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A Melanin Messiah?

a-melanin-messiah

Was Yeshua a dark-skinned person, a Melanin Messiah? Some reading this may be of Caucasian origin and therefore do not see the need to discuss this subject.

In fact, this subject has brought controversy and division within the church. But as an African and a minister of the gospel I have found it disturbing that we brush this topic to one side because it may offend people.

I have also heard it said the color of the messiah’s skin is of no significance to anyone. But when I see a preponderance of young men from the African diaspora being led astray by men and women telling them to return to the ‘old gods’ of ancient KEMET, voodoo, animism, ancestor worship and witchcraft; this obligates me as a man of God, and a researcher to speak truthfully.

The word ‘gospel’ means ‘good news.’ If I share information that doesn’t promote you to become a better person, this is not superb news. The gospel is the good news concerning the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah.  The anointing for this good news in the book of Isaiah chapter 61 is also directed towards the poor.

African history is obscured beyond the term of the transatlantic slave trade, impoverishing cultural identity. 

The bible says Satan is the father of lies and the God of this world. Could we have been lied to about the skin pigmentation of the Messiah?

My quest is to throw the proverbial spanner in the works to pique your curiosity in these related questions.

Maybe by doing your own private research, you will find that there is no need to reject the Messiah?

1. Flee To Egypt

An event after the birth of Yeshua only leaves bible readers with more questions.

After the Maji visit King Herod, Matthew 2:13–23, Joseph, the father of Yeshua flees Isreal to go to Egypt. In a dream an angel tells him to leave.

If we analyze this scripture from the standpoint of proving that our Lord is a man of color and not of European descent, fleeing to Egypt makes sense.

Considering the climate of the region, itwould require that he had melanin within his skin to protect him from cancer.

Most of the ancient paintings of Egypt today, the main inhabitants of the land were not of Caucasian descent.

This would suggest that even after the Persian and Greek invasions of the region in 525 B.C. then 332 B.C., respectively, the intermarriages between the Africans in the South, Persians and Greeks further North, would cause the region to comprise a people of varying degrees of darker colored skin. 

Hiding in Egypt makes sense if Joseph and his family were told to hide here because they were people of color?

Some would disagree since much of the propaganda since the era of the transatlantic slave trade has whitewashed the world’s historical records. We now have a legacy of a strong Eurocentric worldview.

But we have European authors such as the late Dr. Martin Bernal credit the Egyptians as being the chief contributors to ancient Greek philosophical thought, showing us an ancient intermixing of these cultures.

2. Melanin Religious Iconography

Within the Roman Catholic and the Russian Orthodox church, we find some astonishing iconography hidden in plain sight. These artifacts which date before the renaissance depict biblical figures such as Yeshua, Mary and even Peter as people with high degrees of melanin within their skin. 

3. Tacitus

The historian Cornelius Tacitus was also a Roman senator. In HISTORY 5.2-5: THEORIES OF JEWISH ORIGINS and according to the ‘Moses Hadas Translation,’ the Hebrew people of that era were of an Ethiopic phenotype. 

The word Ethiopia today names the region formerly known as Abyssinia.

At the time, Tacitus published his historical record, the people referred to as ‘Aethiopia’ were the people group south of ancient Egypt known as the ancient Kingdom of Kush.

Today this encompasses modern-day Nubia and all of subsaharan Africa. 

4. Book of Revelation 

Yeshua’s description in the book of Revelation 1:14-16 also leaves the reader with more questions. His feet are described as being like burnished bronze and he has hair like wool. 

European phenotypes do not have hair like wool, their hair generally is straight filaments although there are some with curly hair.

But when we add the color of burnished brass to the equation, this again paints the picture to me of an elderly man with distinctly African features.

5. African Tribes Among Modern Israel

Some may argue that the tribe, The Beta Yisrael who now reside in Israel are genetically distant from the Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Palestinian Jews, however, when German and Russian bloodlines are used as part of the benchmark for Jewishness, how do you get accurate results?

Maybe I don’t know enough about genetics. But when we look at the Lemba tribe from South Africa whose Y chromosomes designate them as Israeli Kohanim and the fact that other African tribes such as the Ebo in Nigeria, many African Americans, the Ashanti and Ewe of Ghana are claiming Israelite descent, then we are provoked even more to ask the question, was our Messiah a man of colour? 

I am going to leave the ball in your court to do your own research and ask your own questions.

But I have to say as one that is half Ashanti that has been studying this history for well over a decade, a form of Judaism already existed in Sub Saharan Africa before missionaries arrived with the concept of Christianity. Circumcision, Saturday as a day of worship, animal sacrifices, the marrying of a deceased brother’s wife to continue the family lineage were all practices of the Ashanti and can be found in the Old Testament. These things and more were documented by European explorers in early books. 

Will DNA confirm that more people groups of African descent are among the lost tribes? Let’s wait and see if more evidence will prove we worship a Melanin Messiah.