Rabbi that He was—the Son of
God!
21. Further,
Jesus picked a Disciple named “PHILIP”—which is a Greek rendering of
the Hebrew name “PINCHUS” or “PHINEAS;” so what color was he? Black. He had a twin brother named
NATHANIEL and a cousin named BATHOLOMEW—who were also black. John, the “Apostle Jesus loved” was
black—as He was descended from Levi and the “Sons of Zadok.” So of Jesus original 12
apostles—4 of the 12 or 1/4th of all the elders He
personally chose Himself were black skinned beyond a shadow of a
doubt. “Simon” in Acts
13 was called “Niger”—so that is yet
another example of the fact that Jesus was Black; this Simon is the
same “Simon” who is the younger brother of Jesus that is listed in
Matthew 13:55.
Additionally, this means that of the elders of the Early
Congregation in Jerusalem—we can safely assume that James the
Leader (Jesus Brother), Simon Peter (known as “Simon the
Canaanite”) John (The Levite Priest), Simon called
‘Niger” and Judah (Jesus Brothers), Phillip and
Nathaniel (the Twins) the Apostle Paul (From the tribe
of Benjamin-referred to as an “Egyptian: in Acts 21”), Barnabas
(the Levite); or 9 of the original Apostles or 77% of the
original 12 Disciples were black that we can
prove.
So what does all of this mean? It means that GOD HATES
RACISM and we passively sit by and allow it to continue as a silent
undercurrent in both the Churches and Synagogues (Both Traditional
and Messianic) throughout the world today. The social construct that is
race is a divider—not a unifier. We share the same DNA and
RNA with African peoples all over the world and yet there are some
people in ministry that go a whole lifetime building “their”
ministries—passing right by the Black Church right down the street
and never stop and even offer to buy that Beloved Ministers lunch;
why is that? Are we
foolish enough to think that if a little Messianic Pastor in
Southern California can figure this out simply by cross-referencing
and looking up the origin of the Hebrew and Greek names that are
recorded for us in the Bible—that God is going to somehow look the
other way as we continue to practice social racism covered under the
guise of religion and “brotherly love through exclusion?” The “Sin of the Nicholatians
in this last day is “repression of the laity.” Repression of the
Laity happens in each Church that is not completely integrated like
the integrated colors found in “Joseph’s Tallit (Prayer Shawl) of
many colors.” For 2000
years we have expected Black people throughout the world to except a
White Savior—and to adorn their homes and Churches in honor of that
fact—sending the hideous message that Black people and really—all
people of color—do not look like the King of Kings and the Lord of
Lords. This plants a
subliminal latent message in the minds of Black people everywhere
that perhaps they are made in God’s image—but since He is constantly
portrayed as “white” that they just may not be “like Him” –meaning
not part of the Dominant White Hegemony that has been brutalizing
the people of Africa for centuries while the dominant hegemonic
social class enriches themselves at the expense of the proud Black
men and women throughout the world. It is the ministry of the
Prophets of the Lord to decry a lack of Justice for the poor; and
this is all this paper is designed to do. You can agree or disagree,
but as long as I live, I will believe that Jesus Christ, Yahushua
ben Yosef, the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Rabbi looked a great deal more
like T.D. Jakes than He looks like me; and this thought gives me
great solace in these last days.
God loves all man kind; and His desire is for us to make and
impact on the lives of the Children in our communities so that they
can know what their heritage is. African heritage is clearly
the peoples of ISRAEL—God’s chosen
people. They have come
from a heritage of the Great Kings of Benjamin and
Judah, and the
Royal lineage of Egypt, with the wisest of
all men to have ever lived being a shining example of the incredible
relationship that God has always had with the African peoples. Our precious black people
come from the direct blood lineage of the Kings and Priesthood of
Israel—and the Sons of Zadok.
They come from a direct descendancy to Jesus Christ, the one
and only Son of God—the 2nd Adam—Adam Kadmon—the totally
restored Adam with complete and total dominion in the earth. The Kingdom, the Priesthood
of Israel and the Royal Lineage of the King of Kings belong to
African people throughout the world and to all Christians and Jews
throughout the world.
If this article and its revelations about the race of Adam,
Moses, Aaron, Jesus, the Apostle Paul and others bothers you—then
perhaps you need to check your heart for the seeds of hate that have
been planted. Men are
Men—Women are Woman and races are social labels that divide us; this
is a thought that has been widely known in Israel for many years
now—and now it is time for it to be widely known in Christianity and
Messianic Judaism and the Hebrew Roots of Christianity
Movement.
Ezekiel 3:17 "Son of man, I have made you a
watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give
them warning from Me. 18 When I say to a wicked man, 'You will
surely die,' and you do not warn him or speak out to dissuade him
from his evil ways in order to save his life, that wicked man will
die for his sin, and I will hold you accountable for his
blood. 19 But if you do warn the wicked man and he does not turn
from his wickedness or from his evil ways, he will die for his sin;
but you will have saved yourself. 20 "Again, when a righteous
man turns from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a
stumbling block before him, he will die. Since you did not warn him,
he will die for his sin. The righteous things he did will not be
remembered, and I will hold you accountable for his blood. 21
But if you do warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin,
he will surely live because he took warning, and you
will have saved yourself."
May we all continue to grow in the grace and mercy of the
Lord Jesus Christ—Amen!
