# Is the bible against interacial marriage? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 15, 2002, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294 "2002-05-15T23:11:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Michael\_James\_Tyler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8edcca/32.png) [@Michael\_James\_Tyler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_James_Tyler)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2002, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/1 "2002-05-15T23:11:56Z")
I have been told, being mixed myself, that it says in the Bible marriage between diferent races is a sin. I have no idea where this is suposed to be besides in the Old Testament. It would not suprise me if this were true since the Bible says just about everything is a sin, but I just wanted to know if anyone knew where in the Bible it was, but the more important question, WHY IS IT A SIN?😕 ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2002, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/2 "2002-05-15T23:53:13Z")
I think that is complete bunk. The only things similar to that i can think of are warnings for the Jews not to marry outside their family, but that was more so they wouldn’t be lead astray by foreign idols or something like that, and it was eventually done away with. Moses married an Ethiopian women, who was probably black, him being Hebrew. Who told you such nonsense? ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/3 "2002-05-16T00:20:13Z")
I really don’t think modern racism is a sin which can be blamed on the text of the Bible itself (as opposed to homophobia, sexism, witch-hunting, or religious persecution). For the most part, racists have to really work to read their own prejudices back into the Bible, using strained readings of a handful of out-of-context verses, and ignoring such passages as [Galatians 3:26-28](http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=GAL+3:26-28&language=english&version=NIV-IBS&showfn=on&showxref=on): “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” ---
**Author:** ![Donovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@Donovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donovan)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/4 "2002-05-16T01:41:09Z")
I have had this guy that gives (unsolicited) lectures on God at the corner pub tell me that one third of all people are descended from Ham (I think he is one of Noah’s sons?) and that all offspring of Ham are tainted - something about Ham being the spawn of evil - this guy indicated that we shouldn’t mix with the spawn of Ham, and all Africans were spawned from Ham. It was rather hard to keep a straight face through the beginning of the story and by the time he finished by explaining how we can actually tell who the offspring of Ham by their ‘racial characteristics’ I was about ready to shove my drink down his throat, but instead I nodded and asked him where the Irish came from (He said he’d get back to me). Disclaimer: this is not what I believe, and due to the alcohol in my system, I cannot be sure that this is even the true explanation that you would get from a devout ‘Racist Christian’… (is that an oxymoron?) I could have heard wrong and his theory might have actually made sense. ---
**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:** [May 16, 2002, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/5 "2002-05-16T02:46:20Z")
_Sigh_ There is no prohibition against interracial marriage in the Bible (in the Jewish bible, anyway.) As **Tars Tarkas** pointed out, there is a prohibition for Jews to marry non-Jews, but that is strictly on religious grounds. A non-Jew (regardless of race) could always convert to Judaism and become eligible for marriage within the Jewish community. To further clarify the point **Donovan** brought up: About one-third of humanity is, indeed descended from Ham. However, it was not Ham who was cursed by Noah, but Ham’s son Canaan. In any event, there is no place in the Bible where it says that non-Jews cannot marry Canaan’s (or Ham’s) descendants. Furthermore, while conventional wisdom may say that blacks are descended from Ham, this is not entirely clear. After all, Mitzrayim (Egypt) is descended from Ham, and most of the white supremacists crowd will not admit to the ancient Egyptians being black. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/6 "2002-05-16T03:53:40Z")
Michael: There’s no prohibition against interracial marriage in the Christian Bible. Interracial marriage is not a sin. The sentiments that you’re talking about, that interracial marriage is a sin, and that it’s prohibited in the Bible, are from the various white supremacists. Here’s a good example, from the Alabama White Knights of the KKK. [http://www.kukluxklan.net/index18.html](http://www.kukluxklan.net/index18.html) > [@](#): > > \*\*Q. What does the Klan think about interracial marriages? > > Everything after its own kind. Racial integrity should be no different than the rest of the plant and animal kingdom. Each species remains true to its genetic pattern as God intended. God called this groupings unified by common traits ‘good’. When the fundamental nature of creation is tampered with, the result is ungodly mutation and confusion. A weed patch does not harmonize with a rose garden. Homogenization of race, language, religion and government is as old as the tower of Babel story. The real evil in the world today is the false god of integration