Posted on 04/11/2005 6:16:08 AM PDT by twas
"And Mary and Aaron spoke against Moses, because of his wife the Ethiopian" (Douai version)
Ethiopians are semitic people - the Amharic. For a long time theirs was a joint kingdom with Sheba, which is in Arabia. As far back as records go, they worshipped God following the pre-Temple pattern of the Hebrews. They have become intermixed to a great degree with the black Africans over time, but they are certainly not originally of Bantu or Nilo-Hamitic ethnicity.
However, this begs the question of what is exactly meant by the term, due to its wideranging use and the variety of peoples living there.
The Catholic Encyclopedia notes on Ethiopia:
"It is not easy to determine to what part of the world the name Ethiopia properly applies in the course of history. The territory it covered, and even the use of the word to denote a territory, have varied in ages and at the hands of different writers. In the early pages of the Bible Ethiopia is used to designate the lands inhabited by the sons of Cush, and is therefore applied to all the scattered regions inhabited by that family. Such a use of the word is purely ethnographical. Elsewhere, however, in the Bible it is applied to a definite region of the globe without consideration of race, and is thus used geographically. ...
Concerning Nubian Ethiopia: "The races which peopled these regions differed considerably. In the valley of the Syene as far as the junction of the Arbara the population consisted for the most part of husbandmen of Egyptian extraction. In the plains of the Upper Nile, side by side with some negro tribes, were a people allied to the Himyarites, and who had migrated thither from southern Arabia, while others again showed that they owed their origin to the Egyptians and Berbers."
Concerning Abyssinian Ethiopia: "The modern Tigré. formerly the kingdom of Axum, would seem to have been the kernel of this State. It was founded by refugees who came to the African continent when the Arsacidæ were extending their sway in the Arabian peninsula, and the power of the Ptolemies was declining in Egypt. These refugees belonged to the Sabean tribes engaged in the gold and spice trade between Arabia and the Roman Empire; their dealings with civilized races had developed them, and, thanks to their more advanced stage of mental culture, they acquired a preponderating influence over the people among whom they had come to dwell. Still, the descendants of these immigrants form a minority of the Ethiopian people, which mainly composed of Cushite tribes, together with an aboriginal race called by the Ethiopians themselves Shangala."
While concerning Cush it notes:
"The African Cush is best known; but there were Cushites in Asia. The "land of Cush" of Gen., ii, 13 (Heb. text), watered by the Gehon, one of the four rivers of Paradise, was doubtless in Asia. Regma, Saba, and Dadan (Gen., x, 7) were in Arabia. The Madianite wife of Moses, Sephora, is called a Cushite (Ex., ii, 16, 21; Num., xii, 1-Heb. text)."
In this latter vein, you are invited to look into the location of the land called the Hindu Kush even to this day.
Why one should, based on this, rush to the conclusion that Moses married a black woman, is beyond me. This belongs in my mind in the realm of myths of St. Augustine being black, and the Egyptians themselves.
Are doctors manipulating sex chromosomes now? ...I don't think so!
According to you, Miriam and Aaron stirred up an almost-rebellion against Moses based on his marrying a women who was closely related to the Hebrews.
Does not compute.
It is much more logical that she was able to tap into latent prejudice among the Hebrews against people who were noticeably different.
BTW, I didn't invent the idea. Many scholars, including many Catholic scholars, agree.
Folks should marry who they are attracted to and who they love and in the woman's case who hey think will be repsonsible as well.
I think some here including me, think that it is odd to insist on race mixing as a way to address past "white" transgression.
And some ...myself again think it is perfectly normal for folks to be attracted to their own kind and not racist in and of it itself. But you know me, I rarely qualify my views in the racist or not prism. Lord knows we have plenty here who will do it for me.
Fact is ...observationally....most folks marry within their peer group and always have unless conquered and enslaved and whatnot.
Now, with boundries more fluid and less isolation in the world and transportation more available to travel huge distances and shared media culture, folks will of course marry outside that peer group more often ....but it is not a noblesse oblige.
It's just a choice based on who pops in your life.
I don't think that's the answer at all. I think such thinking is worse than segregation because they're putting forth a racist agenda. It's like affirmative action/quotas. If they thought black people were equal and as intelligent as white people then what's with the handouts? But thanks anyway... I do respect you, and even respect some of the freepers I've tangled with in the past that I rarely agree with.
The majority of us, yes.
Oh...I know you don't agree with that.
Some here do.
I had only been here a week or so in 2000 when I saw Memphis Belle declare that was the only way to redress past wrongs and create racial harmoney.
My first flameout....it went on for days.
I had no clue not to duel with nutjobs.
Man wish I was there to read that! LOL
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.