FAIR AND UNBALANCED?
by Richard Burkard
"Mirror, mirror on the wall," asks a queen in the classic children's story Snow White and the Seven Dwarves - and you probably know the second half of the sentence from memory. "Who's the fairest of them all?" she asks.
Did you ever stop to wonder if that inquiry was race-based? The Disney productions never display it that way, as all the characters in the story tend to be Caucasian. But believe it or not, there's at least one Church of God group which might argue the queen's asking a question of race - or at least skin color.
In his book Transformed by Truth, Worldwide Church of God Pastor-General Joseph Tkach claims the "central plank" doctrine of the church in the Herbert Armstrong era was "British Israelism." We might summarize it as the idea that the U.S. and British Commonwealth countries are descended at least from the Biblical King David, and at most all the way from the patriarch Abraham. It claims many of the "lost ten tribes" of Israel actually exist in northwest Europe and English-speaking countries today.
Many WCG spinoff groups still believe in this doctrine to some extent. But the methods used to prove this doctrine sometimes stretch the bounds of believability. This struck me recently, as I studied the Old Testament book of Lamentations under the United Church of God's "Bible Reading Program." The commentary on Lamentations 4 (December 14-15, 2003) includes these words:
There are some today who argue that the ancient Israelites and Jews were black, brown or olive in color. Yet Lamentations 4:7 describes those in good health among them as "brighter than snow and whiter than milk…more ruddy in body than rubies." Chambers Concise Dictionary defines "ruddy" as "red; reddish; of the colour of healthy skin in white-skinned peoples" (1988). King David was also described as "ruddy and of a fair countenance" (1 Samuel 17:42, KJV). This is not the red of Native Americans but of Caucasian peoples with "ruby-red cheeks."
This article will start with that word "fair," and see if it's - well - fairly interpreted here. Then we'll expand our analysis to the overall question of skin color in the Bible.
What do you mean, "fair?"
What about that description of King David (or really the future king at this point of the story) in I Samuel? Most Bible translations other than the King James don't use the word "fair" at all. In its place are words such as "handsome" (NIV) and "good-looking" (CEV). Is this another (alleged) case of modern translations twisting Scripture? Not when you check Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (1890 ed.) and find the Hebrew word yapheh means "beautiful."
Strong's points out "fair" can be a synonym for beautiful - and secular dictionaries show it can have other meanings as well. My American Heritage Dictionary (1975 ed.) offers definitions for fair such as "of light color.... pale or white...." But it also can mean "visually beautiful or admirable.... free of blemishes; unstained; clean...."
But it was definition #2-b of fair that left me stunned: "Pale or white; not ruddy...." Huh? Didn't UCG use I Samuel to argue David was both ruddy and white? If he can't be both, then it appears we must conclude "fair" in the Old Testament refers to beauty and not skin color.
We see how questionable the UCG argument is as we examine other Old Testament verses containing yapheh (KJV unless noted):
* "And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job...." (Job.42:15) Should we really believe they were the whitest women in the country?
* "As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion." (Prv. 11:22) What does skin color have to do with this principle?
* "The Lord called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit...." (Jer. 11:16) So a green tree can be white at the same time?
* "In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair...." (Acts 7:20) Even the one applicable use of "fair" in the New Testament for our discussion translates as "handsome" from the Greek.
Ruddy-Set? Go.
The UCG commentary also tries to make a point with the word "ruddy." Admittedly I've never heard of Chambers Concise Dictionary, but two bigger U.S. names (Webster's and American Heritage) both define the word as "having a healthy red color" - without regard to skin or ethnicity.
Ruddy appears only four times in the KJV, and two of those times seem to connect the word with whiteness: Lamentations 4:7 cited above and Song of Solomon 5:10, "My beloved is white and ruddy...." (This verse is the origin of the line, "He's the fairest of ten thousand" in several Christian songs.)
Oops -- did I just contradict what I wrote above? Not really, since the key word in these verses is not "ruddy" but "white." According to Strong's, the Hebrew root tsach is not emphasizing white as opposed to black. It's all about how dazzling the whiteness is - so bright and like the sun that it creates a glare. A different Hebrew word is used for a white color in the skin, such as in the instructions for determining leprosy in Leviticus 13.
What Color is Your Savior?
