Often, those who attempt to establish the table of nations do not provide a direct account, but rather use a religious, metaphorical or cryptic language, while focusing solely on modern societies and cultures. The problem with such an approach is that it creates contradictions because it fails to take account of ancient history, and, to some extent, renders a misleading account of God's Word. But The Lord urges people to examine their past in order to build a collective memory that will help guide us into the future and strengthen our relationship with Him.

The following is intended to help you understand and realize that if you keep reading the Bible from the perspective of modern migratory societies, not taking into account ancient history, your understanding of God's Word may be entirely flawed. The preservation, study and teaching of ancient historical sources and evidence are biblical prescriptions.

• Isaiah 46:8-9 "Remember this and be brave; take it to heart, you transgressors! Remember what happened long ago..."

• Job 8:8 "Please inquire of past generations and consider the discoveries of their fathers."

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Flavius Josephus, a Jewish priest, scholar and historian born in 37 A.D., made the following statements, claiming that some historical names had been altered. This reinforces the hypothesis that the narrative may have changed in an earlier version of human history, and that certain truths had been suppressed before the first century:

The children of Ham possessed the land from Syria and Amanus, and the mountains of Libanus; seizing upon all that was on its sea-coasts, and as far as the ocean, and keeping it as their own. Some indeed of its names are utterly vanished away; others of them being changed, and another sound given them, are hardly to be discovered; yet a few there are which have kept their denominations entire. |Flavius Josephus of the Antiquities of the Jews — Book I, Chap. 6:2|

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​Cush, son of Ham, is traditionally regarded as the ancestor of the Cushites or Ethiopians, and his descendants lived in a land known as the land of Cush.

• The word Kush/Cusch has two meanings: It can be translated either as ‘bow’ or as ‘land of burnt-faced peoples or the homeland of dark people.

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In some versions of the Bible, ‘Kush’ is translated as ‘Ethiopia’. Brieftly, the term "Ethiopian" is derived from the Greek name Αἰθιοπία (Aithiopia) which comes from Αἰθίοψ (Aithíops) that is a composition of two Greek words: αἴθω (aíthō,) "burned" + ὤψ (ṓps) "face"; and is correctly translated into a noun as "burned faced" and into an adjective as "red-brown". From Homer's time, the exonym was used to refer to the dark-skinned people living in regions below the Sahara and in what was then known as Nubia

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However, in biblical times, the terms ‘Kush’’, ‘Kushite’ or ‘Ethiopian’ used in the Hebrew Bible did not refer to the inhabitants of the country now known as Ethiopia, but sometimes to black skin, sometimes to black Africa, more specifically Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Africa.

• Jeremiah 13:23 "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?"

Cush begat Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raemah, Sabtecah and Nimrod.

According to the official account, most of his descendants settled east of the Red Sea and occupied Petra Arabia and Felix Arabia to the south-east of the Red Sea, i.e. present-day Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Oman. Yet there are early maps that situate most of Kusch's descendants in sub-Saharan Africa, with the exception of his son Saba ( shown below is a map published by cartographer Rob Wilkinson on 11 April 1818). ​

Why such confusion? How then will the average reader be able to discern the true identity of the Cuschites/Ethiopians?

The history that is no longer attributed to black people

For starters, historically, the Greeks were Romans of a sort, as they were governed by the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire, and until 1700 CE, many Greeks still called themselves Romans. We all too easily forget that interbreeding or interracial marriage was an explicit part of Alexander the Great's policy; he wanted all his subjects to have Greek blood running through their veins. As a result, many first-century slaves lived in regions where they could mix freely with other racial and ethnic types.

• Actes 16:1 "Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where he found a disciple named Timothy, the son of a believing Jewish woman and a Greek father."

Let's not forget that ancient slavery was present in civilizations as far back as Mycenaean Greece, which stretched from 1750 to 1050 BC, including ancient Egypt, and the Roman Empire. During the expansion of the Roman Empire, entire populations were enslaved, as this was an important element in the development of the cities. Those enslaved were for reasons of debt, punishment for crime, prisoners of war, child slavery and children born to slaves. They were mainly used for general labor. 

