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From: cbc5b@virginia.edu (Charles Campbell)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Was Jesus Black?
Message-ID: <Apr.25.22.18.51.1993.5490@geneva.rutgers.edu>
Date: 26 Apr 93 02:18:52 GMT
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Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu


	Jesus was born a Jew.  We have biblical accounts of
both his mother's ancestry and his father's, both tracing back
to David.  It seems reasonable to assume, therefore, that Jesus
was Semitic.
	As an interesting aside, Jesus' being semitic makes him
neither "white" nor "black," and in some sense underscores the
point made earlier that his color was not important, it was his
message, his grace, and his divinity that we should concentrate
on.
	Finally, I would direct anyone interested in African
involvement in the church to the account of the conversion of
the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 9 (I think it's chapter
9).  This is one of the earliest conversions, and the eunuch,
treasurer to the queen of the Ethiopians, was definitely
African.  Because "Ethiopia" at that time indicated a region
just south of Egypt, many also speculate that this man was not
only the first African Christian, but the first black Christian
as well.  
God bless,
Charles Campbell
