The Bible states that all people are part of one human race, and the nations (ethnic groups) were initially divided by their languages (Genesis 11), rather than being genetically distinct original creations. Therefore, we are all genetically one kind of creature since we are all descendants of Adam. Race theory was created as a justification for colonialism and slavery by Europeans in the 1400s. Our cultural and ethnic differences are social constructs that can be highlighted by but are not exclusively linked to our genetic differences. A child born in one culture can be raised in another culture and adopt that language and culture without significant interference from their genetic background. Dust, dirt, soil, and sand come in various colors, including red, brown, white, yellow, and black. The Bible says that Adam (as well as the animals) was made from dirt (Gen 2:7-20). When a person dies, their body returns to the earth (Gen 3:19). Having different colors is a natural part of the capabilities of the material that we are made of, so God clearly has no problem with diversity, as many species of plants and animals exhibit variations. There is no segregation in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Biblical History and view:
Paul says in Acts 17:26 (NLT) “From one man, he [God] created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries”.
The word “nation” is translated from the Greek word “ethnos” (ἔθνος). This means that when the Bible says “nations,” it is referring to ethnic groups rather than nation-states. When referring to nation-states, it usually translates as “kingdoms”. One can see the distinction in Jesus’ prophecy about the future conflicts in Matt 24:7 when he says “nation against nation”, and “kingdom against kingdom”. Ethnicities exist because people groups who lived in specific regions had their lifestyles and genes shaped by their environment through factors such as food and nutrients, sun exposure, climate, and sexual selection, which can be physically expressed as unique phenotypical traits through the system of epigenetics. Reproductive Isolation is what causes each group to look unique because they interbred with people who spoke the same language. In other words, according to the Bible, cultural distinction came before genetic distinction and not the other way around.
These people groups spread out and become isolated in specific regions. When small groups breed, they reproduce more individuals with similar traits. After multiple generations of selective breeding within these groups, they end up with unique traits that were necessary for their specific environment. These traits distinguished each group from other groups in other regions with different environmental features. All humans are capable of making healthy offspring with one another, which wouldn’t be possible if we were truly different kinds (genera) of creatures. What appears to be different “races” is just the result of people groups expressing common genes within a group. Humans all have the same genome, and various traits are activated or suppressed in other individuals.
Historical origins of race:
The idea that we are different races comes from prejudicial classifications like Caucasian, Mongolian, Malayan, American, and Ethiopian. These classifications originated with the 18th-century German scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. The race theory idea ended up being used as “confirmation” for those who believed that they were a part of a superior race to “scientifically” justify looking down on people of other “races”. Race theory’s main purpose was to perpetuate stereotypes and continue oppression against non-European ethnic groups around the world.
Darwinism embraces this ideology as well:
“At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes, as Professor Schaaffhausen has remarked (18. ‘Anthropological Review,’ April 1867, p. 236.), will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla.” – The Descent of Man, 1871 (p.105)
Darwin actually believed it would advance humanity to wipe out all non-Caucasian races. His cousin Francis Galton, who coined the phrase “nature versus nurture”, was a proponent of social Darwinism, eugenics, and scientific racism. The “science” from this ideology reinforced negative stereotypes about minorities and paved the way for the justification of racist social policies like the sterilization and extermination of certain people groups to purify the nation (sounds like a certain German dictator we all know).
The seed of the concept can be traced back even further to the ancient Greeks. Aristotle believed that climate and geography influenced people’s intellectual capabilities and their value to the world. He said that people from hot climates, such as the Persians, were intelligent but passive, and people from cold temperatures in northern and western Europe, like the Barbarians, were spirited but unintelligent. He then concluded that the Greeks were the superior group of people in the world because they possessed the perfect combination of intelligence and will from their region in the Mediterranean. Alexander the Great was a student of Aristotle and carried this ideology with him when conquering Persia and parts of what is now India. The Romans, who defined what is modern Europe through conquest, had adopted many Greek cultural ideas, so it seems reasonable that the seed Aristotle planted grew into the Eurocentric racial model.
