Question:
Will you be so kind as to give your opinion on where people of color originated?
Answer:
The origin of the races which now people the world is given as definitely in Genesis 10 as in any other book or writing. The idea you mention of black people descending from Cain is erroneous, for the descendants of Cain were all swept away by the Flood unless some of them had intermarried with the descendants of Seth, the line from which Noah sprang. In like manner, the assertion that black people resulted from the curse upon Ham’s son is equally erroneous and unfounded in the Scriptures. Genesis 10 tells us that Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The children of the latter, Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras, and their descendants, peopled the North; most of the European nations sprang from them. The sons of Shem,— Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram, peopled with their descendants the lands around Palestine. From Asshur sprang the Assyrians, etc. The children of Israel descended from Shem through Arphaxad. The children of Ham peopled Canaan for a time and Africa. They were Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan. From Mizraim sprang the Egyptians, from Canaan the Canaanites, from Cush the Ethiopians, etc. Many nations, races, and tribes of the world started from a mixture of the above. Our opinion of the color of the African and other races is that they were originally dark-skinned people, not due to a particular curse or even sin itself. After all, Adam, the father of all humankind, was a man of color adopted from the earth from which he was formed; and when given life, he was considered by God as “very good.” The skin color of the nations has been perpetuated and deepened by the climate, intermarriage, etc.
