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Well, before we even get into this topic of ethnicity and African presence in the bible, we have to deal with certain regions in the bible. Once we do that, we then have to look at the climates of those regions. After looking at those two things we must then look at the people in the bible. Lastly we will look at Jesus himself. Why does this matter? It matters because there is still a detachment from Christianity that some African Americans feel because most of the art and movies about biblical characters look more Caucasian than African. This is not a new topic for me. Starting as a teenager and then moving into my young adult days I became radical thinker. If you’ve read my blogs you may have noticed that not much has changed. As a Christian I was very intrigued by other religious beliefs. In the late ’80s and early ’90s I learned a lot about my own beliefs by having very spirited yet respectful discussions with young men who were a part of the Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam is thought by some to be a hate group and by others to be an Islamic sect that strongly emphasizes African American self-esteem. Either way the guys I talked to studied the Bible a lot and challenged me to become a better Bible student. One thing that the guys from the Nation of Islam challenged me on is the topic of Christianity being a “White Man’s” religion. This was something that stuck with me. They would show me pictures of a blonde haired, blue eyed Jesus. They pointed out how Cecil B. Demille avoided having any of the biblical characters in his movies showing any hint of African lineage. If that were not enough, they then pounded me with Elisabeth Taylor playing Cleopatra. This forced me to study. I was shocked to find what I found. I came to learn that they were right about some of the distortions of historical fact. They were correct in pointing out that a lot of the biblical imagery that is portrayed in art and movies was and still is at times very Eurocentric. In the first chapter of Genesis God created everything in 6 days and then God rested on Saturday. Things get very sticky for some when we get into the 2 nd chapter. Most Sunday school lessons and Biblical commentaries omit any discussion that involves verses 10 through 14 of the 2 nd chapter. In those verses the writer of Genesis tries to give the readers the location of Eden and it’s surrounding territories. In verses 11 through 13, the writer gives a lot of detail but verse 14 is almost an afterthought. The writer describes the flow of an unnamed river that flows out into four rivers. Where this river is placed is important because it flows out to four critical locations. The main regions were named after the people who first settled those regions according to scripture. The first place mentioned is the land of Havilah. I will get back to Noah and the flood in a moment but if you look up the land of Havilah you will find that it is the name of the land now known as Arabia. Havilah is also the name of one of Noah’s great grandson. The second place mentioned is the land of Cush which the Greeks called Ethiopia. Cush is one of Noah’s grandsons. The land of Cush is on the African continent. The writer went into a lot of detail to talk about what is found in Cush and Havilah. What is interesting is the fact that the Nile flows northward, meaning, from south to north and at one point flowed to all of the regions mentioned by the writer of Genesis. Many scholars and theologians fail to mention or write about the similarities of the Nile and the unnamed river in the 2 nd chapter of Genesis. Hmm, I wonder why? In the 14 th verse Tigris and Euphrates are mentioned as after thoughts with not much detail. If we look at the way the passage says the river flowed into four heads, in order to flow to Tigris, Euphrates, Ethiopia and Arabia this river would have to flow north and not south. This puts Eden somewhere in the continent of Africa. With this being the case it is highly unlikely that Adam and Eve would be, by American standards, white or Caucasian. What is also mentioned in Genesis 3 : 8 are the words “…the cool of the day”(KJV). There is no “cool of the day” without the warm or even hot of the day. Hot and even warm means sun. To my knowledge there were no buildings in Eden, so that meant that Adam and Eve were outside all day. If you are out in the sun all day every day, it is impossible to have a light completion. One of Adam and Eve’s descendants was Noah. I know you have heard about the flood but some taught the falsehood that Noah’s 3 sons represented the three hues of man (Mongoloid, Caucasoid and Negroid). According to false teaching, a White man named Noah had a Black son named Ham, an Asian son named Japheth and a White son named Shem. It’s obvious that if Adam and Eve were dark skinned people from the continent of Africa then their descendants would be dark skinned as well. By American standards, Noah and his family including his 3 sons were all of African descent. In Genesis 10:6 we find that one of Ham’s descendants is