New Studies in Biblical Theology

A Biblical Theology of Race

J. Daniel Hays, D. A. Carson

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780830881215
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

"After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language..." (Revelation 7: 9).The visions in the book of Revelation give a glimpse of the people of God at the consummation of history—a multiethnic congregation gathered together in worship around God's throne. Its racial diversity is expressed in a fourfold formula that first appears in Genesis 10.The theme of race runs throughout Scripture, constantly pointing to the global and multiethnic dimensions inherent in the overarching plan of God. In response to the neglect of this theme in much evangelical biblical scholarship, J. Daniel Hays offers this thorough exegetical work in the New Studies in Biblical Theology series. As well as focusing on texts which have a general bearing on race, Hays demonstrates that black Africans from Cush (Ethiopia) play an important role in both Old and New Testament history.This careful, nuanced analysis provides a clear theological foundation for life in contemporary multiracial cultures and challenges churches to pursue racial unity in Christ.Addressing key issues in biblical theology, the works comprising New Studies in Biblical Theology are creative attempts to help Christians better understand their Bibles. The NSBT series is edited by D. A. Carson, aiming to simultaneously instruct and to edify, to interact with current scholarship and to point the way ahead.

Chapter One

Introduction

Not long ago, in a conversation with my colleague Dr Isaac Mwase, a Black professor and pastor of a local Black congregation, I mentioned that the race problem was an important issue for the Church today. Isaac quickly corrected me by stating emphatically that it is the most important issue for the Church today. This conversation illustrates to some degree a phenomenon that I encountered regularly as I read through some of the recent literature dealing with the race problem in the Church today.1 Black scholars identify the racial division in the Church as one of the most central problems for contemporary Christianity, while many White scholars are saying, ‘What problem?’

Likewise, even among those who acknowledge the problem, there is a wide difference of opinion concerning just how bad the problem is and whether the situation is improving or deteriorating. On the one hand, in recent years tremendous progress appears to have been achieved. Carson, for example, documents evangelical churches on the east coast and the west coast of North America that are doing a remarkable job of integrating (2002: 95–96). Particularly among many White Christians, there is the perception that in these regions things have improved; even in the south and the mid-west many feel that, although lagging behind the rest of the country, the race problem is not nearly as pronounced as it was a mere generation ago.

On the other hand, some have observed that the evidence for this perception is often anecdotal, and actual statistical survey data appear to suggest otherwise. Emerson and Smith in Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (2000) study the problem through statistical data based on actual nationwide surveys and interviews. They point out that there is a tremendous disparity between the way that White evangelicals view the problem and the way that Black evangelicals view the problem. They also note that this phenomenon cuts across regional lines. Their studies indicate that two-thirds of White Christians believe that the situation for Blacks is improving, while two-thirds of Black Christians believe that the situation for Blacks is deteriorating (88). The survey data have led Emerson and Smith to pessimistic conclusions. They write:

Despite the often very best intentions of most white American evangelicals, the complex web of factors explored in this book produce a rather dismal portrait of the realities of and prospects for positive race relations among American Christians in the United States. Most white evangelicals, directed by their cultural tools, fail to recognize the institutionalization of racialization – in economic, political, educational, social, and religious systems… Is the situation hopeless? If white evangelicals continue to travel the same road they have travelled thus far, the future does indeed look bleak (170).

Emerson and Smith (2000: 171) also suggest that one of the underlying factors hindering evangelicalism’s ability to address the race issue adequately is that evangelicals have a tendency to define problems in simple terms and to look for simple solutions. The race issue, on the other hand, is extremely complex, involving history, tradition, culture, religion, economics, politics, and a host of other factors.2 Emerson and Smith state: ‘With a few exceptions, evangelicals lack serious thinking on this issue.’ Black theologian Ronald Potter makes the same point, writing that ‘there exists little if any theological reflection’ on this problem (1997: 32).3

Although there are some significant exceptions, in general there is silence in White evangelical congregations concerning the biblical teaching on this issue. Within these congregations, the current attitude of many Whites often falls into one of three categories. First, some people are still entrenched in their inherited racism. They are interested in the Bible if it reinforces their prejudiced views; otherwise they do not care what the Bible says about race. Second, many people assume that the Bible simply does not speak to the race issue, and particularly to the Black–White issue. Third, many others are simply indifferent to the problem, assuming that the status quo is acceptable and that the Bible supports their current practices.

