Feedback: Noah,
A Global Flood, And The Case Against Racism
Bodie
Hodge and Dr. Tommy Mitchell
Biblical
Authority Ministries, March 10, 2026 (Donate)
[Editor’s
note: Here is an old feedback article I co-authored with a dear friend who I miss,
who passed into glory years ago; all verses NKJV]
Letter
unedited:
The
Bible does not say that all races came from Noah and his three sons. Noah was
white, he was perfect in his generation, he was a direct descendant of Adam. In
Hebrew Adam literally means white man blood in the face red. Adam is the father
of the white race, no other. Noah's flood was local. If everybody came from
Noah than why did God condemn interracial relations and marriage. It shouldn't
make a difference. Ask a doctor if you can receive a blood transfusion from a
black man. He will say no because the blood types are not related. You could
get very sick and die. All the races made it through the flood. This is an
archeological, anthropological, and historical fact. Noah was a white man, and
his sons were white. They cannot produce black children, asian children, or
children of any other race.
T.G.,
U.S.A
Response:
Thank you for
contacting the ministry. We
often receive correspondence such as this, and we are taking the opportunity to
respond to this one in kindness to help correct the false theology in this
letter.
The
Bible does not say that all races came from Noah and his three sons.
There are two
things wrong right off the start. First, the Bible doesn’t lump people into
multiple “races.”
Second, the
Bible does teach that people throughout the entire earth are descendants of
Noah.
Now
the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham
was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the
whole earth was populated (Genesis 9:18-19).
The Bible
indicates that all people came through Noah and his sons since all other humans
and land animals died in the Flood (Genesis 7:21-23). But let’s back up even further. On
the sixth day of creation, God made the land animals and man. Thus, Adam and
the Woman were made on that day. Genesis 3:20 says,
“And Adam called his wife Eve; because she
was mother of all the living.”
Adam and Eve were likely middle brown in skin tone; Image requested by Bodie Hodge (ChatGPT)
Note that
Scripture indicates that Eve was mother of all, not some,
of the living. Obviously, this is referring to humans; otherwise, other
so-called races of humans weren’t living! Therefore, all humans trace their
ancestry back to these two people, Adam and Eve.
Different
people groups developed after the Flood from the descendants of Noah. After the
Flood, all people spoke the same language. Genesis 11 explains that God confused their
languages at the Tower of Babel to force them to scatter over the earth. This
scattering isolated portions of the human gene pool geographically.
The physical
characteristics of various ethnic groups developed in these isolated groups due
to the sorting and isolation of genetic information already present in man’s
DNA. The information in that DNA had originally been present in Adam’s DNA and
has just been shuffled and sorted. Therefore, the development of so-called
races has nothing to do with molecules-to-man evolution. All people groups are
still humans, descended from one original human. The book of Acts confirms that
humans are all related:
"And
He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their
dwellings (Acts 17:26).
All men are
related and of “one blood” through Noah and, ultimately, Adam and Eve. Even
secular scientists are finally realizing that all the so called “races” are,
indeed, one blood.
Noah
was white,
The Bible
does not say that Noah was “white”. In fact no one is “white”, we are all
brownish in tone—some more some less. The Bible never describes Noah’s physical
appearance. He could have just as easily had a variety of features. To make
such a dogmatic claim without a Scriptural basis would imply that you are
omnipresent and omniscient.
National Geographic lined up a bunch of girls to show that skin tone was largely based on a brownish pigment called melanin; Adam and Eve were likely in the middle; Credit:
National Geographic's "Skin Information and Facts"
he
was perfect in his generation, he was a direct descendant of Adam.
Everyone,
including Noah, was a direct descendent of Adam, but that didn’t make them
perfect in their generation. Everyone, including Noah and Adam, was a sinner.
Noah was called perfect in his generations because he found grace in the eyes
of the Lord (Genesis
6:8-9). Hebrews 11:7 explains that Noah’s righteousness was
by faith. In other words, like all people in his generation, Noah was a sinner.
But unlike
the other people, Noah trusted in God’s forgiving grace. As a result, as Genesis 6:9
says, Noah walked with God. Noah was even a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5).
Noah escaped death in the worldwide Flood because of his faith in God’s grace,
not because he was a white man, directly descended from Adam.
In
Hebrew Adam literally means white man blood in the face red.
Strong’s
Concordance says that Adam’s name in Hebrew means “to show blood in the face,
red, ruddy, rosy, a human being.” This Hebrew word has nothing to do with being
white.
According to
the Bible, the life of the flesh is in the blood. When God breathed life into
Adam, Adam became a living soul. Perhaps the association of life with blood
explains God’s name for Adam. Some have tried to make the assertion that Adam
was red-skinned or red haired, but there is no reason to think his name
referred to these features over the red life-blood. God’s name for the first
man implied nothing about white skin.
