Di Black Presence

 

Jesus' male ancestors trace a line from Shem. However, ethnically and racially, they were mixed Semitic and Hamitic from the times spent in captivity in Egypt and Babylon.

Rahab and probably Tamar were Canaanites. Although Canaanites spoke a Semitic language,they were descendants of Ham through his son Canaan. Bethsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah the Hittite, probably was a Hittite herself, possibly a Hamitic Hittite, though scholars disagree on the precise identity of the "Hittites" in the Bible because historical records are quite scarce.

 

In the United States today the general view on whether someone is "black" is the One-Drop Rule -- if a person has any black ancestors s/he is considered "black", even with a clearly Anglo skin color.

 

(cf., for example, The Politics of Egyptology and the History Kemet (Egypt))