THE NEGRO IN HOLY
WRIT'
By
BENIAMIN TUCKER TANNER.
PUBUSHEJU AT
t.31 PINE STFEET, PHIL, VI tJUI 1MIIA, PMNNA.
190U
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
CUSHITE: ETHIOPIAN: NEGRO:
" 'What is truth?' said jesting Pilate, and would not stay
for an answer. Certainly there be that delight in giddiness,
and count it a bondage to fix a belief And though
the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there
remain certain discouraging with which are of the same
veins, though there be not so much blood in them as was in
those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and
labor which men take in finding out of truth, nor again that
when it is found, it imposeth upon men's thoughts, that
doth bring error in favor, but a natural though corrupt
love of the error itself. One of the later school of the
Grecians examineth the matter, and is at a stand to think
what should be in it that men should love errors when
neither they make for pleasure . . . nor for advan¬
tage .... but for the error sake."
—Francis, Lord Bacon.
We know the Cushim
The Negro in Holy Writ? are there; as is also the
Ethiopian. Is the
Negro? Not in name, it must be admitted. The
nearest approach to it in name is the mention in the
New Testament by Luke (Acts 13:1) of "Symeon
that was called Niger." Prof. P. C. Barker, speak¬
ing, as it were, for the commentators of to-day,
4
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
would have this epithet to be utterly inexplicable.
His words are, "The epithet attached to Symeon
(Niger) marks something interesting, though we
cannot say certainly what." Not so the older school
of Biblical exegetes. Adam Clark says, "Simeon,
the Black, either because of his complexion or his
hair." The latest editor of Dr. Clark's work, Daniel
Curry, D. D., is kind enough to say, "He may have
been an African." Dr. John Gill says,
Symeon "appears to be a Jew who by the Romans
was called Niger; very likely from the blackness of
his complexion, for that word signifies black, and
so the Ethiopic version interprets it." Thomas
Coke, says, "it is very probable that
he was called Niger, as being of a tawny or black
complexion, as the Africans generally are." But
what shall we say of the following, taken from
Sayce's Early History of the Hebrews (Ch. iii,
p. 215) : "The authority of Moses as disputed be¬
cause he had married an Ethopian wife. It is the
only passage in the Pentateuch where this 'Cushite'
wife is alluded to The objection to the
Ethiopian wife came but ill from Aaron, whose
grandson bore the Egyptian name of Phin-has,
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
5
Pi-n-hasi the 'negro.' " (Sayce's Early History of
Hebrews.)
Brushing these solitary exceptions aside, if indeed
they be exceptions, we are still made to ask, "Is the
Negro mentioned in Holy Writ?" Not by name,,
for the sake of argument, we admit. But what is in
a name? has long been asked. The kernel of the
question is: ''Is the Negro in Holy Writ in fact?'"
We say "Yesand to make good our answer, is the
object of this discussion.
and, How shall we know him?'
Who is the Nego? It is William Stanley Jevort
who says, "As most terms;
have more than one meaning . . . it is absolutely
necessary that precise meaning of the term em¬
ployed should be made." So here in our present dis¬
cussion. The one and only thing we assume of him
who is to us as a client is, that he is human; that he
is a man. Men, however, are of many varie¬
ties or races. Cuvier, in conformity with that
which is plainly taught in Scripture, says there are
three varieties or races, Huxley says four, Blumen-
bach says five, Pickering says eleven, Bary de St.
Vincent says fifteen, and Desmoulins, as many aj^
.6
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
-sixteen. To which one of these does the Negro be¬
long? Without any strongly directed interpellation,
the word 'Negro' itself designates: negro, niger or
black; he is of the black variety or race; the variety
of the crisped or woolly hair. Upon this all are
agreed ; the lexicographer in his study, no more than
the "philosopher" on the curb stone. Says the for¬
mer—and let one speak for all, and that one the
Century; "Negro, a blackman, specifically one of the
race of men characterized by the black skin and hair
of wholly or crisp nature." The color of the skin!
The textur^ of the hair! These are the accepted
marks of our client, the marks which have always
both named and characterized him for whose iden¬
tity we now seek. His color and his hair, we say,
and not his modernly discovered "projection of the
visage in advance of the forehead," nor the "pro¬
longation of the upper and lower jaws." No account
is to be taken of such minute details; for even if they
really exist, they are to be placed with the class of
scientific facts of which the writers of the Bible (nor
the average people of the world, both ancient and
modern), took no notice. The race marks that com¬
mand and receive attention are the black skin and
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
7
crisp or woolly hair, to which the Century refers,
with such an evident smack of the lips. Black, re¬
member, not dusky, not brown. "Black," best illus¬
trated in the blackness of the night, or the blackness
of the clouds in a storm. Nor was this reference to
that, that might possibly characterize the color of an
individual belonging to a colored or even brown
race; for among such races there may here and there
be found an individual who really may be black,
but very rarely. In such a case as this, such individ¬
ual could not be said to represent his race, nor could
his race be spoken of as he himself could be, as a
black or negro race; and for the reason that the
color of this particular one, is not more the color of
the other members of this colored or brown race,
than vermillion is of the commonest and palest red.
Let him who doubts, have stand before him a brown
person and a person who is black—genuinely black
—and if blest with truest vision, he will doubt no
more. The negro race is the race of the black skin,
the race of the crisped or woolly hair; and while here
and there individual members of it may be found
whose color is of the brownish sort, men where there
may be no admixture of alien blood, as a race he is
8
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
black, even as is the night, even as are the thunder
clouds; while his hair is as the wool of the sheep.
These, then, are the marks as we have already said
that characterize this people, and have from the
earliest ages. At least, these it was that made them
possible of easy identification. The question be¬
fore us is, "Is he mentioned, or even referred to, in
Holy Writ?"
Such a question as this will take the popular
world by surprise—the popular, if not the critical,
for it has always taken it for granted that next to
Shem came Ham in the annals of the Bible- Ham
of whom came Cush, of whom came the Ethiopian,
of whom came the Negro. According to latest criti¬
cism, however, all this is erroneous; and for once,
at least, the voice of the people is not the voice of
God.
Speaking for the critical world, that most erudite
of scholars, William Hayes Ward of the Independ¬
ent, New York, says, "Those who question whether
the Negro race is Hamitic, I suppose do not feel
bound to go to the Bible for their ethnology. They
do not regard the Biblical genealogies as historical,
but rather ethnological and, in part, mythical. I
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
9
do not suppose they believe that the flood, if there
was any destroyed the human race entirely; and
they use the word, Hamitic, just as we use the word
Shemitic, not to denote a lineage which comes from
a historical character named Ham or Shem, but to
indicate a family of race or language. That is, they
would hold that the Biblical account makes no men¬
tion of Negroes any more than it does of Chinese,
and that they are outside of the account given in the
Bible. If they believe in a local flood, they would
believe that Negroes and Chinese represent people
that were not affected by the flood, and if they re¬
garded the story of the creation of Adam as his¬
torical, and that Adam was the father of the human
race, they would hold that they were descended
equally from Adam, but not from any historical
Noah. It is not in their mind at all to deny the equal
humanity of all the races, but to discuss simply the
ethnological relations. They seem to have reason
to believe that certain Hamitic races were white,
settled in North Africa, and they would believe that
the compilers of the ethnology of Genesis X, did not
know the Negro races south of North Africa any
more than they knew the races of India or China
east of Elam."
