CHAPTER 1

Melanin

In order to identify who the Hebrew Israelites or Jews are today it isimportant to identify key characteristics that will help us find theirtrue identity. Although ones skin color does not determine onesrace it is a key characteristic in narrowing down the possibilities ofit being other nations of people. In this case, we explore what skincolor the Israelites were and are, and are they composed of onerace or tribe? Or are they composed of many races or tribes thatmake up a larger group of people or nation? If for any reason youmay feel that the Jews you know of today are without a doubt theJews of the bible, than you should easily be able to provide all thescriptural evidence to support that claim, especially if one believesthe bible to be the history book of the world and the history ofthose mentioned in it. Through this same book one should beable to find all the keys necessary to unlock such evidence. Evento see that the bible is primarily centered on this nation of peoplegreater than any other nation mentioned in the bible, but strangelymembers of almost all nationalities gather to it or take from it. Solet us start this journey in the beginning when God first formedman.

Genesis 2:7

The first people formed including Adam and Eve were a darkskinned people, what evidence is there to prove this claim? Godformed man from the ground, what color is dirt and soil? Even if Iformed something from the shavings of your sweater, hat or hoodyit would naturally be the same color as that sweater, hat, or hoody.I know some say dirt is different colors, true, different shades andtones of browns even red earth. In this case, however, use logicand common sense. If you are looking to plant a garden; need itbe fruit, plant, or vegetation, you cannot use just any type of soil.Regardless if someone just wants to grow better grass or planson cultivating a large field of edible food, you need good soil. Thegood soil is most likely going to be very dark brown in color, andfull of nutrients. If you have ever worked on a ranch, farm, or doany sort of gardening at home, then this may come easy to you.You can also take it a step further and inquire of how God didthings then and how rich the earth must have been when he firstmade man.

Genesis 42:7-8

You may be wondering, what is the significance of me usingthis verse to prove skin pigmentation. Joseph recognizing hisbrothers, but did he greet them? No, he acted as a stranger towardhis brothers, as if he just met them. Now you may ask yourself,why didn't his brothers recognize him? Well for those of you thatare not familiar with the story of Joseph I will help you get up tospeed, but if you feel as if you are already well learned in the storyand can recall the details of the events that took place, feel free tosimply skip down to the next paragraph, need I waste any of yourtime. To those that need to catch up with the story you can eitherread starting from Genesis chapter thirty-seven through Genesisthe forty-second chapter to know the full story or read these mainpoint scriptures that I listed below that will sum up the whole story.[Genesis 37:2-5,19-28, 31-32,36; Genesis 39:2-4, 7-8, 10-14; Genesis40:1-5,8, 12-14,23; Genesis 41:1-9,12,14,25,34-36,39-42,45-49,53Genesis 42:3-4]

Now that we are on the same page lets continue. Let usexamine the times, when Joseph was seventeen years of age hewas sold to the people biblically referred to as the Ishmeelites, ormost commonly spelled Ishmaelite's, who are known today as theArabs, who are also of the seed of Abraham [read Genesis 16:15;17:20]. When he was thirty years old Joseph became a ruler directlyunder Pharaoh and the seven years of famine, no, it was the sevenyears of plenty that had passed and the people living at that timewere entering the seven years of famine, which would make Josephat least thirty-seven years of age when his brothers came to Egyptand also explain why his brothers came all the way to Egypt to buyfood. So we know that a significant amount of time has passedsince Joseph and his brothers have seen one another, it is also safeto assume facial features of Joseph and his brethren have changed.Seeing how he was taken at an age old enough to recall the eventsthat took place but young enough to have been able to growmentally and physically since his last encounter with his brethren.

So given all the years that have passed, what could Joseph hadrecognized that his brothers did not? For starters numbers, Josephhad a rather large family, and if he saw that family together it wouldbetter his chances of recognizing them, as it is easier to recognize agroup of people rather than an individual, as many of us can relateto through past experiences looking for family or friends while outamongst other people. Joseph could have recognized even one ofhis brothers clearly that led to the answer of who they all were. Onthe other hand for his brothers, it is more difficult to remember justone person after so long of being apart. You must also considerthat Joseph could have recalled their style of clothing which eventoday we use to categorize people. They dwelt in two separatelands, his brothers went to Egypt so it's safe to assume that theysaw a large number of Egyptians in Egyptian attire and we knowby the scriptures that Joseph was dressed as such. So Joseph beingdressed like an Egyptian and seeing his brothers dressed in thesame array that he grew up in feeds into the recognition of hisbrethren and the misrecognition of him by his brethren.

