“Again, my point is that, e.g., a six-footer will be called “Shorty” in a society of 7-footers.”
I know I should not say anything, but your method of reasoning is completely absurd.
The writers of the Bible, believing in the criticality of their subject matter, were not given to such slack nonsense as you assign to them.
When the Biblical writer mentioned that Esau was hairy, does that not seem to suggest that most of his compatriots were not hairy?
Or, doesn’t history place blacks as inhabiting Africa? And the Egyptian paintings definitely have the Egyptians as white when you decode their method of representation. The paintings do represent blacks with black pigmented painting, and they were represented as slaves.
“Milky white” is certainly hyperbole, but to think that it was referring to a non-white is absurd.
No, please: Your opinion is valuable.
When the Biblical writer mentioned that Esau was hairy, does that not seem to suggest that most of his compatriots were not hairy?
To me, that suggests only that Esau was hairy in comparison to other (less-hairy) persons whom the writer (who was certainly not as well-travelled or sophisticated as a modern person, who would be familiar with numerous different races and ethnic groups) considered "average."
Or, doesn’t history place blacks as inhabiting Africa? And the Egyptian paintings definitely have the Egyptians as white when you decode their method of representation. The paintings do represent blacks with black pigmented painting, and they were represented as slaves.
It was not my intention to engage in an anthropological discussion. I know too little about the mass migration of different peoples in the Middle East thousands of years ago.
My intention was only to point out that when a writer (in a primitive culture) says "big" or "hairy" or "fair-complexioned," one should not assume that he is using the same measuring stick as the one employed in an entirely different era and geographical region, like present-day Europe / America.
Regards,