Bradly Mason Profile picture
Oct 1, 2020 22 tweets 9 min read Read on X
@D_B_Harrison Along with Critical Race Theorists, I believe race is a biological fiction and a social construction. But you are Biblically incorrect about genos/ethnos, entirely incorrect in fact.

Genos comes from the word ginomai, denoting birth or origin, and thus has to do with 1/
@D_B_Harrison 2/ solidarity of people groups by common progeneration. As an example, we read of Pharaoh in Stephen’s speech that,

"He dealt shrewdly with our race (genos) and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive." (Acts 7:19)

This word is commonly
@D_B_Harrison 3/ used in the New Testament when referring to the Jews or Hebrews as common “race” of people. But we see the same applied to other people groups as well. E.g., Mark 7:26:

"Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth (genei). And she begged him to cast the demon out
@D_B_Harrison 4/ "of her daughter."

Again, Acts 4:36:

"Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native (genai) of Cyprus."

That is, Barnabas was Cypriot by genai, though he was a Levite.
@D_B_Harrison 5/ We also read that Aquila, though a religious Jew, was a “native” (genei) of Pontus, and Apollos a “native” (genei) of Alexandria (Acts 18:2, 24).

And more for more general usage, we read in our Lord’s Parable of the Net, the following:
@D_B_Harrison 6/ "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind (genous).” (Matt. 13:47)

This word genos, with its various cognates, is also translated “kind,” “kindred,” “offspring,” “family,” “stock,” and even “nation,” showing some
@D_B_Harrison 7/ real semantic overlap with éthnos. There are in the Scripture genos of fish, genos of spirits, genos of tongues, genos of individuals, and genos of people groups.

But of course, neither éthnos, genos, or phulé are fixed biological categories, though there are certainly common
@D_B_Harrison 8/ biological underpinnings; for example, common lineage and thereby common phenotypical properties. Christ Himself is said to be the Seed of Abraham, the “root and genos of David” (Rev. 22:16), and was born of Paul’s “kinsmen according to the flesh” (Rom. 9:2, 5), yet He is
@D_B_Harrison 9/ clearly not the bearer of some biologically fixed Hebrew genetic pool. We see in His genealogy that He was also the offspring (genos) of Tamar the Canaanite, Rahab of Jericho, Ruth the Moabitess, and Bathsheba a Hittite’s wife.

The Samaritans are also a good example.
@D_B_Harrison 10/ In 721 B.C., when the Israelites were taken into captivity, the poor were left behind in the Land and were intermingled with Assyrian transplants. But by the time of Christ’s coming, this once intermingling of Hebrew and Syrian people, with their syncretistic YHWY worship,
@D_B_Harrison 11/ represented a specific people—a specific genos and ethnos. Not only were they seen as a different people by the Jews, they were kept separate and were despised by Israelites; they were an unclean people who “had no dealings with the Jews” (Jn. 4:19). (Which is what makes the
@D_B_Harrison 12/ story of the Good Samaritan so powerful.)

How had a formerly mixed group of Jews and Assyrians become a relatively stable class or genos of people, the “Samaritans”? Because, as sociologists have come to demonstrate about “race,” éthnos, genos, and phulé are socially
@D_B_Harrison 13/ constructed categories.

A “social construct” is,

"A concept or perception of something based on the collective views developed and maintained within a society or social group; a social phenomenon or convention originating within and cultivated by society or a particular
@D_B_Harrison 14/ "social group, as opposed to existing inherently or naturally."

The fact that, e.g., genos like “race” is a socially constructed reality, rather than a fixed biological reality, leads many to presume that things like genos and race are therefore unreal, “fake,” or even
@D_B_Harrison 15/ “imaginary.” This, of course, does not follow. Socially constructed realities are just that—real—in as much as they have very definite meanings to human lives, play significant roles in human history, define and regulate human relations, and are as much a part of the
@D_B_Harrison 16/ furniture of our reality as are rocks and houses. What distinguishes them from other realities is that they are not fixed—they can come into existence and pass away—and are entirely dependent upon the value and meaning in the minds of humans living together in society, with
@D_B_Harrison 17/ its collective history, norms, and values. The lack of definitive physical basis does not render socially constructed realities unreal. Most would give their lives for their nation, spend countless hours each week laboring for money, and sign legal documents and wear rings on
@D_B_Harrison 18/ their fingers in marriage—not to mention speak specific socially constructed languages. These are indeed very real, yet socially constructed, realities.

