The Nubian Moiety

Alice C. Linsley

A moiety is a descent group that coexists with only one other descent group within a society. Each of two groups into which a people is divided has a responsibility to the other group. Moieties are found among the Australian Aborigines, some American Natives, and the red and black Nubians of the Biblical world. Matrilineal moieties traced kinship along the mother's line. Patrilineal moieties trace kinship along the father's line.

A society may be divided into two unilineal descent groups that serve to protect and balance each other. Such groups are called moieties. An example from the ancient world is the moiety of the red and black Nubians.

The red and black Nubians in the image above were captured by the Egyptians. They appear to be people of high tank since they are wearing the leopard skins traditionally worn by rulers, priests and chiefs. The fact that both red and black were taken captive indicates that they fought together against the Egyptians.

The individual's identity within the moiety determines who they may marry. It appears that each group in the ancient Nubian moiety married according to skin tone. Yet the two groups likely claimed descent from a common male ancestor.

Even among the red and black Nubians there was a range of skin tone. These red Nubian warriors are an example. Their wavy black hair and feathers resemble the Nabatean warriors of Petra in Edom. The Edomites were known to have a reddish skin tone. Esau is described as red and hairy in Genesis 25:25.  Also, David is described as having a red skin tone.

Nubian warriors

Moieties usually consist of a few thousand people in each group. The clans within the moieties often function in specialized teams such a metal workers, warriors, tanners and potters. The reciprocal nature of their relationship encourages barter and exchange of services.

The Nubians appear to be in the R1b Haplogroup, which indicates that they are related to Noah and the rulers listed in Genesis 4, 5, ll, 25, and 36. 

Related reading: Edo, Edom, Idumea; The Edomites and the Color Red; Two Named Esau; Descent Groups; History of Ancient Nubia

Nubian Warriors

Photo by Jürgen Liepe

Armed with bows and arrows, Nubian soldiers from Ta-Seti, the Land of the Bow, are shown marching to war. This wooden model from about 2040 B.C., was found in a tomb in Assiut, Egypt. Hunters using bows and arrows appear in Nubian rock art as early as the Neolithic period and some of Nubia’s most important trade products, like animal skins and ivory, came from the hunt.

Nubian wrestlers

The Nubians were famous for boxing, wrestling, stick fighting and archery. The Greeks learned these skills from the ancient Egyptian and Nubian warriors. They refined these skills through martial sports called Pankrashan, which is Pan Kau Ra/Rau Shen - all encompassing spirit force of Ra.

Annu warriors were called Yaunguru. The Y is a solar cradle and Aun is a variant of Anu (Annu). The Sanskrit word guru is a variant of the ancient Egyptian word geru, which means self-mastered or silent. Plato wrote about the balanced judgement or silent (stoic) self-mastery of these warriors. He called it "thymos" in The Republic.

The Nubians served as warriors in the armies of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome. Nubian archers also served as warriors in the imperial army of Persia in the first millennium BC. According to 2 Samuel 18 and 2 Chronicles 14, they also fought on behalf of Israel.

Dr. Hays

According to J. Daniel Hays, the Nubian Kushites’ international reputation as mercenaries explains how a Kushite designated as the king's high ranked official  - Ebed-melech -  in Jeremiah 38:7 came to advise King Zedekiah, playing a pivotal role during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem from 588 to 586 B.C.

When Jeremiah was condemned and put into a cistern, Ebed-melech convinced King Zedekiah to free the prophet. Here is the passage:

1) Now Shephati'ah the son of Mattan, Gedali'ah the son of Pashhur, Jucal the son of Shelemi'ah, and Pashhur the son of Malchi'ah heard the words that Jeremiah was saying to all the people,

(2) "Thus says the LORD, He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out to the Chalde'ans shall live; he shall have his life as a prize of war, and live.

(3) Thus says the LORD, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon and be taken."

» (4) Then the princes said to the king, "Let this man be put to death, for he is weakening the hands of the soldiers who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking the welfare of this people, but their harm."

(5) King Zedeki'ah said, "Behold, he is in your hands; for the king can do nothing against you."
(6) So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchi'ah, the king's son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mire, and Jeremiah sank in the mire.

(7) When E'bed-mel'ech the Ethiopian, a eunuch, who was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern -- the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate --

Dr. Hays believes that this Nubian gained the ear of the King of Judah because he was a high-ranking military attaché hired by Zedekiah or dispatched by Egypt.

J. Daniel Hays became interested in the Kushites while in Ethiopia from 1982 through 1987 where he was involved in theological education and water development. He has been on the faculty at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas since 1992. He is the author of entries on Ebedmelech and Zerah in the Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible.

It is interesting to note that Ebed-melech is designated by three terms: Kushite, Nubian, and Ethiopian. The term "Kushite" includes many peoples whose point of origin was the Upper Nile Valley.

Beginning in Nubia and Sudan about 8,000 years ago, the Kushites spread across the Levant and Mesopotamia, going as far as Central Asia. This is expressed in Genesis 10, which says that Nimrod, a son of Kush, established his kingdom in Mesopotamia.

