The Bible Says Black is Beautiful, Racist Translators Changed It
There’s a book in the Bible called the Song of Songs: ecstatic love poetry extolling female beauty and using pastoral metaphors for sexual acts. Conservatives deny the sexuality of the poem, saying it’s just an allegory about the depth of God’s love for humanity. Liberals deny the spirituality of the poem, complaining that you don’t need some sort of spiritual metaphor to justify or erase the sex.
For me, this poem is about a sexual love so pure, joyous, and so holy that it can be used to communicate God’s love. The narrator of this poem is a Black woman. She declares her Black identity in Chapter One, Verse Five:
“I am Black but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.”
Or in the original Hebrew:
שְׁחוֹרָ֤ה אֲנִי֙ וְֽנָאוָ֔ה בְּנ֖וֹת יְרוּשָׁלִָ֑ם כְּאָהֳלֵ֣י קֵדָ֔רכִּירִיע֖וֹת
In Hebrew, words like “but” and “and” are affixed to the beginnings of other words like prefixes. This is is the word that people translate as “but beautiful”
וְֽנָאוָ֔ה
Because Hebrew is read from right-to-left instead of left-to right, it’s the right-most character that forms the prefix if this word:
וְֽ
This word definitely does not mean “but,” as it is translated in 19 of the 27 translations on Bible Hub. Neither does it mean “yet,” as 4 of the translations on Bible Hub claim.
According to my Hebrew tutor, Ilan Vitemberg (a native Hebrew speaker who grew up in a kibbutz in Israel and has spent much of his adult life teaching scriptural Hebrew in Jewish community centers) this word definitely, most definitely, is the word for “and.” Yes, you heard me right: She is black AND beautiful. We never should’ve put the word “but” in the text.
Fellow Christians, we fucked it up again!
But not all of you! No, not all of you. Four of the translations on Bible Hub got this word correct. Let’s see which ones they are, shall we 1) Contemporary English Version 2) International Standard Version 3) God’s Word Translation and 4) Young’s Literal Translation.
Slow clap…. Not all of you fucked it up! But here’s the thing: I never heard of those translations before. We always talk about the translations we use in our church Bible study, and the popular choices are: NIV, NRSV, ESV, NLT, and NKJV — or KJV for those who are feeling archaic. I don’t actually know if I’ve ever seen people use versions other than those.
Of those commonly used translations, NRSV was the only one to get the word “and” translated correctly. Somehow, NRSV was mysteriously missing from the pseudo-comprehensive list on Bible Hub (which I now suspect of being a conservative-leaning website). Props to my Aunt Abby, the new Testament scholar, for recommending the NRSV as the most accurate version, I must say.
I have now wasted a great many pixels being a Bible nerd… so it’s time for me to pull myself together and say what I came to say:
Racists Mistranslated the Bible to Create a Deliberate and False Opposition Between the Concept of Black and the Concept of Beauty
That was a little bit long for a blog subhead. I apologize.
I am outraged on behalf of Black people…. but I’m also outraged on behalf of myself. When we deny the dignity and humanity of Black people, we really deny the dignity of all humans. And why?
The whole poem is about how we should delight in our bodies instead of being ashamed of them. I’m the editor who chose to publish The Body is Not An Apology, so naturally this interpretation appealed to me. But.
When my Hebrew tutor pointed out this theme, I argued, “Ilan, it’s not true that she’s free from shame. I remember back in Chapter One, she was ashamed! She was hiding her dark face because she was ashamed of it. I remember quite distinctly.”
“That’s not how I remember it,” said the Jewish man. “Let’s go look.” And now let’s look together, Dear Reader. Here’s some NIV translation for you, Chapter One verses 5–7:
Dark am I, yet lovely,
daughters of Jerusalem,
dark like the tents of Kedar,
like the tent curtains of Solomon.
Do not stare at me because I am dark,
because I am darkened by the sun.
My mother’s sons were angry with me
and made me take care of the vineyards;
my own vineyard I had to neglect.
Tell me, you whom I love,
where you graze your flock
and where you rest your sheep at midday.
Why should I be like a veiled woman
beside the flocks of your friends?
If she’s saying she’s lovely DESPITE her blackness, I’m picturing this cringing shy woman saying all of this — trying to find courage to show herself.
If she’s saying, “Black I am, and beautiful,” like the Black civil rights movement in the 60’s and 70’s, that’s quite different, eh? It’s more like a statement of defiance: Why should I have to hide how wonderful I am behind a veil? (This joyful claiming of one’s own beauty is far more consistent with the rest of the poem, too.)
Anti-Blackness is woven into the atmosphere around you like a poisonous smoke you are breathing so constantly you don’t even notice any more. And breathing in anti-Blackness effects you negatively, even if you’re white.
This is because anti-Blackness is part of a larger system of thought (which Sonya Renee Taylor calls “body terrorism”) in which we are ashamed of whatever ways our bodies do not live up to beauty standards.
When I read “I am black, but beautiful,” it of course makes me think of all of my own “buts.”
- I have PTSD, but I’m still high-achieving.
- I am disorganized, but at least I’m creative.
- I’m careless with money, but I still pay my bills.
- I’m fat, but my girlfriend still thinks I’m sexy.
- I’m emotional, but at least I write good poetry.
- I’m neuroatypical, but I still have strong social skills.
All of these things are just the way I am. But I still think of them as things I have to overcome to be beautiful — not things that are essential components of my beauty.
And this is how anti-Blackness is also part of anti-humanness. Because we can only see Blackness as a problem if we admit the premise that the way God makes humans CAN be a problem.
God didn’t make any humans wrong, or bad, or inferior to others. God loves us BECAUSE of the way our bodies are, not DESPITE the way our bodies are. That is the entire point of the Song of Songs. And racist translators poured a cup of poison in that healing water, just by introducing that tiny word “but.”
A simple recipe for reclaiming your power from Racist Satan
What are your buts? “I am [socially marginalized thing] BUT at least I’m [socially approved thing].” What are they? Make a list of your buts. Fill in the blanks.
Now put the word “BUT” inside a bag of poop, set the bag of poop on fire, and put it on Satan’s doorstep. Let Satan know what you think about his lies. That’s right. The word “but,” deserves to be inside a bag of flaming poop.
Now look at your list. Cross out the word “but” and write the word “and,” and watch the grace of God flame up in a rainbow glory of incandescent color from the transfigured page.
Thank you, black women.
Rest in peace, Breonna Taylor. You were so black and so beautiful that more than a thousand murals across the country are celebrating you now. And it was women like you that the Song of Songs was written about.
Ameyn.
P.S. Some commentaries try to erase her Blackness by pretending she wasn’t Black, she was just sun-tanned! Get over it. Dumas was black, Egypt is in Africa, Solomon had brides of all ethnic backgrounds, get over yourself.
^ I am minimizing a complicated controversy because I don’t have space for it in this particular blog. For those of you would like to point out “race” is a modern construction and this is an ancient text, yes. Let’s talk sometime.