These views appear to carry over into academia as well. Indeed, evangelical biblical and theological scholarship has continued to remain nearly silent on this issue, even though the indications of the scope of the problem are obvious. Few of our theological training institutions address the race issue, which is rather strange, considering the scale of the problem. Indeed, the traditional Systematic Theologies used for most of the twentieth century did not address the race issue at all. Often these volumes had entire chapters devoted to philosophical and biblical discussions of ‘Anthropology’ (the study of the nature of humankind), but they failed to address one of the central anthropological problems within the Church today. Likewise they contained entire chapters on ‘Ecclesiology’ (the study of the Church), but did not address the major division in Church life today. A few of the more recent volumes, however, have at least begun to address the issue. Millard Erickson, for example, in Christian Theology (1985: 542–545), presents a good discussion of the race issue. Wayne Grudem, in Systematic Theology (1994: 450, 459) while not discussing race as an issue, does at least mention racial equality as an implication of being created in the image of God and also as the practical outworking of Galatians 3:27–28. Yet other influential theologies, such as Alister McGrath’s Christian Theology: An Introduction (1997), are silent on race. Even Stanley Grenz’s Theology for the Community of God with its emphasis on ‘the community of God’, fails to address the race problem.4 Meanwhile, over twenty-three million Black American Christians, most of them extremely conservative in theology, feel excluded from the White evangelical ‘community of God’ that is teaching and studying these theologies. We clearly have a problem that needs addressing; yet much of evangelical theology has, in general, ignored it.5

On the positive side, however, it should be noted that several helpful books addressing ‘racial reconciliation’ have been published recently, containing articles written by both Black and White authors. Two significant examples are The Gospel in Black and White: Theological Resources for Racial Reconciliation, edited by D. Okholm at Wheaton College (1997); and A Mighty Long Journey: Reflections on Racial Reconciliation, edited by T. George and R. Smith at Beeson Divinity School (2000). E. Yamauchi is producing helpful background studies dealing with Blacks in the Ancient Near East.6 Also, G. Usry (a Black pastor) and C. Keener (a White professor of New Testament) have together written several important works, focusing primarily on Black audiences.7 In addition, several other Black scholars and pastors have produced helpful works related to the race issue (Felder, McKissic, Fields, A. T. Evans, and Adamo, to name a few).8

In the field of biblical studies the response of scholars has been mixed. As discussed later in the book, many commentators continue to make the same incorrect and prejudiced assumptions that their predecessors made, thus repeating the same errors concerning race as those made by earlier generations. However, in contrast, several commentators, especially those writing in series that are concerned with applicational theology, have confronted the race problem seriously and honestly. Good examples include J. Stott, The Message of Ephesians, The Bible Speaks Today (1979); K. Snodgrass, Ephesians, NIVAC (1996); and S. McKnight, Galatians, NIVAC (1995). Also, one of the few works that deals with the biblical text on the race issue is the brief work by S. L. McKenzie, All God’s Children: A Biblical Critique of Racism (1997).

The silence on the race issue among evangelical scholars, therefore, is gradually being broken, although it is still present in many of the major theological textbooks that our universities and seminaries are using to train tomorrow’s leaders. In addition, although helpful articles on reconciliation are being produced, very little serious biblically based exegetical work is being conducted on passages that are relevant to the race issue.

This book, which is far from exhaustive, is an attempt to help fill the need for a serious exegetically based study of passages that relate to the race issue. It is subtitled A Biblical Theology of Race because I am also trying to build upon this exegetical work a relevant biblical theology.

In this book I am not seeking to employ some new ‘agenda-driven’ hermeneutic. My approach to studying Scripture and developing theology follows standard historical-critical method, based on evangelical presuppositions regarding the nature of the Bible. Part of this method, however, is to identify the cultural baggage or culturally tainted lenses through which we tend to read Scripture. Thorough historical study and careful exegesis can help all of us to mute the influence of the culturally slanted or ‘ethnocentric’ context from which we read. Likewise, listening to other perspectives from other contexts can help us to critique our own understanding. Obviously we will never be completely free of our contextual location in a culture, but a serious study of Scripture will demand that we at least attempt to set our cultural baggage aside in order to let Scripture speak to us clearly.9

In this book we will first explore the ethnic historical context of the Old Testament (Chapter 2) and then examine those texts that relate to race in the rest of the Old Testament (Chapters 3–6). Next we will examine the ethnic world of the New Testament (Chapter 7), followed by a study of relevant texts throughout the New Testament (Chapters 8–9). Thus we will begin in Genesis and end in Revelation. In Chapter 10 I will present a concluding synthesis and offer a final applicational challenge.

