Op Ed: The Scriptural Origin of Racial Supremacy

by Dr. Aslam Abdullah

Would you believe that the Old Testament promoted the idea of racial superiority and, some 1665 years after the creation of Adam, chose the progeny of Noah’s two sons, Sam and Jazepth, to stay blessed forever while condemning Ham and his children cursed until eternity? 

The Great Flood story occurs in chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis.

The Jewish scriptures adopted and endorsed by Christian scholars created a hoax that God destroyed everything on earth except Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives, along with a pair of every species created by him. The scholars projected God as the architect of animal and insect cruelty because he was mad at corrupt humans.

Scientists estimate that there are 1.2 million species of animals and 10 million insects, and Biblical scholars believe that the world’s total population was 750 million before the Great Flood. These people lived in India, China, South America, Africa, and Oceania. No reference to such a catastrophic end of humanity is found in the religious books of over 4500 religions practiced there.

The Bible claims that the rains that created the Noachian Flood lasted for 40 days (Genesis 7:17), and that the waters prevailed on the earth for 150 days (Genesis 7:24). After these 150 days, the waters gradually receded from the world, so that by the seventh month and the seventeenth day, Noah’s Ark came to rest upon the mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8:4). A year plus two months and twenty-seven days later the earth was dry enough so that Noah, his family, and a load of animals could disembark from the Ark (Genesis 8:14).

We must raise the sea level to 29,052 feet to drown the earth in 40 days. Twenty-nine thousand fifty-two feet is 348,624 inches, and 40 days is 960 hours. Three hundred forty-eight thousand six hundred twenty-four inches divided by 960 hours would be slightly over 363 inches an hour.

History does not record any such natural phenomenon.

Post-flood Situation

The Bible wants its followers to believe that life became more accessible for Noah and his family after the flood.

In Genesis, we read

18 Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth emerged from the Ark. Ham was Canaan’s father. 

19 These were Noah’s three sons, who populated the whole earth. 

20 Noah, a farmer, made a new start and planted a vineyard. 

21 He drank some wine and took off his clothes in his tent. 

22 Ham, Canaan’s father, saw his father naked and told his two brothers who were outside. 

23 Shem and Japheth took a robe, threw it over their shoulders, walked backward, and covered their naked father without looking at him because they turned away. 

24 When Noah woke up from his wine, he discovered what his youngest son had done to him. 

25 He said,

“Cursed be Canaan: the lowest servant, he will be for his brothers.”

26 He also said, “Bless the Lord, the God of Shem; Canaan will be his servant.

27 May God give space to Japheth; he will live in Shem’s tents, and Canaan will be his servant.”

Biblical scholars argue that the following are the races of three sons:

• Sons of Japheth: races in Asia Minor, the Aegean Sea (Greeks), and beyond. Javan = Yawan in Hebrew, i.e., “Ionians”…
• Sons of Ham: races located around Egypt.
• Sons of Shem: Semites, or people speaking Semitic languages.

 However, the Most Important Son of Noah in Rabbinical Literature:

is Shem, Noah’s youngest son. He is consistently named first, the most important of the three brothers. Rabbis say he was born circumcised; he was the ancestor of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; he was priest and prophet; and he was one of the eight righteous who are mentioned twice in Gen. xi. 10. It was Shem who offered the sacrifices on the altar after Noah came out of the ark (comp. Gen. viii. 20), as the latter, having been crippled by the lion, was unfit for the priestly office. Noah gave to Shem the priestly garments that he had inherited from Adam (Num. R. iv. 6). Shem is extolled by the Rabbis for his filial devotion in covering his father’s nakedness (Gen. ix. 23). Although his brother Japheth assisted in this praiseworthy act, it was Shem who suggested and began it, his brother not arriving on the scene until Shem was already on his way with the garment. Therefore, Noah, in blessing these two sons (ib. verse 27), declared, so the Rabbis think, that the Shekinah was to dwell only in the tents of Shem. The Jews, his descendants, covered themselves with the ?allit and phylacteries and remained untouched when the Assyrians, who also were descendants of Shem, were destroyed by an angel in the time of Hezekiah.

Thus, from the Bible’s perspective, the progeny of Shem is superior because God blessed him and genetically transferred them to his descendants. Ham comprising non-European, non-Semitic people will never remain cursed and racially inferior.