Eurocentric
historians have worked hard to portray Black Africa as perpetually uncivilized
and unimportant to world history, including Biblical history. Part of that effort included dividing Egyptian civilizations from “Black”
Africa, so that the well-known Biblical references to Egypt wouldn’t count as
references to Black people. Implicitly
and explicitly, I was taught that outside of Egypt, ancient Africa was just a
bunch of disorganized, insignificant, tribal villages.
Well
that’s not what the Bible says.
The Bible says that Egypt
was totally integrated into the larger African culture.
Around
926 B.C., during the reign of Rehoboam, king of the Judah, the Bible says that Shishak king of Egypt came up against
Jerusalem… with twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horsemen, and people
without number who came with him out of Egypt— the Lubim, and the Sukkiim, and
the Ethiopians. (2 Chronicles 12: 1, 2)
Egyptologist
identify Shishak as Pharaoh Sheshonk I, who
left behind records of a military campaign into Canaan. So, we don’t have to argue about historical
support for this passage. It happened.
The
invasion force in 2 Chronicles 12 was an alliance of Egyptians, Lubim, Sukkiim,
and Ethiopians.
Lubim
were Libyans, a central north African nation. Sukkiim refers to desert tribes
from the Saharan territory of ancient Libya.
Ethiopia covered territory in central and west Africa.
 |
| 17th Century British Map of Africa |
Remember
that the modern, post-colonial borders of Libya, Egypt, and Ethiopia are
nothing like their ancient boundaries. As
the map shows, as late as the 17th century, Europeans faced
expansive African states, not tiny, disorganized, uncivilized tribal savages.
In
fact, you can’t think of ancient Egypt, Libya, and Ethiopia as “countries.”
Think of them as regions and empires. The
army in 2 Chronicles 12 consisted of peoples from the regions of northern,
eastern, western, and central Africa.
The Bible says that Black people
were always a positive part of God’s plans.
15
centuries before the Islam came into existence,
Black people marched into Judah.
And
God had sent them.
When Rehoboam had established
the kingdom and had strengthened himself, that he forsook the law of the Lord,
and all Israel along with him….Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem,
because they had transgressed against the Lord (2 Chronicles 12: 1, 2)
When
King Rehoboam saw the power of Black army arrayed against his new kingdom, he
started praying. God responded: “…My wrath shall not be poured out on
Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless they will be his servants, that
they may distinguish My service from the service of the kingdoms of the nations.”
(2 Chronicles 12: 7, 8)
That’s
right. An African army conquered Judah.
So Shishak king of Egypt
came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord
and the treasures of the king’s house; he took everything. He also carried away
the gold shields which Solomon had made (2 Chronicles 12: 9)
The Bible says that Egypt
wasn’t the only African empire that influenced Biblical history.
Notice
that that the human authors of the Old Testament clearly understood that Egypt
was one of many empires in region we know as Africa, and they understood from
interaction and experience that even separate nations were formidable civilizations.
A
generation after the African conquest of Judah, Ethiopia had overtaken Egypt as
the dominant power. 2 Chronicles 2: 9
says Then Zerah the Ethiopian came out
against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he
came to Mareshah.
A million
soldiers. Black soldiers. In the 9th century. B.C.
The Bible says that not
only were Black empires important in God’s plan, so were individual Black
persons.
When
the prophet Jeremiah was unjustly imprisoned for speaking God’s truth to the
power in the Jewish state, an Ethiopian eunuch named Ebed-Melech was the
prophet’s only ally.
Ebed-Melech went out of the
king’s house and spoke to the king, saying: “My lord the king, these men
have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they
have cast into the dungeon, and he is likely to die from hunger in the place
where he is. For there is no
more bread in the city.” (Jeremiah 38: 8, 9)
Oh,
and before you waive off Ebed-Melech as an insignificant “slave,” remember that
his position and personal status in the court of the Jewish king was identical
to that of Daniel, and the 3 Hebrew boys who served Nebuchadnezzar the
Babylonian.
To them the chief of the
eunuchs gave names: he gave Daniel the
name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to
Azariah, Abed-Nego. (Daniel 1)
The Bible says that there
was a constant African connection.
Dark
skinned Ethiopians were so familiar to ancient Jews that they were used as a
metaphor in Jewish proverbs.
Can the Ethiopian change his
skin or the leopard its spots? (Jeremiah 13: 23)
That’s
the ancient version of modern African-American saying: “The only two things I have to do are stay
Black and die.”
In
the book of Acts, God made Philip the evangelist go way out of his way to make
sure that the gospel went to “Black” Africa.
Now an angel of the Lord
spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which
goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert. So he arose and
went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace
the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come
to Jerusalem to worship (Acts 8: 26, 27)
Since
at least the days of King Solomon, Ethiopians had practiced Judaism. The Bible says that while the original
apostles were still alive and preaching, Ethiopians of the highest influence
and rank were pious and observant Jews.
The
Mosaic law and prophets were published
and read in ancient Africa while ancient Europeans were still worshipping Thor,
Odin, and the Druid trees.
So Philip ran to him, and
heard him reading the prophet Isaiah (Acts 8: 30)
And,
according to the Bible, Black African Jews were among the first
generation of converts to Christianity.
So he commanded the chariot
to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he
baptized him. Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord
caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way
rejoicing. (Acts
8: 38, 39)
Empress
Candace’s treasury secretary did not die the only Black African Christian in
the first century.
By 330
A.D., King Ezana the
Great made Christianity the official religion of Ethiopia and the Aksumite empire. Christianity didn’t become the the state
church of the Roman Empire until AD 380.
Because
of the Holy Spirit’s intervention in the book of Acts, the Church of Ethiopia
is the oldest continuing, organized Christian church on the planet.
That’s
not just Black history. That’s history ---if you believe the Bible.
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry,
and rural leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield,
Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking
Organization (SAYNO); and director of
rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
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P O
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