We will explore two types of texts. First, we will examine those texts that have a general bearing on the theology of race: that is, texts that speak to the universal aspects of race. Second, because I am particularly concerned with the relationship between Black and White Christians in the Church today, we will explore those texts that make specific reference to Black Africans. Taken together, these passages will provide the biblical basis for a strong, clear theology of race.

As mentioned earlier, because the Black–White race issue is so gigantic in the American Church, this work will focus on that particular problem. However, I have spent enough of my life overseas to know that racial problems are endemic to most parts of the world, and are not limited to black and white skin colour. Serious ethnic tensions are not limited to North America, but also exist in the Church all across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. The recent influx of Eastern Europeans into Western Europe has created racial tensions in many European Churches. In Asia, serious cultural tensions, which can often flare up into racism, exist between Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese. The two-million-strong Myanmar (formerly Burma) Baptist Convention is made up of dozens of ethnic groups, many with completely different languages. Many African national church organizations, such as the 4,000-plus congregations of the evangelical Ethiopian Kale Heywet Church, comprise numerous different ethnic groups that traditionally and historically have felt animosity toward each other. In some regions of the world, Christians of different ethnic groups have recently opposed each other in open war. Often such warfare was fought along ethnic lines, thus creating deep animosity and prejudices.

Thus throughout the world Christian communities are struggling to overcome the historical and cultural prejudices that they have inherited and are striving to use the gospel to forge Christian unity in the midst of their cultural diversity. So while I have attempted to apply the theology developed in this book to the Black–White issue in the United States, the biblical principles that emerge have equal applicability in any Church setting where fellow believers in Christ are being pressured culturally to divide along ethnic lines and to embrace prejudiced views toward other ethnic groups.

Related to this is the observation that Christianity is currently multiplying rapidly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, but not in the West. Woodward (2001: 48) points out that in 1900 over 80% of the Christians in the world were in Europe or North America. Today that percentage has dropped to 40%, highlighting the fact that the majority of Christians in the world today are not in Europe or North America. Furthermore, in many of these areas, especially Africa, Christianity is growing at a phenomenal rate, while in the West growth has stagnated. The forecast for the next century is for this trend to continue or even to accelerate. As the twenty-first century progresses, a greater and greater majority of Christians of all denominations in the world will be non-Western. As the world continues to shrink, and as Christians from hundreds of different ethnic groups from around the world come into contact with each other, it will be imperative that we have a proper biblical foundation for dealing with such a world.

Chapter Two

The ethnic make-up of the
Old Testament world

Introduction

One of the more difficult hurdles for us to overcome in developing and applying biblical theology from the Scriptures is the ever-constant intrusion of ‘cultural pre-understanding’ into our interpretative and applicational process. ‘Cultural pre-understanding’ is the tendency for us to interpret the biblical material through the lenses of our own personal cultural context. Not only do we fill in all the literary ‘gaps’ in the biblical story with material from our culture, but also we tend to project much of our culture into the setting and into our understanding of the characters.1 Not all of this projection is bad, for it can often help us to relate better to the text. However, frequently such ‘cultural pre-understanding’ leads us to skew the text to fit our particular ethnocentric cultural outlook.

For centuries, in art as well as in other media, the people of Western Europe and North America have portrayed the individuals in the Bible as Europeans or North Americans. Thus not only does Michelangelo paint twelve Europeans sitting down at a European table for the Last Supper, but the fair-haired American Charlton Heston portrays Moses in The Ten Commandments and the blue-eyed Briton Richard Harris plays the title role in TNT’s television movie Abraham. Even though most scholars know that few, if any, characters in the Old Testament looked much like Charlton H...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Titles in this series
• Title Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Series preface
• Author's preface
• Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The ethnic make-up of the Old Testament world
• 3 Creation, blessing, and race (Genesis 1 – 12)
• 4 Israel, the Torah, foreigners, and intermarriage
• 5 Israel and Black Africa during the monarchy
• 6 Racial issues in the prophets
• 7 The ethnic make-up of the New Testament world
• 8 Race and the theology of Luke-Acts
• 9 Race, Pauline theology, and the Apocalypse
• 10 Conclusions and applications
• Bibliography
• Index of modern authors
• Index of Scripture references
• Index of ancient sources
• Notes
• Praise for From Every People and Nation
• About the Author
• More Titles from InterVarsity Press
• Copyright