Church of God News

The reason that this knowledge matters because of what Bible prophecy teaches.

In addition to getting the information from the Temple Institute today, I also received two emails today from someone who asserted:

EPHRAIM & MANASSEH ARE NOT THE U.S. & BRITAIN!    

THE BIBLE’S EXPLAINATION OF EPHRAIM & MANASSEH’S GENETIC LINE DOES NOT SUPPORT YOUR BELIEF BUT INVALIDATES IT!!

The Bible tells us that the mother of Ephraim & Manasseh (ASENATH), was an Egyptian (Because Her father was the Egyptian Priest “POTIPHERAH”: Genesis 41:45,50 & 46:20), and that The Egyptians were descended from Noah’s son Ham; HAM FATHERED THE FOLLOWING NATIONS (AFTER THE FLOOD), “ACCORDING TO THE BIBLE”:(Genesis 10:6): CUSH(Ethiopians),MIZRAIM(Egyptians), PUTH(Libyans), and CANAAN(Canaanites)! See also PSALMS:(78:51),(106:22),(105:23),(105:27), which tells us that the Egyptians were the children of HAM!

Genesis 10:6 Is telling us that the (BLACK Ethiopians), Egyptians, Libyans & Canaanites were “BROTHERS” and ALL had the same (Black Father),“HAM”!   … Which means ASENATH(the Egyptian mother of Ephraim & Manasseh), Was BLACK, In case you haven’t figured it out yet Asenath’s BLACK Genetic traits would make it IMPOSSIBLE FOR HER TO GIVE BIRTH TO TWO WHITE SONS EPHRAIM & MANASSEH (U.S. & BRITAIN), NO MATTER WHAT COLOR HER HUSBAND (JOSEPH) WAS!

That view is not a fact, but an assertion based on some inaccurate assumptions.

Now, yes, the Cushites were black.

Remember Noah had three sons (Ham, Japtheth, and Shem), and their descendants became the three primary races (Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid). Based on dominant and recessive genes from his parents, Ham himself likely was not black (Negroid), as it is much more likely his wife was. Similarly, it would be most likely that Japheth’s wife was Mongoloid and Shem’s wife likely Caucasoid.

Furthermore, the bulk of the ancient Canaanite records we have shows most of them were not what we would consider black.

Notice also the following from the old Ambassador College and Radio Church of God:

The black race is composed of some of the descendants of Noah’s son Ham. Part of the black race stems from Cush (Gen. 10:6). Cush means black in Hebrew (Young’s Concordance). The word “Cush” is often translated into English by the word “Ethiopia,” but not all Cushites live in Ethiopia (an independent nation in East Africa). The Greeks called the children of Cush “Ethiopians.” That’s why we use the word in English. …

Ham had another son, Phut or Put-it is spelled both ways in the Bible. Here is what Josephus writes about the people of Phut.

Phut also was the founder of Libya (by which he means Africa), and called the inhabitants Phutites, from himself: there is also a river in the country of the Moors which bears that name; whence it is that… the Grecian historiographers mention [Africa] by the “appellation of Phut” (See Antiquities, VI, 2).

Put, or Phut, then, is the father of the central Africans. The Egyptians called the region of the Sudan (which was south of Egypt) by the name of Pet. The Babylonians and Persians called a similar region “Putu” (from Smith’s Bible Dictionary and Inter. Stand. Bible Ency.).

Numerous sons of Put settled early into the western region of Mesopotamia, a few hundred miles from ancient Babylon. This is the original center of Hindi, the language of northern and central India (Ency. of World History, by Langer, p. 28).

The people who were settled in this region were uprooted by the Assyrians and driven east into India. …

Of the four sons of Ham, only Cush bears a name which means “black.” Just as some of the sons of Cush are brown so some of the children of Phut are black. (The Development of The Races. Ambassador College, 1968)

Through Ham many of the light people of North Africa arose. The black peoples throughout Africa and south east Asia also descended from Ham. Only two of Ham’s four sons were black. (Hoeh H. The Race Question. Plain Truth, April 1957).