Christianity and Racism:
Some Christians have adopted race-based theologies because of these ideas promoted by naturalism. Some believe that God cursed Noah’s son Ham (father of African nations) and therefore black people are cursed, but that is not biblical. According to Genesis, God made the first couple (Adam and Eve), and all humans descend from them. (Rom 5:12-17, Acts 17:26) In Genesis 9:25, Noah cursed Ham’s son Canaan, not Ham himself. God already blessed Noah and his sons (Gen 9:1), so Noah couldn’t curse any of them. No one can curse what God has already blessed. Balaam found this out when trying to curse the Israelites (Num 23:8). Only Canaan (father of the Canaanites), Ham’s oldest son, was cursed. Canaan didn’t even go to Africa; he went to the Levant and founded the land of Canaan, the promised land for the Israelites. The descendants of Canaan’s younger brothers, Mizraim (who gave rise to Egypt and Libya), Put (who gave rise to West African nations), and Cush (who gave rise to Ethiopia and Nubia), mainly migrated to Africa (except Nimrod, who founded Babylon), and they were not cursed. In fact, Canaan was cursed to be subjected to his brothers, Mizraim, Put, and Cush (Gen 9:25), as well as the descendants of Shem and Japheth, so the curse was only on Canaan. Therefore, Hamitic theory is not in the Bible.
Others suggest the “mark of Cain” (Gen 4:8-16) was dark skin and therefore a curse on dark skin people; again, that is nonsense. The mark is a unique mark on Cain’s body, similar to a scar, so it was not genetic. Lamach, Cain’s descendant, believed he would attain his mark and the protection that came with it by murdering other people in Gen 4:19-24, so if it were genetic, then why did he try to get it through actions? Some believe that only Europeans descended from Adam, while non-European people descended from a pre-Adamic race or from humans and apes that interbred. Others have counter theories like the Nation of Islam’s story of Yaqub (Jacob), written by Wallace Fard Muhammad, which says God made only black and brown people, but Jacob (from Genesis) invented white people through genetic experiments. This is based on Jacob’s crossbreeding of Laban’s flocks in Genesis 30 – 31. They further say that later, Moses tried to civilize them (white people) on Mt Sinai and failed, so he tried to blow them up with dynamite. This was their explanation of God’s fiery presence on Mt Sinai when Moses received the covenant and the Ten Commandments.
Interracial Marriage:
All of this is engineered to dehumanize and justify hatred of other people. It also influences false ideologies that suggest it is a sin to intermarry, even though Gentiles don’t have marriage restrictions between each other in the Bible. Meanwhile, marriage restrictions on Jews were based on religion more than ethnic background. Tamar, Rahab (both Canaanites), and Ruth (Moabite) all married into the nation of Israel and are in the lineage of Jesus (Matt ch. 1). Ever notice, that Caleb’s father was a Kenizzite (Num 32:12, Joshua 14:14), which means he is a Canaanite (Gen 15:18-21), yet God used him to fight for Israel against the Canaanites. Interracial marriage is not a sin in the Bible because the Bible doesn’t teach the concept of races. Esther from the book of Esther married the Persian King Xerxes.
In Deut 23:3-8 there are restrictions on certain groups like Moabites and Ammonites have to wait for 10 generations to intermarry with Israel because their use of Midianites prostitutes to tempt Israel into sin and the curse, and Egypt and Edom have to wait for three generations since they did treat Israel well at one point and only sinned against them later with slavery and war. Notice these did not ban marriage outright, but made them wait because of certain things these nations did to Israel. Also, this restriction only applied to Gentile men from these nations marrying Jewish women, not the other way around. The Israelites were allowed to take captive women in war (Deut 21:10-14), mainly from non-Canaanite nations (Deut 20:10-18), because Canaanites were off-limits (Deut 7:3). However, there were exemptions made based on religion and spirituality.
In the case of marrying Rahab the prostitute from Jericho, she helped the Israelite spies escape Jericho, and this allowed her to integrate with them due to the Abrahamic blessing from Genesis 12:1-3. God told Abraham He would “bless those who bless him and curse those who curse him”. Rahab was a blessing to the Israelites; in return, she received mercy on herself and her family and was allowed to intermarry with the nation of Israel. Uriah the Hittite was one of David’s best men (1 Chron 2:41) and he was married to Bathsheba who would later become a widow, then David’s wife, and mother of Solomon (2 Sam ch. 11). So the main thing is they can marry Gentiles as long as those Gentiles become proselytes (converts to Judaism), which is what Uriah, Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth had done. Deuteronomy 17:17 states that kings should not accumulate too many wives, especially Gentiles, because they will turn their hearts to idolatry, which is what happened with Solomon and is why Israel later began to stray from God. This law pertains to political marriages used to form alliances with foreign kings who worship idols. Therefore, there is a specific reason for this law, which is why it is targeted at kings.
