In these more enlightened times very few people ask if a white girl should marry a black guy, or if an Asian guy should marry a Mexican girl. Some are offended by the question. Yet the determination of right and wrong is not based upon the prevailing opinions of society. The determination of right and wrong must always be based on Biblical truth. Does the Bible teach that it is wrong to marry someone of another race?

If it were possible for a person to marry someone of a different race then, yes, that would be wrong. It is wrong to marry someone of another race because you would either be marrying an animal (which is illegal and immoral) or an alien (which don’t exist). It is impossible for a human being to marry another human being who is of a different race.

This answer is not some trite brush off of an important issue. Racial tensions are still a significant issue in America and around the world. A right understanding of the relationships of people groups is important. The answer to this and all other race related questions starts with this Biblical truth: All humans are of one race. The Bible makes a specific declaration of this fact in Acts 17:26. All men, from all nations of the world, are of one blood. All nationalities derive from the same source- God’s creation of Adam.

The so called racial differences are nothing more than superficial differences of coloring, build, language and culture. These differences are not ones of substance or essential being. This does not deny the challenges of various cultures interacting with one another. Understanding one another requires effort. However, other ethnicities must never be dehumanized by suggesting the other is different in essence. Differences in body and behavior do not mean there is difference of being.

Is it wrong to marry someone of a different culture or ethnicity? Many cultures still have taboos against marrying into a different culture. The Bible does not. Scriptures never prohibit people from marrying based upon ethnic, national or cultural differences.

The Old Testament prohibited the Israelites from marrying certain people groups. Deuteronomy 7 has a specific command forbidding an Israelite to marry anyone from seven Canaanite tribes. The reason for this prohibition had nothing to do with ethnicity or culture. The people of Canaan were notorious idolaters and under the judgment of God. The Israelites were not to marry these specific tribes lest they begin to practice the idolatry of the Canaanites. Other than those seven groups in Canaan the Israelites were permitted to marry people from from other nations.

God is not against marriage between different ethnicities, cultures or nationalities. All people are descended from the same two people, Adam and Eve. All people are descended from Noah’s family that was saved by God from the flood. The nations of the world can be traced back to the the grandsons and great-grandsons of Noah. A different race of humans does not exist. No Biblical truth or command forbids marriage to people of a different color, language or culture.