The human race, as constituted and diversely propagated, is natural. Racism, as a rebellious corruption of nature, is unnatural. The first two sections therefore address these ideas. Biblical and contemporary terminology pertaining to race and ethnicity is then surveyed followed by a brief presentation of the Bible’s voice against racism. Legitimate and illegitimate divisions of the human race are then noted.

Topic Definition

The term “race” has been ambiguously employed since the inception of the word. It is employed only four times (in the biological rather than competitive sense) in the ESV—each referring to God’s covenant people. Racism entails heredity-based hatred “without cause” (Matt 5:22) of image bearers of God.

Abstract

“Race and Racism in the Bible” culls the Scriptures for instruction for righteous and abundant life amid the community of ethnically diverse beings that comprise the human race. The essay first addresses notions of race and then biblical ideas about justice.

The human race, as constituted and diversely propagated, is natural. Racism, as a rebellious corruption of nature, is unnatural. The first two sections therefore address these ideas. Biblical and contemporary terminology pertaining to race and ethnicity is then surveyed followed by a brief presentation of the Bible’s voice against racism. Legitimate and illegitimate divisions of the human race are then noted.

In the second half, the biblical injunction to “do justice” is examined through the lens of both Old and New Testament terms meaning justice and the concept’s relationship to God’s law. Because racism categorically opposes biblical instruction regarding impartiality in judgment as a concept intrinsic to justice, biblical commands concerning impartiality are surveyed next. Concluding reflections are preceded by a brief reflection on notions of social justice.

Race and Racism in the Bible

The fruit of systematic theology is the application of torah—God’s instruction for abundant life—in the contemporary setting. While race and racism may not reasonably rise to the level of a systematic theological locus, the contemporary setting certainly warrants addressing these matters with wisdom from God. Prayerful, dove-like innocence coupled with serpent-contesting wisdom in discourse with such matters is to be commended. People of good will and faith disagree in this discussion, but they should do so with grace, humility, moral and intellectual integrity, and mutual dignity.

The Natural: Race

Human Origin and Propagation

The Bible’s opening chapter heralds God’s proclamation,

“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” (Gen 1:26).

The race of beings designed and created to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it,” uniquely imaging the universe’s Creator is humanity. From this “one” human seed the sovereign Creator “made . . . every nation [ethnos] of mankind to live on all the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26). From the offspring of this “Adam’s” (adam, man; Gen 1:26–27; 2:7) descendant Noah “the nations [hagowyim] spread abroad on the earth after the flood” (Gen 10:32). The human family, then, is a single race of created beings descendent from a singular progenitor.[1]

This Hebrew term goy may be translated “nation” or “people,” indicating families or groups of human beings of relatively close genealogical descent and/or corporate union (cf. mishpachah, family; Gen 10:5, 32; 12:3 where the “clans of the sons of Noah” are the same as the “families [synonymous with “nations”] of the earth” that will be blessed in Abraham’s zera, offspring; Gen 22:18; 28:14; cf. Gal 3:16). Similarly, the term zera is translated “seed,” “offspring,” “descendant,” or “posterity” yet is translated “race” only once in Ezra 9:2 in reference to Yahweh’s “holy” covenant people (ESV, NASB, NIV; cf. Zech 9:6 NASB). A synonym, am, is translated “people” or “nation” in reference to a group of people related by heredity and/or locality (Deut 7:6; 14:2; Esther 10:3).

The New Testament’s comparative term, translated “nation” or “Gentile” (i.e., any non-Jewish human; cf. Hellénis, “Greek”), is ethnos (Matt 28:19; Acts 17:26; cf. Rom 1:16–17)—the adjectival form being ethnikos, from which derive the English terms “ethnic” and “ethnicity.” The term is translated “race” only twice in the New Testament (Acts 7:19; 1 Peter 2:9; and is interpolated but not in the original text of Rom 9:5). This distinction between Jew and Gentile is the only differentiation of the human race of any consequence made by the New Testament. Consistent with the whole of Scripture’s impartial redemptive message, this consequence portends a distinction of a people’s covenant relation to God rather than one of heredity.

