Biblical Ancestry Voyage: Revealing Facts of Significant Black Characters

By Bishop Wm. LaRue Dillard

Biblical Ancestry Voyage reveals facts of significant black characters in the Holy Bible of several ethnic groups of humankind, especially people of color. Further, to dispel the false notion that the Holy Bible was written for Anglo-Saxon ethnic people. (This has been the status quo of the teaching almost worldwide as it relates to God's use of ethnic people listed in the Holy Bible.) I pray that this writing will saturate the minds and hearts of both young and old of every ethnic group of the human race in respect to God's crown of His creation: mankind. My spiritual gift of teaching, preaching, under-shepherding, symposium leader, and writing has been a labor of love for over sixty-two years designed for the extension of the kingdom of God. My goal is to accurately portray and exegete from an ancestry point of view, and biblical interpretation of the Bible's message pointing to biblical characters of color, no matter their skin pigmentation. This truth has been distorted for many years, causing millions of ethnic people to feel left out of the divine design of god Almighty. The force of my biblical episcopate ministry is in the area of shaping the hopes and hurts, success and failures, joys and sorrows of the saints of my parish flock, as well as others. I envision as a part of my divine commission to be an encouraging cheerleader for the affluent and the downtrodden throughout their life and a confidant for their triumphs. The righteous acts that we do for God give Him pleasure! Until He comes, I am Serving Christ joyfully, Bishop Dr. Wm. LaRue Dillard

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9781645594345

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9781645594345_cover.jpg

Biblical Ancestry Voyage

Revealing Facts of Significant Black Characters

Bishop Dr. Wm. LaRue Dillard

ISBN 978-1-64559-432-1 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64559-433-8 (Hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-64559-434-5 (Digital)

Copyright © 1979, 2019 Bishop Dr. Wm. LaRue Dillard

All rights reserved

First Edition

Cover designed by Mr. Ronald Husband of Laverne, CA.

Unless otherwise indicated, Bible quotations are from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Creation and the Chaos

I. Creation

II. The Chaos

The Beginning and Chronology of Humankind

I. Adam, Humankind—The Crown of God’s Creation

II. Noah, His Family—Descendants of Adam Through Seth

III. Corruption and Violence Swept from the Earth

IV. The Other Side of the Flood—Fulfillment of a Prophecy!

V. Fathers of All Nations

VI. The Patriarch Japheth, His Sons and Grandsons

VII. The Patriarch Shem, His Sons and Grandsons

VIII. Miscegenation of Semites and Hamites

The Patriarch Ham, His Sons and Grandsons (Fathers of Many Nations)

I. Ham, the Most Preserved Name in the Bible

II. Great Descendants of Ham

Black Cush, a Giant of a Genius Seed of Ham

I. The Spreading Wings of the Ethiopians

II. Seba—The Firstborn Son of Cush

III. Havilah (Sand)—The Second-Born Son of Cush

IV. Sabtah, Raamah, and Sebtechah

V. Nimrod (Brave)—the Famous Hunter

VI. Great Leaders from the Lineage of Cush Makeda (Oath), Queen of Sheba

VIII. Cushan Rishathaim

VII. Cushi (Ethiopia)—The Faithful Servant of David

Black Mizraim (The Two Egypts) A Courageous Pioneer

I. Caphtor (Son of Mizraim)—Father of the Philistines

II. Asenath (Worshipper of the Neith)—Daughter of the Philistines

III. Abimelech—The Philistine King Who Feared God

IV. Ludim, Firstborn Son of Mizraim

V. Goliath—Great Hope of the Philistines

VI. Black Ahmose—An Offspring of Mizraim

VII. Black Ishmael—Strength of the Desert

VIII. Delilah—a Classic Seducer

IX. The Black Pharaoh, Ramesses II

Black Phut, Father of the Libyans or Cyrenians

I. Black Simon—the Crossbearer

Simon—Seemingly Unhappy Day

II. Black Leaders in the Church at Antioch

Black Canaan, the Cursed Son of Ham

Sin of the Father, Passed to the Son

Canaanites, an Ingenious People

Canaanite Names Misconstrued for Hebrew Names

I. Black Sidon—an Adventurous Son

II. A Noted Black Businessman and King—Hiram

Hiram’s Significance

III. The Black King Who Knew When He Would Die

A. Black Hezekiah’s Fifteen-Year Extension of Life

IV. Black Jebus—Founding Father of Jerusalem

V. Black Aner—the Dependable Servant

VI. Shudah (Pit) and the Judah Connection

VII. Heth, Father of the Hittites

Uriah (Flame of Jehovah)