Cush. Remember the writer of Genesis called a region Cush that was near Eden. The Greeks named the people of this region Ethiopians which means burnt faced people. The Greeks named where these people lived Ethiopia, because it was the land of the burnt faced people. In other words, these people were dark skinned Negroid or black people. In Genesis 10:7 Cush had a son named Havilah. Havilah, as a reminder, settled in Arabia. Scientists would even be hard pressed to prove that life began in Europe. What some would deem Caucasian people didn’t existed at this point in Genesis if you use Genesis as a historical guide to the beginnings of humanity. Once we get to the 11 th chapter, we reach the story of the tower of Babel. A brief synopsis goes like this; everybody on earth was in one place and decided to build a tower as high as they possibly could. God sees what they are doing and knows that it is possible as long as they were unified. In order to stop this building project God came down and caused everyone to speak different languages. At this point those who spoke Spanish found others who spoke Spanish and migrated to Spain. The same happened with English speaking people and so on and so forth. If you think about it, those who went to colder climates adapted to those climates. Over time, after many descendants, it’s safe to say they probably began to look different from the darker skinned people who remained in the hotter climates. Let’s move to the story of who is believed to be the writer of Genesis, Moses. I’m sure you know or have read about Moses being put in a basket by his Sister to float down a river to a place where Pharaoh’s daughter was bathing in Egypt. Moses was taken in by Pharaoh’s daughter and raised in the house of Pharaoh as her child. There is no way Moses could have looked like Charlton Heston and flown under the radar in the house of Pharaoh. Moses had to at least resemble the Egyptians to be treated as one of their own. Keep in mind the Egyptians you see today are not the Egyptians Moses saw. In 353 BC, Egypt fell to the Persians. This fall meant that those peoples intermingled. Prior to that Egyptians looked like Ethiopians. All of them were burnt faced people, according to the Greeks. Keep in mind that this was not a derogatory term by the Greeks but merely the best description they had to describe dark skinned people. With that said the Hebrew people including Moses had to look like the Cushites or Ethiopians or as the Greeks described burnt faced people. Hold on to your hat for this one, according to American standards, Abraham and his descendants, including Moses, at the very least, looked like what Americans would describe as Negroid or black. I could go into all of the times Ethiopia and Egypt are mentioned in the Bible but to some that would seem heavy-handed. Keep in mind I am only expounding on what the Bible clearly lays out about the appearance of certain people in scripture. There is so much biblical history about Africa that it would take much longer to go into all of the facts but I will point out something else that is quite interesting. In Matthew 2:13 an angel of God tells Joseph to take his family to Egypt. The angel gave these instruction to Jesus’ earthly father because Herod was about to kill all of the boys 2 years and younger around Bethlehem during that time. We’ve already noted that Egypt was a region of dark-skinned, African people. Would God have His angel to tell Joseph to hide himself, his wife and Jesus in a region where they could be easily spotted? Can you imagine Joseph, Mary and Jesus being white by American standards trying to move about in the midst of a bunch of dark-skinned people, African people? To put it bluntly Herod would have found Jesus and killed him. Going to Egypt was smart because they could blend in. Wait a minute!!! That means, by American standards, Jesus had to be black. How do I come to this conclusion? First, he had to look Egyptian, second, he was a descendant of Abraham and third, he was in a sun drenched region that is still very close to Africa. One last thing, check out Acts 21:37-39. A Roman commander thought Paul was an Egyptian. Even the Apostle Paul looked like what Americans would call a black maan. According to Ephesians 1:7 “ He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins .” Is this passage saying that the the whole body of Christ is black according to America’s “one-drop rule”? Ok, I have now scared a lot of people so let me say here that in the Bible skin color didn’t matter. Unfortunately in a lot of art and literature skin color mattered too much. Sadly in most American churches Africa is conveniently forgotten about as it relates to biblical history. Christianity is for all people of all colors and nationalities. I just wish that the African presence in scripture was not extracted through ignorance or blatant racism. With that said, the Church should be more like the church was in Antioch. In Acts 13:1 we see that many nationalities were in this church’s congregation. This blog should help dispel the myth that Christianity is a “White Man’s” religion.
