Noah, a Global Flood, and the Case Against Racism

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

Dear T.G.,

Thank you for contacting Answers in Genesis. 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.

Genesis 9:18-19
And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.1

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.”

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 descendents 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:

Acts 17:26
And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

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.2

Noah was white,

The Bible does not say that Noah was white. The Bible never describes Noah’s physical appearance. He could have just as easily had Asian features or features common to Aborigines. To make such a dogmatic claim without a Scriptural basis would imply that you are omnipresent and omniscient.

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.

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. In the simplified illustration, capital A and B refer to information for producing darker skin, and small a and b refer to information for producing lighter skin. Shuffling and sorting of this genetic information produces a variety of skin tones.

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. A very detailed explanation of how this occurs can be found in this AiG web article, “Are There Really Different Races?”

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. Genesis 7:19-20 indicate “And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon all the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered” [emphases ours].

Additionally, there are many problems with the claim that Noah’s Flood was local. For instance:

1. 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.
2. The wicked people that the Flood was intended to destroy could have escaped God’s judgment in the same manner.
3. 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.

The following articles contain more information: “Did Noah’s Flood Cover the Whole Earth?” and “Noah’s Flood Covered the Whole Earth.”

Over the years, we have found that there are primarily two groups of people who promote a local flood for Noah’s day:

1. Those who believe that the geologic layers represent millions of years instead of a global Flood.
2. 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.3 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. “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14) See also, “Inter-Racial Marriage: Is It Biblical?” 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.4 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."5

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” made it through the Flood, but not at the sake of forsaking Genesis 6-9 as a local Flood.6 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. Modern day Libya is the land of Phut and was renamed for one of Mizraim’s sons (Lybyos). Ethiopians still calls themselves Cushites today! The African continent is primarily inhabited by people who go back to Noah’s son Ham. This has rarely been disputed in history, and even Josephus, writing nearly 2000 years ago confirms this.7 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:

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.9 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