While some of the mixed multitude of Israel were black, and there were some blacks in Egypt, the bulk of the Egyptians were not black.

One can see that by looking at many ancient hieroglyphics (which I have done). Notice some:

Blonde ancient Egyptian woman (Pixabay)

Depiction of white Egyptian woman with wings (Pixabay)

Depiction of white Egyptian man (Pixabay)

Also, when black men are shown, they are shown as essentially the color black on hieroglyphs I have seen, with other Egyptians more of a tan color.

Now, in the 21st century, there is another way to show that relatively few Egyptians were black. Notice the following:

Egyptologists, writers, scholars, and others, have argued the race of the ancient Egyptians since at least the 1970’s. Some today believe they were Sub-Saharan Africans. …

The problem, it was thought, is that mummy DNA couldn’t be sequenced. But a group of international researchers, using unique methods, have overcome the barriers to do just that. They found that the ancient Egyptians were most closely related to the peoples of the Near East, particularly from the Levant. This is the Eastern Mediterranean which today includes the countries of Turkey, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. The mummies used were from the New Kingdom and a later period, (a period later than the Middle Kingdom) when Egypt was under Roman rule.

Modern Egyptians share 8% of their genome with central Africans, far more than ancient ones, according to the study, published in the journal Nature Communications. The influx of Sub-Saharan genes only occurred within the last 1,500 years. This could be attributed to the trans-Saharan slave trade or just from regular, long distance trade between the two regions. Improved mobility on the Nile during this period increased trade with the interior, researchers claim.  (Perry P. Were the ancient Egyptians black or white? Scientists now know. June 11, 2017 https://bigthink.com/philip-perry/were-the-ancient-egyptians-black-or-white-scientists-now-know)

So, no, the bulk of the ancient Egyptians were not black.

Nor were the bulk of the Israelites.

Ephraim and Manasseh – were they part black Egyptian?

“And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and
without a word from you, no man shall lift up his
hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.
And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnathpaaneah.
And he gave him Asenath, the daughter of
Potipherah, priest of On, for his wife. And Joseph
went out over the land of Egypt.” (Gen 41:44-45. Cf
also 46:20, 34)

The Bible does not state that she was an Egyptian at all. Given that On was in the Goshen area where the Hyksos or similar White tribes settled and their aristocracy settled, it is reasonable to assume that he married into that stock for the Egyptians proper were driven southwards.

Although her name is Egyptian, … a name itself is not proof for her being a Black Egyptian. and this sort of thing happens all over the world. (White C. Chart: Was Israel mixed? V. 2.2. Received via email 07/25/19)

Now look at the following:

Mereneptah Stele (Wikipedia)

The Mereneptah Stele is dated to the 1200s BC. This actually mentions the children of Israel and also shows that the Egyptians at that time were not mainly black.

See now the following:

Berlin Pedestal (Biblical Archaeology Society)

The Berlin Pedestal may be the oldest archeological discovery that mentions “Israel.” This was from the 1400s B.C. and shows three Israeli captives. The children of Israel were captives of the Egyptians for the first half of that century. Anyway, the three enslaved males are NOT black but have more of a Caucasian Middle Eastern appearance.

Consider also the following:

Some scholars have decided to test the validity of the claim that there exists Jews of African descent. Parfitt came to the conclusion that the Lemba people of Zimbabwe may have some connection to ancient Jewish populations based on historical and anthropological research.56 Moreover, a geneticist named Trefor Jenkins found that the Lembas had 50 percent Y chromosomes that were Semitic in origin and 40 percent Negroid.57 This test seems to verify the existence of Jews of African descent. Though this may seem to confirm the Hebrew Israelites’ claim, it implies only that those who can trace their heritage to the Lemba are likely ethnically Jewish. Contrarily, the Falashas of Ethiopia, whom the Black Hebrew Israelites use to prove their validity, were  proven to have no biological connection to the ancient biblical Israelites through genetic testing.58 Therefore, the myth that the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba became the first king of Ethiopia conflicts with the available scientific evidence.

