This post is not political or about race in the modern United States or about oppression or social justice but on the Biblical view of race and ethnicity.

Mainly a response to this video

First of all is does race really exist? And again we are not saying here that persecution based on skin color may not have happened.We are not talking about discrimination or that people have not experienced it but only the pure genetics of race itself for historical purposes.Politically I do not dispute race as a hot bed issue that effected many people! This article is not about race relations in modern times.

The simple answer on race is no ,all modern people came from the sons of Noah Shem,Cham and Yafet or Japheth and they all came from Adam and Eve .All human beings are essentially the same understanding 6000 years of different people living in different places and eating different things.

Of course the typical view is that Shem are the people of the middle East or the Semites and Japheth are the Caucasians and some east Asians and Ham is Africa and some of Australia and east Asia also.And obviously this is not universally true because of thousands of years of intermixing between each other.Race itself was not a concept until early modern times ,there was no concept of race for the first 5000 years of human history.The Greeks called southern Africans “Ethiopian” because they had faces burned by the sun but no one thought that they were a different race at all.Similar to the origin of the word Arab from the word Erev meaning evening because both are dark or the word orev meaning blackbird.So no one in ancient times believed in race at all ,race was a construct that came into being in about the 14 or 1500’s or so.

So before mass transportation allowed easy travel and social media allowed contact people were isolated from one another and hence what we call races developed.All this being said can we safely conclude that in a Bible centered world view that at least on how people typically think of it ,race is not Biblical.

A controversal statement but one I believe to be true!

Next ethnicity !

Deuteronomy 32:8-9 New International Version

⁸ “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
    when he divided all mankind,
he set up boundaries for the peoples
    according to the number of the sons of Israel.
⁹ For the Lord’s portion is his people,
    Jacob his allotted inheritance.”

This is after the rebellion at Babel and God scattered man and created Nations and languages according the the number of the children of Israel although the Dead Sea scrolls say by the numbers of the children of God (angels).Of course Jacob means Israel or the Jews and those grafted into the family of Abraham by following the Messiah Jesus.

So God created Nations,cultures and languages and gave each Nation a demonic baby sitter accept the Jews who belonged to the Lord.This is why different Nations worshipped different gods because the Lord, the most High gave each Nation a different spiritual baby sitter.( Read Psalm 82 also on this)

So who are those 70 Nations ,I have other extensive articles on this issue but the simple answer is that we do not totally know.Some things like Yavan being Greece and Ashkenaz being the Germanic peoples .From Arphaxad the Sumerians and Kush being associated with southern Africa and Fut with North Africa or the Berbers.However no one really knows for sure and also many people mixed quite a bit so full equation with modern nations are impossible.Take england ,originally they were Celts then came invaders from Saxony in Germany and Danes from Scandinavia and finally Norman French in 1066 ,so England is quite a melting pot.Or France a mix of Roman ,Celtic and Germanic peoples.

So from Europe you would have Ashkenaz as all Germanic people.And Ripath as Celtic peoples and Yavan as Hellenistic peoples and Tubal and meshek make up Russian and Slavic people.AndTogarmah likely being Armenia and maybe the Hittites and possible with Turks also on the eastern end and Tiras being Thrace who were also associated with Scythians.That is a general round up of the children of Japheth.Also including Native North And South Americans as Togarmah

Shem is harder to lock down because the Islamic conquests sucked up all the middle eastern people into one pretty much.Ashur and Arphaxad are Iraq and Elam western Iran with madai the Japhethite the eastern part of Iran and eastern Persia.However it is all mixed up with the Islamic conquests so todays middle east is Arabs ,Jews and some parts of western Iran which are part of Elam .Eastern Iran is a mix of Madai and Turks and Hindu’s and other peoples who were of the ancient Persian empire.

Although the Bible says that Kush had some dealings in ancient Sumer most of the the children of Ham are in Africa or Oceania (Australia and New Guinea etc..) Who may have mixed somewhat with Togarmah in east Asia.And tracking the children of Ham is hard because southern Africa was not as organized in the same way as the ancient world until modern times.We can say Mitzraim is Egypt and Fut the Berbers and Kush more the southern Part of the continent but less is known for sure.

So in closing I would say that Nations and ethnic groups are Biblical and are mentioned from the early chapters and books.Who precisely were the 70 nations from after Babel ,well scripture has ideas but it will not be fully known until Jesus returns ,here is Revelation on the matter.

Revelation 7:9 NIV

⁹ “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.”

So scripture tells us that in heaven people will retain their National ,ethnic and linguistic characteristics!

And also I am not doing this article to argue against the video above but to respond to both things true and less true.I actually enjoy that channel quite a bit.

God Bless all and take care!