People often mentally categorize others by race.  Physical features, like skin color, distinguishing one people group, a ‘race’, from other groups are easy to notice. So Caucasians are ‘white’, Asians are darker, while those of African descent are darker still.

These traits distinguishing groups of people from each other easily leads to racism. This is the discrimination, ill-treatment or enmity towards other races.  Racism has contributed to making societies today more caustic and hateful, and it seems to be on the rise.  What can we do to combat racism?

The question of racism begs a related question.  Where do races come from?  Why do race differences among humans exist?  Along with, that since race has a strong correlation with ancestral language: Why are there different languages?

The ancient Hebrew Scriptures records an historical event in early human history explaining both the diversity of languages we hear and the different ‘races’ that we see today.  The account is worth knowing.

Genetic Similarity in the human species leading to our Genetic Ancestors

Before we explore the account there are some basic facts we should know about the genetic makeup of humanity. 

The genes in our DNA provides the blueprint that determines the way we look, our physical characteristics.  Humans exhibit very little genetic diversity between different people compared to the diversity seen within an animal species.  What this means is that the genetic difference between any two people is very little (on average 0.6%). This is much less than, for example, compared to genetic differences between two macaque monkeys.  

In fact, humans are so genetically uniform that we can trace the line of descent from all women alive today back through their mothers, and their mothers, and so on. Doing so shows all lines converging to one ancestral genetic mother. Known as Mitochondrial Eve, there is also a male equivalent known as Y-Chromosonal Adam.  He is the most recent ancestral male from whom all humans living today have descended. There exists an unbroken line of male ancestors going back to him.  The Bible does state that all humans alive today descend from an original Adam and Eve. So genetic evidence is consistent with the Bible’s account of the origins of humans. Not only the ancient Chinese, but modern genetics testify to an Adam as our common ancestor.

Origin of human Races according to the Bible

But then how did the different human races arise?  The ancient Hebrew Scriptures describes how, just a few generations after the flood, how people were scattered across the earth.  With only some basics in genetics we can see how such an event would give rise to today’s races.  The ancient account reads: 

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. ² As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

³ They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 

Genesis 11:1-4

The account records that everyone spoke the same language. With this unity they devised new technologies and started to use them to build a high tower.  This tower was to observe and track the movement of stars, since astrology was keenly studied in that time.  However, the Creator God made the following assessment:

The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. ⁷ Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. 

Genesis 11:6-9

History records that civilization began in ancient Babylon (modern day Iraq) and that from there civilization spread across the planet.  This account records why. Because the languages were confused this ancestral population was split into various language groups along clan lines.

Implications of Babel from Genetics

The various sub-clans could no longer understand one another.  Since negative attachments came naturally to people since sin and death had entered the world, these various clans became distrustful of each other.  As a result they withdrew from other clans to protect themselves and they did not inter-marry across the language groups.  Thus, in one generation the clans became genetically isolated from one another and dispersed. 

Punnet Squares and Races

Consider how races arise from such a situation, focusing on skin color since that is a common marker of race.  Skin color arises as a result of different levels of the protein melanin in the skin.  White skin has less melanin, darker skin has more melanin, while black skin has the most melanin.  All humans have some melanin in their skin.  Darker people simply have more melanin giving rise to darker skin.  These levels of melanin are controlled genetically by several genes.  Some genes express more melanin in the skin and some express less.  We use a simple tool, called a punnet square, to illustrate the various possible combinations of genes. 

For simplicity assume only two different genes (A and B) that code for different levels of melanin in the skin.  The genes M_b and M_a express more melanin while the alleles m_b and m_a express less melanin.  A punnet square shows all possible outcomes of A and B that can arise by sexual reproduction if each parent has both alleles in their genes.  The resulting square shows the 16 possible combinations of M_a, m_a, M_b and m_b that can occur from the parents. This explains the diverse range of skin color that can result in their children. 