promoted by a godless United Nations and the New World Order. The false teachers of churchianity justify interracial marriages in order to keep the White race blind to administering God’s laws. A segregated White race will protect itself from alien idolatries. The enemies of God have lived in their luxuries through sin. They can only thrive on their compost of lies. But God’s Word is sure and unchanging no matter what the haters of “kind after kind” may say. The fact that God chose a holy and special people to be above all the races of the earth speaks for itself (Deuteronomy 7:6). Truth is not meant to be warm and fuzzy for liberal minded antichrists. Numbers 25 is a javelin lesson for race mixing. Get the message? As Yahweh spoke to the children of Israel (the White race), “Ye shall not go in to them (all other races), neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” (I Kings 11:2) \*\* The Bible passages that they are talking about are quite definitely not referring to “race” as such, but about “other religions”, specifically idol-worshiping religions. The actual Bible passages, courtesy of the Bible Gateway (NIV): [Deut. 7:1-6](http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=DEUT+7&language=english&version=NIV-IBS&showfn=on&showxref=on) > [@](#): > > 1 When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations-the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you- 2 and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. 3 Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord 's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. 5 This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles [2] and burn their idols in the fire. 6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. [Numbers 25](http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=numbers+25&language=english&version=NIV-IBS) > [@](#): > > 1 While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, 2 who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. 3 So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the Lord 's anger burned against them…[more] [I Kings 11](http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=I+kings+11&language=english&version=NIV-IBS) > [@](#): > > 1 King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter-Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. 2 They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” [more] Okay? These Bible passages are talking about prohibitions against marrying people who worship idols, not about marrying people with a different skin color. ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/7 "2002-05-16T08:22:05Z")
Just wanted to add that under the Apartheid regime, not only was inter-racial marriage forbidden (Mixed Marriages Act), but inter-racial sex was also made illegal by an act with the revealing name of the **Immorality Act**. Which of course gave free reign to all the _peeping toms_ in the police force to “investigate” at will 😃 Gp ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/8 "2002-05-16T14:58:57Z")
You might want to check out [Numbers Chapter 12](http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=NUM+12&language=english&version=KJV&showfn=on&showxref=on), the story of Moses and his Ethiopian wife. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/9 "2002-05-16T15:18:42Z")
Or perhaps the fourth chapter of Ruth, where it’s made explicitly clear that this exemplary Moabite woman is the grandmother of King David, traditionally held up as the ideal Jewish leader and the one through whom Jesus is supposed to inherit the Kingship. It’s interesting to note that, although Naomi is Ruth’s mother-in-law on her first marriage, if you cross-check with Chronicles and Luke (Luke of course not being scripture to Jews although it’s important to Christians), you find out that her mother-in-law on her second marriage is none other than Rahab the Harlot of Jericho – who also is given a very significant positive role in Jewish history. I see a subtle protest in Scripture itself against the Jews-must-only-marry-Jews tradition in all this. The “curse of Ham” is in the tag end of the Noah story, and a lot is left unsaid, but in any case appears to reflect most strongly on Canaan the son of Ham and ancestor of the Canaanites. To equate either Ham or Canaan with the ancestors of blacks is stretching a point – the most that can be suggested from scripture is the four sons of Ham and those descended from him. In short, it’s selective reading of scripture interpreted to give legitimacy to someone’s prejudices – _eisegesis_ (reading into the text) rather than _exegesis_ (interpreting from the text). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2002, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/10 "2002-05-16T18:48:48Z")
What about institutions like Bob Jones University? As far as I can tell, they are not as openly and virulently racist as the KKK, but they seem to believe that there is something immoral about inter-racial dating. What religious doctrines do they base their conclusions on? ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/11 "2002-05-17T01:10:40Z")
**acsenray** - What makes you think they have a good reason? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/12 "2002-05-17T03:46:52Z")
BJU dropped the ban on interracial dating in 2000. [http://racerelations.about.com/library/weekly/aa030600a.htm](http://racerelations.about.com/library/weekly/aa030600a.htm) ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/13 "2002-05-17T05:43:34Z")