Biblical Blacks in the Lineage of the Messiah

I. Black Rahab and the Hebrews’ Hiding Place

Salmon and Rahab’s Son, Boaz

II. Solomon (Peaceful)—The Merchant and Monarch

Solomon’s Display of Wisdom

The Magnificence of Solomon’s Harem

Solomon’s Royal Visitor—Queen of Sheba

Shishak, the Conqueror

III. Switching of the Birthright, from Black Manasseh to Black Ephraim

IV. Moses, a Black-Skinned Hebrew: His Birth and Protection

Pharaoh’s Massacre Edict

The Youthful Years of Moses

Zipporah, Moses’ Ethiopian Wife

The Call of Moses God’s Revelation of Himself

Forty Years, Plus Forty Years of Moses’ Life

V. Black Zephaniah, Hope for Judah’s Decaying Religion

VI. The Black Madonna, Blessed Among Women

VII. Jesus, a Hamitic Descendant

Hamitic-Davidic Lineage (The Messianic Line)

Jezebel’s Bloodline Linked to Israel and Judah

Black Rulership in Israel and Judah

I. Ahaziah of Israel, Holden of Jehovah

II. Jehoram, Jah Has Exalted

III. Black Athaliah (Bar of the Lord)

IV. Jehosheba, Oath to Jehovah

V. Joash or Jehoash (Jehovah Gave)

VI. Amaziah, in the Steps of Joash

VII. Uzziah (Might of Jah)

Judah’s Security and Standard of Living Strengthened

Josiah, a Heart to Restore and Heal

Out of One Blood, Other Blacks of the New Covenant

I. We Three Kings

II. Black Herod the Great, His Male Child Massacre

III. Black Herod Antipas

IV. Black Herod Archelaus

V. The Black Apostle, Simon the Canaanite

The Black Apostle in Great Britain

VI. The Black Eunuch from Ethiopia

Queen of Ethiopia (Candace)

VII. A Mixed Multitude: New Creatures of Every Nation

VIII. Recognition from the Dawn of European History

Semites and Hamites of the Same Complexion

Bibliography

About the Author

I dedicate this book to my wife, Betty Gay (Apple Blossom), and in memory of our son Herbert Lee, who was promoted to glory on June 9, 1989, my mother, Carrie Dillard-Brown, promoted to glory May 6, 2009, and my maternal and paternal grandparents Lucille Emma Dillard & Julious Rountree of Suffolk, Virginia, who departed this life in June 1975 and April 1978 respectively.

Our incessant prayers for God’s anointing touch and rich blessing forever rest upon our children—BaLinda Reneé, Stephanie Jane, Brad Tirrell, and Raven DeLandria Yvette, Devon Aubrey Johnson and our grandchildren Dylan-LaRue Dillard, Caleb DeVon and Aubrey Taylor Nicole Johnson—throughout their days on planet Earth.

—Wm. LáRue Dillard

Foreword

This book does just what its title suggests. It is a detailed tracing of the ancestry of significant Black characters, based on historical, social, political, and cultural facts behind the biblical witness. On a deeper level, it reveals the role persons of African descent played in the shaping of the biblical witness. That role has not been dealt with by White scholars who have dominated research and publication of biblical writings heretofore.

Pastor William Dillard is to be commended for what is obviously years of painstaking research, study, and assimilation of the information in his treatment of biblical ancestry voyage. He has provided for the local Afro-American pastor a significant reference book, supplement, and/or alternative to those volumes published by White authors on biblical characters. It is therefore a work that should lift the ethnic pride level of Afro-American pastors and Christians. It is a volume that could particularly be helpful during Black History Month, not only as a resource for preaching and teaching, but small group Bible study of biblical characters of Black ancestry.

