Africa and Africans in the Bible

There are some who attack Christianity as being a “white man’s religion” and they say that the Bible is a “white, European, racist book.”  Such assertions are not only false, they are ridiculous to the point of being absurd.  Those who make such assertions apparently have no true acquaintance with the Scriptures and it’s content.  The Bible is at its core a Hebrew book written from the perspective of Middle Eastern Jews.  Indeed, every book of the Bible was written by a Jew, except for the New Testament books of Luke and Acts.  How can a book that is Jewish and Middle Eastern be considered a European, Anglo or white man’s book?

However, even though the Bible is largely Hebrew in perspective, it is also a multi-cultural book.  It reflects the influence of other cultures—e.g., Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Hellenistic—on the people of Israel.  It also records encounters with individuals and people from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds.  And this includes individuals and groups from the continent of Africa.  In this writing we will examine some of what the Bible says about Africa and Africans.  But first, let us examine the origin of the people groups of Africa as recorded in the Scriptures.