IO THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
Reading this, as we do, we feel to take the Bereans
for an example and enquire "whether these things
are so."
is the question. In
Does Holy Writ Make Men- the mention this
tion of the Negro? Book makes of
Ham, and especially
of the Ethiopians, all the world, as we have said,
had thought so, until within these last days, when,
for the first time, it is denied. What answer is to be
made to such denial ? Of one thing we are sure, the
Bible is full of words concerning Ham, and of Cush,
and of Ethiopia, both the country and the people.
In our English translation, according to James
Strong, the word, Ham, is given seventeen times;
the word, Cush, eight times; the word, Ethopia,
(Ethiopian, Ethiopians) no less than forty or more
times. The question of moment is, "Is the Negro
ever intended ?" or in other words, "Does the Ethi¬
opia" mentioned ever mean Negroland, and
does the word Ethiopian or Ethiopians ever
mean Negro or Negroes? We have already
given an affirmative reply, let us proceed, if
possible, to make it good. The historic Ethi^
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
opian is one of the most ancient of men. To quote
the authors who make mention of him in times pre¬
historic ,if, as Cicero would have it, Herodotus is to
be considered the "father of history," would itself
constitute a booklet of no mean size. Homer, quite
a thousand years before Christ, wrote of him. But
says this same school of critics, Homer's Ethi¬
opians are mythical. Our answer is: If these are
mythical, how of Troy and the Trojans? And
what comes of the saying attributed to Cardinal
Manning: Securus judicatus orbis terrarum; or of
the still older maxim, "Falsus in uno, falsus in
omnibus?" "But Homer, though a poet," writes
Tayler Lewis, "speaks here in the most matter of
fact style. He believes in Oceanus as he believes in
the Peneus and the Eurotas. * * * * Homer's
poetry makes him none the less a good witness for
the most ancient geographical ideas," and ethnolog¬
ical, we should say, as well. (Tayler Lewis in
Lange's Comment, Gen. 2:4—25. p. 218/ But not
Homer alone speaks of the Ethiopians. After him
Hesiod in the eighth century, B. C., (Fragment
.304) Aeschylus in the sixth century B. C.; and Eu¬
ripides (Fragment 239) in the fifth century B. C.;
12
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
and Herodotus in the fourth; and Callimachus in
the third—all of whom have more or less to say of
the man of the burnt face; this man of the crisp
hair.
Was the Ethiopian of the writers just mentioned,
a Negro? The one writer of all, who largely de¬
cides this question, the historian of "veracious
imagination," as George Elliot would say, is Hero¬
dotus, concerning whom the word of old Romance
literature is in place:
"For I witness you, and say in this place,
That he was a trew catholike person."
"If you were asked," says Caspar Rene Gregory,
"about a man's fitness for a certain place, to run a
locomotive, a ship, or a newspaper, you inquire
about his various attainments. On the other side of
the water they ask about the 'philosophy of the
man,' as it is called. That does not mean what he
knows about Kant, or Hegel or Huxley or Fichte,
or about the soul. It means his general way of
looking at things. Not simply, Is he a scholar? but,
Is he a good man, a square man, to be relied upon?
And so we want to know something about the
character of these witnesses." Precisely so, with
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
13
the case in hand—with our witness, Herodotus,
upon whose testimony we do not hesitate to pro¬
nounce the ancient Ethiopians negroes.
What of the man? and what of his
Herodotus, writings? Herodotus was a Greek.
The place of his birth was Halicar-
nassus, a Doric Colony in Caria: "Herodotus of
Halicarnassus," as he subscribes himself in the
proem of his history—the country also of Diony-
sius, the Historian and Heraclitus, the poet. He
was born in the fifth century, B. C.; the year 484
is the one commonly agreed upon. This century
was probably the most brilliant of Greek literature,
presenting as it does the names of Socrates and
Plato, Anaxagoras and Xenophon, Aristides the
Just and Aristippus, with lesser lights not a few.
Referring to a visit Herodotus paid the city Ath¬
ens, it has been said by Canon Rawlinson: "The
city was at this time the center of intellectual life,
and could boast a galaxy of talent such as has
rarely been gathered together either before or
since. The stately Pericles, his clever rival, Thucy-
dides, the son of Melesias, the fascinating Aspasia,
the eloquent Antiphon, the scientific musician Dar-
14
mon, the divine Phidias, Protagoras, the subtle dis¬
putant; Zeno, the inventor of logic; the jovial yet
bitter Cratinus, the gay Crates, Euripides, the mas¬
ter of pathos, Sophocles, the most classic even of
the ancients, formed a combination of which even
Athens might be proud, and which must have
charmed the literary aspirant."
As might be expected, his history was written in
Greek, the Ionic dialect, intermixed, we are told,
with Attic and Doric forms. By common consent
it is such Greek as only a master could pen. Re¬
ferring to it, Lucian, satirist and humorist, yet the
most appreciative of writers, says, "O, that I were
in a condition to resemble Herodotus, if only in
some measure! I by no means say in all his gifts,
but only in some single point; as, for instance,
the beauty of his language, or its harmony, or the
natural and peculiar grace of the Ionic dialect, or
his fulness of thought, or by whatever name those
thousand beauties are called which to the despair
of his imitators are united in him." In hearty
agreement with this is what Rawlinson says as to
his style: "Master of a form of language, peculiarly-
sweet and possessed of a delicate ear, he gives his
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
15
sentences the most agreeable flow, is never abrupt,
never too diffuse, much less wearisome, and being
himself simple, honest and somewhat quaint, he de¬
lights us by combining with this melody of sound
simple, clear and fresh thoughts, perspicuously ex¬
pressed, often accompanied by happy terms of
his phrase, and always manifestly the spontaneous
growth of his own fresh and upsophisticated mind."
As to the spirit of his history, Leonard Schmitz
says: "The whole work is pervaded by a pro¬
foundly religious idea, which distinguishes Hero¬
dotus from all the other Greek historians. This
idea is the strong belief in a divine power existing
apart from and indepedent of man and nature,
which assigns to every being its sphere. This
sphere no one is allowed to transgress without dis¬
turbing the order which has existed from the be¬
ginning, in the moral world no less than in the
physical; and by disturbing this order man brings
about his own destruction. This divine power is,
in the opinion of Herodotus, the cause of all ex¬
ternal events, although he does not deny the free
activity of man, or establish a blind law of fate or
necessity. The divine power with him is rather
i6
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
the manifestation of eternal justice, which keeps all
things within a proper equilibrium, assigns to each
being its path, and keeps it within its bounds.
