Intermarriage
Matthew Benoit
January 2011
Introduction
“Now these
Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with
all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Acts 17:11
“You
are required to believe, to
preach, and to teach what the Bible
says is true, not what you want the Bible to say is true.” –R.C. Sproul
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Before beginning, I want to express that my hearts
desire is to love and serve God as he desires to be loved and served. I believe
the Bible is his Holy, unerring, and infallible word. I want to obey his
commands no matter what the cost. That being said, my belief concerning
intermarriage is not what it is because it is popular in our culture, or anything
of the sort. I believe what I do about intermarriage, because I believe with
all my heart that it is what the Bible teaches about the issue. I do not write
the following with a spirit of contention, but with a spirit of contrition,
longing to see God glorified as he ought to be glorified. It is not my belief that those who
teach falsely in this area or who believe that different races ought not marry
are not Christians. I believe they certainly may be, but that their vision has
been clouded by their tradition. It is my hope to be an instrument of
defogging, a biblical windshield wiper, to clear the eyes of those who read
what I’ve written so that God will be worshipped according to what his Word
says about him and his commandments. If his Word teaches that different races
are not to intermarry, than that is what I will believe, but if it teaches
otherwise, then I challenge the reader to examine their tradition in light of
the Scriptures, and to stop examining the Scripture in light of their
tradition. So I continue with the spirit of the Berean Jews, let us examine the
Scriptures to see if these things are so.“To the law and to the testimony, what
saith the Scriptures?”
I’ll begin in part 1
by looking at some places in the Old Testament where The Israelites are told
not to intermarry with the other people around them. Next I’ll explain why they were told not to intermarry. In
part 2 I’ll examine some places in the Old Testament where intermarriage
occurred and was honorable and acceptable, and we will see how the family of
Jesus descends from a mixed-race background. I will conclude in part 3 by
briefly examining what two specific passages in the New Testament have to say
about intermarriage, 2 Corinthians 16:4
and Galatians
3:26-29. I will demonstrate throughout that when the Bible
speaks about intermarriage, it is consistently talking about mixing holiness
and unholiness, belief and unbelief, light and darkness, those who are
Christ’s, with those who are the Devil’s. Intermarriage is not blacks and
whites or Hispanics and Asians or Americans and American Indians.
I
entreat the reader to continue through the length of the work, reading the
examples, cross-references and footnotes I provide, as they will be aids to
understanding, and the paper makes it’s point as a whole, not in parts. I’ve included the selected passages in both the King James Version as
well as the English Standard Version. As well as italicizing Scripture
quotations, I have also underlined, emboldened and colored all references to
Scripture as a visual aide.
May Christ be glorified by my words and
thoughts, and may he protect your eyes from reading anything I say that is not
in accordance with his Word.
Part One:
~~~~~~~
First, some OT passages concerning
intermarriage.
It is my contention that many who
teach Scripture today believe that different races should not mix in marriage
because it is what they were taught by their pastors and their pastors learned
it from their pastors before them… and on and on. In this way, the teaching has
become a tradition, and as a tradition, it has become a lens through which
those in the tradition read the Scriptures. But the truth is, the passages they
base their teaching on, passages like the one above and the ones to follow, are
not being properly exegeted, and so they are being used as the foundation of
teachings that are not coming from
the Bible, but are being read into
the Bible by their tradition. Even a brief look at some of these passages will
make this clear. Lets begin with Deuteronomy 7:3-4
Deuteronomy 7:3-4
KJV
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ESV
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3 Neither shalt thou
make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor
his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
4For they will turn away thy
son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the
anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.
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3 You shall not
intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their
daughters for your sons,
4 for they
would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods.
Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy
you quickly.
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Verse 3 says clearly, “You shall not make marriages with them.” If we only read Verse 3, we could go on and on about how
people are not to marry people of other nations… But the Bible does not end at verse 3, Verse
4 gives us the reason for the command in verse
3. As you read the Scriptures, ask questions of them. Ask, “Why?”
“Why is the Lord giving this command?” As we see in verse
4, the command to not intermarry is given because, “For they will turn away thy son from following me, that
they may serve other gods.” Verse 4
is the reason for verse 3. The prohibition against marrying
people of other nations, is given because those other nations serve false gods,
and if a servant of Yahweh the LORD becomes “one flesh” with someone who serves
a false god, then the heathen will lead the servant of God away from him. It is
Gods purpose to keep the nation of Israel as the church of the Old Testament,
pure from sin. So he prohibits them from marrying people of other nations so that they will be kept pure. If you
want to see what happens when someone disobeys God and marries a servant of
another God, take a look at 1 Kings 11:1-9.
But it is extremely important that you understand that the command given here
in Deuteronomy is given because the
other nations would lead the people of God away, and the disaster that the Lord
brings on Solomon for intermarrying comes on him because he listened to the voice of his pagan wives and served
their false gods.
We will see the same thing in the following
passages.
Ezra 9:1-2
KJV
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ESV
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1 Now when these
things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel,
and the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the
people of the lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the
Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the
Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
2 For they have taken of their
daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with
the people of those lands: yea, the hand of the princes and rulers hath
been chief in this trespass.
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1 After these things
had been done, the officials approached me and said, “The people of Israel
and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the
peoples of the lands with their abominations, from the Canaanites, the
Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the
Egyptians, and the Amorites.