So now you must ask yourself something, if ancient Egyptianswere a dark skinned people, and Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelite'swho we know are the Arabs who are also of a dark skin tone. If infact Joseph was of a very light complexion like a white male andhis brothers being white as well, wouldn't his brothers have noticedhim? Being that he was around dark skinned people and wouldhave clearly stood out regardless of his style of clothing. I am thedarkest out of my siblings needless to say if I was taken from myfamily and thrown amongst people of a lighter skin tone need itbe a Pacific Islander, Oriental, or European family for twenty yearsor so I would still easily stand out, but throw me amongst a darkerskinned people for the same duration of time and change myclothing and it may become rather difficult to notice me.

Exodus 1:22; 2:5-10

If you are aware of the story of the birth of Moses feel free toskip this paragraph. If you need a little insight and history as towhat happened please continue reading these verses so you areaware of what happened to Moses as a child and why. [Exodus Ch.1; Exodus 2:1-4] If you read the verses you are most likely awarethat "Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation,"as stated in verse 6. The children of Israel began to multiply, andincreased throughout the land and a new King rose up over Egyptwhich the scriptures say, "which knew not Joseph." You mustunderstand the importance of this. Not only did he not knowthe man but most likely he didn't know or more so care what heor his people may have done for Egypt, because something elsewas on his mind. Verse 9-10 "And he said unto HIS people [theEgyptians], Behold the people of the children of Israel are moreand mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lestthey multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out anywar, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and soget them up out of the land." He was scared the Egyptians mightget conquered by the Israelites, and set over them task mastersto afflict them with laborious chores and duties. When that planback fired, they afflicted them even more, through slavery andpersecution just as Edom did unto Israel in their most recentcaptivity in the Western hemisphere [which you will learn moreabout in another part]. Now the King was running out of ideas andasked the Hebrew midwives to kill the new born males, but theHebrew midwives feared God and would not do such a thing andtold the king they were lively, meaning they wouldn't just allow it.So then was decreed that which was done; the mass murder of theIsraelite male children and Moses being hid, and then sent awaywhen he could no longer be hid.

We are aware that Moses grew up with the Egyptians as aPrince; he grew up with them and was raised as Pharaoh's son. Ifthis baby was a white male as depicted in various movies such as"The Ten Commandments", and the Egyptians were dark skinned,how could Moses blend in and grow up with the Egyptians as aprince?

Exodus 2:16-19

Why did the daughters of the priest of Midian tell their fatherReuel [that is Jethro, Reuel was another name he was called orreferred to, read Exodus 3:1] as stated in Verse 19 "An Egyptiandelivered us out of the hand of the shepherds," when in Verse 17it says, "but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered theirflock." Who we know was an Israelite of the tribe of Levi by birthand genealogy. [Read Exodus 1:1-2; Exodus 2:1-5] So would onejust assume that the daughters of Reuel lied to their father? No,this has a much deeper meaning, one in which most of us overlookwhile reading. The answer is simple; Moses looked like and wasdressed like an Egyptian, why? Because he came from a bloodlineof dark skinned people and his visage meaning face, countenance,or appearance resembled that of an Egyptian man. Moses grew upwith the Egyptians as a Prince as stated earlier in the lesson, whichwould explain his apparel.

Think of it this way, imagine if you were walking down thestreet and someone tried to rob you, and a Nigerian man savedyou. If you didn't ask or notice any significant difference in hisappearance or accent you might safely assume it was a Kenyan,Ethiopian, or maybe even a Negro based on skin color alone, andhis attire would be the icing on a cake. This is what the sevendaughters of the priest of Midian did, but are they to blame? Don'twe as people sometimes make the same mistakes of assumingsomeone's race, ethnicity, or language based on their accent, attire,or features? Here is something to think about. If by nature we dothis by accident, it can also be done intentionally. Let him who hasunderstanding perceive this message.

Here is another clue or argument one could state. In additionto Moses looking like and dressing like an Egyptian he most likelyspoke as an Egyptian and carried the same dialect. One might askthemselves how cold one perceive all this? Are not we aware thatMoses grew up with the Egyptians as an Egyptian? That he not onlygrew up with them as any Egyptian but as royalty, as the Prince ofEgypt. Knowing this one could only imagine the many luxuries aswell as privileges Moses must have had, especially being able toaccess a much broader range of education. The daughters of thePriest of Midian were well aware of an Egyptian when they saw onebecause their father was a Priest, which meant that he often wouldconverse and be around many Egyptians in the land, which wouldmean that his daughters were most likely hostesses when theirfather would fulfill his role as a Priest. So the daughters had lessof an assumption and more of a hypothesis to the claim they toldtheir father.