On another level, Pastor Dillard has unmistakably dispelled the notion that the biblical witness is something the White Euro-American slave masters handed down to Blacks and that Christianity is something Blacks had to accept and appropriate for their survival against the whip and the lash. In no uncertain terms again, persons of African descent have had a major impact in the development of the Christian Bible as living personalities and voices behind this great sacred document.

One can also detect in this extensive work not only the work of an able scholar, but a man who has been in the trenches as a pastor of Afro-American people. It is the pastoral heart that has inspired Pastor Dillard to uncover for his people and other congregations the truth about themselves. Behind this work is the heart throb of a man who has studied enough and pastored enough to do the scholarly spadework necessary to correct and enlighten those who have been taught and conditioned by generations of misinformation and, in many cases, downright lies about biblical characters.

It is noteworthy that Afro-American people have always made a practice of naming their children after biblical characters. Perhaps consciously and unconsciously, perhaps instinctively they sensed that there was something there all along that suggested to their spirits and minds that the Christian Bible was much more than something an antebellum slave master had placed before them as another tool of control. Perhaps they sensed an ancient affinity with the great characters of the Bible, many of whom were Black and of African ancestry.

Reverend Dr. O. C. Jones

Western Representative

Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board

American Baptist Churches, USA

Preface

More than a decade ago, I made an extremely important decision. Finding myself pushed and pressured from a dozen different sources, I realized the need to pull close, investigate, research, and begin this biblical ancestry voyage in search of Black characters and references in the Holy Bible in order to share what I heard in my spirit as it relates to the slavery of the mind regarding the Lord’s dealing with his human creation.

Unshackling the minds of all those who are in slavery to the stance of the status quo as it relates to the truth of the origin and development of humankind is not easy. But before we are used by God to liberate the captives through rightful teaching and directions, we must be bathing in the sunlight of freedom of the mind ourselves. The mind cannot teach what it has not been taught; it often finds itself opposing right and never coming to the realization that it’s not who’s right, but what’s right, especially in the archives of human history.

The Bible clearly states the origin and history of Black people, and many biblical scholars are quite aware of the genealogy of Blacks in the Bible, but through the years, the presence of Blacks in the Bible have not been proclaimed by theologians, or preachers, as a matter of importance to the whole of God’s plan of the ages. They have not linked Black people as descendants of Ham, Shem, or Japheth, as though they just happen to appear.

If the omission or avoidance has to do with the pigmentation of man’s skin, then it is more appropriate to affirm that the color of black or red would be ascribed to the first man, Adam. One of the Hebrew words rendered for man is Adam, ruddy, like Edom. The Adam (Ha-adam, the man) was the person created in the image of God.

Edom, Idumea (Mark 3:8). The Edomites are descendants of Edom, which means red in the original. It has been known for years that Noah’s son Ham was the progenitor of Black people and Shem dark-skinned people, which for centuries mixed with each other.

World scholars and authors for centuries have treated Ham as less than human. Isn’t it strange that the father of the Ethiopians, Egyptians, Libyans, Philistines, Canaanites, and portions of the Israelites and Arabians (through crossbreeding) have been omitted or passed over as though they weren’t there?

The Bible has been translated several times, and during the translations, many Blacks were excluded from being mentioned as such or camouflaged as being of other ethnic groups. Could this be a conspiracy? Even though the Bible speaks of Ethiopians, Egyptians, Libyans, Philistines, Canaanites and others as being Hamitic (black-skinned people), they are often taught in history books and other literature and cast in movies as light-skinned blue-eyed blonds (descendants of Japhites, Gentiles) as though there were no Shemites or Hamites mentioned in scripture.

There are far too few opportunities for Christians and honest inquirers to ask questions that have been lurking beneath the surface and to get straight-arrow answers. This book is my attempt to provide a context for asking and answering questions about the presence of significant Black people and reference in the Holy Bible.