Where it punishes overweening haughtiness .and
insolence, it assumes the character of the divine
Nemesis, and no where in history had Nemesis
overtaken and chastized the offender more ob¬
viously than in the contest between Greece and
Asia. * * * * Herodotus everywhere shows
the most profound reverence for everything which
he conceives as divine, and rarely ventures to ex¬
press an opinion on what he considers a sacred or
religious mystery, though now and then he cannot
refrain from expressing a doubt in regard to the
correctness of the popular belief of his countrymen
generally owing to the influence which the Egyp¬
tian priests had exercised on his mind; but in gen¬
eral his good sense and sagacity were too strong
to allow him to be misled by vulgar notions and
errors. Third and last as to the substance of
Herodotus' history, says the same Schmitz whom
we have just quoted: "Herodotus is a real model
of truthfulness and accuracy; and the more those
countries of which he speaks have been explored
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
by modern travellers, the more firmly has his au¬
thority been established. There is scarcely a trav¬
eler that goes to Egypt .... that does not
bring back a number of facts which place the ac¬
curacy of the account of Herodotus in the most bril¬
liant light." On the same score speaks William
Beloe in his preface to the translation he gives:
"But it is well known that this work, which has
withstood that war of time by which nearly all the
writings by contemporary authors have been swept
into oblivion, has in recent times been assailed, as
the Bible has been, for presumed errors, and by
some critics characterized as altogether unreliable
in regard to facts. And as the Bible has been
vindicated in the discoveries of Champollion and
others in Egypt, it may be regarded as the most
striking fact in the literary history of the present
time that Herodotus, on the very points which
have been most questioned, has been perfectly sus¬
tained in those wonderful discoveries which
Layard and Rawlinson have made in Nineveh and
Babylon; so that now the volume before us may
claim the entire re-establishment of its character
for the most rigid accuracy." With the following
i8
the negro in holy writ.
tersely put sentences we conclude: "Few enlight¬
ened tourists there are who can visit Egypt, Greece
and the regions of the East, without being struck
by the accuracy, with the industry, with the
patience of Herodotus. To record all the facts sub¬
stantiated by travelers, illustrated by artists, atid
simplified by learned research, would be almost im¬
possible; so abundant, so rich has this golden mine
been found, that the more its native treasures are
explored, the more valuable do they appear."
So much then for the personnel of our witness,
and so much for the style, spirit and substance of
what he wrote. Speaking after the manner of the
Courts, we ask: "What is it we hope to prove by
this witness, bearing upon the case in trial, to-wit,
The Negro in Holy Writ?"
Two things; and first, that the Ethiopians of
Herodotus were Negroes; and, second, that the
^translators of the Septuagent Scriptures could find
nb word so befitting the ancient Cushim, their
physique and character as the word, Ethiopian, the
word of Herodotus; and, as with them, so of Greek
writers in general.
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
I9
Our answer is,. "Yes;"
Were the Ethiopians of and for proof we offer
Herodotus Negroes? the three following rea¬
sons ; and even more,,
where, according both to Scripture and the de¬
mands of Civil Law, two would suffice to make
good our position.
The first of the three reasons is: The Ethi¬
opians of Herodotus occupied the portion of Africa
uniformly regarded as the Negroes' habitat. Negro-
land by latest authority is defined as follows: "The
Negro race is generally regarded as comprehend¬
ing the native inhabitants of Soudan, Senegambia,
and the regions southwest of the vicinity of the
Equator and the Great Lakes." The Century.
"Soudan, (Sudan) the fertile zone stretching
from the Sahara towards the Equator nearly across
the continent is usually regarded as the true home
of the African negro." Prof. A. H. Keane.
. "From the shores of the Mediterranean to about
the latitude of twenty degrees north, the popula¬
tion of Africa consists largely of tribes not origi¬
nally natives of the soil, but of Arabs and Turks
planted by conquest, with a considerable number of
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
Jews, the children of dispersion; and the more re¬
cently introduced French From the
latitude stated to the Cape Colony, tribes com¬
monly classed together under the title of the Ethi-
opic or Negro family are found, though many de¬
part very widely from the peculiar physiognomy of
the Negro." Keith Johnson, F. R. G. S.
With all this agrees Herodotus, who says:
"Neither does Egypt possess the smallest resem¬
blance to Arabia, on which it borders, nor to Lybia
and Syria, for the sea coast of Arabia is possessed
by Syrians. It has a black and crumbling soil,
composed of such substances as the river Nile, in
its course, brings down from Ethiopia." Euterpe,
xii.
".... It simply intimates that the body of
the Nile is formed from the dissolution of snow,
which comings from Lybia through the regions of
Ethiopia discharges itself upon Egypt." Euterpe,
xxii.
"He affirmed that the sources of the Nile, which
were fountains of unfathomable depth, flowed from
the center of these mountains j that one of these
streams divided Egypt, and directed its course to
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT. i I
the north; the other in like manner flowed toward
the south, through Ethiopia." Euterpe, xxviii.
"The higher part beyond Elephantine is pos¬
sessed by the Ethiopians who also inhabit half of
this island, the other half belongs to the Egyp¬
tians." Euterpe, xxix.
To the same import he speaks in his, Thalia,
Book iii, xvii, xcvii, cxiv. The words of this last
reference are most decisive, making it possible to
include Guinea itself within the bounds of the
Greek, Ethiopia. He says: "Ethiopia, which is
the extremity of the habitable world, is contiguous
to this country (Arabia) on the southwest." It is
Tayler Lewis, than whom no better authority is on
this very score score, says: "Ethiopia is afterward
carried still farther south and west, and the name
is sometimes given to what was obscurely known
of Western and Central Africa, or to the land of
the Niger and Senegal." The same authority also
says: "The two lands of Cush, 'the one at the
rising (Arabian Cush) and the other at the setting
sun,' (the African) were distinguished in Hgrner's
day, and it is not difficult to see how the African
Ethiopians came from the Arabian, or Sabaen
22
tfCush, by crossing the lower narrow part of the
Red Sea, instead of being derived from the Egyp¬
tian above, that is from Mizriam the younger
brother of Cush."
Rawlinson, while he will hot have the Ethi¬
opians to be Negroes, says: "Homer, speaking of
the Ethiopians, says that they were divided, and
'dwelt' at the ends of the earth, 'towards the ris¬
ing and the setting sun.' This passage has been
variously apprehended. It has been supposed to
cmean the mere division of the Ethiopians south of
:,Egypt by the River Nile, whereby some inhabited
its eastern and some its western banks. Again it
has been explained as referring to the east and west
coasts of Africa, both found by voyagers to be in
possession of Ethiopians, who were 'divided' by the
yast extent of continent that lay between them."
The Ethiopia, then, of Herodotus and of all the
Greeks, is the Negroland of to-day; nor is it pos¬
sible to otherwise conclude. Supposing the an¬
cient Ethiopians, not to have been Negroes, what
has become of them? Have they been carried into
captivity, carried as were the ten tribes? History
is silent concerning any such movement; and
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT. 23
silence of such an event, is to be taken as proof
that it never happened. Have they been exter¬
minated, either by war or pestilence? The same
answer is to be given. Neither then destroyed, nor
carried away captive, the reasonable conclusion can
only be that the people inhabiting the land B. C.
400, and the people inhabiting it A. D. 1898, are es¬
sentially one and the same; making allowances, of
course, for the changes of time and the mutations
of providence.
Secure, one may conclude, in regard to the local¬
ity of his Ethiopians, our Second proof that they
were Negroes, is that they were black, and so
notably and conspicuously black, as to occasion
surprise. In a measure the Egyptians were black,
as Herodotus himself says (Euterpe civ), .
they are black and have short hair and curling," but
the Egyptians were not black to the extent of mak¬
ing it the badge of their tribe, as it was with the
Ethiopians, wiio, to be seen, were to be noticed,
and so noticed as to become the occasion of remark.