Tower of Babel Scenario

Assume the Tower of Babel event occurred with parents who were heterozygous as in this punnet square. With the confusion of languages the children would not inter-marry and thus each of the squares would be reproductively isolated from the other squares.  So the M_aM_b (darkest) would now only intermarry with other M_aM_b individuals. Thus all their offspring will only remain black since they only have genes expressing greater melanin.  Likewise, all the m_am_b (white) would only intermarry with other m_am_b. Their offspring would always remain white.  So the Tower of Babel explains reproductive isolation of the different squares and the emergence of different races.

We can see diversity like this arising in families today in one generation.  Maria and Lucy Aylmer look like they come from different races (black and white) but in fact they are twin sisters from mixed parents.  Diversity like this arises simply by genetic shuffling.  But if diversity like this arises and then these offspring are reproductively isolated from each other then their skin color distinctiveness will persist in their offspring.  The Tower of Babel is that historical event explaining how clans retained their isolation from other language clans. Thus what we call races today have persisted since then.

One Family – no race distinction

But once we understand how races arose then we can realize that all diverse races are simply part of the same human family.  There is no basis for racism once we understand what race differences really come from.

As the Bible later on states

From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. ²⁷ God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 

Acts 17: 26-27

All people today, no matter what their race, skin color, or other distinctive features descend from the same original couple.  In that case we are simply one large and diverse family.  The Bible says that God established the diversity of nations so that we would reach out to find Him.  He unfolds His way for us to reach Him by begeting one special nation out of all the nations.  We look at how this nations finds its beginning next.

Why do you clothe yourself?  Not with just anything that fits, but you want fashionable clothing that expresses who you are.  What causes you to instinctively need to wear clothing, not just to stay warm but also to express yourself visually?

Isn’t it odd that you find the same instinct across the planet, no matter what people’s language, race, education, religion?  Women perhaps more than men, but they also display the same tendency.  In 2016 the global textile industry exported $1.3 Trillion USD.

The instinctive need to clothe ourselves feels so utterly normal and natural that many don’t often stop to ask, “Why?”. 

We put forth theories as to where the earth came from, where people came from, why the continents drift apart. But have you ever read a theory as to where our need for clothing comes from?

Only Humans – but not just for warmth

Let’s start with the obvious.  Animals certainly do not have this instinct.  They are all perfectly happy to be stark naked in front of us, and others all the time.  This is true even for higher animals.  If we are simply higher than higher animals this does not seem to add up.

Our need to be clothed comes not just from our need for warmth since much of our fashion and clothing comes from places with almost unbearable heat.  Though clothing is functional, keeping us warm and protecting us, these reasons do not answer our instinctive needs for modesty, gender expression and self-identity.

Clothing – from the Hebrew Scriptures

The one account that explains why we clothe ourselves, and do it tastefully, comes from the ancient Hebrew Scriptures.  These Scriptures place you and me into a story claiming to be historical. It offers insight into who you are, why you do what you, and what is in store for your future.  This story goes back to the dawn of mankind yet also explains everyday phenomena like why you clothe yourself.  Becoming familiar with this account is worthwhile since it offers many insights about yourself, guiding you to more abundant living.

We have been looking at the ancient creation account from the Hebrew Scriptures, often called the Bible, having started with the beginning of mankind and the world. We explore its pivotal events since then which echo down to today, explaining mundane events like shopping for fashionable clothes.

Made In the Image of God

We explored here that The Creator God had made the cosmos and then

So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:27

Using the lens of magnificent Buddha statues throughout Asia we saw that God fully expressed himself artistically through the beauty of creation.  Think of sunsets, flowers, tropical birds and landscape vistas.  Because God is artistic, you also, made ‘in his image’, will instinctively, without even consciously knowing ‘why’, likewise express yourself aesthetically. 