My effort has been over the past years researching and prayerfully listening to what God has to say about the crown of His creation, and to be as faithful as I could be in meditation, scholarship, and writing to articulate in a contemporary way the historicity of Hamitic people and other Blacks in biblical history.

In the book of Genesis, Africa, of all known named lands, is mentioned first. The name Havilah is the same as Cush or Ethiopia; Ethiopia is located on the continent of Africa, the land of Ham. Havilah was the son of Cush, and a son of Joktan, both Black men, descendants of Ham. A district and even a river were named after them.

Africa is the birthplace of humankind since it is the creation spot of Adam and Eve (geographically, Eden was located in Africa).

It was the Black Africans who pioneered the world in medicine, science, engineering, architecture, fine arts, religion, etc. Abraham visited Africa while at a later period, his grandson, Jacob and the entire Hebrew race resided in the land of Ham. The great Israelite leader Moses and the Black lady of the southern area, the Queen of Sheba, were born on the continent of Africa.

Even Jesus Christ our Lord spent several of his early childhood years in Africa without being noticed. Why? The last known recorded descendant of Solomon and Makeda Sheba, through their son Menelik I, was Haile Selassie of Ethiopia who died in 1974. For nearly 3,000 years, the offspring of Black Solomon reigned in Africa—Ethiopia.

What has happened to Black dominance? How is it that Black people who discovered science, engineering, medicine, fine arts, etc., once living on the highest order, mastering the world’s highest economy and diplomacy for thousands of years long before Europe was born, now find themselves on the lowest echelon worldwide?

Black people, once the richest on earth with vast resources, now find themselves poverty stricken, living in some of the most deplorable areas around the globe! Having reached such heights in world dominance, what could have occurred at a later period to cause such a great civilization to collapse? The supremacy of Black people existed from the biblical architect Nimrod to the historical military genius Hannibal. Many historians have documented that the fall of Hannibal ended Black supremacy.

Historical events are clear that both North America and Europe have distorted (misrepresented) the rich and colorful history of Black people in order to make them feel inferior to the ethnic race (Japhites).

Since the beginning of earlier times from Ethiopia and Egypt, Black people played significant roles in developing nations and civilizations. When the world was relatively uncivilized, Black Africans were already working mathematics, using an alphabet, building pyramids, palaces, homes of brick, temples, yielding crops, raising livestock, melting metal that was molded into other objects, such as tools, weapons, and utensils.

Blacks also excelled as merchants, in the field of arts, literature, science, engineering, medicine, politics, religion, etc. This ancient civilization lasted for thousands of years, longer than any civilization known to man. It reached its peak and subsided long before Europe was born. Why has this information been hidden from young minds? What would our world be like today if this knowledge had been shared with growing children of all ages? Many of today’s racial frictions, tensions, and problems could have been deflected had proper credit been given to the great achievements of Black people.

Many Hamitic descendants have been very active since their forced arrival in this new land. As slaves, they were hindered from learning and grasping the fact that they were once scripturally used by God. Their failure to realize their past great significance can be attributed to constant brainwashing and harsh afflictions they encountered in a world of servitude.

The contractual environment of Black Africans and their descendants has also been impeded by omitting their achievements from the pages of history and distorting their biblical existence through biblical literature and through new Bible translations. Hamites of the past and present who dwelled among their counterparts in the New World etc. only grasped (learned) what the ruling class permitted them to learn and nothing else (whether it was authentic or falsified).

After experiencing a long period of contorted teaching within their environment, many Hamites became mentally reformed, forgetting their true roots and their once highly developed African culture that gave our old and new world its basics.

When it comes to brainwashing, it must be truly said that the slave masters and their assistants performed their task to the fullest.

My biblical ancestry voyage in search of Black characters and references has been a diagnostic feel of the pulse beat of the mind and heart of Americans of African descent and the Christian community as a whole, who ask questions about the role of Black people in the Bible and God’s eternal plan with searching integrity. The answers incorporated in the chapters of this book are meant to honor that with empathy, intellectual responsibility, and biblical authority.

