A Response to Bibleinfo’s Justification of Miscegenation
Thomas Allen
[Editor’s note: Bible verses cited in the article are in the appendix except Genesis chapter 34 and Deuteronomy 23:2, which is given in the text. Also, only part of the verses in Numbers 12:1-5 is given in the appendix.]
Bibleinfo (https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/what-does-bible-say-about-interracial-marriages, accessed August 10, 2023) asserts that the Bible does not forbid interracial marriages. However, it does demand that Christians should not marry non-Christians. To support its assertions, it cites 2 Corinthians 6:14 (Christians are not to marry non-Christians) and Numbers 12:1–15 (Moses’ Ethiopian wife).
According to Bibleinfo, a Christian should only marry a Christian; the person’s race is irrelevant. To marry outside one’s religion is to be unequally yoked. However, to marry outside one’s race is not unequally yoked. Bibleinfo errs.
2 Corinthians 6:14 is a recommendation and not a commandment. Moreover, it discusses religion but does not discuss race.
Further, Paul gives different advice in 1 Corinthians 7:12-13. Paul recommends that Christians who are married to non-Christians should remain married unless the non-Christian wants a divorce. (1 Corinthians 7:15).
Two Old Testament stories refute Bibleinfo’s claim. They are Dinah’s marriage and Joseph’s marriage.
Chapter 34 of Genesis tells the story of Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob’s sons, slaying a city of Hivites over the issue of interracial marriage. The prince of the Hivites wanted to marry their sister, Dinah. So, the Hivites of this city offered to intermarry with the Hebrews. Before they could intermarry, Simeon and Levi told the Hivites that they needed to convert to the Hebrew religion. The Hivites converted and were circumcised. Thus, the two people would not be unequally yoked religiously. Now both of them were of the same religion, the Hebrew religion, and, therefore, equally yoked religiously. However, they differ racially and, therefore, were unequally yoked racially. The Hebrews were Aryans; the Hivites were Aryan-Melanochroi hybrids (or possibly Melanochroi). Simeon and Levi slew the Hivites not because of religious differences, for they were of the same religion. They slew them because of racial differences. Slaying the Hivites prevented miscegenation and racial amalgamation. Thus, being racially yoked, i.e., of the same race, is more important than being religiously yoked, i.e., of the same religion.
In Genesis 41:45 Joseph married the Egyptian Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, a priest of On. At this time, Egyptians were of the same race as the Israelites. She bore Moses two children: Manasseh and Ephraim. Being the daughter of an Egyptian priest, Asenath was almost certainly a worshiper of Egyptian gods and not of Jehovah. Her name means “worshiper of Neith.” She may have converted later, but no evidence is given of such conversion. These verses show that the Scriptural prohibition against mixed marriages is racial and not religious. A footnote in The Berkeley Version of the Bible to Genesis 46:20 affirms this: “Her training of Manasseh and Ephraim would hardly be in the Hebrew faith.” Therefore, Joseph married someone of his race who most likely was not of his religion. Thus, being racially yoked is more important than being religiously yoked.
(“Egyptian” is the translation of Mizraim. For much of its ancient history, two racially distinct people inhabited Egypt. They were the Mizraim, who were Aryans, and the Pathrusim, who were Melanochroi (also called Homo brunus and brown Caucasians). The Mizraim lived mainly in Lower Egypt and were the Egyptians encountered most often by the Israelites. The Pathrusim lived mainly in Upper Egypt although they were not uncommon in Lower Egypt. These Pathrusim are the ancestors of today’s Fellahins. [See False Biblical Teachings on the Origins of the Races and Interracial Marriages by Thomas Coley Allen.])
As the stories of Dinah and Joseph’s marriages show, being equally yoked racially (of the same race) is more important than being equally yoked religiously (of the same religion).
Concerning Moses’ wife, Bibleinfo makes the same error that most people make. Because most translations claim that the wife whom Miriam and Aaron spoke against was an Ethiopian, they assume that she was a Black woman from the region south of Egypt. (The people south of Egypt to northeast Kenya were and are Melanochroi; they are not Negroes, Blacks.)