When I opened my old King James Bible to Song of Solomon 5:10, I was reminded I'd written these words in the margin years ago: "Jesus is white." Why did I write that? Because Herbert Armstrong claimed it was so, and that was one of the verses often cited to back up his claim. (This verse is understood by some Christians to be an expression of love for Jesus.)
Revelation 1:14 also has been used as a "proof text" for that claim: "His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire." Admittedly there's only base Greek word for "white" in the New Testament. But don't overlook verse 16: "....his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength."
Every other Bible translation we checked substitutes "face" for countenance in verse 16. The Greek root appears as "face" in John 11:44 - and quite ironically, the word also is used in John 7:24: "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." (Don't get ahead of me here; I'll come back to that verse.)
If the face is that shiny, how do we know it's white? Maybe it is, or maybe it's a fiery yellow as the sun often is depicted. Keep in mind that angels can appear as bright as lightning (Mt. 28:3, a different Greek word for "countenance") - and science has determined our sun has no real surface at all, but is entirely gaseous in its makeup.
Adding Insult to Injury
I cut off the excerpt from the UCG Bible Reading Program without including one sentence - a sentence that deserves special consideration by itself, for reasons that should appear obvious. After the line about "ruby-red cheeks" comes this statement:
Consider that the Jews of today are also white.
Oh, are they? All of them? This claim shows quite an ignorance of recent Israeli and Jewish history. Only weeks before I wrote this article, about 2,000 "Ethiopian Jews" staged a protest rally outside the Israeli Prime Minister's office. It's estimated about 80,000 such black-skinned Jews live in Israel now, many the result of rescue missions such as "Operation Moses" and "Operation Solomon." And while some critics doubt they're Jewish at all, my Google search for "Ethiopian Jews" brought more than 11,000 matches.
So White - er, What?
You may be asking after all this, "What's the big deal?" I agree that this issue is not a big deal, in terms of salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ - but for some in the Churches of God, it's more than a "twig" issue. It's a matter of national identity, and identification with a presumed royal and godly line. Herbert Armstrong put it boldly in his book Mystery of the Ages (1985 ed., pg. 148):
It is evident that Adam and Eve were created white. God's chosen nation Israel was white. Jesus was white.
Statements such as this were cited a few years after Mr. Armstrong's death, when the WCG pulled Mystery of the Ages from publication. The statements above had no Biblical attribution in the book, so I was left to "search the Scriptures" for verses seemingly supporting them. But it should be clear that God is not a God of only one race or ethnic community.
"For God so loved the world" - not only the lost ten tribes, not only physical or spiritual Israel, not only people with white skin, but the world - "that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever" - implying from all peoples everywhere - "believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) Other verses show God had mercy on people whose skin became black due to health trials, such as Job (Job 30:30) -- and even the captives of Judah in Lamentations 5:10, a skin reference in KJV which the Bible Reading Program never addresses.
Conclusion
We find Jesus portrayed by Europeans as European, by Africans as African, by Hispanics as Hispanic and by Asians as Asian. Does it really matter how a person visualizes Jesus? Does how you perceive Jesus affect the way you interpret His gospel?
Can you guess who wrote these words recently? Not a liberal theologian, or even a WCG Pastor. These somewhat open-ended questions come from the voice of UCG's "Good News Radio" program, Gary Petty. (Virtual Christian Magazine, available only online, December 2003) It's a reminder of how believers should not "judge according to appearance" - not even to judge white-skinned people as Jewish or necessarily from the line of David.
When the resurrection day comes and God's saints are before Jesus at the judgment seat, do you expect Him to give you a pop quiz about where the "lost ten tribes" are now? Or about what skin color the patriarchs and apostles had? I personally don't think so - because at that moment, none of that truly will matter much. Each saint will have a new spiritual body, which could display itself in human form as Jesus did after His resurrection. And His judgment will be based on works, deeds and actions, not genealogical trivia knowledge. (Rev. 20:12-13)
The UCG hymnal includes a song written in the 1950's which begins: "O God of every nation, of every race and land...." My prayer is that all Churches of God will emphasize that, and de-emphasize Biblical small points involving skin color and national origins. After all, a God who truly wants to save all people everywhere with respect of persons truly is "the fairest of them all."
For more relating to this topic, see Your Question, Please.
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© 2003-04, Richard Burkard, all rights reserved.