Miscegenation

The biblical laws concerning intermarriage address a concern that is fundamentally religious rather than ethnic. Deuteronomy 7:3–4 explicitly forbids intermarriage with the seven Canaanite nations with a specific rationale: "for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods." The same concern drives Abraham's and Isaac's instructions to their sons not to marry Canaanite women (Genesis 24:3; Genesis 28:1) and grounds Ezra's and Nehemiah's reforms requiring the dissolution of marriages to foreign women who worshipped other gods (Ezra 9–10; Nehemiah 13:23–27). The principle is covenant purity, not racial purity.

This reading is confirmed by the positive treatment of non-Israelite women who embraced Israel's God: Rahab of Jericho and Ruth the Moabite are both integrated into the Israelite community and appear in Jesus' genealogy (Matthew 1:5) without condemnation. Moses married a Cushite woman (Numbers 12:1), and Miriam and Aaron's criticism of this marriage was rebuked by God with Miriam's leprosy — God evidently did not share their concern. Paul's instruction not to be "unequally yoked with unbelievers" (2 Corinthians 6:14) applies the same religious principle universally across ethnic lines, affirming that the concern is always about the compatibility of faith and covenant allegiance, not ethnic identity.