Science and Genetics:
There is only one skin tone pigment (not multiple) that functions like a value slider determining the lightness and darkness of skin based on the amount of melanin in one’s body. The correlation between the geographic distributions of melanin and ultraviolet exposure influences this mechanism. Skin’s reaction to sun exposure is based on vitamin D levels. Limited sun means less vitamin D, so people in climates with less sun need less melanin to get more vitamin D. Still, those exposed to more sun need more melanin to protect themselves from overexposure. Here are some other examples of how the environment influences epigenetics in natural selection. The average height can be affected by climate because of the square-cube law and thermodynamics. Tall people tend to lose body heat more easily, while shorter people retain it. Nose shape is influenced by how climate and temperature can affect the respiratory system. Narrow noses can warm the air as it enters because of the decrease in the volume of the nostrils compared to wider noses. Warming the air allows it to condense and moisturize the nostrils, which helps prevent dry nostrils and reduces runny noses in the winter; meanwhile, people with broad noses have to produce more mucus. The mechanics here is a product of Charles’ law, which shows a correlation between temperature and pressure.
A more specific example is that people who live near the poles, such as the Inuit, have mostly meat-based diets because their climate isn’t suited for farming. They have larger livers and bladders that enable them to process meat by converting its protein into energy without requiring carbohydrates (gluconeogenesis). Additionally, they receive extra vitamins from consuming raw fish and organ meat. Meanwhile, most other people would get protein poisoning or scurvy. Nevertheless, they are still human and can breed with other people. The environment determines the nutrients the body receives, and the body responds by expressing specific genes to maximize health under those conditions. Humans, like all other creatures, are naturally made to be adaptive, and this would naturally create distinctions within a genus of creatures.
This is all powered by Epicgenetics. Epigenetics works like this: every cell in our bodies, no matter what kind, has the same DNA. However, different types of cells (such as eye vs. liver cells) are distinct because certain coding tags that are switched off in one kind of cell are switched on in another. Natural selection primarily occurs through a mechanism that utilizes genes already embedded in DNA, which are switched on or off via epigenetic tags. Epigenetics is the software that changes parameters, but the hardware is the genome, and that doesn’t change much except through minor mutations (caused by failures) or transduction from viruses.
Ethnicity, in simplest terms, is defined by regional, ancestral, and cultural heritage. Skin tones vary within each ethnic group, with African and Asian people having the most extensive range of skin tones because they have the least amount of reproductive isolation. Meanwhile, Europeans have mostly recessive traits, such as blonde or ginger hair and variations in eye color, because they exhibit high reproductive isolation. The old narrative of separate, distinct human races doesn’t align with the findings of the Human Genome Project, which shows that we are all the same species, despite favoring specific trait expression in different regions due to reproductive isolation.
The division of the nations at Babel in Genesis 11 was by language, not genetics. However, the reverse of that is Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit came. This was when multiple groups of Jews from different countries, who spoke other languages, heard the gospel supernaturally all at once from local Judeans who spoke in tongues by the Spirit. The Messianic Kingdom of God is intended to reunite God’s people into one multiethnic family, which is why Pentecost is seen as a reversal of the Tower of Babel. Humans were once united against God, so He divided their languages; now, since Jesus has come, He is to reunite them under His Kingdom.
We had no control over who our parents and ancestors were or how our genetics shape us, so taking pride in it doesn’t make much sense. We can’t take pride in something that we didn’t create, only God can take pride in our biological traits because he made reality and designed each one of us in our mother’s wombs (Jer 1:5). Our blood and skin only represent the ancestry of sexually selected individuals we are born into, but that shouldn’t supersede the new creation that we became when we were born again (John 3:1-8). We can celebrate our individual cultural and family heritage. Still, we should also strive to reshape and redefine it in light of the Kingdom of God’s culture, which becomes a part of us when we receive God’s Spirit and become His children. Pride is the foundation of racism, ethnicism, tribalism, and nationalism, and pride prevents repentance. As a follower of Christ the focus should be on being citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20-21), and ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). For believers, as children of God, neither our ethnicity, sex, nor anything else has made us right with God and gave us the power to overcome sin. We can fight racism, sexism, and bigotry by calling them out and judging the actions and ideologies behind them, without submitting to and idolizing an identity in the appearance of our flesh. When we follow the Holy Spirit’s teaching, we will not yield to the lust of the flesh (Gal 5:16). Sowing into the flesh reaps corruption, but sowing into the Spirit reaps eternal life (Gal 6:7-8). We are not our bodies; we simply possess our bodies, and when we die, we lose them, but at the resurrection, we will gain new eternal ones (for believers).
Resource:
More on Aristotle’s ethnic theories in the book Race:
A History Beyond Black and White, by Marc Aronson, p37
A biblical look at races
Correlation between ultraviolet radiation and skin tone
Race and the Bible
Inuits and Eating Meat only
About Epigenetics:
Article – What is Epigenetics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMT6oRYgkTk