They also spread into the interior of Africa along the Shari and the Benue rivers, establishing kingdoms in Nigeria and the southern Kordafan. They also went west. It appears that the Ashante of Ghana were Kushites. Nte means "people of" and Asha is a proper name. The Ashante are the people of Asha, a Kushite ruler who established a kingdom in West Africa.

The name Asha is a priestly name found in the Bible. One of Jesse's grandsons was named Asahel, which means "made by God." The priest Elkanah had a son named Amasi (1 Chron. 2:25, 35), and a Jerusalem priest was named Amashai (Neh. 11:13). This suggests that the origins of the priesthood of Israel are to be traced to the older Kushite civilization. This makes sense, since Abraham's ancestors came from Kush.

Abraham's father was called Terah, an ancient Nilotic word for priest. Terah was a descendant of both Ham and Shem, as the ruler-priest lines intermarried. Among the Nilotic Luo, for example, ter means ritual, especially in reference to cleansing. Abraham’s father, Terah, bears the title of priest because he was a descendant of the pre-dynastic ruler-priests of the Upper Nile.

Below is an image of a Sethite Hebrew Tera-neter, the title for a ruler-priest among the Annu/Anu. The image is found in Flinders Petrie's The Making of Egypt.  The Annu dispersed widely, taking their religious beliefs and practices with them.

The various regions of ancient Kush later came to be called by different names. Nubia was originally remembered as the land of gold. Nub means gold in Ancient Egyptian. In Genesis 2, the region is identified as Ha-vilah, the place where the headwaters of the Nile separate into what we call today the White Nile and the Blue Nile. Later, the Greeks called the region i "Aithiopia" which means black. When the Arabs arrived, they translated aithiopia into the Arabic equivalent soudan (Sudan) which also means black.


Were all Nubians black?

Petrie's study of ancient images suggested to him that the peoples of the Nile Valley were racially mixed. He found images of Nubians in which some have black skin, others red skin, and some have brown skin. This confirmed what had been discovered by the 1828 Franco-Italian expedition to Egypt led by Jean-Francois Champollion and Ippolito Rosellini. Below is a detail from one of Rosellini's drawings showing both black and red Nubian warriors who were taken captive by the Egyptians under Rameses II (1279-1213 B.C.).

Anthropological evidence suggests that the range of skin color probably existed from the beginning in Africa. Even today it is not uncommon for babies born from the same parents to show different features associated with "racial" types. Here are images of unusual, but not rare, features found within the range of "African" genes.

San (Bushmen) of Botswana

Anthropologists and geneticists know that the greatest genetic diversity is and always has been found in African populations. Populations farther from Africa tend to have less genetic diversity.


Related reading: Who Were the Kushites?; Kushite Gold; Kushite Wives; Kushites in Mindanao; The Kushite-Kushan Connection; Terah's Nubian Ancestors; Plato on Thymos; Nubian Archers; Biblical Sheba and Nubians Linked

Nubian Captives

Alice C. Linsley

In this detail taken from Treasures of Egypt and Nubia, we see a reproduction of a Ippolito Rosellini painting done during the 1825 Franco-Italian expedition to Egypt. Red and black Nubian captives are roped together and the rope is pulled by the Pharaoh whose back is shown at the bottom right.

It is evident from another image that both red and black are bound.

Incense burners found at Addi Akaweh in the Tigray region of Ethiopia bear an inscription that says the region was ruled by three kings jointly ca. 2800 years ago. They ruled with their queens over a population of black and red citizens. One commentators states that the Shebans were red (like the Ainu) and the Hebrews were black. This has not be verified. It seems more likely that Nubian parents often had children of different color. This happens even today and sometimes with twins.

Genesis indicates that Esau was red. Was Jacob black?


Notes on Sheba:

The Queen of Sheba probably did not rule over the same territory as her very powerful ancestors named in Genesis. By the time of Solomon came to power Sheba's territory was diminished. David likely took control of some of those lands in the south. Remember, Sheba claimed to have a legitimate right to the throne in Jerusalem (and he probably did have a legitimate claim). He lost his life when he took refuge in the city of Abel Beth Maacah. He was beheaded there (2 Samuel 20:1-22).

Beersheba means the Well of Sheba. It was a principal settlement and very old center for metal work. Jews will deny this since Abraham lived there, as did Isaac. They interpret Beersheba to mean the well of seven.

Bilquis is mentioned in Yoruba lore. There are some problems with the alignments of the stories, however. A huge barrier wall has been discovered in Nigeria which the locals say is associated with Queen Bilquis. This seems to come from later Arabic sources though. I believe, however, the local people are correct in their association of the wall with the Shebans because they were kin to the Jebusites and the Ijebu still live in that place. Gen. 10 indicates that both the Shebans and teh Jebusties were Kushites. Jerusalem was originally a Jebusite or Ijebu shrine city. The Sheban (also spelled Sebans; Sabaeans) are clan of Joktan, son of Eber (Ebry) om Genesis 10:27-28). In Gen. 10:6-7 we find their ancestors are called Seba and Sheba and they are identified as Kushites. According to Vedic tradition, the Kushites ruled the ancient world for 7000 years.

Jesus said, "The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here." (Matt. 12: 42; Luke 11: 31)

Related reading: Biblical Sheba and Nubians Linked