It is all in vain that the criticism of to-day would
change the philological import of the word, Ethi¬
opia, and give it an unknown origin. The burnt-
24
THE KEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
face interpretation of the term has been too long
accepted now to be pushed aside. Referring, then,
to the inhabitants of Ethiopia, Beloe, in his trans¬
lation, has Herodotus to say: " . . . .the
color of the natives, who, from excessive heat, are
universally black" (Euterpe, xx). But are all black
people, Negroes? We are free to admit that such is
not the case, as most persons know. But the ques¬
tion of moment is, how to account for these people,
declared to be black, inhabiting a country noto¬
riously the country of the Negroes or Blacks, and
not themselves be of that race ? The answer to the
question, can two bodies occupy the same space at
one and the same time? is answer to the question:
Can two races physically alike occupy the same
territory at one and the same time and not be homo¬
geneous? Nor are we unmindful of the fact that
here in our own country two races do occupy the
same territory, to-wit, the white and the black.
True, and were there no additional evidence to the
contrary, we would be compelled to divide the
peoples of Ethiopia, and conclude that to a certain
extent it was then as it is now; two peoples dwelt
there both black or colored, one, the race now re-
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
25
garded as Ethiopic or Arabic, the other the Negro,
or as a writer in the Brittanica, says: "The inhab¬
itants of Meroe of Southern Ethiopia were a red¬
dish brown people, and are so represented on the
monuments; but they were surrounded by and per¬
haps intermingled with a number of dark skinned
tribes, whose effigies indicate affinity with the
negro." And what objection can there be to this?
As already intimated, this would doubtless be the
conclusion of the matter had not Herodotus himself
made it impossible; and for the reason that in his
description of the Ethiopian, he makes it utterly
impossible for him to have been other than Negro.
What is this most potential fact—what, our Third
reason? It is the fact that his Ethiopians had
crisped or woolly hair, than which no better test
of Negro identity can be found. His Ethiopians
did not have straight or curly hair, like the Egyp¬
tians of old, and like many of those in Ethiopia, to¬
day. It was not the hair described as ov2,6<rpi%eg
curling; but ovkoUcvtov hair the woolliest
—"the woolliest or most crisp of all men" rtavrav
avdpG}7l(>)v. When it is remembered that Hero¬
dotus by his travels had become personally
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
acquainted with the peoples of three continents,
the then known world, the weight of such a declar¬
ation as this cannot be pushed aside. He had seen
the European, white and straight haired; he had
seen the Asiatic, colored and curly haired; he had
seen the African, both of Egypt and Ethiopia, and
the blackest of them all, and the woolliest haired of
them all, was the man whom he calls, an Ethiopian.
In the eyes of ecclesiastical critics the writings of
Irenams are pronounced "wonderful" and his tes¬
timony "extremely valuable." Why? Let a Leipzig
professor, Casper Rene Gregory, tell us: "He (Ire¬
nams) without doubt saw men who had seen the
Apostles and Jesus, having gone to Palestine and
returned." The same or similar estimate is put
upon the writings of Tertullian, and for the reason
that, though a native of North Africa, he had largely
travelled abroad. And of the writings of Jerome
also does this argument hold good. Exception,
therefore cannot possibly be taken to the testi¬
mony of Herodotus, who personally knew whereof
he affirmed. Rawlinson says: "He is an excellent
authority for what he had himself seen, or for what
he had laboriously collected by inquiry from eye
witnesses."
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
27
A summation then of the testimony he gives, is:
First: The habitat of the Ethiopian of Herodotus
was south and southwest of Egypt, the recognized
and universally acknowledged habitat of the Negro.
Second: They were black, so notably black, as
as the Hebrew gave it; the people, or nation, or
to be characterized as the people with the burnt-
face.
Third :7 They had crisp or woolly hair, hair
neither straight or curly, but absolutely woolly;
though it may not have been "eccentrically ellipti¬
cal" as Keane would argue—hair texture, the very-
opposite of straightness.
Let a man of this description appear anywhere
in our country, east, west, north or south, and he
will not have the least trouble in passing for a negro,
though he may not exhibit the whole sixteen negro
characteristics of A. H. Keane.
Herodotus' Ethiopian then we affirm to be Negro.
The Negro in Herodotus, however, or in the
Greek generally, is not our theme; rather, the Negro
in Holy Writ. The connection between the two,
however, is indissoluble. What we purpose now to
-show is, that the Negro in Herodotus carries him
28
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
directly into the Bible or Holy Writ. How? Let
us see. Our Bible, Authorized or Revised, whence
comes it? The general or popular impression is
that the English Bible, known as the Bible of King
James, is a translation pure and simple from the
Hebrew, of the Old Testament and Greek of the
New. Such, however, is not exactly true, nor did
the translators so affirm. Their word is "translated
out of the original tongues." Addressing the "most
high and mighty Prince, James, by the Grace of
God, King," they say; "For when Your Highness
had once out of deep judgment apprehended how
convenient it was, that out of the original Sacred
tongues, together with comparing of the labors,
both in our own and foreign languages, of many
worthy men who went before us, there should be
one more exact translation of the Holy Scripture
into the English tongues," etc. The Hebrew is a
sacred tongue, and so the Greek. As it relates,
- however, to this last, it had a broader signification
than is usually allowed; but of which the trans¬
lators, judging from their work, readily availed
themselves. Our English Bible, then, comes to us-
as a translation from the original tongues; but the-
THE NEGRO I If HOLY WRIT.
29
facts of the case will not allow us to confine this to
the Hebrew of the Old and to the Greek of the New.
On the contrary we must bear strictly in mind what
these translators says: "Translated out of the orig¬
inal sacred tongues," and specially the words,
. . . . . comparing of the labors both in our
own and other foreign languages of many worthy
men who went before us." This last reference to
the "labors in foreign languages of many worthy
men," is not to be confined to such versions as that
of the Rheims 1582, nor the Bishops 1568, nor the
Geneva 1560, nor indeed to any particular one. On
the contrary, it is to be believed that beginning with
the Septaugint all were consulted and all used to
the extent that they were found to harmonize with
the Hebrew of the Old and the Greek of the New.
The popular impression is right in regard to this
matter to the extent of having everything decided
by what the Hebrew (O. T.) and the Greek (N. T.)
said: and therein, is it unlike the Catholic Douay
which has everything decided according to the
Latin Vulgate.
With these facts in mind, let us approach the
question before us. We have said that the Negro
once found in Herodotus, is with absolute certainty,
carried into the Bible. How? We again ask: Let
us see. In the centuries immediately following the
writing of his history, that it was well known and
universally read is conceded by all, read, we mean,
by all literary people. Two events alone are suf¬
ficient to make clear such a surmise: First, the
reading of his work at the Olympic festival, to say
nothing of the Panathenaeana tradition of^B. C. 445-*
Be such public recital true or false, it answers es¬
sentially one and tne same purpose, indicating the
enviable notoriety of the work. Second, the reading
of the work stirred up such opponents as Ctesias,
B. C. 400, and Manetho, the priest of Sebennytus,
during the Kingship of the early Ptolemies. Ob¬
scure works never command such attention. The
*"There is one tradition which mentions that Herodotus
read his work at the Panathenaeana at Athens in B. C. 445
or 446, and that then existed at Athens a prephisma or ordi¬
nance granting to the historian a reward of ten talents
($11,640) from the public treasury. This tradition is not
only in contradiction with the time at which he must have
written his work, but is evidently nothing but part and par¬
cel of the charge * * that he was bribed by the Atheni¬
ans. The source of all this culmnious scandal is nothing
but the petty vanity of the Thebans, which was hurt by the
truthful description of their conduct during the war wi#
Persia." il
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
31
place given it on the shelves of Ptolemy Philadel¬
phia was no mean one; for we may know, that among
the vast collection of books which went to make up
his library of six thousand volumes those of Hero¬
dotus were there. When, therefore, this scholarly
prince would have his library enriched by the Scrip¬
ture of the Jews, what is more natural to suppose
than that he would throw this vast collection open
to the use of the scholars engaged upon the ardu¬
ous work.
