I almost didn’t comment on the MSNBC story “Official in interracial couple flap under fire”.
After all, haven’t most of us moved beyond the whole antiquated notion that interracial marriage is a sin? If you think so, then you would be wrong.
No, it appears that David Ben-Ariel wrote about “Interracial couple denied marriage license in Louisiana” and states, “It’s great to see a glimmer of hope in this increasingly dark world…. [I]nterracial marriage is a sin.”
You have got to be kidding.
The Bible as a whole does not view race the way we do in the modern world. Skin color is rarely mentioned, in fact. Ancestry and genealogy, however, are emphasized. However, the primary purpose of this is to distinguish the line of the Messiah from the others. A secondary and much more minor purpose is to see the effect of the sins of the fathers upon the descendants. This secondary purpose is emphasized more in the OT because it had impact upon a greater number of descendants. Both the OT and NT, however, still emphasize personal responsibility more than ancestry.
OK, let’s review and see if interracial marriages were prohibited. Some of these are speculation, but some of these interracial marriages are quite provable:
1. Noah had 3 sons. From these 3 sons, all of the world was populated. I believe it is safe to say that all 3 sons, being the product of Noah and his one wife, were probably all the same race. Logically speaking then, each one married a wife of a different race, and from those races all of the current races descended.
Q: If it was a sin, would God have preserved their marriages?
2. Abraham remarried after Sarah died. He married Keturah. We know very little about her. Some believe this to be Hagar, but there is more evidence against this than for it. In addition, one of Keturah’s sons was Midian, who spawned a dark race.
3. Moses married a Midianite woman. He also married a “Cushite”. It is about 90% certain they were the same woman, Zipporah. A Cushite woman would have almost certainly been black or at least dark skinned.
Q: If it was a sin, then why was Miriam struck with leprosy for murmuring about Moses’ marriage?
4. Ever notice the Jews are somewhat darker than the descendants of the other identifiable tribes of Israel? Judah slept with his daughter-in-law Tamar and had twins. Tamar was a Canaanite. The Canaanites were descended from Ham, who was the father of the darker races.
Q: If it was a sin, then how could God have blessed Jesus’ birth through this line?
5. Speaking of Ham, Joseph married an Egyptian. While it is difficult to know for certain the races of the various Egyptian dynasties, it is generally accepted that the Egyptians were descended from Ham.
Q: If it was a sin, then why would Isaac have blessed Joseph with a physical abundance far above his brothers?
6. While we are on the subject of Ham, wasn’t Jericho controlled by Canaanites? Yet, God preserved one family out of all of Jericho because of the faith of Rahab, who was a harlot no less. Yet, this dark-skinned harlot is also an ancestor of Jesus Christ.
7. Oh! And speaking of the lineage of Jesus Christ, who can forget about Ruth the Moabitess?
So, I am still waiting for a commandment such as “Thou shalt not intermarry” to contradict these examples.