About Bob Jones university, here’s an admittedly biased look at the interracial dating issue. [http://modelminority.com/politics/bobjones.htm](http://modelminority.com/politics/bobjones.htm) Yes, the ban has been dropped, but kids still need their parents permission before they can date someone of a different race. I found the series of letters in the lower left corner to be the most informative part. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/14 "2002-05-17T07:40:18Z")
I doubt that the ancient Hebrews of the Old Testament, or even the Greek speakers who wrote the New Testament had anything resembling our current diagramming of the world’s population into “white”, “black”, “Asian” and so on. They probably saw the world as a spectrum of peoples…with a lot of shades inbetween. I can only suppose this, but the typical Hebrew, Egyptian, or Sumerian probably saw himself as intermediate between the paler folks that came from Greece and Italy and beyond, and the darker folks from Ethiopia and Nubia. Since their lands were along the borders of several other nations, and they themselves absorbed others - I would think a typical street scene in the Jerusalem of Solomon’s day would have a majority ‘Semitic’ dark haired, dark eyed, olive skinned people with a number of fairer and green eyed redheads, the occassional blond, pinkish skinned person, and a number of people who could be described as black…but without any clear division between ‘races’. Sort of like much of the modern Middle East. The current concept of race probably didn’t get started until around the 15th century, but that’s a whole other [debate.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=108474&highlight=racism+century) ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/15 "2002-05-17T15:27:10Z")
Just to emphasize the story mentioned about Moses and his Kushite (Ethiopian, probably) wife: Miriam and Aaron, Moses’ sister and brother, are punished directly for speaking against her. Almost all commentators (through the centuries) have taken this as a specific approval of inter-racial or inter-tribal marriages. Marriage with an idolator was something quite different to the biblical author(s), regardless of race. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2002, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/16 "2002-05-17T20:55:27Z")
This was something I was taught in elementary school. So I don’t know if the was quoting some scholar’s commentary or not. ``` Why does God make just one man and one woman? There are numerous beasts, birds, fishes etc. Why not create enough people to fill the Earth? Because if we all descend from the same mother and father, no one can claim better lineage. Can any of the chuchem in this thread tell me if this was the teacher's interpretation or from Rambam, Tosephot etc? ``` ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2002, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/17 "2002-05-30T22:30:36Z")
Re: Bob Jones University – > [@](#): > > What makes you think they have a good reason? Well, of course there is no good reason for such a thing. But, I didn’t ask for a good reason, I asked for their religious reasons. There’s nothing about religious doctrine that makes it presumptively good, not from my viewpoint anyway. Religion is just another force in the world and it’s arguable, I thinnk, whether its influence has been more for the good than for the bad. ---
**Author:** ![RedNaxela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ad7895/32.png) [@RedNaxela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedNaxela)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/18 "2002-05-31T14:07:32Z")
**DocCathode** , the idea you’ve cited comes from an even better source than Rambam or Tosafot: it’s in the Talmud, Sanhedrin 37a and 38a. (There are also a couple of other answers to this question there.) ---
**Author:** ![dqa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dqa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dqa)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2002, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-bible-against-interacial-marriage/109294/19 "2002-06-01T03:48:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by acsenray \* > \*\*What about institutions like Bob Jones University? As far as I can tell, they are not as openly and virulently racist as the KKK, but they seem to believe that there is something immoral about inter-racial dating. What religious doctrines do they base their conclusions on? \*\* I’m too lazy to read the links above that address BJU. However, I did follow closely the controversy over the school in 2000 when Bush, in a close race with John McCain, spoke there, angering various Catholics, minorities, etc. The school’s explanation in 2000 about the previous dating policy was that it was not an issue of right and wrong, but more along the lines of keeping order. After all, parents don’t send their kids to BJU just to learn what is legal and moral, but also what is proper. In the same way, public high schools may restrict male students from sporting facial hair, or wearing women’s clothes, etc. Not because these are wrong per se, but to prevent disorder and controversy. The above is my interpretation of BJU’s position, which may differ substantially from what they actually said. And what they said in 2000 may be quite a revision from their position when they first formally enacted the ban.