Words Have Meaning . . . Usually

As language transitions over time, sometimes words contract a detrimental rather than an informative denotation. The word “race”—even where it is rendered in English translations of the Bible—is unhelpfully understood when employed in terms of bifurcation of the homogeneous race of God’s image bearers. While the generations of Adam (and Noah) have been compelled by their Creator to disperse his image all over the globe (Gen 1:28; 9:1, 7; 11:8–9), those commonly descended beings remain a single race—beautifully diversified, as designed, into a multitudinous tapestry of mishpachowt—families (Rev 5:9; 7:9). No metamorphosis sundered human nature; no breach that warrants the hamas (“violence”; Gen 6:11, 13) humans have leveled against one another since Genesis.

Etymologically, the term “race” originates from mid-sixteenth century Middle French where it was used to refer to “people of common descent.”[2] In contemporary parlance, “race” has assumed a rather ambiguous range of meanings—so ambiguous, in fact, that the Encyclopædia Britannica concludes, “Thus, race has never in the history of its use had a precise meaning” and “an increasing number of scholars and other educated people now believe that the concept of race has outlived its usefulness.”[3]

The Unnatural: Racism

Biblically unwarranted, volitional hatred of God’s image bearers—for that is what racism is—is not unpardonable sin; but like all sin, this soul-necrotizing cancer cannot be divinely pardoned absent repentance and forsaking. Whether a person can even be simultaneously Christian and racist is certainly a debate not to be dismissed cavalierly. For as the apostle John warns, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20; cf. 3:9–11; James 2:4).[4] Whether considering genealogical kin or simply another human being, no category other than sin can be reckoned for refusing the divine edict and humanity-flourishing privilege to love one another.

No biblical, biological, or experiential warrant exists to regard as ontologically superior or inferior any particular lump of clay from among humanity’s whole. Any illusion of anthropological superiority is countered by precept after precept in Scripture.[5]

• No human exists whose nature is not descendent from Adam (Gen 10:32; Acts 17:26; Rom 5:12–14) and subsequently Noah (Gen 10:32–11:1, 8–9; cf. Deut 32:8).
• Subsequent to the Fall, God reckons “all flesh” indivisibly corrupt (Gen 6:12–13, 17; cf. Jer 25:29–33).
• God has a single undifferentiated torah—“instruction for [all] mankind” (2 Sam 7:19; though the majority simply suppress that torah; John 3:16–21, 36; Matt 7:12–14; Rom 1:18ff).
• In Christ—the last Adam (1 Cor 15:45; cf. Rom 5:15–19)—“there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:26–29) such that “there is no distinction” (Rom 3:22; 10:12; cf. Acts 15:9; Rom 2:11; Eph 6:9; Joel 2:28, 32; Acts 2:17, 21).
• All humanity is “one kind” or race of being (Gen 1:26–28; 5:3; 11:1; 1 Cor 15:39).

This cursory sampling of scriptural precept exposes racism not only for its folly but also for its ungodliness. Ever since Genesis 3, however, humanity has lived in rebellion to God’s good order for human coexistence to the degree that polarized hatred of neighbor appears to be the normal—though unnatural—predisposition of mankind. The good news is that the grace of Jesus Christ will eventually turn that world upside down (Acts 17:6–7; Rev 21:1–8).

Devolution to Racism

God created the human race ex enos pan ethnos—“from one, every ethnicity” (Acts 17:26; cf. Gen 1:26–28; 10:1–11:6). One should deduce from this revelatory truth that any notion of intra-racial superiority is fundamentally delusional.