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It should also be remembered that in the first century A.D., the modern state of Israel did not exist, nor was the term “Jew” used, and there were no Ashkenazi or Sephardic Jews. But there were black Greco-Roman slaves known as Judeans or ioudaios (in Greek), i.e. those who lived in the Roman province of Judea (called Judaei) in southern Palestine. This region was once called Eretz Kna'an (the land of Canaan) and the borders were known in Jewish tradition as the “borders of those who came out of Egypt”. (Numbers 34:2, Deuteronomy 1:6-8).

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Briefly, according to the historical account, all was going well in the Roman Empire and the Jews were allowed to practice their religion until 66 A.D., when a revolt broke out in Judea (Judaei). 

► In the year 68, the resistance in the northern part of the province was eradicated and the Romans turned their full attention to enslaving the Judeans. That same year, Emperor Nero died, creating a vacancy in Roman leadership. In the ensuing chaos, Vespasian was declared emperor and made his way back to the Imperial City. The task of leading the remaining army in the assault on the Judeans was passed to his son, Titus. The Roman legions surrounded the city and slowly began to wipe out the Judean resistance forces.

► In the year 70, the attackers broke through the outer walls of the Judean cities and began to slaughter them mercilessly. The climax of the assault was the burning and destruction of the Temple. The sacred relics of the Temple were transported to Rome and displayed in exhibitions as a sign of victory celebration. The Romans killed thousands of Judeans. Of those who escaped death, some were scattered to the arenas of the Empire to be exterminated for the amusement of the public; others were deported to Egypt to work in the mines. 

► En l'an 132, il eut la révolte de Bar Kokhba, qui fut une rébellion armée à grande échelle lancée par les Judéens de Judée, sous la direction de Simon bar Kokhba. Ce soulèvement eut un effet dévastateur tant sur la population que sur les lieux d'habitation. Le nombre de morts fut impressionnant, tandis que les multitudes de Juifs furent emmenés en captivité pour remplir les marchés d'esclaves voisins et lointains. Le marché aux esclaves d'Hébron était particulièrement célèbre en tant que centre de vente des esclaves juifs envoyés en captivité par Hadrien. Les Juifs étaient si nombreux qu'on les vendaient pour des miettes.

► In the year 132, there was the Bar Kokhba revolt, a large-scale armed rebellion launched by the Judeans of Judea, under the leadership of Simon bar Kokhba. This had a terrible negative effect on the Judeans population.

• "The toll of the Bar Kochba uprising was devastating both on the population and on the places of habitation. The numbers of dead were awesome, while multitudes of Jews were taken captive to fill the slave markets near and far. The slave market of the Terebinth of Hebron was particularly famous as a center where Jewish slaves, sent into captivity by Hadrian were sold. So many Jewish slaves were available that, recording to one report, a Jew was sold for as little as the price of a portion of horse feed |History of Am Yisrael in Ancient Days (Hebrew, Devir), 1971, p.321.|

• “Now that Betar had been captured, everything came under Human control, while Palestine [Judah] was reduced to a desolate mound. Captives were sold into slavery in numbers too great to count. First they were brought to the grand annual market at the Terebinth-Eloh tree in Hebron, or in the words of Hyranumous, to the Tent-Ohel of Abraham near Hebron. Each slave sold for the price of a horse. Those captives who were not sold there were brought to the market place in Azza [Gaza] which, because of the great multitudes of slaves who were sold there, was called Hadrian’s market place. And those who were still not sold there were herded into ships and were taken to Egypt. Many died in transit, whether by starvation or by shipwreck, while many also were killed by cruel masters”. |Munter, Primordia Eccl. Africanae, pp. 85f., 113|

• Because the soldiers were now growing weary of bloodshed, and survivors appeared constantly, Caesar orders to kill only those who offered armed resistance and to take alive all the rest. (415) The troops, in addition to those covered by their orders, slaughtered the aged and infirm; people to their prime who might be useful they herded into the Temple area and shut up in the Court of the Women (lcl. (416) Caesar appointed one of his freedmen as their guard, his friend Fronto, to decide the fate appropriate to each. (417) All those who had taken part in sedition and brigandage (they informed against other) he executed. He picked out the tallest and handsomest of the lot and reserved them for the Triumph (418). Of the rest, those who were over seventeen he put in chains and sent to hard labor in Egypt while great numbers were presented by Titus to the provinces to perish in the theaters by sword or by wild beasts; those under seventeen were sold”. |Josephus, The Jewish Wars”; Book vi 9:2.|

