Black as Evil

[N. Ganesan]

David Salmon wrote:
>The Bible is replete with contrasts between light and darkness, beginning
>with Genesis 1, in which God created the light, found that it was "good,"
>and set it to rule over the darkness.  Genesis is usually attributed to
>Moses, who lived c. 1446-1406 B.C. by one system of dating.  Other scholars
>attribute the Pentateuch--first five books of the Bible--to several sources
>dating between the 5th and 10th centuries B.C.

The light vs. darkness dualism gets spelt out vividly and transferred
to "Black vs. White" metaphors in the Jewish-Christian religions only
after the contact of Hebrew folks with Persians. Later this dualism
was again emphasised in Christianity by the teachings from the East:
Gnostics and  Manichaeism. Early christians took the notion of
Black/Darkness vs. White/Light  far to place Evil vehemently opposed
to their monotheistic God.

"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." (Gerald Messadie, A history of
the devil, Kodansha, 1997).

Dr. Salmon kindly gave few quotations of the dualism  from the Book of
Job and Isaiah. The Dragon serpent as Satan in the Bible is
originating from  a demon in the Avestan and Rigveda.

The portrayal of Satan in Job and Isaiah recalls demons from the
Vedic, acc. to Messadie. "Satan is an inferior god, but a god
nonetheless, who recalls similar figures in the religions that derive
from Vedism, for instance the trickster Loki. With God's consent,
Satan will test the unfortunate Job by tormrnting him, although
all will turn out well in the end. Satan is thus the instrument of
the deity ..."

"The book of Isaiah, which was written between  the eigth and sixth
centuries B.C., yet again confirms that, for Judaism, neither Satan
nor the demons were enemies of God, but in fact his servants."

Egypt and Mesopotamia:
----------------------

In Egypt, black was not considered evil. In fact, Black was a positive
colour, the tone of the rich Nile river deposits that nourished the
crops in the farmlands. Even Seth, the Egyptian god of chaos and
disturber of ma'at (order) in the cosmos has heroic and good deeds,
and Egyptians prayed to him in times of war.

In Meospotomia,  the "wicked" are often not distinguished from the
"enemy". The Sumerian gods, amongst themselves, behave amorally,
even immorally.

India
------
Indians before the Aryan invasions, celebrated and worshipped Black
colored gods. Naaraayana, name of Vishnu, is from the Dravidian root,
nal-,nAl-, nA.l- meaning "black". For fairly recent portrayals of
Vishnu as dark blue see:
1) Narayana sleeping on the serpent couch, accompanied by Lakshmi with
Narayana's feet on her lap. A beautiful Pahari painting c. 1760
(p. 32, The Eternal cycle, Indian myth, Time-Life, 1998)
2) Vishnu as Visvarupa, p. 58.

Note that Vishnu's avatars Raama and Krishna are very black in color.
For some literary citations, refer my Black and Bright and Beautiful
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind0011&L=indology&P=R12840

>The RV references seem much more racially focused, although it may be that
>the darker indigenous peoples were initially regarded as evil because of
>practices that the composers of the RV found morally abhorrent.

Indeed the hate of Black colour is striking in Indo-Iranian texts
from India and Iran.
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind0011&L=indology&P=R8092
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/cgi-shl/WA.EXE?A2=ind0011&L=indology&P=R8442

Epistle of Barnabas, written in the 2nd century Egypt, uses "the Black
one" for the first time. This is ultimately inspired from the
Mazdaist idea of the black color of Ahriman combating the good Ahura
Mazda told in oldest Persian sources. For the Persian influence,
my reco is Norman Cohn, Cosmos, chaos and the world to come:
The ancient roots of apocalyptic myth, Yale, 1993.

In earlier times, Evil was called Belial(=Worthless). After the
dualism of Black vs. White gets into the Judaic religion from
Indo-Iranians, "Belial" was replaced and got substituted as "Beliar".
This is a pun on "beli 'or" (=without light). (E. Pagels, The origin
of Satan, p. 57-58; S. david Sperling, "Belial" in K. van der Toorn,
Dictionary of Deities and Demons, E.J.Brill).

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

Regards,
N. Ganesan











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