What the Bible has to say about interracial relationships.

As interracial relationships and marriages become more common-place in society, people’s thoughts naturally turn to the spiritual component of the relationship. What does the Bible say about interracial relationships and marriage? It is not so much what the Bible says, but rather, the actions of persons in favor with God that seem to point toward God’s acceptance of such relationships.

Some of the God’s favorites were among those involved in an intercultural and interracial marriage: Moses, David, Esther, Ruth, Solomon, and Joseph, to name just a few. Let’s take a quick look at these Biblical heroes and heroines, and a few more.

Moses was married to a Cushite woman, Zipporah. She was a woman of another race. (Numbers 12). Aaron and Miriam were chastised by God for critiquing Moses’ choice of wife, and a skin disease was inflicted upon Miriam in punishment.
The Book of Ruth is essentially a love story which results in a mixed marriage when Ruth, a Moabite, married Boaz, an Israelite.
Samson, a Nazirite had a weakness for women who did not love and serve God, and contributed to his downfall and death. He married a Philistine (Judges 14), and later fell in love with Delilah in the Valley of Sorek (Judges 16).
Rahab was from another nation, and was included in the promised line of The Messiah (Joshua 2; Matthew 1).
The story of David and Bathsheba is well known. She was a member of the Hittites, a pagan tribe. (2 Samuel)
David and Bathsheba’s son, Solomon, fell in love with a Shulamite girl. (Song of Solomon)
Esther, renowned fpor her beauty and faithfulness to her religion, married the pagan King Xerxes to help improve the fate of the Israelites. (Esther 2)
Joseph was “given” Asenath as wife. She was the daughter of an Egyptian priest, a different culture and possibly race, and Egyptians at this time included people of black African descent. (Genesis 41:45).
In Colossians 3:11 God sees us all as one in Christ. Given this all-encompassing love and the fact that the Bible reports interracial and intercultural relationships, it would seem that God does not “judge” based on ethnicity or culture. Perhaps it is societal “norms” and “judgments”, and not God’s, that puts the kibosh on intercultural and interracial relationships. In fact, it’s hard to find anything in the Bible which forbid us from marrying those we love, regardless of race or color.