Social Anthropologist – Scherin Barlow Massay
Biblical references to Put, another of Ham’s sons, show that his descendants often lent military support to Egypt in times of warfare. Eze.30:5-5. Jer.46:9. According to the Latin Vulgate and the Greek Septuagint, Put is translated as Libya or Libyans. This is also in accord with the Hebrew Scriptures associating Put with Libya.
Kush was the father of six sons, Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Sabteca and Nimrod. Seba was the ancestor of a people living in modern day Sudan. The Jewish historian, Josephus said that Saba, applied to the city of Meroe, which is located between the Blue Nile and Atbara rivers.
In Biblical times, Seba’s progeny were named Sabeans and were a Kushite people. The New Living Bible (2007) in Isaiah 18:2 describes them as “a tall, smooth-skinned people who are feared far and wide for their conquests and destruction and whose land is divided by rivers.”
The Bible description of the Sabeans as tall men (Isa.45:14) was borne out by the Greek historian, Herodotus, who spoke of the Ethiopians as “the tallest and handsomest of all men.”
The name Ethiopian did not refer to the inhabitants of Ethiopia or the country. Rather, Aithiopon was a vague term used by the ancient Greeks for all people living south of Egypt, particularly those in the area known to them as Nubia (Sudan).
Sabean man. Photo by Jamie Tarabay
Aithiopon comes from the Greek word Aithiops, meaning “burnt face.” The term Ethiopian was substituted for the original Hebrew name, Kush, when the Greeks translated the Bible from Hebrew into Greek. It was not until the 1940’s that the country of Abyssinia became Ethiopia; moreover, the Kingdom of Aksum was the name for the areas known as Ethiopia and Eretria.
Originally, the inhabitants of that area referred to their country as D’mt. Another son of Kush, Raamah, settled in pre-Islamic Arabia with his children, Sheba and Dedan, in the same territory as their Semitic relatives. Sheba has been associated with the country now known as the Republic of Yemen. However, although divided by the Red Sea, Sheba was also part of the kingdom of Aksum.
Nimrod was perhaps the most infamous of Kush’s children. (1.Chronicles 1:10). The Bible acknowledges him as the founder and king of the first empire that came into existence after the flood. He founded Babel, Akkad, Erech and Calneh in Shinar (Babylon) and afterwards conquered Assyria, where he founded Nineveh, Calah, Resen, and Rehobothir. Gen.10:10-12.
