Black as Evil

[Steve Farmer]

N. Ganesan cites a book by Gerald Messadie, who is hardly a
credible source:

> "The Bible itself is a late text; since the publication of the now
> celebrated analysis of Karl Graf and Julius Wellhausen in the
> nineteenth century, which later came to be referred to collectively as
> the Graf-Wellhausen theory, it has become accepted that Genesis is a
> composite text written after Exodus, or in other words after
> Nebuchadrezzar took and razed Jerusalem in  587 B.C. (9). Genesis must
> therefore have been written after the return to Jerusalem at the
> beginning of the fifth century B.C."

This is not an accurate description of the work of Graf and
Wellhausen or of the layering of the Torah/Pentateuch. Genesis
contains very old as well as new strata, as does Exodus. Only the
final redaction of Genesis -- including the so-called Priestly
(P) materials found, e.g., in Genesis 1 ff. -- are this late
(arguably later). The early Yahwist (Y) strata of Genesis, on the
other hand, contain some of the oldest materials in the
Torah/Pentateuch, going back quite a few centuries earlier.

Ganesan continues:

> Portraying Black as Evil in World religions has ancient roots in
> India and Iran and, gets into other religions.

It is difficult to believe that anyone could seriously make such
claims. You don't need India or Iran, or any other geographical
source, to explain the association between black and evil, which
shows up in many primitive societies which had no possible
contact with India or Iran. I know a lot of people who are scared
of the dark. Do you know anyone scared of the light?

It is time to kill this silly thread.