The last three years of my biblical ancestry voyage has been a most exciting adventure as I have examined ancient historical records of historians and biblicists. As I worked, a profound conviction evolved. I am convinced that answers to our deepest questions are in the Bible, the tried, proven, and tested Word of God.

Writing this book has been one of the most exciting challenges of my life. It has been a moving spiritual experience to learn how our Creator dealt with all people and especially Black people, who have been disinherited from a role of significance and honor by Bible scholars and Christian institutions. Oftentimes in my search and writing, I felt like I was carrying on a dynamic three-way conversation between Christian African Americans, the Lord God, and me. I am externally grateful for the high honor of being part of a great family of sons and daughters of the body of Christ of whom I have been privileged to share the gospel in revival meetings throughout this nation, who have encouraged me to continue my work in writing this book.

The information in this book is not an effort to mentally swing the actions of racism from one pendulum to the other. This is not a book against the White ethnic people of the human race. My task is an attempt to highlight the injustices of the past, both in the life of the church world and the non-church world. I do not want to be a part of the problem, but a part of the solution for this and for unborn generations.

It is with a sense of urgency that I put pen to paper—not to glorify myself, for the only good thing about me is the Lord Jesus and my serious crush on the Christ. Also, my dear reader, this book is placed in your hands by the Holy Spirit through me. I trust as you read it, you may experience what I have received in preaching and writing about Blacks in biblical history over the years.

—Wm. LáRue Dillard

Acknowledgments

I want to express my profound gratitude to the officers, leaders, and parishioners of Second Baptist Church of Monrovia, California, for the prayers, support, and recognition of my preaching, teaching, writing, and pastoring gifts as part of my calling as a clergyman, and a gift from God to the church where I have served for the past sixteen years.

I offer my thanks to Bobbie Jean Smith, for her labor of love and care in typing this manuscript.

To Geneva Ward Phillips-Douglas, for research and compilation of the bibliography of this book, with much sacrificial time.

To Ronald Husband, for his creativity in designing the cover of this book.

Each of them is a faithful member of Second Baptist Church.

Because of their help, many people will be blessed, and African-Americans particularly will adopt a new interest in reading the Bible and finding answers to their deepest questions about the historicity of humankind.

—Wm. LáRue Dillard

Chapter One

Creation and the Chaos

At the very outset of our inquiry, we have to encounter a deeply rooted popular fallacy in regard to the creation of the world, the chaos, and recreation. It is a fallacy that can boast of long antiquity among scholars of cosmology, theology, and anthropology. A firm knowledge and conviction of the creation of the world, chaos, recreation, and the creation of man, and the Bible truth of how the world and man developed is essential and vital in our quest for the discovery of the descendants of Japhites, Semites, and Hamites.

The Mosaic account of the above truths hold deep secrets. We must closely examine the Torah (first five books of the Bible) and endeavor to elicit its plain and obvious meaning of the beginning of all things.

I. Creation

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. (Gen. 1:1)

The beginning refers, of course, to the first existence of that with which world history is concerned, the heaven and the earth. All speculation in regard to the eternity of matter is ended, not of eternity itself.

God literally (Elohim, a generic term for deity as well as the proper name for the true and living God) was before the things that are seen and, by His supreme volition, called the heaven and earth into being.

You will note in the inspired description of the verse of what took place in the beginning. It doesn’t say that the heaven and earth was molded, fashioned, or made out of something already existing, but had been created, bringing something into being out of nothing.

The Hebrew word bara is used, which means to call into being without the aid of pre-existing material in this passage and similar passages. Bara does not preclude the use of pre-existing material as in Isaiah 65:18:

But be glad and rejoice forever in that what I create;

For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing,

And her people a joy.

In this passage, the word create is bara. Jerusalem was created out of material that He had already created, brought into existence.

We can readily understand that the word bara, selected by the Holy Spirit to express creation of the world, may have previously signified the forming out of material. But its use is sufficiently defined in this and other similar passages, for we are told that in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, but the scripture never affirms that He did this in the six days.

The work of those days was, as we shall presently see, quite a different thing from the original creation. They were times of restoration, and the word asah is generally used in connection with them. The word asah, in Hebrew, signifies