Customer Reviews

The Black Man in the Old Testament and Its World: A Study of the Facts That Are Revealed in the Authorized (King James Version of the Holy Bible Du)

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A book that seeks to clear the muddle of distorted African history, especially as found in the bible. The book starts by explaining the origin and meaning of the word Negro as an introduction. It then informs the reader of the many black people of the bible like, Zipporah the Ethiopian (wife to Moses), the great pharaoh Taharqa, Absolm (David's son) and the great Candaces (Black women warriors) of Sudan, just to mention a few. The chapters are short yet very informative. Although I was not that convinced regarding the identity of Moses: ie was he a black jew or otherwise? Yet a good book of black history especially in the old testament.

Alfred G. Dunston Jr. (1915-1995) was a bishop of the A.M.E. Zion Church and an early leader in the struggle for civil rights and racial equality. This was his only book.

He wrote in the Preface to this 1992 book, "In the following pages, there is an attempt to produce the type of book that is greatly needed and has been needed for a very long time; for the presence of the black man on the Old Testament scene is a subject that has not heretofore proved very inviting to many writers."

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"Ethiopia is a Greek term meaning 'burnt faces,' and was obviously applied by the Greeks because of the skin color of the inhabitants of the Sudan... The same nation that was called Cush by the Egyptians and ancient Hebrews, was called Ethiopia by the Greeks and Nubia by the Christians." (Pg. 15)
"In the prophecy of Jeremiah (13:23) a question is asked that has become one of the most familiar Bible passages, 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?'" (Pg. 46)
"Throughout her post-Isaac history, various people and personalities of Israel contracted marriages with foreign people. Moses, for example, married the Ethiopian Zipporah. Boaz married Ruth the Moabitess. David married the daughter of a Geshurite king, and he also married Beersheba the Hittite... Solomon in turn married many foreign or strange women (1 Kings 11:1), including the Canaanite woman who bore Rehoboam, later to be king in Solomon's stead. David's sister Abigail was the wife of Jether the Ishmaelite, and the famous architect and designer Hiram of Tyre was the son of an Israelite woman and a man of Tyre." (Pg. 88-89)

This book has helped me so much to discover that God did include me in the Bible. Gave me a sense of identity and really built up my self-esteem! Chocked full of insightful knowledge!