Race, Racism, and the Biblical Narratives: On Use and Abuse of Sacred Scripture

By Cain Hope Felder

Race, Racism, and Biblical Narratives is a critical essay from Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation written by the project's editor, Cain Hope Felder, now in a concise stand-alone book. In this important work, Felder clarifies the profound differences in racial attitudes in the biblical world and now.

The book reveals the processes at work in both the New and Old Testaments that reflect ancient ambiguity about what we call race. Felder uncovers misuses of the biblical text (such as the so-called curse of Ham) in subsequent interpretation and shows how the Bible has been used to trivialize African contributions and demean and enslave Black people. Race, Racism, and Biblical Narratives challenges scholars and church people alike to a deeper and more honest engagement with the biblical text.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Release date: May 23, 2023
• ISBN: 9781506488530

Book preview

Cover Page for Race, Racism, and the Biblical Narratives

Race, Racism, and the Biblical Narratives

Race, Racism, and the Biblical Narratives

On Use and Abuse of Sacred Scripture

Cain Hope Felder

Fortress Press

Minneapolis

RACE, RACISM, AND THE BIBLICAL NARRATIVES

On Use and Abuse of Sacred Scripture

Copyright © 2004, 2023 Fortress Press, an imprint of 1517 Media. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Email [e-mail] or write to Permissions, Fortress Press, PO Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440-1209.

This volume is an updated and revised version of the author’s Race, Racism, and the Biblical Narratives, from Cain Hope Felder, ed., Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation (1991; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2021).

Scripture is from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.

Cover design: Marti Naughton

Cover image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nubian_Tribute_Presented_to_the_King,_Tomb_of_Huy_MET_DT221112.jpg Credit: Rogers Fund, 1930

Print ISBN: 978-1-5064-8852-3

eBook ISBN: 978-1-5064-8853-0

While the author and 1517 Media have confirmed that all references to website addresses (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing, URLs may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

Contents

Introduction

Race and Sacralization in the Old Testament

The Curse of Ham

Old Testament Genealogies

The Narrative about Miriam and Aaron

The Doctrine of Election

Secularization in the New Testament

Notes

Introduction

The aim of this essay is to discuss the questions of race and ethnic identity in the diverse biblical narratives. I hope to clarify, for modern readers, the profound differences in racial attitudes between those in the biblical world and in the subsequent history of Eurocentric interpretation. In antiquity, we do not have any elaborate definitions of or theories about race. This means that we must reckon with certain methodological problems in attempting to examine racial motifs as contained in the Bible. Ancient authors of biblical texts did have a color consciousness (awareness of certain physiological differences), but this consciousness of color/race, as we shall show, was by no means a political or ideological basis for enslaving, oppressing, or in any way demeaning other peoples.¹ In fact, the Bible contains no narratives in which the original intent was to negate the full humanity of black people or view blacks in an unfavorable way.² Such negative attitudes about black people are entirely postbiblical. In this regard, the following observation by Cornel West is most instructive:

The