For an overview of modern "races" were constructed and why, please see:

alsoacarpenter.com/2019/08/20/wha…
@D_B_Harrison 19/19 I perceive that many look to you to confirm their priors, but it's important to get these things right, first Biblically, then historically and sociologically.
@D_B_Harrison 20/19 When "race" is no longer among the greatest predictors of wealth & income disparity, social location, neighborhood, school funding & performance, health, life expectancy, etc., etc., then we can start discussing it as more of an historical artifact.
@D_B_Harrison 21/19 Pretending like the historically created and entrenched "color-line" doesn't exist will not erase its 400 years long social consequences; it will merely obscure, legitimize, and ultimately "justify" these consequences, as most of these White Christians seem to prefer.
@D_B_Harrison So, @D_B_Harrison , I have shown you unequivocally that you are wrong about ethnos/genos in the Bible. What will you do now? Just ignore and leave your Biblical falsehood up? No integrity?

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More from @AlsoACarpenter

Jul 27, 2023
On a more serious note, this is part and parcel of what Carles Mills has called the "epistemology of ignorance," necessary for the maintenance of the Racial Contract.

If interested, the following long quote will clarify. 1/ Image
2/ "[O]n matters related to race, the Racial Contract prescribes for its signatories an inverted epistemology, an epistemology of ignorance, a particular pattern of localized and global cognitive dysfunctions (which are psychologically and socially functional), producing the
3/ "ironic outcome that whites will in general be unable to understand the world they themselves have made. Part of what it means to be constructed as “white” (the metamorphosis of the sociopolitical contract), part of what it requires to achieve Whiteness, successfully to become
Read 9 tweets
Jul 13, 2023
The sooner you realize the whole "Christian" masculinity cult, with their broader theology and ideology, is just a conscious or unconscious justification for controlling, manipulating, and exploiting women as sex slaves, the sooner you'll understand the movement.

They didn't 1/
2/ think their way through rigorous study into their theology/ideology and then realize that women happen to be subordinate receptors of their abuse, as some might think. No, that was the demiurge of the whole movement. The ideology is the justificatory effect, not the cause.
3/ Honestly, this is how you understand the whole Moscow, ID cult and adjacent, regardless of what they may claim or tell themselves. It helpfully explains all the weirdness, as a good sociological or psychological theory should.
Read 5 tweets
Jan 15, 2023
Rev. Dr. King on his own death:

"If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. And every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention 1/
2/ "that I have a Nobel Peace Prize—that isn’t important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards—that’s not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to
3/ "give his life serving others.

I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody. I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. And I
Read 7 tweets
Jan 14, 2023
Rev. Dr. King on power:

"One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites. Love is identified with a resignation of power and power with a denial of love. It was this misinterpretation that caused 1/
2/ "Nietzsche, the philosopher of the “will to power,” to reject the Christian concept of love. It was this same misinterpretation which induced Christian theologians to reject Nietzsche’s philosophy of the “will to power” in the name of the Christian idea of love. What is needed
3/ "is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.
Read 4 tweets
Jan 13, 2023
Rev. Dr. King on Marx:

"In short, I read Marx as I read all of the influential historical thinkers—from a dialectical point of view, combining a partial yes and a partial no. Insofar as Marx posited a metaphysical materialism, an ethical relativism, and a strangulating 1/
2/ "totalitarianism, I responded with an unambiguous “no”; but insofar as he pointed to weaknesses of traditional capitalism, contributed to the growth of a definite self-consciousness in the masses, and challenged the social conscience of the Christian churches, I responded with
3/ a definite “yes.” My reading of Marx also convinced me that truth is found neither in Marxism nor in traditional capitalism. Each represents a partial truth. Historically capitalism failed to see the truth in collective enterprise and Marxism failed to see the truth in
Read 5 tweets
Oct 28, 2022
What's so odd to me about the way these Christian Nationalists talk about voting rights is that there is literally no mention of voting or democracy anywhere in the Bible. Nowhere. Nothing. The ideas that created our democracy (yes, I know, democratic republic) were products 1/
2/ of the Enlightenment, like it or not, and rested on the idea that every individual was a rational agent capable of freedom, discerning the moral good, etc. The reason why the voting franchise was not extended to women and most "races," whether they owned property or not, is
3/ because they were believed to lack this capacity (for one BS reason or another). The franchise was not curtailed because of Bible this, or Bible that, or Biblical definition of "household," or whatever. Again, the Bible literally says nothing about voting or democracy, which
Read 5 tweets

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