Description
After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no-one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language...' (Revelation 7:9)
The visions in the book of revelation give a glimpse of the people of God at the consummation of history - a racially diverse congregation gathered together in worship around God's throne.
The theme of race runs throughout Scripture, constantly pointing to the global and multi-ethnic dimensions inherent in the overarching plan of God. In response to the neglect of this theme in much evangelical scholarship, Dr Hays offers a thorough exegetical study. As well as focusing on texts which have a general bearing on race, Dr Hays also demonstrates that black Africans from Cush (Ethiopia) play an important role in both Old and New Testament history.
This careful, nuanced analysis provides a clear theological foundation for life in contemporary multi-racial cultures, and challenges churches to pursue racial unity in Christ.
Endorsements
Dr J. Daniel Hays is able simultaneously to make us long for the new heaven and the new earth, when men and women from every tongue and tribe and people and nation will gather around the One who sits on the throne and the Lamb, and cause us to blush with shame when we recognize afresh that already the church of Jesus Christ is to be an outpost in this fallen world of that consummated kingdom. This book deserves the widest circulation and the most thoughtful reading.
- D. A. Carson
Table of Contents
Series preface
Author's preface
Abbreviations
1 Introduction
2 The ethnic make-up of the Old Testament world
Introduction
Ethnicity
The 'Asiatics': Israel and her 'Semitic' cousins
The Cushites
The Egyptians
The Indo-Europeans (Philistines, Hittites)
Conclusions
3 Creation, blessing, and race (Genesis 1-12)
Introduction
Created in the image of God
The so-called 'curse of Ham' (Genesis 9: 18-27)
The Table of Nations (Genesis 10)
Blessing for all the families of the world (Genesis 12)
Conclusions
4 Israel, the Torah, foreigners, and intermarriage
Introduction
The formation of Israel
The sojourner and the foreigner
Moses and intermarriage
Phinehas the priest
Conclusions
5 Israel and Black Africa during the monarchy
Introduction
Cushite soldiers in the ANE prior to the Israelite monarchy
Soldiers and generals: Cushites in the early monarchy
Enemies and ellies: Cush, Assyria, and Judah
Postscript: Cushite soldiers in the ANE after the monarchy
Conclusions
6 Racial issues in the prophets
Introduction
Judgment and blessing in Isaiah
Amos: are you the same to me as Cushites?
The prophetic voice in Psalms
Zephaniah and the name Cushi
Ebed-Melech the Cushite
Conclusion
7 The ethnic make-up of the New Testament world
Introduction
The Greco-Roman world (Greeks and Barbarians)
The Jewish Diaspora
Black Africa (Cush, Meroe, Ethiopia)
North Africa (Berbers, Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans)
Anatolia (Celts and others)
Conclusions
8 Race and the theology of Luke-Acts
Introduction
The other gospels
Luke: Abraham and the blessing for all nations
The Good Samaritan
The Ethiopian eunuch
Simeon called Niger
Conclusions
9 Race, Pauline theology, and the Apocalypse
Introduction
Galatians: Neither Jew nor Greek
Colossians: Neither Barbarian nor Scythian
Ephesians: Unity in the Church
Paul and the nations
Revelation: From every tribe, language, people, and nation
Conclusions
10 Conclusions and applications
Synthesizing conclusions
Final thoughts
Bibliography
Index of modern authors
Index of Scripture references
Index of ancient sources
Product Details
Title: From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology Of Race
Author: J. Daniel Hays
Publisher: Apollos
Pages: 240
Binding: Paperback
Size: 21.4 x 14.1 x 1.8 cm
ISBN: 9780851112909