Are there any white people in the bible?

[Hazelelponi]

I guess Pontius Pilate was white, and some of the Greek Philosophers that saint Paul encountered in Athens were probably white, but Jews weren't, they are more or less like Arabs are today.

Can you think of any white people of faith and importance in the bible?

We've come to this point have we?

Has the racism that's pushed in American culture to divide the people for war now coming for the earliest Christians to divide them according to their race too?

The Bible has an answer to all:

"In Christ there is no Jew or Gentile" Galatians 3:28

Don't join the Marxist's in attacking what is Holy.

 

[trophy33]

I may be wrong, but Titus looks like a Latin spelling.

Yeah, you are right, Titus is a Roman name. According to tradition, he was from Crete. Maybe a Greek with a Roman name.

Or his name was Titos and Bible got it latinized.

 

[Xeno.of.athens]

Don't join the Marxist's in attacking what is Holy.

Some allegedly Christian groups are essentially white supremacist as well as right wing in their politics. I worry a lot more about them than about imaginary Marxists.

 

[returntosender]

It's interesting there's never been a list put together, or has there? Google?

 

[returntosender]

This is an interesting link: How Did Different Races Come into Existence as God's Wonderful Created Image?

 

[ozso]

There are three genetic races. Negroid (mainly African), Mongoloid (mainly Chinese and Japanese) and Caucasiod (everyone else, including most of the people in the bible).

 

[returntosender]

Mongoloid refers to Mongolia.

In the early 20th century someone started calling people with Down Syndrome mongoloid because their eye shape resembles those who are Asian (epicanthic folds). It was dropped in the 1950s.

Yes, it came to me so i deleted it and you brought it back. Chagrin

 

[bling]

I have a hard time remembering who is black, white, yellow and red in my Bible class.

 

[The Barbarian]

I do not want to be rude but what is the point of this? did not GOD create humans all humans, white yellow black there are no differences, the same with hair colour or eye colour, can we judge people by colour, absolutely not. why do you want to know, it is the same as asking Jesus hair colour or eye colour, probably brown, yes there were probably "white skinned people" in the bible certainly. would it change your perception if you knew?
At the end we are all god's children made in his image.

Quite so. The ancients were much less obsessed by race than we are. And they were, in that respect, much closer to God. I doubt very much if Jesus would have been able to eat at a lunch counter in Little Rock in 1960, even if he was clean-shaven and in a business suit.

 

[ViaCrucis]

I guess Pontius Pilate was white, and some of the Greek Philosophers that saint Paul encountered in Athens were probably white, but Jews weren't, they are more or less like Arabs are today.

Can you think of any white people of faith and importance in the bible?

Over the last couple hundred years "whiteness" has changed. In the 1800's Italians and Greeks weren't considered "white". They've only become white in the 20th century.

So in one sense, it depends on what one means by "white". Presumably there were plenty of people among Paul's missionary journeys in Greece and parts of Anatolia who we would, today, call "white".

But, I'd argue more importantly, the whole concept of "white"; and the whole notion of "races" of human beings is nonsense rooted in a highly modernistic, and intrinsically racist, view of humanity.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[ViaCrucis]

There are three genetic races. Negroid (mainly African), Mongoloid (mainly Chinese and Japanese) and Caucasiod (everyone else, including most of the people in the bible).

This isn't true. The entire field of genetics has rendered theories such as this utterly obsolete.

There aren't any genetic races. There's just human beings. And we come in a massive gradient of phenotypes.

-CrptoLutheran

 

[returntosender]

I think there was a reason for everything God did. Including the different color of eyes and people.

 

[Jonaitis]

I guess Pontius Pilate was white, and some of the Greek Philosophers that saint Paul encountered in Athens were probably white, but Jews weren't, they are more or less like Arabs are today.

Can you think of any white people of faith and importance in the bible?

