02.22. Out of Africa

Out of Africa The bridge between Africa and Asia is the barren Sinai Peninsula. This is where God gave Israel his law to prepare the people for life in Canaan. But they paid little attention, and as a result spent forty wasted years in the Sinai wilderness – the price of self-will.

Although Sinai today is part of Egypt, in biblical times it was occupied by various tribal groups. One of these was the Amalekites, a tribe of wild desert nomads who were infamous for their practice of raiding the defenceless. Israel’s attempts to destroy them, while not completely successful, at least helped towards their eventual disappearance as a distinct group.¹

Another group outside the borders of Egypt were the people of Cush. The name refers to the people of countries along the Nile to Egypt’s south, namely, the northern parts of the countries that we today know as Sudan and Ethiopia. Sometimes the name is used as a general term for all the dark-skinned peoples of Africa.² Cush represented the southernmost region that people in Palestine knew about – the end of the earth, so to speak.³

West of Egypt was the African tribal people referred to in the Bible as Put. They occupied the land today called Libya, possibly along with another group, the Lubim.⁴

During the six centuries from the period of Babylonian rule to the time of the New Testament, Egypt and these surrounding peoples fell under foreign domination – Persian, Greek and Roman. But also during that time, Jewish communities in those countries established synagogues, where they and local non-Jewish people worshipped. Simon, the North African who carried Jesus’ cross, was from a town in present-day Libya. The official that Philip evangelized was from Ethiopia. These, like many others, believed in God, but they only became Christians when they believed in Christ.⁵ 1. Exodus 17:8-14; Judges 6:3; Judges 6:33; 1 Samuel 15:18-19; 1 Samuel 30:1 2. Isaiah 18:1-2; Jeremiah 13:23; Ezekiel 29:10 3. Isaiah 11:11; Zephaniah 3:10 4. 2 Chronicles 12:3; 2 Chronicles 16:8; Jeremiah 46:9; Ezekiel 30:5; Nahum 3:9 5. Mark 15:21; Acts 8:27-39; Acts 11:20; Acts 13:1 Khan al-Khalili, Cairo’s oldest bazaar