We saw that The Creator God is a person.  God is a ‘he’, not an ‘it’.  Therefore, it is only natural that you also want to express yourself both visually and personally.  Clothing, jewellery, colors and cosmetics (make-up, tattoos etc) is thus a prominent way for you to express yourself artistically as well as individually.

Male and Female

The Creator God also made humans in the image of God as ‘male and female’.  Here also we see in your clothing and fashion, through your hairstyle, why you create your ‘look’ which we all naturally and easily recognize as male or female.  This goes deeper than cultural fashion.  If you see fashion and clothing from a culture you have never seen before you will generally recognize what is male and what is female clothing in that culture. 

Thus your creation in the image of God as male or female begins explaining your clothing instincts.  But this Creation account continues with some subsequent historical events which further explains your relationship with clothing.

Covering our Shame

The Creator God gave the first humans the choice to obey or disobey Him in their primeval paradise.  They chose to disobey and when they did the creation account tells us that

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Genesis 3:7

This tells us that from this point on humans lost their innocence before each other and before their Creator.  Ever since then we instinctively have felt shame about being naked and have desired to cover our own nakedness.  Beyond the need to stay warm and protected, we feel exposed, vulnerable and ashamed if we are naked in front of others.  Mankind’s choice to disobey God unleashed this in us.  It also unleashed the cycle of attachments, wrong thinking, discord and death which are ever present realities of our lives. 

Extending Mercy: A Promise and some clothes

The Creator God, in his mercy for us, then did two things.  First, He uttered a Promise in riddle form that would direct human history.  In this riddle form He promised the coming Saviour, Jesus. The Creator God would send him to help us, to defeat his enemy, and to conquer death for us.

The second thing that The Creator God did was

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.

Genesis 3:21

God provided clothing to cover their nakedness.  God did so to address their shame.  Ever since that day, we the children of these human ancestors, have been instinctively clothing ourselves as a result of these events. 

Clothing of Skin – A Visual Aid

God clothed them in a specific way to illustrate a principle for us.  The clothing that God provided was not a cotton blouse or denim shorts but ‘garments of skin’.  This meant that the Creator God killed an animal in order to make skins to cover their nakedness.  They had tried to cover themselves with leaves, but these were insufficient and so skins were required.  In the creation account, up to this time, no animal had ever died.  That primeval world had not experienced death.  But now the Creator God sacrificed an animal to cover their nakedness and shield their shame.  This began a tradition, practised by their descendants, running through all cultures, of animal sacrifice.  Eventually people forgot the truth that this ritual illustrated, but preserved in the Bible which states:

        ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23

This states that Karma operates such that for all actions there are consequences.  For sin the consequence is death, and it must be paid.  We can pay it ourselves with our own death, or someone else can pay for it on our behalf.  The animal sacrificed for us illustrated this concept.  But it was only an illustration, a visual aid pointing to the real sacrifice that would one day free the world of sin.  This was fulfilled in the coming of Jesus who willingly sacrificed himself for us.  This great victory has ensured that

The last enemy to be destroyed is death

1 Corinthians 15:26

The Coming Wedding Feast – Wedding Clothes compulsory

Jesus likened this coming day, when He destroys death, to a great wedding feast.  He told the following parable

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹ So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

¹¹ “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ¹² He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

¹³ “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Matthew 22: 8 -13

In this story that Jesus told, everyone is invited to this festival.  People will come from every nation.  And because Jesus paid the karma for anyone’s sin he also gives out the clothes for this festival.  The clothing here represents his merit which can cover any karma.  Though the wedding invitations go far and wide, and the king distributes wedding clothes free-of-charge, he still requires them.  We need his payment to cover our bad karma.  The man who did not clothe himself was ejected from the festival.  This is why Jesus says later on.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

Revelation 3:18

How events unfold from the dawn of history up to this victory and how to be ‘clothed’ we continue exploring. We look at the next historic event, the great Flood, recorded in the Bible which affects you and me today.