All of us, no matter who we are or where we live, are descended from one and the same individual, our forefather Adam. In the context of this verse, Paul is clearly pointing to the unity of the human race. It is frequently translated as "Gentiles" but is also rendered "nation" or "people" in many situations. The first thing I would like to point out is that the Bible teaches that mankind belongs to one "race." We see this idea in Acts 17:26, which states that God "made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth." The Greek word that is translated "nation" in this verse is ethnos, from which we get our English words ethnic and ethnicity. In this article, I would like to sketch out the Biblical support for these two ideas and then draw a few conclusions from our findings that may well bring the contemporary debates on the subject into a different light. Yet when we look at the New Testament, we see support both for speaking of one overarching race and for speaking of many different races of people as well. It eliminates the perceived differences between us, and allows us to focus upon the unity that we all share together as those who are created in the image and likeness of God. Some brothers and sisters have suggested that the Bible teaches that all of mankind is a part of one "race" and, because of that, we ought not to speak of people as belonging to different "races," but only as belonging to the one "human race." To be sure, there is something appealing about this idea. One of the questions that I have routinely encountered from Christians in these debates concerns the appropriateness of the word "race." The question usually goes something like this: Is the idea of "race" simply a sociological construct, or is there any Biblical support for speaking of people as belonging to different "races"? The topics of racism, social justice, and racial reconciliation have been hotly debated topics within the Church and on social media for some time now.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |