b. Non-Biblical Sources (13 September 2016, 10 Elul, 5776)
Continued from:
Israelite Racial Color. a. Bible Sources:
http://hebrewnations.com/articles/race/biblerace.html
Contents:
1. Bible Sources. A Summation
2. Archaeology
3. The Sages
(a) Who Did the Tribal Patriarchs Marry?
(b) Ritual Leprosy
(c) Joseph looked like a "Germani".
(d) Bohakanim (Albinoid types) common in Simeon and Levi.
4. Conclusion
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1. Bible Sources. A Summation
We saw (Israelite Racial Color. a. Bible Sources:
http://hebrewnations.com/articles/race/biblerace.html )
how according to the Bible most of the Israelites were supposed to have black hair and Mediterranean type coloring.
This was based on the laws concerning Ritual Leprosy (Leviticus chapter 13).
On the other hand,
Laban the father in law of Jacob has a name meaning "white."
We also learned that Esau the twin brother of Jacob apparently had reddish hair (Genesis 25: 25) .
King David also had red (or bright golden) hair and this was a distinguishing feature for which he was noted. He may have been somewhat exceptional in this regard (1-Samuel 16:12, 1-Samuel 17:42).
The Song of Songs describes a romantic courtship between a hero and a heroine. The heroine is dark-skinned and black haired (1:5-6, 6:5). The hero is white skinned, reddish (5:10), and with both golden and black hair (5:11) perhaps referring to difference in hair coloring on the head and color of the beard. The Egyptians often depicted men form the area of Ancient Israel with dark head hair and reddish or blond beards. Both the hero (1:15, 5:12) and the heroine (4:1) had eyes like doves meaning greyish in color.
We should also mention the Book of Lamentations ("Eicah") attributed to the Prophet Jeremiah which describes the elite of Jerusalem as being extremely white before the effects of famine blackened their visage.
Lamentations 4:
7 Her consecrated ones were purer than snow,
They were whiter than milk;
They were more ruddy in body than corals,
Their polishing was like lapis lazuli.
8 Their appearance is blacker than soot,
They are not recognized in the streets;
Their skin is shriveled on their bones,
It is withered, it has become like wood.
See:
€œThe Israelites Were White!€ by Bert Otten
http://www.britam.org/WHITEBO.pdf
We also saw from the Bible how environmental influences affected inherited coloring in animals (Genesis 30: 31-43).
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2. Archaeology
Slaves believed to be Hebrews from before the Exodus were depcited by the Egyptians. These are often light colored and even blondish.
The Israelites while in Egypt were identifiable as the Hycsos who are referred to as Shepherd Kings by Josephus. The Hyksos in Egyptian Mythology were associated with the figure of Set also known as Typhon. He was often depicted as reddish of hair.
Diodorus Siculus (1;88;5) said that every year red bulls were sacrificed by the Egyptians,
"Because it is thought that this was the colour of Typhon...Men, also, if they were of the same colour, as Typhon were sacrificed, they say, in ancient times".
Later, people from the Israelite area are depicted on Egyptian monuments as red, blonde, or black-haired with frequent blue eyes and red beards. Illustrations of individuals with this appearance are automatically assumed to pertain to the Israelite or "Syrian" area. On the Egyptian pictures skins of individuals from the Israelite or "Syrian" area are often light colored and pinkish. In addition darker individuals from these same areas are also depicted and sometimes they are the majority.
Another blonde blue-eyed people depicted on Egyptian monuments were the so-called "Libyans."
It has now been proven that these so-called "Libyans" were not dwellers of "Libya" but rather of the Nile Delta and of Hebrew origin, See:
"Lapwings and Libyans in Ancient Egypt," 1986, by Alessandra Nibbi. The authoress identifies the Lebu as actually Rebu and from the Tribe of Reuben.
In about 924 BCE the king of Egypt, Shishak, invaded Judah and the (then) separate state of North Israel. Pictures of the campaign of Shishak reveal him receiving homage from the King of Judah and from the heads of cities and dignitaries in Judah and throughout northern ISRAEL. The personages depicted are of "Amuru" type and these pictures are sometimes even used as typifying the Egyptian depiction of "Amuru" characteristics.
Carvings in ivory and stone from Samaria and Judah, when these areas were ruled by Israelites, mainly show types with both Mediterranean and West European features.
Professor James Tabor reported that a sample of Jewish male hair [dated from 1-100 CE] retrieved by archaeologists from the tomb of a well-to-do family in Talpiot (near Jerusalem), Judea, was reddish in color.
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3. The Sages
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(a) Who Did the Tribal Patriarchs Marry?
According to the Bible the Tribal Heads married women from various nations. Joseph married an Egyptian woman (Genesis 41:45). Machir, son of Manasseh had an Aramaean concubine (1-Chronicles 7: 14). Judah had one Canaanite (Genesis 38:5) and one Semite wife, named Tamar from whom he begat Zerah and Peretz (Genesis 38:28-30) . One of the seven sons of Simeon was from a Canaanite woman (Exodus 6:15).
The early Sages (as quoted by Rashi) said that with each Tribal Patriarchal Ancestor was born a female twin who was later married to one of her half-brothers. At that time (before the giving of the Torah) such marriages were permitted.
Later Jewish legends (as recorded in "Seder HaDorot", and "Sefer HaYashar") say that Reuben married a Hivite. Levi and Asher married descendants of Eber. Zebulon married a Midianitess and Issachar a descendant of Sem. Benjamin married a daughter of Zimran, son of Abraham and Keturah. Dan took a daughter of Lot, nephew of Abraham. Naphtali took a daughter of Nahor, as did Gad, and so on. The Apocryphal Book of Jubilees (ca. 200 BCE?) also says that the Tribal Patriarchal heads married women from different nations and mentions Canaanite, Egyptian, Semitic, and Mesopotamian women.
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(b) Ritual Leprosy
A Talmudic source (Mishna Negaim 2;1) says that Israelites are mainly of an intermediate type coloring being neither black like a "Cushi" (Negro) nor light like a "Germani".
This is based on the Biblical description of leprosy (Leviticus 13) which as stated requires further examination but DOES indicate that Israelites were assumed to be of intermediate Mediterranean type coloring.
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(c) Joseph looked like a "Germani".
On the other hand,
Joseph, the son of Israel, was described in a Midrash (Genesis Rabah 86;3), as looking like a "GERMANI" i.e. like someone from the North, "very white", fair, according to Maimonides.
"Germani" in Talmudic terminology (Aruch HaShalem) meant someone from the far north at that time or who looked like people from that area. The term could be applied (Maimonides) to a very light colored person like part of the people of Scandinavia.
In another passage (Talmud Sota 36) Joseph was described as having a face that was "pink like a rose" .
Joseph was also described as looking like his father Jacob whereas, it is implied, the other tribal heads may not have done so.
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(d) Bohakanim (Albinoid types) common in Simeon and Levi.
One Midrash (Genesis Rabah 98;5) says that amongst the Tribes of Simeon and Levi were very light-colored types ("bohakanim").
This was considered a kind of punishment for them and they were exceptional in this regard.
The Commentary "Etz Yoseph," ca. 1845, on Midrash Tanchuma opines that most of the High Priests, i.e. Cohens from the Tribe of Levi, had red or golden hair.
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4. Conclusion
Whether all of the above traditions are correct or not, they do reflect the apparent reality of some mixing with other nations whilst retaining an Israelite Tribal identity that is Biblically and Historically acceptable. Intermarriage of the Tribes with different nations combined with other factors must have produced different types, and this with the later influence of varying physical environments is enough to explain the superficial differences amongst the descendants of different Israelite Tribes today.
It is worth noting that technically, the population of Britain is considered to be 50% of Mediterranean type and less than 50% Nordic.
Elsewhere we have referred to sources indicating that skin color in both humans and animals has in some instances changed in historical times due to environmental influences.
For instance, it is claimed that the population of southern India is now much darker than its ancestors were and the difference cannot be entirely be attributed to racial admixture.