ANACHRONISTIC FALLACY. Im willing to bet you have never heard that expression before. In fact, this may or may not be your first time hearing the term and you may be asking yourself what does the expression have to do with Israelites and Hamites. Those are great questions to ask yourself, because history demands light must expose the darkness, and that would be the aim of this article.
An anachronistic fallacy is when people take modern people, places, and terms in a chronological timeline other than where it occurred. For example, there was no such thing as the white race until colonialism. So, arguing that white people existed prior was be challenging. This should give you a sneak people into how this article will address the nature of the fallacy in conjunction with two important people groups from the Bible. The Shemites and the Hamites. Please, share. Shalom.
Israelite and Hamite Encounters
The biblical record consistently situates the Israelites in proximity to Hamitic-African people groups like the Egyptians (Mizraim), Cushiness (Ethiopians), and Canaanites. The Biblical records are replete with evidence of these encounters. Abraham dwelled in Egypt during famine Gen 12:10 1).
Moses, a Hebrew, married a Cushite woman (Num. 12:1). In an effort to argue Moses European or Euro-Arab ancestry, some argue subjectively, Miriam's response was due to the Cushite woman's dark complexion. However, this hermeneutic is racial-bias and colorism rooted in anachronistic fallacies. Miriam's reaction shows her identity as (Hebrews) culturally distinct but not foreign. 2 The secular Greek Historian Herodotus (Histories, Book II) described Egyptains and Colchians as "black-skinned" with woolly hair. 3. Moreover, Martin Bernal (Black Athena) and Cheikh Anta Diop (The African Origin of Civilization) emphasize that Israel's earliest cultural contacts - Egypt and Cush - were undeniably African and dark skinned. 4So, what can we conclude from the biblical text and historical texts which essentially are saying the same thing? Israel (tribes descended from Shem) emerged in direct contact withe Hamitic tribes whose African identity is replete with evidence of their beautify dark complexions, embedding this same reality in Israel's history as well.
“Israel sojourned in Africa for centuries -- one could say they are African.”
Israelites & Hamitic Phenotype
The historical data does not stop there. Where is the biblical and logical evidence to go along with this hidden discovery. Essentially, we can approach this using two methods of logical reasoning - deductive and inductive
From a deductive standpoint, In Gen 42:7-8 Joseph's (Yōsef) brothers stand before him in Egypt (Hamites) and did not recognize him. Now, mind you, if one argues from the basis of cultural dress alone, they're committing a limited choice fallacy. The limited choice fallacy assumes there is only one possible answer to this question. 5 It could also fall under a Hasty Generalization. Joseph must've appeared as they did too from a physiological standpoint.
In Ex. 2:19 Moses, a Hebrew and an Israelite, was described by a Midianite woman as "an Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds." Deduction demands his (skin tones, hair, and features) were Egyptian in order for him to be identified as such.
More secular references are corroborating this evidence. For example, Archaeological portraits from Lachish and Samaria (8th Century BCE) depicts Israelites with features consistent with brown complexions and woolly hair. 6 Most people would in outrage if their ancestors were portrayed as some other ethnicity other than their own. It's normal human behavior. The late Michael Jackson was outraged, when they asked someone European to depict him on the big screen. Frank M. Snowden (Blacks in Antiquity) documents Greco-Roman writers describing Jews as resembling Egyptians (Hamites) and Ethiopians (burnt faces, Strongs. "their blackness") juxtaposed to European nations.7
The Roman historian Tacitus (Histories, 5.2) suggested Jews were originally from Ethiopian, not that they were Ethiopians, but rather they resembled their physiological disposition.8 So, both textual and archeological evidence portray Israelites and Hamites within the spectrum of dark-skinned, Asiatic-Afro affinity.
Anachronous Fallacy & Hamites
Modern racial categories (e.g. Black, White, etc.) are anachronistic when read back into the ancient world. The "curse of Ham", used specifically by European nations, was historically twisted to justify chattle slavery of Hebrew people groups. Yet, the Bible itself, never associated Ham's descendants with whiteness or inferiority, which must be true, if their curse was "darkness" or "dark complexion" according to European hermeneutics.9
Ham brought forth - Cush (Ethiopia), Mizraim (Egypt), Put (Libya), and Canaan Gen. 10:6. Furthermore, the curse was not on Hamites, but rather specifically on Canaan Gen. 9:25What are other historians saying? David Goldenberg (The Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) show the linking of Ham to Blackness and servitude around late medieval era. These little breadcrumbs demonstrate this problematic thinking is new and was amplified during colonial times when European nations began to conquer the Earth. Benjamin Isaac (The Invention of Racism in Classic Antiquity) argues that ancient ethnography described skin color descriptively, not hierarchically. 10.
What should we conclude from this? If you hear a Christian pastor or European Jewish historian using this as a talking point for their beliefs, be ready to defend the truth about this deceptive argument and how it gives non-colored nations a false sense of security when telling their children the characters in the Bible were non-dark skinned.
How to Restore Hamitic | Israelite Dignity
In order to restore dignity to the Bible and the Bible's people groups, we need to recognize conquering nations destroy evidence, and manipulate the facts. If we can understand this when we engage in discussions about these truths, we can restore the heritage of many people groups who have been marginalized and written out of the history books. Ancient Egypt, pioneered mathematics, writing, and monumental architecture some of which influenced Israelite culture. It's unfortunately, through the diabolical nature of the classification of race many are deceived by modern day falsehoods.
Conclusion
There are countless examples that can be made from biblical testimony and secular scholarship which converge to argue coherently that Shem and Ham's descendants were indeed dark-skinned Asiatic-Afro people groups. We need to teach our children these truths, and also teach them to think logically about the dangers of anachronism which strips the dignity of conquered people by giving glory to those who continue to oppress through power, sex, and money.