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► In 650 AD, the trans-Saharan slave trade began, and continued throughout the Middle Ages until 1500. Millions of black slaves from sub-Saharan Africa were transported across the Sahara to the eastern Arab nations and to Constantinople (the Roman Empire). The Arabs regularly acquired slaves through violent raids, then captured them and sent them on dangerous forced marches across the Sahara to slave markets in Morocco, Algeria, Lebanon and Egypt. Arab slave traders referred to these African populations as Zanj or Soudan, meaning “black”.

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► In 1526, the Portuguese made the first transatlantic slave voyage to Brazil, and other Europeans soon followed suit. Almost half of the slaves transported to the United States and southern Europe came from two regions: Senegambia, the region comprising the Senegal River, the Gambia River and the lands between them, Guinea-Bissau and Mali; and Angola, Congo-Brazza, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon. The Gambia River, which links the Atlantic to Africa, was an essential waterway for the slave trade; at its peak, around one in six West African slaves came from this region. While the other half came from the West African nation of Ghana, as well as neighboring Côte d'Ivoire, the Bay of Biafra (which included parts of today's eastern Nigeria and Cameroon), a maritime entrance to Atlantic waters on the west coast of Africa, was the center of important slave-trading operations. The descendants of those Africans who were taken into captivity today make up considerable sections of the population of the USA, Brazil and many Caribbean islands.  ​​​​​​​​

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All these events hark back to the divine prophecies proclaimed following Israel's exodus from Egypt. While the Exodus was a divine act of grace and love, the return to Egypt was a reconsideration, a reversal of the whole Exodus process and the annulment of the blessings, should Israel disobey the Lord's covenant laws.

• Deuteronomy 28:68 "The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you."

• "And Hashem will exile you hack to Egypt in ships by way of the Reed Sea that you once crossed and concerning which I said: You shall not see it again! And there you will be sold into servitude to your enemies for large sums of money as crafts-men. And afterwards (you will be sold) cheaply as slaves and maidservants, until you will be cheapened (and try) to sell yourselves for nothing, and no one will take you in" |Deuteronomy 28:68, paraphrase of the Aramaic translation known as “Targum Yonatan ben Uziel”|​​

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Systematic excavations of ancient Greek sites have uncovered a plethora of sculptures dating from between 400 and 100 B.C., depicting black Greco-Roman Judeans; and more than ever before, modern times are increasingly enabling the recognition of such an important fact. This reinforces the hypothesis that the Judeans who lived in Judea (Judaei), the province of ancient Rome that included the regions of Samaria and Idumaea, were of black descent. After their deportation from Judea to Egypt, they mixed with Cusch's descendants.

• Amos 9:7 "Are you not like the Cushites to Me, O children of Israel?” declares the LORD."

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Russian iconography, the catacombs* of Rome, as well as the backgrounds of many Orthodox and Catholic churches, feature a considerable collection of ancient sculptures and paintings that seem to represent Hebrew patriarchs and prophets of black descent. (See video below).

​*Catacombs are the underground cemeteries of ancient Rome, created by early Christians to bury their dead. The catacombs consist of a system of passageways, often forming labyrinths, and rectangular niches of varying size dug into the walls for burials. They were created by excavating a very soft, porous sedimentary rock called tuff. Before being exposed to air, tuff is a very malleable rock, relatively easy to excavate with hand tools. But after exposure to air, it gradually hardens. As a result, excavated passages become firm and do not collapse. There are over 60 different catacombs in Rome, most of them underground and located along the Appian Way, and nowadays, almost all the niches are open and empty, but some are still closed. 

Scholars have speculated that the icons darkened over time, as a result of varnishing, candle smoke, incense burning, lead brushing and so on. Although these factors sometimes do darken paintings, in this case the characters do have distinctive features such as frizzy or curly hair and nasal structure.​

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All these facts reinforce the hypothesis that the Jews who lived in Judea (Judaei), the province of ancient Rome that included the regions of Samaria and Idumaea, were of black descent.

You be the judge, and we encourage you to do your own research.

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