Exodus 4:6-8

One might wonder what is the significance of God commandingMoses to put his hand into his bosom and turning his hand leprousas snow, no big deal right? Wrong, because everyone in thatparticular region or area of land, (which happened to be Egypt)were dark skinned, and did not meet or come in contact with manywhite people if any at all, for they dwelt in another land at this time[read Genesis 36:8]. In verse 8 the Lord says, "if they will not believethee [or you], neither hearken [to give heed or attention to whatis said: or listen] to the voice of the first sign, that they will believethe voice of the latter sign." What was the first sign? Read verse 6when Moses put his hand into his bosom and pulled it out and itwas very, very light in color, as the resemblance of white in colorcontrary to the rest of his body, which seeing you would believehim to be diseased or cursed, or at least that is what was assumed,especially in those times. But what was the latter [second or later]sign? Read verse 7 when Moses put his hand back into his bosomand it was restored [to bring back to a former, original, or normalcondition] as his other flesh which was of a dark skinned hue.

When you think of Leprosy take the root leprous. What comesto your mind? If you thought of a leopard think of why. Mostlikely it would be a similarity in pronunciation or spelling, but oneexplanation that may also come to mind is appearance. A leopardhas a yellow or gold appearance but seems imperfect becauseit is spotted all over with black markings, making it leprous inappearance; hence the name. But when this scene is portrayedin movies it is either depicted as boils or skipped altogether, youshould ask yourself why? Because you would need someone of adark skin tone to capture the awe and astonishment of this verse inorder to portray it in a movie scene. Am I speaking vanity? Wouldyou not be shocked if you saw Wesley Snipes turn white as snowand then turn black? Or would you seeing Clint Eastwood turnwhite as snow and then being restored to his original skin tonegive you more shock value? And they mainly, if not only seeingdark skinned people would be either astonished or frightened atthe sight.

If they changed Moses to a dark skinned man in a movie theycouldn't just allow only Moses to be dark skinned and portray theother Israelites to be white because that wouldn't make any sense,it could only be all of the cast or none of the cast. Look at it thisway, if I tell you a little bit about the truth by portraying Mosesto be black or dark skinned for example. This would attract yourattention, and you're usually going to want to know the wholetruth, in order to prove the validity of the claim, to either be ableto support it or reject it right? The truth is they didn't want you toknow the truth, as many people to this day still reject, there is a fearthat others will begin to wake up and notice it.

Exodus 9:8-11

You may be aware of the fact that some movies especiallybiblical in nature depict leprosy as boils, however the bible discernsbetween the two, because they are not the same. In verse 9 theLord says, "and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains uponman." Let's examine this, now what is a boil? A boil is a painfulinflammation, what is a blain? A blain is an inflammatory swellingor sore, what is inflammation? Inflammation is redness, swelling,pain, or heat, and disturbed function of an area of the body, clearlydifferent from an explanation of leprosy as stated previously in thepassage and scriptures.

Numbers 12:9-10

This verse serves as a precept of one's skin turning leprous,white as snow. Now just who is this person that this judgment hasbefallen? The person mentioned in the scriptures is a woman bythe name of Miriam who was Moses' older sister, who was turnedleprous as a curse and punishment for being disobedient, and inthe Lord's anger she suffered the fate of her transgressions.

Genesis 50:5-11

Joseph went to go bury his father in the place commandedto him by his father before he died in Genesis 49:29-33.Pharaoh granted Joseph the opportunity to do as his father hadcommanded him in verse 6, and in verse 7. It is also known thatthe Egyptians went with Joseph and his family, so now we havethe Egyptians AND the Israelites going to bury Josephs fatherJacob [who was renamed Israel as you will read later on in the nextpart]. Here is that part that is troublesome. When we get to verse11 the Canaanites [a major African tribe along with the Egyptiansread Genesis 10:6] they said, "This is a grievous mourning to theEgyptians." Why did the Canaanites make mention of the Egyptiansand not the Israelites?

For they were simply observing what they saw just as thedaughters of the priest of Midian, and what did they see? Whatseemed to be like all Egyptians, how might that be? Because theirvisage was similar to one another and possibly their clothing aswell, seeing that they dwelt among them [see Genesis 47:11, 27] butif Egyptians are a dark skinned people and some believe Israelitesor the "Jews" were white wouldn't the Canaanites have been ableto discern between the two clearly by skin pigmentation regardlessof what they were wearing? Seeing as it would have given thema clue to distinguish between the two. You could think of it as ifthere was a Pacific Islanders meeting at a school or office and yousaw what looked like to you, all Samoan men and women. We areaware that it was a Pacific Islanders meeting; couldn't a percentageof the people be Hawaiian, or Tongan? This also proves as evidencethat the Israelites were often mistaken for other races of people,especially those among African descent; he who hath ears let himhear.