EVERY PEOPLE PRELIMS 15/3/03 10:08 AM Page 3 GARY'S G4 GARY'S G4: GARY'S JOBS:8455 - IVP - NEW STUDIES IN BIBLICAL THEOLOGY 14 Series editor: D. A. Carson From every people and nation A BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF RACE J. Daniel Hays A IV P DOWNERS GROVE, ILLINOIS 60515 InterVarsity Press, USA P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426, USA World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com Email: [email protected] APOLLOS (an imprint of Inter-Varsity Press, England) Norton Street, Nottingham NG7 3HR, England Website: www.ivpbooks.com Email: [email protected] © J. Daniel Hays 2003 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of InterVarsity Press. InterVarsity Press®, USA, is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/ USA®, a student movement active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept., InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at <www.intervarsity.org>. Inter-Varsity Press, England, is closely linked with the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship, a student movement connecting Christian Unions throughout Great Britain, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. Website: www.uccf.org.uk All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. Distributed in the U.K. by permission of Hodder and Stoughton Ltd. All rights reserved. “NIV” is a registered trademark of International Bible Society. UK trademark number 1448790. USA ISBN 978-0-8308-2616-2 UK ISBN 978-0-85111-290-9 Set in Monotype Times New Roman Typeset in Great Britain by Servis Filmsetting Ltd Printed in the United States of America ∞ InterVarsity Press is committed to protecting the environment and to the responsible use of natural resources. As a member of Green Press Initiative we use recycled paper whenever possible. To learn more about the Green Press Initiative, visit <www.greenpressinitiative.org>. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. P 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 Y 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 NSBT From Every p4.indd 4 6/4/08 9:04:42 AM EVERY PEOPLE PRELIMS 15/3/03 10:08 AM Page 5 GARY'S G4 GARY'S G4: GARY'S JOBS:8455 - IVP - Contents Series preface 9 Author’s preface 11 Abbreviations 14 1 Introduction 17 2 The ethnic make-up of the Old Testament world 25 Introduction 25 Ethnicity 28 The ‘Asiatics’: Israel and her ‘Semitic’ cousins 30 The Cushites 34 The Egyptians 39 The Indo-Europeans (Philistines, Hittites) 42 Conclusions 45 3Creation, blessing, and race (Genesis 1–12) 47 Introduction 47 Created in the image of God 47 The so-called ‘curse of Ham’ (Genesis 9:18–27) 51 The Table of Nations (Genesis 10) 56 Blessing for all the families of the world (Genesis 12) 61 Conclusions 62 4 Israel, the Torah, foreigners, and intermarriage 65 Introduction 65 The formation of Israel 65 The sojourner and the foreigner 69 Moses and intermarriage 70 Phinehas the priest 81 Conclusions 85 5 EVERY PEOPLE PRELIMS 15/3/03 10:08 AM Page 6 GARY'S G4 GARY'S G4: GARY'S JOBS:8455 - IVP - CONTENTS 5 Israel and Black Africa during the monarchy 87 Introduction 87 Cushite soldiers in the ANE prior to the Israelite monarchy 88 Soldiers and generals: Cushites in the early monarchy 90 Enemies and allies: Cush, Assyria, and Judah 96 Postscript: Cushite soldiers in the ANE after the monarchy 101 Conclusions 102 6 Racial issues in the prophets 105 Introduction 105 Judgment and blessing in Isaiah 105 Amos: Are you the same to me as Cushites? 116 The prophetic voice in Psalms 119 Zephaniah and the name Cushi 121 Ebed-Melech the Cushite 130 Conclusions 138 7 The ethnic make-up of the New Testament world 141 Introduction 141 The Greco-Roman world (Greeks and Barbarians) 142 The Jewish Diaspora 144 Black Africa (Cush, Meroe, Ethiopia) 146 North Africa (Berbers, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans) 150 Anatolia (Celts and others) 155 Conclusions 156 8 Race and the theology of Luke-Acts 157 Introduction 157 The other gospels 157 Luke: Abraham and the blessing for all nations 161 The Good Samaritan 166 The Ethiopian eunuch 172 Simeon called Niger 177 Conclusions 178 9 Race, Pauline theology, and the Apocalypse 181 Introduction 181 Galatians: Neither Jew nor Greek 182 6 EVERY PEOPLE PRELIMS 15/3/03 10:08 