Thus, the reader should conclude that unless one can show that all African Americans originate from the Lemba tribe, Hebrew Israelites have no basis for the claim that all African Americans are descendants of the ancient Hebrews. It is false to reason that the existence of some African Hebrew descendants proves the claim that all African Americans are Israelites. (Butts J. The Origin and Insufficiency of the Black Hebrew Israelite Movement. CRI, June 21, 2017 accessed 07/24/19)

Now let’s look at some scriptures:

2 The precious sons of Zion … 7 Her Nazirites were brighter than snow And whiter than milk; They were more ruddy in body than rubies, Like sapphire in their appearance. 8 Now their appearance is blacker than soot; They go unrecognized in the streets; Their skin clings to their bones, It has become as dry as wood. (Lamentations 4:2, 7-8)

10 My beloved is white and ruddy, (Song of Solomon 5:10, NKJV)

10 My beloved is white and ruddy, (Song of Solomon 5:10, Jewish Publication Society Tanakh 1917)

Lamentations is saying that the sons of Israel were very white, but after disaster they would look like mourners.  The beloved is said to have been white in Song of Solomon. Now the Hebrew word צַח tsach does not necessarily mean the color white, though it can. It means bright or dazzling.

Now, the famous Hebrew Rabbi known as Rashi wrote the following about the above:

My beloved is pure white. White, as in, “they were whiter צַחוּ than milk.”

(Rashi on Song of Songs 5:10, https://www.sefaria.org/Rashi_on_Song_of_Songs.5.10.1?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en accessed 07/23/19)

But now notice something else from the Song of Solomon:

5 I am dark, but lovely,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
Like the tents of Kedar,
Like the curtains of Solomon.
6 Do not look upon me, because I am dark,
Because the sun has tanned me. (Song of Solomon 1:5-6)

Notice that the woman is black from the sun. She would not have said that if she was black from birth. White people can tan to be quite dark from the sun.

Notice the following related to Moses:

1 Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. (Numbers 12:1, NKJV)

1 And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman. (Numbers 12:1, Jewish Publication Society Tanakh 1917)

The word translated as “Ethiopian” is word Kuwshiy, which according to Biblesoft’s New Exhaustive Strong’s Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary means descendants of Cush. Or in other words, people of dark color–and it is commonly translated as Cush or Cushite in many Old Testament passages.

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because he had married a black woman as Cushites are black (dark-skinned Africans). If Moses was black, then they would not have proceeded with their charge against him.

After Titus conquered Jerusalem in 70 A.D., Emperor Vespasian issued coins–the back side of which shows conquered Jews:

Titus on left, Jewish man on bottom right (CNG coins)

Vespasian on left, captured Jewish soldiers on right, 71 A.D. (CNG coins)

Notice the the Jews were not African. The second coin inscription in Latin Ivdea means Judea. This is clear evidence that the Jews of the first century (like Jesus) were not black Africans.

Now notice something from the New Testament, from a Catholic translation:

11 Where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free. But Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:11, DRB)

We see a list of contrast. Consider also that the Jews considered the Gentiles to be barbarians.

The reference to Sycthians is pointing to descendants of the children of Israel who live in the East.

Notice the following from the late Dr. Herman Hoeh:

Remnant of Ten Tribes on Shores of Black Sea

Notice the historic proof — confirming Peter’s letters — that a remnant of the House of Israel was settled on the shores of the Black Sea in northern Asia Minor in early New Testament times.

Greek writers, in the time of Christ, recognized that the regions of northern Asia Minor were non-Greek (except for a few Greek trading colonies in the port cities). New peoples, the Greeks tell us, were living in northern Asia Minor in New Testament times. Here is the surprising account of Diodorus of Sicily:

“… Many conquered peoples were removed to other homes, and two of these became very great colonies: the one was composed of Assyrians and was removed to the land between Paphlagonia and Pontus, and the other was drawn from Media and planted along the Tanais [the River Don in ancient Scythia — the modern Ukraine, north of the Black Sea, in southern Russia]” (Book II, — 43).

