The following are
interpretations of various biblical texts provided by Charles B. Thompson, who
had some associations with the early “Mormon” restorationist movements. I am not
defending these interpretations; only providing them for those interested in 19th-century
interpretations of biblical texts.
For an overview
of his life, see:
Newell G.
Bringhurst, “Charles
B. Thompson and the Issue of Slavery and Race,” Journal of Mormon
History 8 (1981): 37-47.
Thompson edited a
periodical called Zion’s Harbinger and Baneemy’s Organ from 1849 until
1855. For past issues, see here.
Interpretation
of Genesis 1:1:
According to the above analysis of this text of Moses, it will be
perceived that it is susceptible of a number of different interpretations,
among which will be found the following, which we propose as the proper
interpretation:
“With the first begotten Elohim was the heavens and the earth.” This
interpretation leaves the origin of the earth itself out of the history, and
continues the account of Moses to the origin of things and creatures created from
the substance of the earth to exist and well upon it.
Moses having informed us in the first verse that the first-begotten
Elohim, or the first begotten of Elohim, was, or existed with the heavens and
the earth; in the second verse he informs us that the earth at that time was
empty and desolate; that is, without inhabitants; and furthermore, that
darkness was upon the faces of the abyss, but the spirit (or first begotten) of
Elohim was brooding upon the faces of the waters.
After thus describing the condition of the earth, Moses informs us
that the Elohim spoke, saying, “Let light come: and light came.” This was the
first creative act of which Moses treats, and it was evidently the first
essential work to be done upon the earth, for light was an essential sub-agent
for the production of vegetable and animal life. Darkness pervaded the recesses
of the fathomless cavern encircled by the elemental faces of the abyss, while
the רוּחַ ruach (spirit) of Elohim was brooding upon the surface of this
elemental composition, to rarefy it so as to admit the light into the cavern or
abyss below; this being done, when light came it was essential in order ot make
it good, that is, useful, that it should be divided from the darkness, or, in
other words, excluded a portion of the time, and thus creating day and light. The
rarefaction of a portion of the elemental chaotic composition of which the earth
was composed, to the consistency of water, would admit the light, and would
necessarily tend to condense other portions to the consistency of solid earth
or land, which being sunk beneath the waters would prevent the light from
shining through the entire earth; hence a revolution of the earth upon its own
axis would produce the phenomena of day and night, and divide the light from
the darkness.
The light evidently proceeded from the sun, which, with its attendant
orbs, exclusive of the earth, constituted the heavens, which, as
we have already learned, existed with the first-begotten of Elohim prior
to this event. Hitherto the light had been obstructed probably by the crust or
shell formed on the exterior of the globe, while the elements were in a
chaotic, commingling state. This shell is called “the faces of the waters,”
over which the spirit of Elohim brooded, like as a hen broods her eggs. The
waters were evidently produced beneath this shell by the rarefaction of the
chaotic element, and when Elohim said, “Let light come,” this shell was
probably broken into fragments and sank beneath the waters. This shell being
removed, left the exterior of the globe one vast sea of waters, through which
the light could shine, but not in direct rays, for the visibility of the sun
was still obstructed by the waters as in a cloudy day. Each revolution of the
earth on its called day, the darkness alternately; the light was called day,
the darkness night, and the evening and the morning was the first day.
The days enumerated by Moses were evidently not natural days, but
periods of time within which the objects of which he treats were brought into
being. His history is not minute, but general: he speaks only of the chief
objects produced during each period, that object being the agent or cause of
all minor productions of that period. Light being necessary in the elementary
organism preparatory to the production of vegetable and animal life, the first
period was exhausted in arranging the elements so as to bring light within
their precincts, and to arrange it there so as to make it good, that is,
useful. Of what use this light was before the creation of either vegetable or
animal life we can only conjecture, as the sacred historian has given us no
account of the existence in the first period of either vegetable or animal life
in any form or grade; but there might have been the fuci and algæ species of
vegetable life-the rank weeds which grow on the margin of the seas, and the
zoöphytes, trilobites, crustaceous animals, shell-fish, and even fish of the
sauroid and shark form may have sported in the waters; but no land animals
could have existed, for the reason that no atmosphere had yet been created,
neither was there any dry land on which they could dwell. (Charles Blancher Thompson,
The Nachash Origin of the Black and Mixed Races [St. Louis, Miss.:
George Knapp & Co., Printers and Binders, 1860], xxii-xxiii)
Genesis
1:20-21 (cf. Jude 6; 2 Peter 4:5-6) being used to demonstrate (1) pre-Adamic
Races upon this earth and (2) Biblical Justifications for Slavery:
Translation.—20.
“And proposed Elohim to increase abundantly (from) the waters, creeping things,
living creatures, with souls, and fowls to fly upon the earth upon the face of
the expanse of the heavens.
21. And to beget Elohim this the Tenninim and Gedolim and this same, all the
living creatures with souls and that creeping things which increase abundantly
(from) the waters according to their species, and this same all flows with
wings according to his kind, and look Elohim therefore (it is) good.”
. . .