Adam
is the father of the white race, no other.
What do you
mean by “white”? Irish? Russians? The claim that Adam was “white” is pure
conjecture and totally unsupportable. Nothing in Scripture suggests that Adam
was “white” or that Adam was the father of only “white” people.
Adam and Eve,
and later Noah and his wife, probably had skin tones closer to middle brown.
Adam’s DNA had to contain information for a wide variety of skin tones. Only in
this way could human DNA possess the genetic variability to produce the many
skin tones we now see. Shuffling and sorting of this genetic information
produces a variety of skin tones.
Potential style of Babel; Image requested by Bodie Hodge (ChatGPT)
After the
scattering of people from the Tower of Babel, genetic information was sorted
and isolated into many geographic areas. Certain groups lost the ability to
produce children of other skin shades because the genetic information for those
skin shades was not present in their population group.
Noah's
flood was local.
Noah’s flood
was global, not local. But don’t take our word for it; let's see what the Bible
has to say.
The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the
ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed
exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were
covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were
covered (Genesis 7:18-20).
Image from Presentation Library
Additionally,
there are many problems with the claim that Noah’s Flood was local. For
instance:
- Why did God tell Noah to
build an Ark? If the Flood had been only local, Noah and his family could
have just moved to higher ground or over the mountain to avoid the flood
waters.
- The wicked people that the
Flood was intended to destroy could have escaped God’s judgment in the
same manner.
- Why take all the birds on the
Ark when they could have flown over the hill!
- If the Flood were local, then
God would be a liar, for God promised in Genesis 9:11
never to send a Flood to destroy the earth again. Yet the world has seen
many local floods.
Over the
years, we have found that there are primarily two groups of people who promote
a local flood for Noah’s day:
- Those who believe that the
geologic layers represent millions of years instead of a global Flood.
- Those that are “racist” and
insist that people of a particular shade of skin are not Adam and Noah’s
kin, and survived outside the Ark.
Why take such
preconceived beliefs to the Bible to try to twist Genesis 6-9? I want to
encourage readers to read these passages and then ask: how, biblically, can
people get a local flood out of these chapters? The Bible should be
starting point, not an afterthought for our theology.
If
everybody came from Noah than why did God condemn interracial relations and
marriage. It shouldn't make a difference.
Where did God
condemn “interracial” marriage? He doesn’t. God doesn’t lump people into
multiple “races” anyway. The concept of “races” is a man-made idea.
Since there
is only one race of humans, “interracial relations” makes no difference from a
biological point of view. However,
from a spiritual point of view, marriages make a huge difference. God told the
children of Israel not to intermarry with people from other cultures who were
not godly (Deuteronomy
7:3–4). These were pagan cultures with their own customs and
their own gods and would lead people astray. God knew that intermarrying with
these people would soon lead them away from the worship of the one true God.
One only need
look to the life of Solomon, who far exceeded others in wisdom (1 Kings
4:29-32), to see the effect that taking strange wives had on his
life and his descendants. To maintain Israel as a peculiar people, God wanted
separation from pagan cultures, but not by “racial” division. After all, Rahab
(Canaanite) and Ruth (Moabite), who were not Israelites, were incorporated when
they changed to serve the true God.
In the Bible,
there is only one type of marriage that is forbidden. That is a marriage
between a saved and an unsaved person:
Do not be
unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has
righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? (2 Corinthians
6:14).
Again, this
mimicked the command to the Israelites to not marry people who are not seeking
after God and would lead both the person and their children astray.
Ask
a doctor if you can receive a blood transfusion from a black man. He will say
no because the blood types are not related. You could get very sick and die.
I (Dr. Tommy
Mitchell, a medical internist) don’t have to ask a doctor. I am
a doctor. What you state is absolutely incorrect. Blood is not typed on the
basis of race. It is typed on the basis of antigens found on the red blood
cells. It is ultimately more complicated than this. This is the basis for the
ABO blood grouping and the Rh antigen typing classifications. When one needs a
blood transfusion, the donor blood is checked for these various antigens to
determine if it is compatible with the recipient’s immune system.
A transfusion
of improperly matched blood can lead to a serious reaction (and sometimes even
death) to the person receiving the blood. However, this has absolutely nothing
to do with “race.” In fact, it is common in transplant medicine to find the
closest tissue match from someone from another “race” as was the case in Blood
brothers.
All
the races made it through the flood. This is an archeological, anthropological,
and historical fact. Noah was a white man, and his sons were white.