Notice the areas from which these colonies came — Assyria and Media. The very areas to which the House of Israel was taken captive! “So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day” (II Kings 17:23). “The king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes” (verse 6). …

Britain, after A.D. 449, was settled by hundreds of thousands of new people not there in Peter’s day. History knows them as Angles and Saxons.

They came originally from the shores of the Black Sea — where the House of Israel dwelt! In A.D. 256 they began to migrate from northern Asia Minor along the shores of the Black Sea to the Cymbric Peninsula (Denmark) opposite Britain. These were the people to whose ancestors Peter wrote his epistles.

Which one of the twelve apostles preached to their ancestors — the so-called “White Syrians” — while they abode by the Bosporus and on the Black Sea? Listen to the answer from Greek historians: “In this division Andrew had Scythia, and the neighboring countries primarily allotted him for his province. First then he travelled through Cappadocia, [Upper] Galatia and Bithynia, and instructed them in the faith of Christ, passing all along the Euxine Sea” — the old name for the Black Sea — “… and so into the solitude of Scythia.” (Hoeh H. Where Did the TWELVE APOSTLES Go? Plain Truth, May 1964)

The late Raymond McNair wrote the following:

The word “Scythian” is used only once in the Bible. … (Col. 3:11). … The Scythians were looked upon as barbarians in the eyes of the Greeks and the Romans. They did not have their culture, but they had a highly developed culture of their own. … True, they were nomads who roamed far and wide over the vast Euro-Asiatic steppes of South Russia in tents and in covered wagons. But they were not barbarians …

MOST OF THE SCYTHS WERE ISRAELITES

Who were these Scythians, or Scyths, as they were often called? And how did the name “Scythian” originate?

This was one of the names that the Ten-Tribed House of Israel bore in their captivity. The most likely derivation of this word is as follows:

This word “SCYTHIAN” appears to be derived from the Hebrew word “SUCCOTH.” We shall later see that the language of the Scythians (Scythiac) was very similar to the Hebrew. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance defines this word as follows. “Cukkouth, sook-kahthr’; or Cukkoth, sook-kohth’;… booths; Succoth, the name of a place in Egypt and of three in Palestine” (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary, p.82).

The Hebrew language was written only in consonants. The vowels had to be supplied by the reader. If one takes out the vowels from the Hebrew word “Succoth” the basic part of the word is “Scth.” In Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance it is spelled phonetically both with a “c” and also with an “s.” Remember the “c” and the “s” often have the same sound, as in our English words, “cell” and “sell.” Both English words are pronounced exactly alike. …

“Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Lev. 23:42,43).

This was to be observed by Israel “forever” (v.41). The Hebrew word used in verses 42 and 43, translated as “booths” is from the Hebrew SCTH or SKTH. The Greek word for “Scythian” is “Scuthes,” and is pronounced much like the Hebrew word for “booth.”

The Scythians were undoubtedly booth dwellers or Succoth-dwellers originally, though at a later period in their history, many of them lived in covered wagons. After the Israelites were deported from their homeland in Palestine, unto the region of Media and Assyria, they were an unsettled people. They undoubtedly wandered about in tents or booths, and were called “Scythians,” meaning booth or tent dwellers.

Some historians think “Scythian” means “the tribes”. (McNair R. Key to Northwest European Origins. Ambassador College Thesis, May 1963)

The late evangelist Dibar Apartian wrote:

Among all the peoples known under the general name “Scythians,” the Sacae were the descendants of the children of Israel! Not only is it possible for us to notice a parallel by comparing the traditions of the two peoples, but history even recognizes that the majority of the peoples of the British Isles, particularly the “Scots” and the “Saxons,” are the descendants of the Scythians (New English Dictionary, Article: “Scots”), thus of the Israelites! (Apartian DK. The French-Speaking Peoples In Prophecy. Translated from the French by Carol Kalin in 1975. Ambassador Collage, 1961)

Scythians, according to the ancient information I have seen on them were basically white.

Scythian archer c. 500 B.C. (Jastrow)

The Scythians apparently were, for a time, the bulk of the ‘ten lost tribes’ of Israel.

Anyway, the bulk of the children of Israel were not black.

And nowadays, most of their descendants live in northern Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.