That the translators
The Septuagint and Josephus. of the Scriptures
thus became ac¬
quainted with the writings of Herodotus and with
Greek literature generally, is to be believed without
argument. Their standing ar> literary men, es¬
pecially their knowledge of the Greek tongue,
in connection with the work before them would
make it quite necessary for us to so con¬
clude. The exquisite detail of Josephus concern¬
ing them and the manner of their work we know is
frowned upon; but the work accomplished clearly
shows them to have been of the kind, Demetrius the
acting librarian of Ptolemy Philadelphia had sug-
32
THE KEGRO IK HOLY WRIT.
gested. As given by Josephus they might be men
"skilful of the laws" and "able to make accurate in¬
terpretation of them." Less ability than this cannot
be accorded to men who gave the world this trans¬
lation of the Bible. Nor are we especially concerned
either as to the race or nationality of these transla¬
tors. Our to-do is with the translation itself, be the
men who made it Jew or Greek. "Though ye be¬
lieve not me, believe the works." So in the matter
before us. What Josephus says may be true, or
largely so; or it may be false. As to this we are lit¬
tle concerned. It is with the Septuagint and its
rational translation we concern ourselves.
In the Bible mention is made of peoples many. A
message, to speak in the old time way, from God to
man, as might be expected, it has somewhat to say
to each of the three great branches, to-wit, that of
Shem, and Ham, and Japhet; for such understand¬
ing as to the number of races, in the words of Raw-
linson, is the "simplest and best." The peoples
and nations descending from the loins of Ham may
be said to come in for special mention; nor need
there be any surprise at this. Was not Moses, the
author and compiler of the Penteteuch, born and
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
33
reared among them? And was not Joshua? And
were not the Jews in both the capacity of a people
and a nation in constant intercourse with the peo¬
ples and nations of Ham? And did not Solomon,
their most brilliant King, marry an Hamitic prin¬
cess? Indeed, it is well known that Solomon had
Hamitic blood in his veins, as our booklet, The
Color of Solomon, shows. When, therefore, the
translators of the Septuagint set about their work,
they were largely beset with the task of dealing
with these peoples and nations. The rule by which
they seem to have been guided was: "The people,
the nation, or country, with whose identity they
seem to have been in doubt, they allowed to remain
as the Hebrew gave it; the people, or nation, or
country, about whose identity they do not seem to
have had any doubt, they translated into Greek."
It is to this rule or practice that Josephus doubtless
refers with a shadow of both national and race pride,
when he says: "There were some also who passed
over the sea in ships and inhabited the islands; and
some of these nations do still retain the denomina¬
tions which were given them by their first found¬
ers; but some have lost them also; and some have
34
the negro in holy writ.
only admitted certain changes in them, that they
might be the more intelligible to the inhabitants;
and these were the Greeks who became the authors
of such mutations." What Josephus has charged
against the Greeks was not any falsification of a peo¬
ples' identity, but what we might call a populariza¬
tion of their names. As clearly illustrative of the
rule referred to above and of what Josephus says,
we have only to peruse the English text of the
Bible, translated, it is true, from the Hebrew, but
with a large modicum of the Septuagint or Greek
translation, especially on the lines mentioned above.
In Genesis x, a well nigh literal translation is given
to almost every name therein mentioned, and for
the reason, it is legitimate to surmise they were
largely in doubt as to the identity of the characters
and countries mentioned, separate and apart from
the Bible itself. Not so, however, in the names
with which they were supposedly acquainted, such
as Ashur, given by them as Assyria; Aram, as
Syria, in some instances, Mesopotamia in others,
Ararat is Armenia, Artachshasta becomes Asia-
xerxes, Babel become Babylon, Metzraim in Egypt,
and Cush Ethiopia.
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
35
The Hebrew Cush, then, in the mind of these
Greek translators is Ethiopia, the African Ethiopia,
for Herodotus himself recognizes the existence of
two Ethiopias. His words are: "Those Ethi¬
opians who come from the more eastern parts of
their country, (for there were two distinct bodies
in this expedition) served with the Indians. These
differed from the former in nothing but their lan¬
guage and their hair" (Pol. xx.). It is not to these
"Oriental Ethiopians," as Herodotus calls them,
that he uniformly alludes, as we know from the
country in which he places them, and the pecu¬
liarity of their physique. Nor was it these same
Oriental Ethiopians that the translators of the Sep-
tuagint had in mind, when they recognized Ethi¬
opia as the correct signification of Cush, and Ethi¬
opians as the Cushim. As we have said they were
doubtless acquainted with Herodotus, and Greek
literature in general; and when they would give the
library of Philadelphus and the Greek reading world
their translation of the Hebrew Bible, they would
have it, to use a modern phrase, expressive, how¬
ever, of a universal principle—they would have it
"up to date." Hence, in the translation of Hebrew
names of peoples and countries well known, they
uniformly adopted the names known to the Greek,
as we have illustrated above. Egypt is given for
Mizraim and Ethiopia for Cush; the Cush that is of
Africa. Nor is it to be thought that such a method
as this was accepted and acted upon in any thought¬
less or careless way. On the contrary, all the inti¬
mations given by the manner of this translation,
real or imagined, lead to the conclusion that the
work is the result of the greatest care. If we ac¬
cept the account of Josephus, then we may know
that the translation is scarcely less than an inspired
transcript of the meaning of the Hebrew, and in
such case the Ethiopians with the black skin and
the woolly hair, is no more or less than the typical
Cushim. If, however, as is usually the case, the
statement of Josephus be pronounced flimsy and
mythical, and we fall back upon the rational trans¬
lation of the Bible, then are we equally sure that
the men v/ho did it, whomsoever they were, assured
themselves of the fact that the Cushim of whom
they read in the Bible, were none other than the
Ethiopians, whom they constantly saw; and whom
Herodotus had so definitely described. "What
.37
name shall we give these black-faced and woolly-
haired Cushim?" we can hear them ask, "By what
name does the Greek world know them?" came the
interrogative response, "What say Greek writers?"
"What says Herodotus especially?" By these they
are known as the people with Burnt-faces, or Ethi¬
opians. So let it be; and so it was, and so it is. The
Hebrew Cushim may then be safely affirmed to be
the Greek, Ethiopians. This much on the score
of probabaility; which of itself, in the case before
us, is next to absolute certainty. Happily, how¬
ever, for the argument we make, we have not proba¬
bility but we really have absolute certainty, in that
the Biblical Cushim are seen to meet every require¬
ment of the Greek Ethiopians; and the Greek Ethi¬
opians every requirement of the Negro. To this
controlling fact we invite attention.
