Are there any references to race of skin color of people in the old testament?

Question

correction: race OR skin color

This is NOT a question about the origins of mankind or evolution.

Answer 1

I haven't seen anything referencing race or skin color, however, it does specify regions. Many Old Testament figures lived in what would now be Ethiopia, Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia...that area.

Answer 2

Is there any reference to race or skin color in the Old Testament? No, but I believe there are many references to different nationalities and ethnic groups. Goliath was a Philistine, Ahab was an evil King of the north etc.

Many people have interpreted Genesis to mean that Noah's sons became the fathers of different races after the flood. If I were more inclined,and not at work at the moment, I could find some references for you.

Search straightdope.com, Cecil Adams has some good sources.

Answer 3

“All men living today belong to a single species, Homo sapiens, and are derived from a common stock. . . . Biological differences between human beings are due to differences in hereditary constitution and to the influence of the environment on this genetic potential. In most cases, those differences are due to the interaction of these two sets of factors. . . . Differences between individuals within a race or within a population are often greater than the average differences between races or populations.”—An international body of scientists convened by UNESCO, quoted in Statement on Race (New York, 1972, third ed.), Ashley Montagu, pp. 149, 150.

“A race is simply one of the partially isolated gene pools into which the human species came to be divided during and following its early geographical spread. Roughly one race has developed on each of the five major continental areas of the earth. . . . Man did indeed diverge genetically during this phase of history and we can measure and study the results of this divergence in what remains today of the old geographical races. As we would expect, divergence appears to be correlated with the degree of isolation. . . . When race formation took place on the continents, with the bottlenecking of thousands of populations in isolated gene pools all over the world, the gene-frequency differences we now see were established. . . . The paradox which faces us is that each group of humans appears to be externally different yet underneath these differences there is fundamental similarity.” (Heredity and Human Life, New York, 1963, H. L. Carson, pp. 151, 154, 162, 163) (Thus, early in human history, when a group of people were isolated from others and married within the group, certain distinctive combinations of genetic traits were emphasized in their offspring.)

Answer 4

There arent any specific references.


Aside to Jane J. Your tiny little mind had made itself evident in your ignorant answer. If you were able to read, you would know that every human being has been traced back to one set of ancestors through mitochondrial DNA. In addition, every human being carries the genes of every race in them. It is not a matter of evolution, it is a matter of adaptation, that is, which genes are turned on, which genes are turned off.
Creationists may be borderline retarded, but you are way over the line. Wake up!

Answer 5

Only by inference, not directly. For example, Moses married an Ethiopian (Cushite) woman. We assume she was black. Mostly the Bible speaks of different races, but skin color was not a particular issue.

Answer 6

According to Creationists, everyone looked exactly the same in around old testament time and some how dispersed in only a few thousand years and hyper'EVOLVED' to look dramatically different from each other.

Anyone who really believes this is borderline retarded.

Answer 7

it gives their location and people in that location(the Middle East) have dark skin in hair. but it doesn't flat out say "Jesus was a black man" or nothin' like that.