The New West frontrunner tells MTV News, ‘A lot of people they just know me based off of verses, features.’ By Alvin Blanco, with reporting by Sway Calloway and Rob Markman Tyga Photo: Rich Sancho/ MTV News As MTV News’ New West Week comes to a close, the question is which of the myriad of MC talents coming out of the L.A. hip-hop scene is most likely to enjoy mainstream success. While the acts we’ve covered — Kendrick Lamar, Pac Div and Nipsey Hussle, to name a few — all have solid chances, the artist with the track record and best tools in place to succeed is Young Money’s Tyga. The Compton rapper already has certified hits under his belt. Even before making his YMCMB affiliation official, Tyga scored a hit with “Coconut Juice” in 2008. Then he made sure he wasn’t forgotten among the Young Money pack by dropping guest verses on hits like “BedRock” and “Roger That.” But it was last year’s collaboration with his buddy Chris Brown on their joint Fan of a Fan mixtape that spawned Tyga’s biggest hit to date, the Grammy nominated “Deuces.” Now Tyga is prepping his forthcoming album, Careless World, which he told MTV News is about 75 percent done. “You’re going to see more of a story and more into Tyga’s world and what I represent, the story that I’m trying to tell,” Tyga explained about the album. “I feel like a lot of people they just know me based off of verses, features, heavy rap songs, mixtape stuff. Which is cool because I love to do that — this is rap music — but at the same time, I make a lot of real good music also. “I don’t think a lot of people are on to that yet,” Tyga added. “I just dropped a mixtape, Black Thoughts 2, that was I say, maybe 25, 35 percent of what my album is going to sound like.” In the meantime, before Careless World gets its release later this year, Tyga is taking his music to the people. Although he isn’t a part of the Weezy-headlined I Am Still Music Tour, he’s currently on Diddy-Dirty Money’s Coming Home Tour . Diddy thought enough of Tyga to bring him on his tour, and on Thursday MTV News spoke to Young Money president Mack Maine, who told us he’s excited about pushing the Cali MC’s project forward. “I’m definitely looking forward, his buzz is up, it’s ridiculous,” Mack said. “We’re about to drop this single soon, it’s called ‘Far Away,’ featuring Chris Richardson and from there it’s basically, we need to capitalize. He also has another song that I’m waiting for Nicki to do her verse on. We’ll try to drop that single. From there, let’s just see when the people are ready for his album. But he got a lot of songs done so we’re definitely trying to put him out before the end of the year.” When Careless World does drop it will surely have plenty of YMCMB participation but Tyga assures it won’t be a scattershot compilation. “I just like to make the music organic,” Tyga said. “If I feel like, ‘This person on this will be real dope,’ then I’mma reach out and get the feature. But it’s all about making great music. If there’s features on every track but it’s great music, I mean hey … either you love it or you don’t.” Stick with us all week as MTV News turns the spotlight on the New West, the next wave of hip-hop acts helping restore faith in the L.A. rap scene. From groups like Odd Future to rising MCs like Dom Kennedy, we’ll bring you up close and personal to these artists as they carve their own lanes in the post-gangsta rap era. Keep it locked here for the next week for more on the West Coast up-and-comers! Related Videos The New West: An In-Depth Look At L.A. Hip-Hop ‘RapFix Live’ With Tyga Related Artists Tyga
It’s Brit Marling Day at Movieline! Since you’ll be seeing a lot more of her in the near future , take a gander at the new trailer for Another Earth , the first of two Marling-starring Sundance flicks coming to theaters courtesy of Fox Searchlight. Alternate planets, tragedy, romance, and Marling’s captivating screen presence — it’s all here. As a bonus, it’s also got Ethan from Lost ! Bet this ends better.
The involuntary manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson’s personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, will include haunting, starkly different depictions of MJ’s final days. In addition to rehearsal footage for his This Is It tour, prosecutors will show autopsy photos of the singer’s lifeless body on a coroner’s gurney, a judge ruled. Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor cleared prosecutors to present the footage and autopsy photos in a lengthy hearing that set up evidentiary boundaries. One of the Michael Jackson autopsy photos shows Jackson’s naked body, but the judge explained “certain parts” will be “blocked out.” He didn’t explain which. The judge ruled that the photos are relevant under the evidence code and are “not gruesome, graphic or inflammatory.” However, he did rule out other material. Specifically, Pastor barred both sides from delving deep into personal details. He wants the focus on the medical care, not MJ’s personal life – or Murray’s. Jurors, Pastor said, will NOT hear about Murray being a player , his out-of-wedlock kids or penchant for strip clubs, all of which prosecutors hoped to discuss. Nor, he said, will they hear evidence that the defense had sought to introduce concerning Michael Jackson’s debt, pending lawsuits and erratic behavior.
