For behold, the Lord shall curse the land with
much heat, and the barrenness thereof shall go forth forever; and there was a
blackness came upon all the children of Canaan, that they were despised among
all people. (Moses 7:8)
In the ancient mode of thinking
there are multiple ways of expressing “blackness” in reference to demeanors and
countenance. They describe a mien or a non-physical aura that a person displays
or exudes. These can also include descriptions of wickedness and “’black’ and ‘white’
in Arabic, can be used to refer to levels of moral cleanliness and purity. Such
a distinction is found in 3 Enoch 44:6, where Rabbi Ishmael is shown the
spirits suffering in Sheol and comments that ‘the faces of the wicked souls
were as black as the bottom of a pot, because of the multitude of their wicked
deeds’” (Bradshaw and Larsen, In God’s Image, 2:131). The nuances of
this ancient text highlight the wickedness of the people in the
story and a spiritual type of dark demeanor that had come over those people, rather
than a physically dark skin. This contrasts with the passages in scripture
describing transfigurations and the countenances of people glowing bright
during theophanies. The difference in countenance seems to be the heart of the
matter. Joseph Smith never seemed to interject a physical interpretation on the
text, nor did ancient societies among whom ethnic diversity existed.
While others attempted to claim
that dark skin was a curse (and this was a traditional inherited by nineteenth-century
America from its Judeo-Christian background over the centuries), Joseph taught
that “all spirits are pure that Come from the presence of God” (see “Speech of
Elder Orson Hyde,” 30; Kenney, Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, December 25,
1869, 6:511, and Reeve, Religion of a Different Color, 207-8).
Illustrating the figurative use of the word blackness from a scriptural
context to describe mood, Eliza R. Snow published the following psalm, which
has heavy biblical undertones as she describes the wickedness of Missourians
against the Saints:
Missouri. What aileth thee, oh!
Missouri! that thy face should gather blackness, and why are thy features so
terribly distorted?
Rottenness has seized upon thy vitals—corruption is preying upon thy inward
parts, and the breath of thy lips is full of destructive contagion.
What meaneth thy shaking, and why art thou terrified! Thou hast become like
Belshazar. “mene, mene, tekel, upharsin,” is indeed written against thee, but
it is the work of thine own hand—the characters upon thy wall, are of thine own
inscription, and wherefore dost thou tremble? (History, 1838-1856, volume E-1
[1 July 1843-30 April 1844], p. 1872, The Joseph Smith Papers. Another example
of how people conversant with the Bible understood the idea of a figurative
blackness comes from a letter asserting that for wicked people “degraded in
form and faculties . . . is reserved the blackness of darkness forever Punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory
of his power.” Letter from Udney H. Jacob, 6 January 1844, p. [3], The Joseph
Smith Papers. A further example comes from an 1829 letter from Jesse Smith that
accuses Hyrum Smith of “impos[ing] on the credulity of your Grandfather . . .
Blackness of darkness.” Letterbook 2, p. 59, The Joseph Smith Papers)
This type of language and
interpretation associating “blackness” with wickedness . . . is also found in
Bible commentaries of Joseph’s day (see, e.g., Burder, Oriental Customs,
164-65). In this light it is possible that references to blackness in the Book
of Moses are to be viewed in the same vein as the biblical texts—namely, their
ancient nuances refer not to literal skin color but figuratively to spiritual
and emotional demeanors or countenances. Modern interpretation sometimes ignore
the nuances of ancient texts, especially when removing those texts from their
original context. . . . We must avoid uncritically applying modern lines of
thinking to an ancient text that appears to have lacked the overt racial implications
sometimes attributed to it. (Aaron P. Schade and Matthew L. Bowen, The Book
of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days [Provo, Utah:
Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021], 292-93)
Further Reading
Adam Stokes, “The
People of Canaan: A New Reading of Moses 7,” Interpreter: A Journal of
Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 47 (2021): 159-180