And, first, as to the locality
The Bible Cushites and of these Cushim. We have
Greek Ethopians. seen what was the locality
of the Ethiopians as given
by Herodotus and the Greek writers. Let us sock the
locality of the Cushim, as given by the Bible. Moses,
who by the way, though in blood a Shemite, is no
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
stranger to Hamitic lands and peoples, the Cushim
especially. In his Life of Moses (Ch. v. p. 46)
Rawlinson says: "Both Josephus and Artapanus
relate that in a great war which was waged between
Egypt and Ethiopia, Moses commanded the Egyp¬
tian army, and led an expedition into Ethopia,
which was crowned with complete success. It is
impossible to suppose that the story is a pure fic¬
tion. We are estopped moreover from such a con¬
clusion by the fact that St. Step'hen, speaking be¬
fore the Sanhedrim, mentioned it as a thing gener¬
ally known, that Moses, before casting in his own
lot with his own nation, "was mighty in words and
deeds." (Acts. 7:22). A private individual would
scarcely at the time be "mighty in deeds, otherwise
than by following the career of arms and distin¬
guishing himself in war."
In the Penteteuch, Moses once makes mention of
the land of the Cushim and once of the people. As
to the land his words, (Gen. 2:13) are: "And the
name of the second river is Gihon; the same is it
that compasses the whole land of Cush." (Re¬
vised ; the Authorized and the Septuagint both
have, Ethiopia.) As to the people, Moses
the negro in holy writ. ^9
says (Numb. 12:1), "And Miriam and Aaron spoke
against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom
he had married; for he had married a Cushite
woman" (Revised; the Authorized and the Septua-
gint both have, Ethiopian). Our readers, like our¬
selves, may be a little puzzled to know exactly why
our recent Revisers of the Bible broke away both
from the Authorized and the Septuagint, and in a
most exceptional way gave the Hebrew a literal
translation. Certainly we have no explanation to
give; only to say that it wonderfully reminds us
of what John Ruskin says in his lecture: Of Kings'
Treasure:—"So, again, consider what offset has
been produced in the English vulgar mind of the use
of the sonorous Latin form 'damno' in translating
the Greek when people charitably wish
to make it favorable; and the substitution of the
temperate 'condemn' for it when they chose to keep
it gentle. And what notable sermons have been
preached by the illiterate clergyman,—'He that be-
lieveth not shall be damned!' though they would
shrink with horror from translating Heb. xi :y. 'The
saving of his house by which he damned the world,'
or John viii :i2, 'Woman hath no man damned thee?
40
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
She saith. No man, Lord. Jesus answered her,
Neither do I damn thee; go and sin no more.' " Pre¬
cisely so, it would seem in the minds of these mem¬
orable Revisers. By no means must the Nile be
considered the Gihon; by no means must it be
allowed that Moses married an Ethiopian.
As to the first of these references to the Cushim
and his land, we remark: It is not for us to say that
the Nile is the Gihon and so, "compasseth the
whole land of Ethiopia." On the contrary the ques¬
tion of importance is, Is the Nile the river Moses
had in mind when he wrote? Argument on this
score would be too prolonged for our present pur¬
pose. Let one citation of authority suffice, and that
one, Lange, who says (Gen. 214-25) : "According to
Josephus, Kimchi and others, also as might be in¬
ferred from the Septuagint translation of Jeremiah,
2:18, Ben Lira 24:27, there was understood by it,
the Nile which flows through all the south lands
(Cush) that fell within the circuit of the narrator's
view." But why should our Revisers change the
second reference of Moses—the reference of Moses'
marriage to a Cushite or Ethiopian woman? Hav¬
ing followed the Septuagint in almost every other
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
41
reference to Cush, that they should draw back here,
makes it possible to think that the idea of the Saxon
theory as to the site of Paradise, and Saxon pride
as to race superiority or race inferiority as the case
might be, was the controlling force. According to
Moses, then, the home of the Cushite was in the
south, south of Egypt, the recognized- home of the
Ethiopian, and the equally recognized home of the
Negro.
With Moses the writer
The Prophets Testimony, of the book of Second
Kings, (19:9) whoso¬
ever he was, entirely agrees as to the habitat of the
Ethiopians, if we are to believe the canon orf Canter¬
bury, George Rawlinson. The canon says: "Tir-
hakah was one of the most distinguished of the later
Egyptian monarchs. And Ethiopian by birth and
originally ruling from Nagata over the Upper Nile
Valley from the First Cataract to (perhaps), Khar¬
toum, he extended his dominion over Egypt about
B. C. 700, maintaining, however, Shabatok as a sort
of puppet-king upon the throne."
And the same is to be said of the mention of Ethi¬
opia found in Second Chronicles (2 Chron. 21:16),-
42
supposing that due credit is to be given to such an
expositor as Philip C. Barker. Save the vicar: "The
Ethiopians, i. e. Cushites, had their location very-
early in the south of Arabia, as also to the south of
Egypt, speaking generally with the Red Sea to the
east, the Lybian Desert to the west, and Abyssinia
on the south, whilst Syene marked conspicuously a
site on the line of the northern bounds between them
and Egypt. They are almost invariably connected
with Africa from whence it is now that stress is laid
upon those of them to whom the Arabians, on the
other side of the Red Sea, were contiguous." Refer¬
ring to what David wrote in his Song:
"Princes shall come out of Egypt,
Ethopia shall haste to stretch out,
Her hands unto God" (Psl. 68:31.)
Dr. John Gill says:".... All men are
like Ethiopians, even God's elect, in a state of
nature and unregeneracy; they are black with orig¬
inal sin and actual transgressions; and can no more
remove this blackness than the Ethopian can
change his skin (Jer, 13:23). In the Hebrew text
it is, shall make her hands to run unto God; that is,
with an offering, gold or some treasure, to bring it
unto God, as Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
43
interpret it, which may very well be understood of
the offering of themselves, as well as of the spiritual
sacrifices of prayer and praise. The Targum is, 'The
sons of Ham shall come, the great men out of
Egypt, to be made proselytes; the children of Cush
(or Ethiopia) shall run to stretch out their hands in
prayer to God.' Jarchi's note is, 'and then when
they shall destroy Esau (his posterity) and the
King Messiah shall arise, they shall bring to thee
gifts out of Ethiopia.' "
The prophet Nahum (3:8~9) says: "Art thou bet¬
ter than No-amon, that was situate among the rivers,
that had the waters around about her; whose ram¬
part was the sea (Marg. the Nile) and her wall was
of the sea? Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength,
and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy help¬
ers." According to the Vulgate, the prophet says:
"Numquid melior es Alexandria populorum, quae
habitat in fluminibus? aquae in circuitu ejus; cupus
divituae, mare; acquae muri epus, Ethiopia fortituda
epus, et Egyptus, et non est finis; Africa et Lybis
fucrunt in auxilis epus."
"Thus/' says Deane, W. J., "the enumeration of
the forces of Thebes is regularly arranged begin-
44 THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
ning with the south, Ethiopia, then through Egypt
proper to the north, and then to provinces on the
east and west." ,
Paul Kleinert says: "Cush and Mizraim, Ethiopia,
Upper and Lower Egypt; Put and Lubim; Lybia
and Nubia."
In Zephaniah (3 :io) we read: "From beyond the
rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter
of my dispersed shall bring mine offering." As pre¬
sented in Lange: "From beyond the rivers of Cush
my worshippers, the daughters of my dispersed will
bring my offering." "The rivers of Cush (Ethiopia)
are the Nile, the Atbara and their affluents," says
Deane.