Clementi’s September suicide inspired nationwide anti-bullying movement. By Gil Kaufman Tyler Clementi Photo: Facebook A New Jersey grand jury indicted Rutgers University student Dharum Ravi on 15 charges on Wednesday in connection with the September suicide of his roommate, Tyler Clementi . The charges came nine months after Clementi’s death inspired a nationwide anti-bullying movement that has drawn support from everyone from Lady Gaga to President Obama, Justin Bieber and Katy Perry. According to The New York Times, after initially being charged with invasion of privacy, Ravi was accused in Wednesday’s indictment of acting with antigay motives in posting a romantic encounter between Clementi and another man online, a hate crime that could result in a sentence of five to 10 years in prison if convicted. In addition, the grand jury charged Ravi, 19, with an attempted cover-up in the case, accusing him of deleting a Twitter post that had alerted others about a second encounter Clementi had planned with the man and replacing it with a post that was “intended to mislead the investigation.” Prosecutors also claimed that Ravi attempted to persuade some witnesses not to testify against him. Prosecutors explained on Wednesday that the bias-intimidation charges were based in part on events that began on August 6, when Ravi learned his roommate’s name, later announcing on Twitter that Clementi was gay. “The grand jury charged that the invasion of privacy and attempt to invade the privacy of
‘I haven’t really had that moment of remorse or blues,’ he tells MTV News of still shooting final film. By Kara Warner Peter Facinelli Photo: Frazer Harrison/ Getty Images Earlier this week, MTV News learned of an exciting “Twilight” and “American Idol” mash-up between Peter Facinelli and “Idol” castoff Paul McDonald on the “Loosies” soundtrack. Naturally, we couldn’t let Facinelli hang up the phone until we addressed another important subject matter: “Breaking Dawn.” Unlike co-star Robert Pattinson , Facinelli has yet to wrap his work on the “Twilight” saga. “I still have another two weeks of second-unit stunt work, so for me, it doesn’t feel quite done yet,” he said. “I haven’t really had that moment of remorse or blues, you know, the blues of finishing. I’m in the midst of still finishing myself.” Regarding a few key scenes that his co-stars have mentioned — specifically the Taylor Lautner vs. Kristen Stewart fight scene — Facinelli agreed that seeing the much smaller Stewart take on Lautner was entertaining. “Oh yes, I was there for that,” he said. “[It was] very funny. … But you have to kick his butt a little bit,” Facinelli added about the idea of Lautner’s character Jacob imprinting on Bella and Edward’s daughter Renesmee . Although he couldn’t go into too much detail, we asked Facinelli to describe the heavily hyped wedding scene for us. “Beautiful and spectacular,” he said. “It’s funny, because whenever we have a big important scene on ‘Twilight’ [movies], it rains. I was doing the baseball sequence [from ‘Twilight’], and it was raining. But you never see it on film,” he said of the filmmaking crew’s movie magic. “With this wedding, it rained the whole time we shot the two scenes. But you’ll never see it on film, they block out the rain. They put tarps up and you’ll never see it. But for us, it was very wet and muddy and cold.” Check out everything we’ve got on “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1.” For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com . Related Photos Meet The Cast Of ‘Breaking Dawn’ On The Set Of ‘Breaking Dawn’
Rapper tweets that he’s being held after being denied entry into the country for a scheduled concert. By Alvin Blanco The Game (file) Photo: Jeff Kravitz/ FilmMagic The Game is not having a good time on April 20 (Wednesday). The Compton rapper was on the way to Canada from Los Angeles when he was detained at customs for three hours. The “Hate It or Love It” MC was headed to Nova Scotia for a show at the Halifax Forum, whose website now notes that the performance has been canceled. The Game kept fans abreast of his situation via Twitter . “Been in Customs for 3 hours……. #patienceIsAvirtue” was Game’s first tweet from his @thegame account regarding his travel troubles. The next succession of tweets revealed his border troubles were going from bad to worse. “Customs officials just denied me entry into Canada. I’m sorry 2 ALL my fans but I was mislead by promoters & assured I would be able 2 enter,” he tweeted. The Game then informed his followers that he is going to be detained for 14 days, after which he will go before a judge that will determine if he’ll be deported or jailed for violating Canada’s immigration entry laws. The information flow came to a stop after he tweeted that his phone and property were being confiscated by officials. Patricia Giolti, a representative of the Canada Border Service Agency, told MTV News that the information Game relayed before his phone privileges were yanked is incorrect. According to Canadian legislation, when a foreign national is detained, they must have a detention review hearing before the Immigration and Refugee Board within 48 hours of their detention. However, Canada’s Privacy Act prevented Giolti from commenting on the specifics of the Game’s file. Ironically, before boarding his plane to Canada, the rapper tweeted that he had not been to the country since the release of his debut album, The Documentary, in 2005. The Game recently filmed the video for the Cool & Dre-produced “Red Nation,” the lead single from his forthcoming release, The R.E.D. Album. MTV News’ calls to representatives of the Game were not returned at press time. Related Artists The Game
