Sidewalk Theology: Questions I Get Asked a Lot #5

Q: What Does the Bible Say About Interracial Marriage?

Without question the Hebrew scriptures/Old Testament prohibited Israel from intermarrying with some nearby people groups (Deuteronomy 7:5). Interestingly, the prohibitions were always based on competing religious allegiances, never on ethnicity or skin color. 

Often hostile neighboring groups were dedicated to championing rival gods who were largely corrupted agents of chaos in the heavens who passed those corrupting and chaotic traits on to their earth bound worshippers. Intermingling with these earthly agents of chaos could and, later in the national life of Israel, would result in abandonment of the Most High God (El Elyon). The exclusive, never before covenant relationship between Israel and her deliverer God - one who was above all rival gods - is what would make her a light to the nations and a fulfillment of the Most High God's promise to Abraham, the nation's founder and father. Daily recitation of the Shema ("hear/listen") prayer of Deuteronomy 6 reinforced the uniqueness of the relationship - "Hear O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD". Israel can lay claim to the LORD/Yahweh/Most High God as "our God" who is uniquely "one LORD" - not simply numerically unique but a "One and Only LORD" without rival. Neighboring people groups were dedicated to lesser rival gods wit vastly different agendas and much lower natures.

Intermarriage with those devoted to lesser rival gods would jeopardize the entire scheme of God toward Israel and severely alter world history. But again, the prohibition was strictly religious and it was in no way based on ethnicity or skin tone. 

Opponents of interracial marriage have long invoked a dire sounding New Testament warning on unequal yoking in marriage. A careful reading tells you inserting race and ethnicity in the passage is a bogus use of the injunction. 

In 2 Corinthians 6:14 the caution to Jesus followers against unequal marriage yoking is consistent with the warnings to ancient Israel, being similarly based on relationship to God. The unequal pairings in the passage are believers with unbelievers, righteousness with unrighteousness. Only the most obtuse and ignorant would see in the third unequal partnering of light and darkness a reference to skin tone. To argue color or ethnicity as constituting an unequal yoking would be a weak argument from silence, which is to say no argument at all. There are no biblical prohibitions against interethnic or interracial marriages. 

In marrying each other, Moses and Tzipporah married outside their ethnic groups. Their differing skin tones brought out the bigot in his siblings, whose nasty, racist criticisms were soundly and dramatically condemned by God.  Both enter the narrative as worshippers of God Most High and by Paul's New Testament definition were equally yoked. Additionally her father was a devotee and priest of the same God as Moses and presumably raised her in that tradition.

Ethnicity is not a factor or cause for division in marriage, the church or the wider kingdom of God since the exposure and naked artificiality of all ethnic, class and gender barriers occurred at and was demolished by the Cross so that "you are all one in Christ" (Galatians 3:28). 

The Bible seems to be in agreement with much recent thinking in the social sciences which describes racial categories as mere human constructs with no bases in biology. In his presentation of the risen Messiah to Athens' intelligentsia, Paul cites the common origin of all people as a basic tenet of his good message that includes the brotherhood of man, the Fatherhood of God and the messiahship of Jesus Christ.

"God that made the world and all things therein . . .hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth . . . that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us." Acts 17: 24-27 KJV

No dividing walls. One blood. Finding a God who's never been that far away. Rightly related to God and each other. Pretty good arrangement, wouldn't you say?

Sidewalk Theology: Questions I Get Asked a Lot #4

 Q: Could you recommend some resources to help me study the Bible?

Most bizarre interpretations and weirdo Bible talk comes from sloppy reading habits, so getting beyond a comfort food reading of the Bible is a great thing. According to the New Testament, serious study of scripture invites an approval from God that superficial reading does not.

A Bible That Fits

The best answer to the 'which translation is best' question is, the one that you will actually use. The King James Version is a fine translation if you remember words can change meaning in four centuries and if you have no problem with Shakespeare or the metaphysical poetry of John Donne. The New American Standard is my preferred choice for serious study, but the New International and English Standard versions are also good. Pick one that has a decent margin so you can jot notes. I prefer a single column format because it better presents the poetic passages (and there are tons of them in the Hebrew scriptures/Old Testament - more than the Psalms). Avoid paraphrases like the Living Bible, the Passion Translation or the Message. They can be helpful, especially in a devotional sense, but aren't true translations and can limit careful study. Also, avoid doctrinally driven versions or annotated study Bibles. You can add those later and there are some that are worthwhile, but they have the added purpose of reinforcing a specific point of view.

Topical Bible

Everyone wants to start with commentaries. There are good ones, better ones and poor ones but beginning study there may narrowly inform your understanding rather than broaden it. As you wade into the any text - secular or sacred - you want an expansive vision of the landscape and settling too early on one scholar's conclusions could short circuit your own investigation. If you're paying for the dinner, you want to chew it yourself - for several good reasons.

Start with a good topical Bible. They aren't exhaustive, but do arrange a ton of passages by general topics - pride, death, miracles, prayer, money, etc. and in most cases the  entire passage is presented. At a glance you can take in most of the main verses dealing with a wide variety of Bible topics, allowing you to quickly compare scripture with scripture. You can then look at each passage in your Bible in its larger context, getting closer to the original meaning and any current application.

A good one is Nave's Topical Bible. Get a recent edition with an index.

Concordance

This tool contains most words in the English Bible - including, as Dr. Suess says, "little words like if and it." and lists where you can find them. It becomes a valuable go-to tool for doing word studies and comparing how the word was used in different settings by different biblical authors and how frequently.

Young's Concordance and Strong's Concordance are both very good. The numbering system in Strong's is used by other reference works you may want to get later, making it a little better investment.

YouVersion

This free app is a must have. Dozens of translations will be available for quick comparison. Owning them all would be a sizeable investment and take a up a lot of shelf space. Having them at your fingertips on phone or computer means you can access them faster than you could turn pages at your desk or workspace if they were physically open in front of you. 

Bible Dictionary

This is good for place names or unfamiliar characters and customs you'll run into in the text. Harper-Collins, Zondervan, Nelson and Holman all have good ones. Make sure it's a recent edition.

Okay, Okay! Commentaries

There are different kinds of commentaries: Textual, historical, homiletic, critical, devotional and some of them require a knowledge of ancient languages or technical jargon making them almost unusable to most of us. Some writers assume the Bible is inspired and some don't. Some are friendly to the text and some hostile. You can dump a load of money without much return on investment so, be guided by your own research and go slow in locating a tool that will actually help you and answer your particular questions. Over time you will find voices you can trust. Maybe in a later post or on our Thursday night Ask Me Anything live stream I'll recommend a few.

Lucky You

A lot of these resources are available online at sites like Crosswalk.com, BibleHub, Bible Gateway and others.

So . . .

That will get you started in the right direction. Get serious and you'll probably sacrifice some sleep because the quiet of late night is the best time to wander through the incomparable Hebrew scriptures and New Testament writings, connecting dots and making discoveries. You'll see why holding up this inexhaustible library for a closer look made the hearts of some early Jesus followers burn within them.