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The Racial Issue in Biblical Perspective
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which [we] have to deal is not so much a biological as a sociological problem
in which theological, cultural and psychological factors all play their part.”2
Since these were the very same factors that framed “the dividing wall of hos
tility” (Eph. 2:14) between mainstream Judaism and sinners, publicans,
Samaritans, and Gentiles, we not only have warrant for speaking of primitive
Christianity’s “race problem”3 but we are also justified, as I have already
suggested, in looking to their practice and teachings for guidance in our
search for the solution to our race problem. On this score the New Testa
ment writers speak with a single voice. Just as they bear emphatic witness to
the progressively inclusive character of early Christian practice, they are also
clear about the conclusions to which this practice leads.
Despite laws forbidding association with sinners, publicans
,
Samaritans
,
Gen
tiles, our Lord and his disciples associated with all these people.
Official Judaism
evolved an “elaborate system of spiritual quarantine regulations”4 for keep
ing law-abiding Jews from law-breaking Jews like the sinners and publicans
of the Gospels. It felt that “segregation^) alone could preserve it from
extinction.”5Yet Jesus, judging by the frequency with which his critics assail
him for associating with people of this ilk, simply “became notorious”6 for
his disregard of this taboo. . . .
Proposition 4: Self-denying service to persons in need, irrespective of race or
party or any such thing, is the identifying mark of Christ and his followers.
Despite the particularism of his religious heritage, the Jesus of Matthew’s
Gospel never mentions
race or nationality in his list of requirements for appropriation of the life in the
kingdom he heralds. He offers it, not to the smug and self-satisfied, but to the
poor who mourn, weep, act mercifully, seek peace, and welcome persecution
ahead of compromise (5:3-10); not to those who were born aright, but to those
who live aright (5:17-20); not to the legalists who never fail to bring their gift
to the altar at the appointed time, but to those who love even the people who
look on them as enemies (5:23-24); not to those who love only their own kind,
but to those who love even the people who look on them as enemies (5:43-48).
In short, salvation in Matthew hinges, not on external gifts open only to the
privileged few, but on personal gifts available to all.7
2. W. A. Visser ‘t Hooft,
The Ecumenical Movement and the Racial Problem
(Paris: UNESCO,
I‘>(>4), 8.
W. D. Schermerhorn,
Beginnings of the Christian Church
(New York: Methodist Book
( oncern, 1929), 93.
I. Oavid Daube,
The New Testament and Rabbinic Judaism
(London: Athlone Press, 1956),
i / ‘v
V W. D. Davies,
Paul and Rabbinic Judaism
(London: S.P.C.K., 1948), 61.
(). B. 11. Branscomb,
Jesus and the Lazu of Moses
(New York: R. R. Smith, 1930), 132.
7. Adapted from my book,
Segregation and the Bible
(New York: Abingdon, 1958), 7511.