AM Page 7 GARY'S G4 GARY'S G4: GARY'S JOBS:8455 - IVP - CONTENTS Colossians: Neither Barbarian nor Scythian 187 Ephesians: Unity in the Church 190 Paul and the nations 192 Revelation: From every tribe, language, people, and nation 193 Conclusions 199 10 Conclusions and applications 201 Synthesizing conclusions 201 Final thoughts 206 Bibliography 207 Index of modern authors 231 Index of Scripture references 236 Index of ancient sources 241 7 EVERY PEOPLE PRELIMS 15/3/03 10:08 AM Page 8 GARY'S G4 GARY'S G4: GARY'S JOBS:8455 - IVP - To my parents, Jim and Carolyn Hays, who taught me from an early age that all people are created equal; To the Black and Hispanic students of Central Junior High, Alamogordo, NM, 1966–69, who taught me the basics – not only the problems but also possible solutions – of the race issue in North America; And to my students at Ouachita Baptist University. May their gener- ation be the one that truly overcomes racial division in the North American Church. EVERY PEOPLE PRELIMS 15/3/03 10:08 AM Page 9 GARY'S G4 GARY'S G4: GARY'S JOBS:8455 - IVP - Series preface New Studies in Biblical Theology is a series of monographs that address key issues in the discipline of biblical theology.Contributions to the series focus on one or more of three areas: 1. the nature and status of biblical theology, including its relations with other disci- plines (e.g. historical theology, exegesis, systematic theology, histori- cal criticism, narrative theology); 2. the articulation and exposition of the structure of thought of a particular biblical writer or corpus; and 3. the delineation of a biblical theme across all or part of the bib- lical corpora. Above all, these monographs are creative attempts to help think- ing Christians understand their Bibles better. The series aims simul- taneously to instruct and to edify, to interact with the current literature, and to point the way ahead. In God’s universe, mind and heart should not be divorced: in this series we will try not to separate what God has joined together. While the notes interact with the best of the scholarly literature, the text is uncluttered with untransliterated Greek and Hebrew, and tries to avoid too much technical jargon. The volumes are written within the frame- work of confessional evangelicalism, but there is always an attempt at thoughtful engagement with the sweep of the relevant literature. This volume combines fine technical scholarship on complex matters of history and race with a prophetic call to Christians to abjure racism. On the one hand, it traces out much of what the Bible says about the diversity of races and cultures, against the background of Ancient Near Eastern social history (its treatment of the ‘curse of Ham’ is particularly penetrating and convincing); on the other, it exposes some of the glib, unbiblical, and frankly immoral stances that not only characterize a fair bit of Western scholarship, but con- tinue to surface in our attitudes and relationships. Dr J. Daniel Hays is able simultaneously to make us long for the new heaven and the new earth, when men and women from every tongue and tribe and people 9 EVERY PEOPLE PRELIMS 15/3/03 10:08 AM Page 10 GARY'S G4 GARY'S G4: GARY'S JOBS:8455 - IVP SERIES PREFACE and nation will gather around the One who sits on the throne and around the Lamb, and to cause us to blush with shame when we recognize afresh that the church of Jesus Christ is to be already an outpost of that consummated kingdom in this fallen world. This book deserves the widest circulation and the most thoughtful reading, for it corrects erroneous scholarship while calling Christians to reform sinful attitudes. If the book is sometimes intense, it is because the problems it addresses are not trivial. D. A. Carson Trinity Evangelical Divinity School 10 EVERY PEOPLE PRELIMS 15/3/03 10:08 AM Page 11 GARY'S G4 GARY'S G4: GARY'S JOBS:8455 - IVP Author’s preface My pilgrimage along the road of racial strife and racial reconciliation has been an interesting and educational one. My father was an Air Force Chaplain, so I grew up on numerous military bases around the country.In the 1960s, military bases were the most integrated commu- nities in all of America. Air Force families were segregated, but we were segregated by the rank of our fathers, and not by race.