It is, however, to that prince of prophets, Isaiah,
that we must give the credit of confirming, as it
were, all that the others say as to the habitat of the
Ethiopian; as does he also, confirm what is said in
regard to the personality of the same people, as we
shall ha^e occasion to see. The eighteenth chapter
of his writing, one of the briefest of all, yet one of
the most convincing as it relates to the subject dis¬
cussed, may be regarded as singularly at one with
all that Herodotus has said concerning both the
45
land and the people of Ethiopia. The phase of it,
however, that we at present discuss is what it says
as to the locality given this people. His words are:
"Ah, the land of the rustling of wings which is be¬
yond the rivers of Ethiopia; that sendeth ambassa¬
dors by the sea, even in vessels of papyrus upon the
waters whose land the rivers divide."
Were it possible to present all that the commen¬
tators have said upon this phase of the seven verses
composing this remarkable chapter, reading for
hours, if not for days, would be provided. And yet
the summation of each and all, is that the land re¬
ferred to as Ethiopia, is in Africa, the portion of it,
too, known in common parlance, as Negroland; and
the rivers alluded to, are the Nile and those consti¬
tuting its numerous heads. "The oracle opens,"
writes the Rev. Prof. E. Johnson, "with a scene full
of life. Host of Ethiopian and Egyptian warriors
are seen, like buzzing swarms of flies, moving to
and'fro. Messengers are speeding in papyrus boats
to announce the approach of the Assyrians. The
Ethiopians are described as a nation
whose land rivers cut through. A sense of mystery
and greatness, hung about this land from the earl-
46
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
iest times,—the land of the source of the Nile."
In the Authorized version we read of the "super¬
fluity of naughtiness" (Jas. 1:21). In all verity-
would there be a superfluity of proofs, were we to
make all the quotations possible. In all reason,
then, must it be conceded that the land of the
Cushim was the land of the Ethiopians; and our
argument is, the land of the Ethiopian is the land of
the Negro. If they be not one and the same race,
the question arises: When the emigration of one
and the immigration of the other? and whence? and
thence ?
This then, is our first witness
Identity of Locality, as to the identity of the two
races mentioned, to-wit, the
Cushite and the Ethiopian. Each were dwellers upon
one and the same soil, at one and the same time;
and not as heterogeneous peoples but as peoples in
the highest sense homogenous This is the testi¬
mony of our first witness
But one witness may not be thought to be suffi¬
cient to prove our case. "At the mouth of one wit¬
ness," wrote the old Lawgiver, "he shall not be put
to death" (Deut. 17:6); and it receives sanction at
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
31
the mouth of the master (John 8 :i7), and at the pen
of the greatest of his apostles (2 Cor. 13-1). So let
it be. We call our second witness. What-is the evi¬
dence of this second witness ? As the first identified
the land, the second proposes to identify the people:
The Biblical Cushim, then, not only dwelt in the
land uniformly accorded to the classical Ethiopians,
but like these Ethiopians, they were black; not col¬
ored, even to densest brown, but black, and so black
as to be exceptionally noticeable; black unto cogni¬
tion. "Can he Cushite change his skin, or the leop¬
ard his spots?" cries out Jeremiah (13:23). It is
well enough that the reading is "Ethiopian" and not
Cushite. It is well enough also to remember that
Ethiopian is a Greek word, and Jeremiah was no
Greek scholar; for, living as he did, B. C. 600, more
or less, if we are to believe either Prof. Jebb or Prin¬
cipal Donaldson in the history they give of Greek
literature, he could not well have been. On the
contrary, Jeremiah was a Hebrew and wrote in the
Hebrew tongue. He may readily be supposed to
have known nothing of the Greeks, nor the Greek
tongue nothing indeed of Europe; and, therefore,
he knew nothing of such a people as the "Ethi-
THE WKGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
opians." He does, however, know the Cushim; and
it is of them that he asks, "Can the Cushite change
his skin?" Can he wash off or wipe off his black¬
ness? Blackness is the objective point. To suppose
otherwise is to break not only the force of the
analogy of the saying or proverb, if we are to be¬
lieve Thomas Coke; but to utterly destroy its spir¬
itual signification, Colored people, doubtless, sur¬
rounded Jeremiah. Indeed, he was colored himself
to a greater or less degree, as are all Asiastic Jews
and peoples of pure Shemitic blood. In so far, how¬
ever, as he would present a type of man's depravity
and the hopelessness of reform independent of God's
grace, the fact of the presence of peoples more or
less colored availed nothing. His illustration called
for a people who were absolutely black. "The
metaphor used in this text," says John Gill, "fitly
expresses the state and condition of men by nature;
they are like the Ethiopian or blackamoor; very
black both with original and actual sin, and their
blackness is natural to them; they have it from their
parents and their birth." In the work of giving the
Hebrew Scripture to the Greek peoples of the world,
it was a question with the translators2 as has
the negro in holy writ. 49
already been said: how to designate the Cushim.
Nothing would be more natural than to make in¬
quiry as to the name given these people by the
Greeks themselves—supposing, of course, the
Greeks to have been acquainted with them; of
which there cannot be the least doubt. At the time
of the Septuagint translation, Alexandria in a large
sense was the capital of all North African life, politi¬
cal, commercial and literary. Founded by Alexan¬
der the Great, it soon became the greatest of known
cities, for, as has been said, "Nineveh and Babylon
had fallen, and Rome had not yet risen to pre-emi¬
nence." Referring to its population, it is said: "The
population of Alexandria was mixed from the first,
The three regions into which the
city was divided corresponded to the three chief
classes of its inhabitants, Jews, Greeks, Egyptians;
but in addition to these principal races, representa¬
tives of almost every nation were found." That the
Hebrew Cushim or Greek Ethiopians were among
these last we may know, the proof whereof is the
presence of Ptoleny Philopater's five hundred ele¬
phants, for nothing was more common than the pres¬
ence of beasts from the regions of Central Africa,
5°
the negro in holy writ.
especially such as lions and elephants, and where
these were seen they were inevitably attended by
the natives, even the Cushim. George Ebers has
"black Ethiopians" figure largely in all phases of
Egyptian life. Imagining ourselves present with
the translators, we can quite admire the unanimity
with which they selected the word, Ethiops, taking
their cue especially from Herodotus whose perfect
description corresponded with the people they had
in mind.
But no mention is made in
Physical Appearance. Holy Writ, of the woolly
or crisp hair of the
Cushim, as Herodotus does of the Ethiopians. This
is true; but it is to be said that the writers of the
Bible seldom concerned themselves about the
physique of the peoples of whom they write. Indeed,
it is to be said that the Cushim are about the only
people of whom any physical description at all is
given. But even of these the hair goes unmentioned.
The fact is, in afil Scripture the hair of people is only
incidentally referred to, and but a few times at that.
But a single time is the texture of it given; and that
is where Solomon's bride is made to say of him:
• . . his locks are bushy," or, as Otto Zock-
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT. <1
ler gives it in Lange: "His head is pure gold, his
locks are hill upon hill black as a raven." (Cant.
5~ii.) The failure, however, to mention the kind of
hair that characterized the Cushim, is sufficiently
atoned for by the presence of other characteristics,
plainly showing the peoples to be one and the same.