In Exodus 2:21, Moses marries Zipporah, the daughter of Reul, a Midianite. In Numbers 12:1 Moses had married an Ethiopian or a Cushite. (“Ethiopian” is the translation of Kûwshîy, which is literally “Cushite.” Cush refers to Arabia in general, and Cushite refers to the people of Arabia in general. [For proof that Cush refers to the Arabian Peninsula, see “Cush and Ethiopia” by Thomas Allen.]) Moses’s wife was a Midianite and a Kenite and also a Cushite. Cush was a region, Arabia. Midian was an area within this region. The Kenites were a tribe or people inhabiting this area. An example of an English colonist who came to the United States helps illustrate this phenomenon. An Englishman living in Virginia could correctly be called an American (Cushite), a Virginian (Midianite), or an Englishman (Kenite). So closely related to the Israelites were the Kenites that they were later considered a part of Judah (1 Chronicles 2:55; 1 Samuel 27:10). The woman referred to in Exodus 2:21 is the same woman referred to in Numbers 12:1. The Bible gives no indication of Moses ever having more than one wife. Therefore, Moses’ wife was of the same race as he was, so miscegenation did not occur.
Like many people, Bibleinfo claims that Miriam was stricken with leprosy (Numbers 12:10) because she and Aaron condemned Moses for marrying a woman of a different race. This was not so. God would not punish them for rebuking Moses for sinning. Aaron and Miriam questioned Moses' authority. They questioned his office as God's spokesman and prophet (Numbers 12:2, 6-8). Questioning God’s appointment of Moses as His spokesman and coveting that position is what caused Miriam’s affliction.
Moreover, Bibleinfo asserts that Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute, was an ancestor of Jesus. Again Bibleinfo errs; she was not an ancestor of Jesus. (For proof, see “Rahab” by Thomas Allen.)
Like all proponents of miscegenation, Bibleinfo ignores Deuteronomy 23:2. If they do consider it, they mistranslate mamzêr. Deuteronomy 23:2 (“No half-bred [mongrel] may be admitted to the assembly of the Yahweh; not even his descendants to the tenth generation may be admitted to the Assembly of Yahweh” – NJB.) summaries God’s attitude toward miscegenation and interracial mating. (For a discussion on Deuteronomy 23:2, see “Commentary on Deuteronomy 23:2" by Thomas Allen.) To prevent interracial breeding, God ordained racial segregation and separation.
As shown above, Bibleinfo is misleading people and is justifying the sin of miscegenation, interracial marriage. For more on the Bible’s condemnation of interracial marriages, see these books and articles by Thomas Allen: Integration Is Genocide, False Biblical Teachings on the Origin of the Races and Interracial Marriages, “Does God Abhor or Approve Miscegenation?” and “The Bible, Segregation, and Miscegenation.”
Appendix
The verses cited below are from the World English Bible.
Genesis 41:45: Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphenath-Paneah. He gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On as a wife. Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.
Genesis 46:20: To Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him.
Exodus 2:21: Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter.
Numbers 12:1: Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite [Ethiopian] woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite [Ethiopian] woman.
Numbers 12:2: They said, “Has Yahweh indeed spoken only with Moses? Hasn’t he spoken also with us?” And Yahweh heard it.
Numbers 12: 6-8: He said, “Now hear my words. If there is a prophet among you, I, Yahweh, will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream. 7 My servant Moses is not so. He is faithful in all my house. 8 With him, I will speak mouth to mouth, even plainly, and not in riddles; and he shall see Yahweh’s form. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant, against Moses?”
Numbers 12:10 The cloud departed from over the Tent; and behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. Aaron looked at Miriam, and behold, she was leprous.
1 Samuel 27:10: Achish said, “Against whom have you made a raid today?” David said, “Against the South of Judah, against the South of the Jerahmeelites, and against the South of the Kenites.”
1 Chronicles 2:55: The families of scribes who lived at Jabez: the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and the Sucathites. These are the Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab.
1 Corinthians 7:12-13: 12 But to the rest I—not the Lord—say, if any brother has an unbelieving wife, and she is content to live with him, let him not leave her. 13 The woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he is content to live with her, let her not leave her husband.
1 Corinthians 7:15: Yet if the unbeliever departs, let there be separation. The brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us in peace.
2 Corinthians 6:14: Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship do righteousness and iniquity have? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
Copyright © 2024 by Thomas Coley Allen.