I agree that
all the “races”, if such a term could even be used, made it through the Flood,
but not at the sake of forsaking Genesis 6-9 as a local Flood. The authors’
term here would be “people groups”, not “races” anyway. All people groups are
the descendants of Noah and his family. These eight people ultimately gave rise
to all people groups on earth. Thus, we would agree that it is an
anthropological and historical fact.
But we will
go one step further. Archaeologically and anthropologically, most of the people
in Africa are descendants of Cush, Mizraim, and Phut, three of Noah’s great
grandsons. Mizraim is still the Hebrew name for Egypt. Parts of modern
day Libya and Morocco is the land of Phut and was Libya was renamed for one of
Mizraim’s sons named Lybyos (Lehabites). Ethiopians still calls themselves
Cushites today! The indigenous African continent is primarily inhabited by
people who go back to Noah’s son Ham outside some places on Mediterranean coast.
This has rarely been disputed in history, and even Josephus, writing nearly
2000 years ago confirms this. In fact,
Noah’s descendants’ names can be found in many parts of the world, if one takes
the time to look. The following chart shows a few:
|
|
Early
Descendant of Noah
|
What
is it?
|
|
Aramaic
|
Aram
|
This
language came out of Babel and still survives, likely with changes down the
ages. Some short parts of the Bible are written in Aramaic. Jesus spoke it on
the cross when He said: “ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?”
(Mark
15:34)
|
|
Cush
|
Cush
|
Ancient
name of Ethiopia. In fact, people of Ethiopia still call themselves Cushites.
|
|
Medes
|
Madai
|
People
group often associated with the Persians
|
|
Ashkenaz
|
Ashkenaz
|
This is still
the Hebrew name for Germany
|
|
Galacia,
Gaul, and Galicia
|
Gomer
|
These
regions are the old names for an area in modern Turkey, France, and
Northwestern Spain respectively, where Gomer was said to have lived. His
family lines continued to spread about across southern Europe. The book of
Galatians by Paul was written to the church at Galatia.
|
|
Gomeraeg
|
Gomer
|
This is the
old name for the Welsh language on the British Isles from their ancestor,
Gomer, whose ancestors began to populate the Isle from the mainland.
|
|
Javan
|
Javan
|
This is
still the Hebrew name for Greece. His sons, Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim
(Chittim), and Dodanim still have reference to places in Greece. For example,
Paul, the author who penned much of the New Testament, was from the region of
Tarshish (Acts
21:39) and a city called Tarsus. Jeremiah mentions Kittim in Jeremiah
2:10 and is modern day Cyprus (and other nearby ancient regions
that now have varied names such as Cethim, Citius, Cethima Cilicia). The
Greeks worshiped Jupiter Dodanaeus from Japheth/Dodanim. The Elysians, were
ancient Greek people.
|
|
Meshech/ Moscow
|
Mechech
|
Mechech is
the old name for Moscow, Russia, and one region called the Mechech Lowland
still holds the original name today as does a state park.
|
|
Canaan
|
Canaan
|
The region
of Palestine that God removed from the Canaanites for their sin and gave as
an inheritance to the Israelites beginning with the conquest of Joshua. It is
often termed the Holy Land and is where modern-day Israel resides.
|
|
Elamites
|
Elam
|
This was
the old name for the Persians prior to Cyrus.
|
|
Assyria
|
Asshur
|
Asshur is
still the Hebrew name for Assyria.
|
|
Hebrew
|
Eber
|
This people
group and language was named for Eber. Abraham was a Hebrew, and the bulk of
the Old Testament is written in Hebrew.
|
|
Libya
|
Lybyos
|
Mizraim’s
son and modern-day Libya, the same region is also known as the land of Phut,
one of Noah’s grandsons
|
|
Taurus/Toros
|
Tarshish
|
A mountain
range in Turkey
|
|
Tanais
|
Tarshish
|
The old
name of the Don River flowing into the Black Sea.
|
|
Mizraim
|
Mizraim
|
This is
still the Hebrew name for Egypt.
|
They
cannot produce black children, asian children, or children of any other race.
Since the
sorting of genetic material that has occurred after the Tower of Babel, many
darker skinned peoples have lost the ability to have light skinned children. By
the same token, many light skinned peoples have lost the variability needed to
produce darker-skinned offspring.
Perhaps you
did not know what the Bible teaches, or perhaps you have been taught these
beliefs and didn’t test them against the Scriptures. I pray that you would
consider what is written here in response and be like the Bereans who “searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so”
(Acts 17:11).
In kindness
with Christ,
Dr. Tommy Mitchell and Bodie Hodge
Originally at Answers
in Genesis; Edited; Republished by permission.
This is assuming they marry within their own ethnic/people group and little
genetic material that had been lost is reintroduced into the gene pool.