"White" is a label that was created much later in history. In the biblical times, ethnicity was equivalent to our idea of "race". An Israelite and a Moabite were two different people groups in the ancient world, though genetically very similar. Even today, the construct of race makes no sense. The human population is gradient, rather than distinct. Mediterranean shares affinity with Southern Europeans ans North Africans. West Asian shows affinity to East Asia and Middle East and Eastern European. It is not useful to use such categories in the real sense. It is very imaginary and divisive.

 

[RileyG]

What about the book of Maccabees and it’s reference to Gaul (modern day France)?

 

[Rose_bud]

"White" is a label that was created much later in history. In the biblical times, ethnicity was equivalent to our idea of "race". An Israelite and a Moabite were two different people groups in the ancient world, though genetically very similar. Even today, the construct of race makes no sense. The human population is gradient, rather than distinct. Mediterranean shares affinity with Southern Europeans ans North Africans. West Asian shows affinity to East Asia and Middle East and Eastern European. It is not useful to use such categories in the real sense. It is very imaginary and divisive.

Thank you for your thoughts.
A very limiting label. For example, when I call someone just a white person. I've missed the opportunity to understand their ethnicity, their heritage, their history. Same goes for a black person, I miss out on the opportunity to know, that someone is a X speaking person from the Y clan, but also decended from Z. So much I miss out on knowing because all is seen is a colour.

We, as Christians find our identity in Christ. We are all his children, but we are not clones. There is beauty in our diversity.

 

[Karajini]

I guess Pontius Pilate was white, and some of the Greek Philosophers that saint Paul encountered in Athens were probably white, but Jews weren't, they are more or less like Arabs are today.

Can you think of any white people of faith and importance in the bible?

 

[Karajini]

Not sure what you mean by "white", but the federal government officially categorizes people with origins in Lebanon, Iran, Egypt and other countries in the MENA region as white. (MENA is the middle east and north Africa.)

Well the Bible was around a long time before America's federal government lol. People of Middle Eastern and North African descent are usually counted as “white” by the U.S. government, though most do not identify that way and the Hebrews in the Bible weren't either. Greeks and Romans mentioned in the Bible were white.

 

[Karajini]

Any Asian? Any Hispanic? Any black?

Our God and His theology is beyond physical appearance. It matters nothing to Him.

Yes, God's love is the color of water! To answer your question, some scholars guess that Moses’ wife, Zipporah, was black since she was a Cushite (Numbers 12:1). Cush is an ancient name for an area of Africa. The Shulammite may have been black (Song of Solomon 1:5), although the context indicates that her skin was dark due to working in the sun. Some propose that Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:3) was black. Some believe that the Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon (1 Kings 10:1) was black. Simon of Cyrene (Matthew 27:32) may have been black, and also “Simeon called Niger” in Acts 13:1. The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:37 was almost certainly black. Ethiopians are mentioned about 40 times in the Bible, and we can assume that these are references to black people, since Ethiopians are black. The prophet Jeremiah asked, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin?” (Jeremiah 13:23)—the natural assumption is that Jeremiah refers to black skin.

 

[Karajini]

We can speculate to a certain degree as to peoples skin color in biblical times from their geological location ... other than that we really don't know what their skin color was.

A person’s skin color is rarely mentioned in the Bible; the color of one’s skin is meaningless to the basic message of the Bible.

 

[RandyPNW]

I guess Pontius Pilate was white, and some of the Greek Philosophers that saint Paul encountered in Athens were probably white, but Jews weren't, they are more or less like Arabs are today.

Can you think of any white people of faith and importance in the bible?

I'm not sure the Bible categorized people by "black, white, yellow, brown," etc.? They obviously came from different families, tribes, and nations, carrying the DNA of each group. The distinguishing features and colors isn't something treated much in the Bible, though it is there.

And I think it's the same with people, recognizing that they have differences that make the various groups unique and yet related. This kind of diversity appears to have been God's plan for mankind. The different features did not make any people greater or less--they were all people, made in God's image.

As a side note I would suggest that just as there is a common physical DNA inherited in each group there is also a common *spiritual DNA* inherited in each group. There are certain sin inclinations, I think, in the various groups, which is something that each group may either capitulate to or fight against. But this may or may not be disputable.