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Can a Ethiopian change his skin?

Lyndon

"Peace is the answer" quote: GOD, 2014
Premium Member
Can a white man stop thinking he is superior????
 

DavidFirth

Well-Known Member
Jeremiah 13:23 - Can the Ethiopian change his skin ?

Why did you not quote the entire verse? God was making a point.

23Can an Ethiopian change his skin

or a leopard its spots?

Neither can you do good

who are accustomed to doing evil.
 
Are Middle Easterners white now?

Genetically, many 'Middle Easterners' were/are white to the same extent as Southern 'Europeans' were/are. Many Mediterranean people are closer relatives than Southern/Northern Europeans - 'Greeks', 'Turks', 'Syrians', 'Lebanese', etc

Modern political geography can be misleading and 'whiteness' is a pretty arbitrary concept.

image
 

DavidFirth

Well-Known Member
Why God have to be racist to make a point?

It isn't racist. God isn't racist. God was making a point by saying that an Ethiopian can't change his skin. The verse does not refer to color. The reference to color is something that is in your mind, not the verse.
 

Lyndon

"Peace is the answer" quote: GOD, 2014
Premium Member
If it doesn't refer to the colour of the Ethiopian's skin, what the heck else does it refer to????
 

Tumah

Veteran Member
Well Israelis today are often white, they're Middle Easterners.
About half of Israelis descend from Europeans. They're only "Middle Eastern" by virtue of location, not ethnicity. Or if you prefer, those of European descent only gained the label "white" in recent years and historically were never considered white.

The other half are straight Middle Eastern.

But that's just a red herring, since we both know that the author of the verse in the OP is not European or white.
 

Magus

Active Member
But that's just a red herring, since we both know that the author of the verse in the OP is not European or white.

Jeremiah was most likely a Greek judging from 1:1, Hilkiah ( Helot), Anath (Athens), Land of Benjamin(Children of the west Sea) , The term 'Ethiopian' is a Greek word after all.
 

Tumah

Veteran Member
Why God have to be racist to make a point?
The verse is saying that the subject does so much evil, that it became ingrained, a part of his nature. As an analogy to emphasize how deeply ingrained being evil has become to the subject, the verse gives examples of natural, immutable characteristics of a people and an animal.

How is this racist exactly?
 

Tumah

Veteran Member
Jeremiah was most likely a Greek judging from 1:1, Hilkiah ( Helot), Anath (Athens), Land of Benjamin(Children of the west Sea) , The term 'Ethiopian' is a Greek word after all.
Yeah we've heard your spiel before. It doesn't sound more intelligent this second time.
 

It Aint Necessarily So

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Why did you not quote the entire verse? God was making a point.

23Can an Ethiopian change his skin

or a leopard its spots?

Neither can you do good

who are accustomed to doing evil.

That's not what I read when I clicked on the link to Jeremiah in the OP. It read, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." That sounds like the opposite of what what you cited, which frankly makes more sense than this second translation, one that seems to contradict itself.

Below are multiple translations of this verse, many if not most in the self-contradictory manner. The first two go one way, the next two the other

New International Version
Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.

New Living Translation
Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard take away its spots? Neither can you start doing good, for you have always done evil.

English Standard Version
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.

New American Standard Bible
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin Or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good Who are accustomed to doing evil.

King James Bible
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Can the Cu****e change his skin, or a leopard his spots? If so, you might be able to do what is good, you who are instructed in evil.

International Standard Version
Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots? Then you who are trained to do evil will also be able to do good.

NET Bible
But there is little hope for you ever doing good, you who are so accustomed to doing evil. Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard remove its spots?

New Heart English Bible
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Can Ethiopians change the color of their skin or leopards change their spots? Can you do good when you're taught to do wrong?

JPS Tanakh 1917
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, Or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, That are accustomed to do evil.

New American Standard 1977
“Can the Ethiopian change his skin
Or the leopard his spots?
Then you also can do good
Who are accustomed to doing evil.

Jubilee Bible 2000
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Likewise ye also cannot do good, being taught to do evil.

King James 2000 Bible
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, that are accustomed to doing evil.

American King James Version
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

American Standard Version
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

Douay-Rheims Bible
If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots: you may also do well, when you have learned evil.

Darby Bible Translation
Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots? [Then] may ye also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

English Revised Version
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

Webster's Bible Translation
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.

World English Bible
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil.

Young's Literal Translation
Doth a Cu****e change his skin? and a leopard his spots? Ye also are able to do good, who are accustomed to do evil.
 

Magus

Active Member
Yeah we've heard your spiel before. It doesn't sound more intelligent this second time.

Jeremiah is a very anachronistic book, it even documents Alexander's Siege of Tyre and his crowning in Egypt , therefore it's likely Jeremiah was a Greek, a Helot ( most educated people at that time ) employed in Alexandra's Army and wrote about it, his original works obviously don't exist, but manipulated over time into what it is today.
 

Tmac

Active Member
Why did you not quote the entire verse? God was making a point.

23Can an Ethiopian change his skin

or a leopard its spots?

Neither can you do good

who are accustomed to doing evil.

David (if that's your name) do you really believe in evil? I know, you are going to slam me with so many verses (a ploy employed by lawyers to bog down the courts) but do you believe it is an entity, that is its own source?
 
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