2 For they have taken
some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so
that the holy race has mixed itself
with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the
officials and chief men has been foremost.”
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Again, we encounter much of the same. If we finished
with verse 1 and even 1 and 2
it would give us a great ground for preaching a sermon bound up in our
tradition that says that people of different races should not intermarry. But
to be faithful to Scripture, we must continue.
Why do the princes come to Ezra telling him that the
people of Israel including the priests and the Levites have not separated
themselves but have instead taken wives from the daughters of the nations? What
is the nature of the trouble? Is it the wives themselves? No, it is because
they have caused the holy seed to be
mixed with unholy people. The true
issue is holiness mixing with unholiness. Ezra explains this further as he
talks to God in verses 10-14.
Ezra 9:10-14
KJV
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ESV
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10And now, O our God, what
shall we say after this? for we have forsaken thy commandments,11Which
thou hast commanded by thy servants the prophets, saying, The land, unto
which ye go to possess it, is an unclean land with the filthiness
of the people of the lands, with their abominations, which have filled it
from one end to another with their uncleanness.12 Now
therefore give not your daughters
unto their sons, neither take their daughters unto your sons, nor seek their
peace or their wealth for ever: that ye may be strong, and eat the
good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children for ever.13And
after all that is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great
trespass, seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities
deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this;14 Should
we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of
these abominations? wouldest not thou be angry with us till thou hadst
consumed us, so that there should be no remnant nor escaping?
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10
“And now, O our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your
commandments, 11 which you commanded by your servants the
prophets, saying, ‘The land that you are entering, to take possession of it, is
a land impure with the impurity of the peoples of the lands, with
their abominations that have filled it from end to end with their
uncleanness. 12 Therefore do not give your daughters to
their sons, neither take their daughters for your sons, and never seek their
peace or prosperity, that you may be strong and eat the good of the
land and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’ 13
And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great
guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities
deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, 14
shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who
practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you
consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape?
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Notice how in verse
11 Ezra says that the land that they are in is unclean and filled with the
filthiness of the people of those lands. And then in verse 12, he says “Now therefore.” …Now
therefore what? He says, “Therefore (Because the land is filled with sinning
people who are corrupt, and filled with abomination) do not marry them, and
don’t seek their peace or wealth.” Why? Why should we not marry them, seek
their peace, or seek their wealth? Because they, are unclean and serve false
gods. If the Israelites were to mix with them, as nonbelievers, to seek their
peace, and to seek their wealth, it would let the corruption of the pagan
people effect the way the Israelites thought and behaved. If they mixed with
them, they would be lead away into sin. But God says, he doesn’t want them to
be led away by the pagan people of the land SO THAT they will be strong, and
come into the blessings that God has for them, blessings that they would not receive if they were led away into
sin. Ezra recaps this in verse 14:
“Should we again break
thy commandments, and join in affinity with [meaning: be married to] the people
of these abominations?”
The point is not that they have black or red or polkadot
skin, or that there is impurity in their blood or some other nonsense. The
point is that God is purifying his people, separating them from the pagan
nations around them, and making them holy. HE institutes the command to not
intermarry because he is building a
wall between the holiness of his people, and the pagan-ness of the godless
nations. If someone who serves God, and someone who serves Baal are joined
together and become one flesh (Which
is what marriage is [see Genesis 2:24;
Matthew 19:5; Ephesians 5:31]) then this spiritual wall
that God is urging the people to build between themselves and the nations would
be of no effect, it would indeed be nonexistent.
Nehemiah 13:23-26
KJV
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ESV
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23 In those days
also saw I Jews that had married wives of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab:
24 And their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak
in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people.
25 And I contended with them, and
cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made
them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons,
nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves.
26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin
by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was
beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even
him did outlandish women cause to sin.
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23 In those days
also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24
And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not
speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. 25 And I
confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their
hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not
give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or
for yourselves. 26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such
women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was
beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign
women made even him to sin.
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Now we see Nehemiah dealing with the same problem
Ezra dealt with. What is the problem? The people of Israel are loosing their
language (Verse 24). Why might that
be a problem? Well, because the Word of God that he had given them and the
words of the Prophets were in… that’s right, Hebrew. The language of the Jews.
What has the intermarrying in verse 25
done? It has done just what God said it would do, it has lead the people away
from serving God, so that now sin is among them, and lies at the door, and the
children cant even read the Law of God so as to know who he is and what he
desires and commands are for his people.
After giving them the
command again to not mix with the pagan people, Nehemiah explains further by
detailing what happened to mighty and incredibly wise Solomon. What happened to
Solomon because of his foreign wives? He sinned. Nehemiah’s argument is this:
Foreign, godless women made even mighty Solomon sin who was the wisest of all
the kings of Israel. So what do you think they will do to you who are neither
as mighty nor as wise as he? Obviously the answer is, “They will make us sin.”
Again I note, the problem is not the race
of the people, but the heart of the
people. Note that in verse 23 the
people of Moab are mentioned as being one of these Pagan nations that the
Israelites are not to marry. This is very interesting, because in the next
section, we’ll encounter a Moabitess who CONVERTS from her pagan religion and
swears to follow and obey the God of the Israelites. Guess what happens. Well…
You’ll find out.
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