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Does the Bible Forbid Interracial or Interreligious Marriage?

God's message for his people is consistent from the beginning right to the end. God's way doesn't change back and forth. Let's notice now from the scripture that what God forbids in His Word is not the marrying of people of different racial lineage, but interreligious marriage.

Let's begin with Exodus 34:10-16:

"And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels ... behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God; Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods."

Here we see God forbidding the Israelites from marrying people of the nations around them. The question we need to examine closely is WHY? Was the prohibition based on race (especially as used in the sense of skin color) or on religion?

From these verses we can clearly see that God's concern was that marrying outside the "church" (Israel was the Church of the Old Testament) would cause Israel to turn away from God. The command is similar to what we read in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 6:14,

"Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers ...",
and 1 Corinthians 7:39,

"The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord."
God gave the saints liberty to marry anyone in the Lord regardless of race or skin color. The issue was the same for the Church in the wilderness.

Notice similar instructions in Deuteronomy 7:1-6.

"Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly" (v. 3-4).

The problem here was clearly that marrying outside the "Church" would cause Israel to turn away from the true worship of the true God. Other scriptures that illustrate this truth are Joshua 23:6-13; Ezra 9:1-2, 10-14.

Now some would agree that the "main" issue had to do with religion, but would still hold on to the idea that race was also included. Let's now notice God's ruling on race, once religion is taken care of. Exodus 12:37-38 shows us that when Israel left Egypt, a mixed multitude went up with them. In Verse 43 God then explains that a stranger may not eat of the Passover. For a stranger to eat the Passover, he had to be circumcised (symbolic of spiritual conversion—see Romans 2:28-29). Once a stranger was circumcised, the scripture says:

"he shall be as one that is born in the land .... One law shall be to him that is home born and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you" (vv. 48-49).
If a stranger becomes "as one that is born in the land" then it would no longer be wrong for this stranger to marry an Israelite, or for an Israelite to marry him/her because they both at that point would be in the "Church." Thus we see that scripture forbids interreligious, not interracial marriage. The theory used by a certain group was that Noah's three sons married women of three different races in order to perpetuate the races after the flood. Without taking time to debate this issue, which in itself proves unfounded, this church therefore seemed to suggest that one must not cross the three major strains in marriage. Yet, scripture simply does not support this view. Rather, God's Word tells us we are all of one blood (Acts 17:26); we are all the descendants of Adam and Eve (Gen. 3 :20); and we are all the descendants of Noah. We are in one sense, therefore, all of one race (family). If we trace our roots back, why stop at the sons of Noah for the purpose of marriage. What scripture indicates that we should stop there? The absence of a scriptural command on this delineation makes it clear such a policy is unscriptural.

Notice Israel was plagued for committing whoredom with Midianites—descendants of Abraham (Gen. 25:14). Solomon was rebuked for marrying, among others, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites—all descendants of Shem (Genesis 19:36-38; Gen. 36). In both cases the problem was clearly that these strange wives led the Israelites away from the true worship of the true God. The problem was interreligious marriage, not interracial marriage.

Yet, on the other hand, Moses married a Midianite woman in Exodus 2:15-21 with no condemnation from God. The condemnation came from Miriam and Aaron and God was angry with them (Numbers 12:1-9). Nowhere in the Bible do we read of God correcting Moses for the wife he chose—even though she was black. Her skin color is proved by a comparative analysis of scripture which indicates that Jethro and Zipporah were black. Zipporah was identified as an Ethiopian woman in Numbers 12:1, Hebrew, "Cue." Habakkuk 3:7 shows Cushan was an archaic term for the Midianites (see New Bible Dictionary p. 257). Jethro was also considered a Kenite in Judges 1:16. Zipporah was accepted by God because her religion was not wrong. Her father, Jethro, worshipped the true God (Exodus 18:10-27).

We see later that Boaz was the son of Rahab, the harlot, a Canaanite woman from Jericho. Rahab was accepted by God and allowed to marry an Israelite because she became a member of the "church"—she accepted the religion of Israel (Hebrews 11 :31). Boaz married Ruth, a Moabite. This was allowed because she accepted the true God. All of these historical facts show that Jesus' ancestry included Gentiles (Matthew 1:5; Luke 4:32). One should also note that Solomon was the son of Bathsheba, "daughter of Sheba" (Genesis 10:7) a descendant of Cush (remember Solomon later met with the Queen of Sheba, 1 Kings 10:1). Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, was also the former wife of Uriah the Hittite. Yet David was never criticized for marrying outside of his race. His sin was the sin of adultery. The marriage was later blessed by God rather than condemned, and the offspring of the interracial marriage was chosen by God to be the King of Israel, the wisest king of all time.

Misunderstood Scriptures

Obviously, what God's word prohibits is interreligious marriage, not interracial marriage. Some would say at this point, "what about the fact that Isaac and Jacob were instructed to marry their relatives (Gen. 24 3-4; 28: 1)?" Since the Israelites, as previously seen, were commanded not to marry relatives who were not "circumcised" or part of the Church, we realize the issue was not race but religion.

Some assume Abraham's motive for wanting Isaac to marry among his relatives was a desire to maintain racial purity. However, this cannot be proved in the scriptures. A more likely reason can be seen when we look at the example of Lot. Righteous Lot, Abraham's nephew, had children before Abraham did. Abraham learned from Lot's mistakes. When God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's sons-in-law would not leave the city, even though they were given the opportunity to do so. The problem was that they did not know the true God. They were not in the "Church" and were most likely steeped in pagan religion.

Abraham must have contemplated the problem of finding a wife for his son that would not be too heavily influenced by pagan religion. Accordingly, he considered it wiser to choose a wife from his relatives where he knew the Pagan influence was not very strong. One certainly cannot deduce or prove that Abraham's motive was race or racial purity. Therefore, one should not use Abraham's decision in choosing a wife for his son as the basis for a church policy to forbid interracial marriage.

Another scripture misunderstood is found in Genesis 6:9 where it says,

"... Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations and Noah walked with God."
Some believe the phrase, "perfect in his generations," means Noah was racially pure. This view is found in the Companion Bible. This view was also stated in a religious book I read which stated:

"... Noah, only, was unblemished or perfect in his generations—his ancestry. He was of the original white strain."
However, a close look at the preceding verses show conclusively that this view could not be correct

Methuselah lived 187 years before he begat Lamech, and after that he lived another 782 years for a total of 969 years. When Lamech was 182 he begat Noah. Based on the scriptures (Gen. 5:25- 32), at the time of Noah's birth, Methusaleh was 369 years old. Gen. 7:11 shows that Noah was 600 years old when he entered the Ark (600 + 369 - 969). Thus the flood came at the same time Methusaleh died. Yet, Noah was building the Ark and preaching righteousness for 120 years before the flood came, during which time God says Noah was the only one perfect in his generations. How could Noah be racially pure and his grandfather be racially impure? Noah's father was also alive during this time; he died 5 years before the flood. If racial purity was God's concern, Lamech should have been considered perfect in his generations too.

For the rest of this text go to:

Does the Bible Forbid Interracial Dating and Marriage? - at BibleStudy.org