A Question of Race, Part I

Today there was a question in regard to race. The question is, "How many races are there?" In my search I find the word race in the ESV only ten times. In six of those, the reference is to speed or a contest of speed and are irrelevant to the question:

Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. (Ecclesiastes 9:11)

If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan? (Jeremiah 12:5)

The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning. (Nahum 2:4)

Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. (1 Corinthians 9:24)

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. . . (Hebrews 12:1)

But in four instances, the term is used of the Jewish people:

For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost. (Ezra 9:2)

He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive. (Acts 7:19)

To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 9:5)

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9)

Some may argue that this last reference is in regard to the Church, but a plain reading of the salutation of Peter's letter suggests otherwise. Peter writes, "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you" (1 Peter 1:1-2). This phrase, "exiles of the dispersion" is clearly in reference to the diaspora, or the Jews scattered throughout Asia Minor. So then, based on the ESV, every reference to race as a people in the Bible is in reference to the Jews.

For the sake of completeness, I should note that the KJV uses race only four times and only in reference to a contest; the NIV eleven times, two of which are in reference to a group of people (Ezra 9:2, Romans 9:3); the NASB eleven times, six of which are in reference to a group of people and include the Jews (Ezra 9:2, Acts 7:19, 1 Peter 2:9), the Philistines (Zechariah 9:6), the Syrophoenician (Mark 7:26) and all humanity (James 3:7); and the HCSB twenty-nine times, most of which are in reference to the "human race" except Acts 7:19, Acts 13:26 and 1 Peter 2:9.

Is there a way to determine how the Bible intends for us to understand race?

The Hebrew word translated as race in Ezra 9:2 is zera`, a singular noun used 230 times in the Old Testament. Zera` is variously translated as seed, offspring, descendants, posterity and just this once as race. The corresponding Greek word from the Septuagint (LXX) is sperma, which carries a collective meaning similar to zera`. In two of the three New Testament references, race is used to translate the Greek word genos which according to the Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament means "of common ancestry, posterity, descendant, family." Thus all these words, the Hebrew zera` and the Greek sperma and genos all relate to a common ancestry (or posterity, depending on which way you are looking).

So then, is the Bible completely blind to race?

In short, this looks to be the case. It is clear that we are all descendants of Adam, and in Adam we find our sinful nature; but we also are all descendants of Noah. All of one seed who separated into the various nations and populated the continents in Genesis 10:1-32. Paul claimed a common ancestry of all mankind when he said to the men of the Aeropagus:

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for "In him we live and move and have our being;" as even some of your own poets have said, "For we are indeed his offspring (genos)." (Acts 17:24-28)

My conclusion? There's only one race and that's the human race.

This discussion continues in the post, A Question of Race, Part II.