Marriage, miscegenation, and more.

January 26, 2026.

Introduction.

The recent behavior of certain online provocateurs has meant that it is time for us to do a Bible study on what they are pleased to call interracial marriage or race mixing.

Is it forbidden? Is it unwise? Is it a violation of a normative pattern? What is it exactly?

That last one is a great question, actually, which we will eventually get to further on down.

In order to have an opinion on interracial marriage, you need also to have an opinion on what constitutes races. We will drill down on that point in just a bit. But let's get some Bible out on the table first. Bible, Bible, Bible. Do we have in Scripture any examples of lawful marriages between races? Now the examples I'm going to give are examples that I would call inter-ethnic and not interracial, but bear with me. I think that what we are doing will become obvious as we go on. I will get to the word race in just a short while, but I don't think we need to deny ourselves a little bit of fun in the meantime. Moses was married to a black woman, a Kushite, an Ethiopian. Quote, and Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman

whom he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman. Numbers 12-1. There's no indication

in the text that the opposition was because of her skin color, but there was serious opposition

to her. I believe the most likely explanation is that she was a wife from Moses' time as a prince

in Egypt. Josephus tells us that Moses

had besieged her city, Sabah, and that she'd fallen in love with him from the city wall. Her name was

Tharbus, and she offered to surrender the city in exchange for marriage, which Moses agreed to.

She was apparently not part of the Exodus, but joined up with Israel later on. I think her later

arrival destabilized or threatened the positions of influence held by Miriam and Aaron, and so

they objected. In response, God made Miriam even whiter than she had been before, but this was

not considered an improvement, numbers 12, 10, and 11. It really is okay to be white, but not that

way. But as far as the scriptural text is

concerned, the simple fact of this marriage is taken right in stride. And Moses was apparently a repeat

offender doing this not once but twice, Exodus 2, 16 through 22. After fleeing from Egypt, he came to the

land of Midian and married Zippurah, one of Jethro's seven daughters.

He is called an Egyptian by them, verse 19, and he marries a woman of Midian. Okay, then.

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