# inter-racial stuff in the Bible **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 7, 2002, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-racial-stuff-in-the-bible/117727 "2002-07-07T03:10:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-racial-stuff-in-the-bible/117727/21 "2002-07-08T15:13:19Z")
Muldoon did he say its because he is black or did you just assume that? Maybe its something else, like his age? ---
**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-racial-stuff-in-the-bible/117727/22 "2002-07-08T16:07:38Z")
He said, rather explicity, b/c he is black. ---
**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-racial-stuff-in-the-bible/117727/23 "2002-07-08T16:09:03Z")
It wouldn’t be based on age b/c he has no problem with my sister’s older boy friends who are the same age. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-racial-stuff-in-the-bible/117727/24 "2002-07-08T16:16:06Z")
I think I started a thread like this before…(the search is too slow now)…where the basic idea was that “race” and racism as we understand the concepts today really didn’t start to form until the 15th and 16th centuries, and even at that took until the 19th century to fully develop into what we recognize today. So how can we describe anything from 1900BC to 100 AD as “interracial”, from a historical point of view? ---
**Author:** ![Dragline](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/edb3f5/32.png) [@Dragline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragline)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-racial-stuff-in-the-bible/117727/25 "2002-07-08T17:29:23Z")
I don’t want to think of myself as a racist, but if one does buy the god hypothesis, it would seem that he at least believed in, or practiced segregation. Why else would the races be separated on the earth? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-racial-stuff-in-the-bible/117727/26 "2002-07-08T17:46:38Z")
Sigh. Try [Numbers 12](http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=Numbers+12&KJV_version=yes&language=english&x=16&y=6), the story of Moses and his Ethiopian wife. Moses takes an Ethiopian wife. Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses. God punishes Miriam, giving her leprosy, which (and this one comes straight from the Fitting Punishment Department) turns her skin “white as snow.” (And lest there be any doubt that the word translated as “Ethiopian” indicated dark skin, check out this bit from [Jeremiah 13:23](http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=JER+13:23&language=english&version=KJV&showfn=on&showxref=on): “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?”) ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2002, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-racial-stuff-in-the-bible/117727/27 "2002-07-08T18:10:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dragline \* > \*\*I don’t want to think of myself as a racist, but if one does buy the god hypothesis, it would seem that he at least believed in, or practiced segregation. Why else would the races be separated on the earth? \*\* I believe that it’s a rather primitive theology that believes that just because something happens, it’s the will of God. I think you’ll find very few people who buy into this argument. ---
**Author:** ![Superdog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@Superdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdog)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2002, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-racial-stuff-in-the-bible/117727/28 "2002-07-09T00:13:19Z")
Ezra 10:10-12 (NIV) Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful; you have married foreign women, adding to Israel’s guilt. Now make confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives.” The whole assembly responded with a loud voice: “You are right! We must do as you say.” Genesis 24:1-4 (NIV): Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.” Nehemiah 13:23-27 (NIV): Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab … I rebuked them and called curses down on them … I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves. Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women. Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?” [http://www.stardestroyer.net/Creationism/BiblicalMorality/Racism.shtml](http://www.stardestroyer.net/Creationism/BiblicalMorality/Racism.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2002, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-racial-stuff-in-the-bible/117727/29 "2002-07-09T00:18:59Z")
Which ties in with the very first response, that in Biblical times there were “peoples” and “tribes” and such, but not “races” as we broadly define them today, a website trying to make the Bible seem racist notwithstanding. Does there remain a General Question on the table, or is it time to send this puppy over to GD? ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2002, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-racial-stuff-in-the-bible/117727/30 "2002-07-09T14:30:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Superdog \* > \*\*Ezra 10:10-12 (NIV) Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful; you have married foreign women, adding to Israel’s guilt. Now make confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives.” The whole assembly responded with a loud voice: “You are right! We must do as you say.” > > Genesis 24:1-4 (NIV): Abraham was now old and well advanced in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. He said to the chief servant in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac.” > > Nehemiah 13:23-27 (NIV): Moreover, in those days I saw men of Judah who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab … I rebuked them and called curses down on them … I made them take an oath in God’s name and said: “You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, nor are you to take their daughters in marriage for your sons or for yourselves. Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women. Must we hear now that you too are doing all this terrible wickedness and are being unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women?” > [http://www.stardestroyer.net/Creationism/BiblicalMorality/Racism.shtml](http://www.stardestroyer.net/Creationism/BiblicalMorality/Racism.shtml) \*\* The quotes from Ezra and Nehemiah condemn Jews marrying non-Jews. It has nothing to do with race. Had these women converted to Judaism (as Ruth did) there would have been nothing wrong. As for the quote from Genesis, one could take it as an imperative not to marry Canaanites. So, unless **Muldoon III** ’s sister is marrying a Canaanite, I don’t think they have a problem there. (In addition, it is clear that Abraham was making this restriction for his son, not as a general rule to be followed by everyone. So, unless **Muldoon III** ’s father can prove he is descended from Abraham, I’d say this quote is fairly irrelevant to the discussion. Zev Steinhardt [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inter-racial-stuff-in-the-bible/117727.md?page=1)