Documentary filmmaker Tim Hetherington, a 2011 Oscar nominee who directed the acclaimed Afghanistan war film Restrepo , was killed today in Libya. The veteran correspondent was only 41 years old. Hetherington died in the Libyan city of Misurat Three photographers working in alongside him chronicling the Libyan civil conflict, were also injured. One, Chris Hondros, reportedly suffered a critical brain wound. Guy Martin, who was with Hondros and Hetherington, is said to be in “grave” condition. The British-born Hetherington found great critical success with Restrepo , which he co-directed alongside frequent journalist collaborator Sebastian Junger. The Oscar-nominated film followed American soldiers in Afghanistan’s deadly Korengal Valley, known as the deadliest valley in the war zone. The film was widely critically praised and took the Grand Jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010. It earned an Oscar nomination for best documentary. While details are still emerging as to exactly what happened, Reuters reported that Hetherington and his group were attacked by fatal mortar fire . “Sad news Tim Hetherington died in Misrata now when covering the front line. Chris Hondros is in a serious status,” wrote fellow photographer and close, longtime Hetherington friend Andr
It’s 4/20, baby. You know what that means, right? THG does. Well, sort of. The origins of 420 are hotly debated, but no matter where the term came from, people associate it with smoking massive amounts of weed! As such, the 20th day of April has become a de facto holiday. With that in mind, The Hollywood Gossip salutes 10 famous individuals who have been known to puff the herb from time to time. Some even inhale … Bill Clinton: I Never Inhaled 10. Bill Clinton . As President of the United States, William Jefferson Clinton presided over the largest peacetime economic expansion in American history. But boy, was he a terrible liar. The Lewinsky debacle was technically worse (what with perjury charges and all), but “I didn’t inhale” was pretty legendary. 9. Jeff Bridges . He played The Dude! Enough said, really. But to further our argument for his inclusion, we suggest reading these Big Lebowski quotes . Arnold Schwarzenegger Smoking a Joint 8. Arnold Schwarzenegger . Okay, so the only reason he’s on this list is because of the above video. Watch it and you’ll understand why pretty quickly. 7. Cheech & Chong . When your Wikipedia bio you’re best known for routines “based on the hippie and free love era, and especially drug culture movements, most notably their love for cannabis,” you’re pretty much a lock for this list. Zach Galifianakis Smokes Weed on Bill Maher 6. Bill Maher and Zach Galifianakis . The latter truly blazed new trails on late-night TV Friday as he produced and lit a joint on HBO with the former. Seth Rogen & James Franco Smoke Weed at MTV Movie Awards 5. The entire cast of Pineapple Express . Classic weed films abound, but this Judd Apatow vehicle from the modern day stoner crew takes the cake. We could debate for hours on end which alternate films could have been included here, but our brain cells are just too depleted to care at this point. Besides, check out James Franco and Seth Rogen’s classic MTV Movie Awards appearance. That’s some serious dedication to the cause, people! 4. Michael Phelps . After absolutely smoking the competition in the 2008 Summer Olympics, the swimming legend made waves for … well, see above. You could say that Phelps took the most expensive hit ever, considering he lost at least one major sponsorship based on it. See what we did there?! 3. Willie Nelson . On 4/30, Nelson will turn 78, or approximately how many times he lights up per week. Hey, at least he’s up front about it, unlike #10 on our list. Dude co-chairs the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws! 2. Snoop Dogg . Let’s be blunt. If anyone here would roll up summa dat dank ass sticky-icky-icky and hook you up with some bubonic chronic right freaking now, it’d be Snoop D-O-Double-G. SMOKE WEED EVERY DAY! (RIP Nate Dogg). Miley Cyrus Bong Video 1. Miley Cyrus . Okay, we realize it’s unfair that the girl who tops our list wasn’t even smoking marijuana, but rather a legal drug known as salvia. Nevertheless, “Miley Cyrus bong video” was the top search term on THG for weeks on end. Eat your Mary Jane-loving hearts out, Snoop and Willie. Did we miss your favorite(s) or not rank them *high* enough? Submit your own nominations for celebrity stoners by leaving a comment below, man.
