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GUEST ARTICLE
Acts
17:26 – The Family of Man
Article
description: The family of man is one,
and the Bible was right about this issue 2000 years ago!
When
Paul proclaimed the gospel of Christ in Athens, Greece,
he set forth a number of profound truths regarding the
Creator (the God not known by the Greeks—Acts 17:23). One
of these truths is the fact that the human family shares
a common origin. The apostle declared: ”... he [God] made
of one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of
the earth” (Acts 17:26, ASV). [Note: the KJV “one blood” is
not supported by the best manuscript evidence.]
Of
special interest here is the expression “of one.” It translates
the Greek ex henos, literally “out of one male”—henos being
a masculine form. The allusion is obviously to the Genesis
record and our ancestry in Adam. And so, circle the term “of” and
in your margin note: Out of. Then mark “one” and
record: Masculine; one man, Adam.
In
his inspired affirmation of the unity of humankind, Paul
was contradicting the philosophy of ancient culture. The
Greeks entertained a disposition of ethnic exclusiveness—all
others were barbarians (barbaros—cf. Rom. 1:14),
and similarly the Egyptians referred to non-Egyptians as
the berber (W.E. Vine, Expository Dictionary, I,
p. 98). The apostle’s presentation undermined this ideology,
because unfounded ethnic distinctions are to be obliterated “in
Christ” (cf. Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11).
Actually,
Paul’s declaration was ahead of our own time. As late as
World War II, the Red Cross segregated “Negro blood” from “Caucasian
blood” for transfusion purposes, believing there was a
genetic distinction between the races (Ashley Montagu, Human
Heredity, p. 58). It is now scientifically known that
all human beings are just that—humans.
The
family of man is one, and the Bible was right about this
issue 2000 years ago!
--Wayne
Jackson
© 2002
by Christian Courier Publications.
All
rights reserved.
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