The Ethiopians of Herodotus were both sizeable
and beautiful. His words are: "The Ethiopians to
whom Cambyses sent are reported to be superior
to all other men in the perfections of size and
beauty." (Thalia, xx). Also, "Ethiopia, the ex¬
tremity of the inhabitable globe, its
inhabitants are remarkable for their size, their
beauty and their length of life." In the eyes of
Isaiah, (18:2 R. V.) the Cushim were "tall and
smooth." "Tall and polished," says Rawlinson refer¬
ring both to the towering physique of the Ethio¬
pians and their "glossy skin." "Tall and strong,"
Geikie would have it. In the eyes of Isaiah (45 114)
again, the Ethiopians and their kinfolks, the Sa-
beans, were "men of stature." The Cushim tall and
beautiful. The Ethiopian tall and beautiful. How
about the Negro, whether African, whether Ameri¬
can. Of the African type, Keith Johnston, fellow of
52 THE XEGRO IK HOLY WRIT.
the Royal Geographical Society, says, "Of the prin¬
cipal nations in Guinea, among whom the true
Negro type is particularly distinct, and especially
around the Bight of Benin, are the Feloops, near the
Cassamanca, very black, yet handsome." Of the
east African tribes, whom he describes as often
black, and with hair often woolly, he says: "They
are described as a handsome people with beautiful
features." He pronounces the Joloffs "the hand¬
somest and blackest of all Negroes." On the
authority of Dr. Livingstone, he pronounces the
tribes in the great Tanganyika region as "fine and
tall and handsome." It is scarcely necessary to say
that such evidence as this could be indefinitely mul¬
tiplied. As to the Negro American, let our country¬
men Ebenezer D. Bassett, late minister to Hayti,
speak. "To our American eyes, the standard of
beauty, for instance, is, somewhat unconsciously to
ourselves, perhaps, the healthy, well-formed, well-
featured white woman, and I presume that when I
went to Hayti, I was under this American spell.
And yet I think now that the handsomest women
that I have ever seen are to be found among the
very black women of Hayti I noticed
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT. 53
also that the black men of all classes are as a rule
finely formed, with manly limbs, fine shoulders, and
chest and head erect and finely shapen." See Boker's
"Black Regiment/'
And yet again, the Ethiopians of Herodotus were
strong and lived to a ripe old age. As a testimony
of their strength he gives a letter, said to have been
addressed to Camybses. See Herod, p. 142 (14*^).
Relating to the age to which the Ethiopian lives,
he says, "They were told that the majority of the
people lived to the age of one hundred and twenty
years, but that some exceeded even that." (Thalia
xxiii). While the age to which the Cushim lived re¬
ceives no direct mention in Scripture, it may be
logically referred, their physical powers are abun¬
dantly shown. In the eyes of Isaiah they are a "peo¬
ple terrible from the beginning, a nation that meteth
out and treadeth down"—a nation "accustomed to
mete out its neighbors bounds with a measuring
line, and to trample other nations under its feet "
A similar physical prowess is attributed to them
and their kinfolks by Jeremiah (46:9) whose words
in reference to the bow are in singular harmony
with the words of Herodotus. "Go up, ye horses/'
54
cries out the prophet of Anathoth, "and rage, ye
chariots; and let the mighty men go forth; Cush
(Ethiopia) and Put that handle the shield ; and the
Lubim that handle and bend the bow." We cannot
forego quoting: "Bochart endeavors to prove by
various arguments, that these Lydians were-Ethi¬
opians; and among the rest, because they are here,
and in Isaiah (66:19) described as expert in han¬
dling, bending and drawing the bow; which he
proves by the testimonies of several writers, the
Ethiopians were famous for," etc. The Cushim
strong and courageous; the Ethiopians strong and
courageous. How about the Negro? and as we
asked before: Whether African, or Whether Amer¬
ican? To Keith Johnston we are again indebted, as
it relates to the Negro African. In his eyes the
Mandingoes are "numerous and powerful" . . .
with "a spirited and intellectual expression." The
Somali "are a strong, large, almost bulky, people."
Referring to the Wamasai and Wakwavi tribes, he
says: "They are the terror of the more settled in¬
habitants of the surrounding countries, and occa¬
sionally make raids down even to the coast land
behind Mombas." As to the physique of the Negro
55
American, on the scores of strength and courage,
let his- value as a slave testify, and as a freeman and
citizen, let the testimony of more than a hundred
battles and skirmishes of our wars, from Bunker
Hill to El Caney, be heard.
What then is the summation we make?
Summation, and what the significance of the trifar-
ious showing below?
CUSHIM. ETHIOPIAN, NEGRO,
Africa, Africa, Africa,
South of Egypt, South of Egypt, South of Egypt,
Woollv cr crisped hair Wool'y or crisped hair"
Black in color, Black in color, Black m color,
Tall and well formed, Tall and well formed, Tall and well formed,
Strong. Strong, Strong,
Courag ous. Courageous. C urageous.
If unity of race be not here manifest, it is in place
to ask: How can such unity be made known?
Hearty agreement between them in all things save
the texture of the hair, and when the writers of Holy
Scripture have failed to mention this, it is to be kept
in mind they nowhere pretend to treat ethnologi-
cally of any peoples; only incidentally. Their busi¬
ness with the nations, was as beings accountable to
God for their actions; and all else, as we have said,
was only incidental.
Upon those, therefore, who would rule the Negro
from the list of peoples mentioned in Holy Writ,
THE NEGRO IN HOLY WRIT.
upon them rests the responsibility of showing the
inconclusive nature of the above facts.
In the eyes of those who gave the church the Sep-
tuagint, they were esteemed sufficient to warrant
the translation, made, to-wit, the Cushim, id est, the
Ethiopians.
For more than two thousand years, their conclu¬
sion has been endorsed by every translation made.
In one and all, Cush always appears as, Ethiopia.
Before us is Stier and Theile's Polyglotte Bible. In
parallel columns are given the original Hebrew,
the Septaugint, the Vulgate, and the German of Dr.
Martin Luther.
The Cush of the original Hebrew in the Sep-
tuagint is given as Aithiopas; in the Vulgate as
Aithiopae; in Luther's German as, Mohrenland, or
the land of the Blacks, Ethiopia. This last is most
significant. Why did the great German refuse to
use the word Aithiopia? He did not refuse to use
Egypt. He did not refuse to use Lybia. Why
Ethiopia? The only reason we may possibly be able
to give is, that he was severely impressed that the
Cushim of Moses and of Biblical writers in general,
were notably the Black men of the earth.
57
With such a mountain of evidence before us,
there can be no reason to doubt the correctness of
the translation. If there were, where were the last
Revisers of all, those of 1885? We may well be¬
lieve that had these seen any reason to make a
change they would not have been slow to do so. But
they did not; and because they did not it is alto¬
gether safe to conclude that the translation met
their hearty approval. And what does such ap¬
proval signify? Nothing more nor less than that
in these the last days with the wealth of the world's
accumulated wisdom and knowledge at our com¬
mand, the ancient Cushim were the no less ancient
Ethiopians. And that the Ethiopians were Negroes,
the testimony of the facts above clearly demon¬
strate. Therefore, the conclusion reached is that
the Cushim found in Holy Writ were Ethiopians;
and Ethiopians were Negroes; therefore, Negroes
are mentioned in Holy Writ.
BENJ. TUCKER TANNER.
December 17th, 1898.