This intellectual race, called Tenninim and Gedolim,
were evidently in a state of probation while thus existing in the fifth period,
being subject to the laws of their spiritual existence as intellectual
intelligences, and it may very properly be inferred that some of them did not
keep the laws of this their first estate or probation, and that others did;
these latter, it may be inferred, were bound together by intellectual
association, as the name Gĕdōlim would seem to imply; while the name Tennanim
seems to indicate that those who bore that appellation were alienated from the association,
leaving their own original habitation of peace and union, they were stretched
out, i.e., separated to enmity, by the breaking of the circle of their union.
Hence we infer the immortal souls of the Gĕdōlim were the sons of the Elohim
who in union shouted for joy over the trembling morning states when the
judgment of this period was announced. (See Job, 38th chap., 7th verse.) And
may not these be the “living spirits,” or souls which were to dwell in the Adam
tabernacles; for it may be inferred that when the Elohim breathed into Adam’s
nostrils the breath of lives or living spirits, it was that these might have
dominion in the earth by the multiplication of his seed, as a reward for their
fidelity; while those who kept not this their first estate were denied the right
of dominion in their second estate, and reserved in chains of darkness until
the judgment of the sixth period.
These chains of darkness, in
Hebrew phraseology, would be נֽחֻשְׁתַיִם חשֶׁך nĕchushtăyim chōshĕk; nĕchushtăyim is the dual form of nachash, and signifies chains
and fetters. Nachash is the name of an intellectual race who dwelt
in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, and was the instrument of their fall
and consequent banishment from the garden. Chōshĕk signifies
darkness, and is evidently a cognate with nachash. Nĕchushtăyim chōshĕksignifies literally chains of darkness. It was
evidently to this race of intellectual rebels of the fifth period, called the Tenninim,
that Jude and Peter the Apostles allude in their General Epistles. Jude
says, “And the angels, which kept not their first estates, but left their own
habitations, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the
judgment of the great day.” (See Epistle of Jude, 6th verse.)
The word angel is here,
doubtless, used to represent a race of intellectual or spiritual beings, who
had an existence somewhere in a state of probation prior to the creation of
Adam and the present races of the genus Homo: and we infer that it was
upon this planet that they existed, and from the fact that they are ranked with
the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, and those who should after live ungodly,
all of whom suffer till the judgment of the great day. In the 2nd Epistle
General of Peter, 4th chapter and 5th & 6th verses, he says: “For, if God
spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down to hell, and delivered
them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the
old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness;
bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; turning the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemning them with an overthrow, making them
an ensample unto those who should after live ungodly,” &c. None will
dispute that there is a very plain allusion to a race of intellectual beings,
and of their probation and judgment prior to the creation of Adam. Peter speaks
of it as an event that happened in regular order, as to time, prior to the
deluge, as the deluge happened prior to the overthrow of Sodom; all of which
events are set forth as ensamples to those who should after live ungodly. But
how are they set forth as ensamples? A sea of stagnant water marks the place
where the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah stood. The fossil remains of the
denizens of the sea are found embedded in the tops of the highest mountains as
evidence of the destruction of the old world by water. But where is the memorial
of the judgment of the angels which fell? Jude says, they are reserved in
chains under darkness; and Peter says, they are delivered into the chains of
darkness.
We have shown that the Tenninim and the Gĕdōlim were intellectual and
accountable beings, and possessed of immortal souls; now if we show that, in
the sixth day creations an intellectual race was created besides the Adamic
race, who were inferior to Adam, and were made subject to him by the laws of
their creation; and can trace their name through all its changes in the Hebrew,
according to the laws and usages of the language, and from thence into Latin
and English, and find it to be negro; then we have most plainly set forth
before us, as a momento of their judgment, a race literally reserved in chains
of darkness, or negro blackness, unto the judgment of the great day.
“For the Ethiopian cannot change his skin;” it is all an indelible mark, to
continue throughout all of their generations. (Charles Blancher Thompson, The
Nachash Origin of the Black and Mixed Races [St. Louis, Miss.: George Knapp
& Co., Printers and Binders, 1860], xxvi, xxvii-xxviii)
Daniel 7
and the Son of Man and the Ancient of Days:
The Chaldeans, a mixed race, are here called righteous (enoshim),
whom God appointed to judge the men (Adam) of Israel, because they had,
by whoredoms, polluted their seed with the enoshim race, contrary to the stipulations
of the law of God to them, and because they had become partakers with murders,
therefore the more righteous enoshim should judge them. Again, Daniel vii. 7: “I
saw in the night vision; and behold, one like the son of man (Enosh)
came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought
him near before him.” This was not the son of Enosh, but one like the son of
Enosh, and they brought him near before the Ancient of Days. The Ancient of
Days was sitting upon the judgment seat of the earth, and they brought this
one, like the son of Enosh—like one devoted to destruction—like a criminal,
near before the Ancient of Days, to receive his sentence, evidently supposing
him to be worthy of condemnation to death; but, to the great disappointment of
all that beheld the scene, the Ancient of Days judged him worthy to receive a
kingdom so extensive that all people, nations and languages should serve and
obey him. This, undoubtedly, has an allusion to Jesus Christ, who was arraigned
by the Jews as a malefactor worthy of the judgment of death, but was judged of
God his Father worthy to receive all power in heaven and in earth, &c. (Charles
Blancher Thompson, The Nachash Origin of the Black and Mixed Races [St.
Louis, Miss.: George Knapp & Co., Printers and Binders, 1860], 73)