Division of the Race. The Bible is not without making divisions among the human race. In fact, ever since the Fall (Gen 3), humanity’s Creator has made a distinction between faithful and faithless humanity (see Gen 3:15; Exod 8:23; 11:7). At God’s institution of the Abrahamic covenant, Jew and Gentile distinctions were prescribed (Gen 17:1–14; Exod 34:10; Deut 4:32–40; 7:3–14a; 12:29–32; 18:9; cf. Gal 3:16; 6:14–16; Neh 13:23–27). Again, this division of humanity is covenantal rather than ethnic, making a distinction between the holy/clean and the common/unclean, faithful humanity and faithless humanity (Lev 10:10; 11:44, 45, 47; 20:25; Ezek 22:26; 44:15–23). God’s redemptive plan never entailed ethnic discrimination (Gen 12:1–3; Ezek 16:3, 45; Acts 10:14, 28, 34–43). From the beginning, its purpose was inclusive of the chosen faithful from among all Noah’s offspring—i.e., all humanity, not merely Hebrew humanity (Gen 3:15; 18:18–19; Deut 4:5–7; 7:6–12; cf. Acts 26:23; Isa 56:3–8; cf. 14:1; Zech 8:22–23; Micah 4:1–5; John 10:16; 11:51–52; Gal 3; Eph 2:12–14; Rev 5:9; 7:9).

“International” conflict in the Old Testament rarely, if ever, appears to be the consequence of race or ethnicity—that is, simply on the basis of distinct heredity. Further, holy writ never sanctions aggression on the basis of mere heredity. Disputes and/or divisions were usually over matters such as territorial control (Exod 1:8–11; Num 20:14–21; 21:21–26; 22:1–6; Judges 11:12–28; cf. Gen 15:13–16; Deut 2:19–23; Lev 18:24–28; 20:22–26), religion or religious custom (Gen 20:11; 34:14ff; Exod 23:30–33; 34:12–16; Deut 23:2–8; Josh 23:3–13; cf. 1 Kings 18:17–40) and even vocation or livelihood (Gen 43:32; 46:33–34; Exod 8:23–26). Distinction must also be made between feudal conflict and heredity-based international conflict.[6]

In considering the biblical record of peoples oppressing other peoples, tribal sociology and “international” suzerain-vassal economies of state must not be conflated with racial discrimination (see for example Judges 3:7–8; 12–14; 4:1–3; 6:1–6; 10:6–9; 13:1; 2 Sam 8:2–6; 1 Kings 4:21, 24; 2 Kings 17:1–5; 23:31–35; Luke 20:22–25; 23:2). While much more may be said here, neither in the Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, or Roman Empires was ethnic distinction ever a basis for exclusion from service even in the highest offices of government (Gen 41:12, 14, 38–44; Exod 2:5–10; Dan 1; Neh 1:10–2:8; Esther 2:19–21; 5:9, 13; 6:10; 7:3–10; 8:1–8, 15–17; 9:4; 10:2–3; Acts 22:26–29; Luke 3:1).[7]

Social Darwinism. Fast-forwarding to the second millennium, certain influential social engineers disagreed with the supposition that if all mankind derived from a singular adam, hereditary superiority or inferiority is de facto eliminated. Although it might not be said that Darwinian evolution and social Darwinism are indeed responsible for the genesis of modern racism, one may at least affirm that these theories contributed fundamentally because they propagated the notion of disparate evolutionary tracks for distinct zera or ethnos—families/ethnicities. This pseudo-science was employed not only as justification for the African slave trade, but also as foundational for the “final solution” of Nazi anti-Semitism and other eugenics.

Despite the fact that their notions of racial disparity derived significantly from Tacitus’ early ethnography Germania (ca. AD 100)—in which he characterizes the Germanic (i.e., Aryan) tribes of the Roman Empire as “noble savages”—the notion of racial disparity and consequent superiority was advanced by Darwin and other social engineers like Arthur Gobineau, whose Essay on the Inequality of the Races earned him the title “The Father of European Racism.” Gobineau surmised,

We must, of course, acknowledge that Adam is the ancestor of the white race. The scriptures are evidently meant to be so understood, for the generations deriving from him are certainly white. This being admitted, there is nothing to show that, in the view of the first compilers of the Adamite genealogies, those outside the white race were counted as part of the species at all. Not a word is said about the yellow races, and it is only an arbitrary interpretation of the text that makes us regard the patriarch Ham as black.[8]

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