Interracial marriages?

Ezra was against it, but the entire book of Ruth is for it.

It is generally considered to be a non-issue; there's nothing to say that it should be an issue, after all, except some old Hebrew "cleanliness" laws; it's only a problem in the way that polycotton is a problem.

MOses brother and sister were peeved becasue MOses married a Cu[wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth]e woman, so Miriam got leprosy as a curse from God. Or something like that. I think Cu[wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth]es were black.

I see no problem. I also see the censor filter is on the case LOL

since salvation is now extended to the gentiles too, and that we're all Christians in Christ, it doesn't matter if we married outside our races.
As seebs has used the example of Ruth, the main point is, we should marry Christians to avoid a life standing between God and a non Christian partner.
Afterall, we can't serve two masters.

Originally posted by mambutuu
MOses brother and sister were peeved becasue MOses married a Cu[wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth]e woman, so Miriam got leprosy as a curse from God. Or something like that. I think Cu[wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth]es were black.

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LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!! And someone said I have no sense of humor! lolololol!

I did not know this computer would sensor the MIDDLE of a word. LOLOLOL

I recall a censor once that replaced letters with asterisks - We used to use the famous four letter "f" word to make pretty borders for our posts. (It was in the early days of the net, when you could access it with a Commodore 64 running at the blinding speed of 1200 baud). One time the editor missed starring out one word in the border. Caused a bit of consternation at the time.

 

A prominent politician at the time was Andrew Peacock. The last four letters of his name used to get the chop too. (we thought it kind of appropriate.)

Oh yes....the topic.

Umm, the only problems most devout religious types have with mixed marriages comes when the mix is on the matter of religion. (Can you imagine the fireworks that would result from a marriage between a devout Christian and a devout Pagan?)

LOL! What were you trying to type?

And it says "Wash my mouth"! ROTL

In Christ there is no Jew nor Greek, nor free man nor slave, etc. What about me? I´m a big mutt. Chinese and white. Hmmm.... as long as I´m not unequally yoked.

In the Pentateuch, the Levites I believe, were commanded to.

Is all that debating athiest do is sift through the bible for single verses that they can take out of context and make believers giggle at how they are trying to debate that the square peg is supposed to fit in the round hole? What fun!

Pea+"Before the rooster crows, you will thrice deny me." (the word that would normally be used for rooster in that passage.

In the OT times, at least, the Jews saw themselves as the sole legitimate worshippers of God. One of the ways in which you identified yourself as a jew was through the geneologies, which is why the OT is filled with the things. It is also why Ezra broke up marriages between jews and others, and accounts for the animosity of the Jews and the Samaritians - the Samaritians were not jews, yet dared to worship the jewish God, which was blasphemy of the highest order. About a century prior to the time of Jesus, a then independant Israel conquored several neighboring fiefs and forcibly converted their populations to Judaism, but these forced converts were seen as `second class jews' at best. It really galled the `true jews' to have Herod - one such `false jew' - put in authority over them. This mentality carried over into the early stages of christianity; the members of the `jewish church', saw themselves not as christians, but as jews, and the gentile recruits as another species of `second class jews'.

the Samaritians were not jews, yet dared to worship the jewish God, which was blasphemy of the highest order.

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Check your sources Thinker - what you have cited there appears to be a somewhat slanted statement of the facts. (and I will check mine.)

Yes, there were some early converts to the Christ from among the Jews who saw gentile converts as "second class Jews" - the Bible records their existence and condemns their attitudes. Theirs was not a majority view among the Christian/Jewish believers.

As to Samaritans - from memory they were Jews, violating the law by building their own temple and ignoring that at Jerusalem.

Yes, to be a Jew, one had of necessity to be born of a Jewish mother. Gentile converts were not regarded as being Jewish, for all that they worshipped the same god as the Jews. Very complex piece of work, that one.

Hi all!

Lemme clarify a few things...

Ezra (I studied Ezra & Nehemiah last year) was merely enforcing the Torah's clear & unequivocal ban on Jews marrying non-Jews (Deuteronomy 7:3, which our Sages interpret as applying to marriages with all non-Jews, not just the 7 Canaanite nations).

A non-Jew who converts to Judaism (one of our neighbors is a Canadian of Japanese descent who was born Catholic & converted to Judaism) according to (orthodox) Jewish law is a Jew in all respects (a priest cannot marry a woman convert) & may NOT be discriminated against in any way. The Book of Ruth (written by the prophet Samuel, according to our tradition) makes this crystal clear. Ruth converted to Judaism, married Boaz & became the great-grandmother of King David & the ancestress of the Messiah (may he come soon!). The Torah commands us no less than 17 times to love the convert (the Hebrew word "ger" which is usually mistranslated as "stranger" actually means "convert"). Any Jew, in Jesus' time or today, who scorns a convert, looks upon him/her as "second class" is committing a terrible sin. As we (Jews) say, the first Jews, Abraham & Sarah, weren't born that way & were, in effect, converts.

Thinker is referring to John/Johanan Hyrcanus (reigned as ruling Hasmonean prince from 135-104 BCE)'s forcible conversion of the Idumeans/Edomites, who were then living in the Negev. His action was/is without precedent in Jewish history; it is the only known instance of en-masse forcible conversion to Judaism in our history. The rabbinical leadership of the time strongly condemned his action (the Sages of the Talmud condemn it in no uncertain terms), which was the beginning of the falling out between the Hasmonean dynasty & the Sages. One of Hyrcanus' forcible convertees was the father of a certain Antipater, who was none other than Herod's father. Herod (who married Mariamne, the last Hasmonean princess) is remembered very poorly in Jewish tradition, as a murderous tyrant.

The terms "Samarian" and "Samaritan" should not be confused. Samaria is a geographical region, the northern half of the "West Bank" (It was King Abdallah I, present-day Jordanian King Abdallah II's great-grandfather who coined the term "West Bank"). In Tanakh times, the city of Samaria (built by Omri, see I Kings 16:24) was the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (which was also referred to as "Samaria" after the city & the larger region, which was its chief district).

The present-day Samaritan community (about 650-700 strong) lives in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon and the West Bank town of Nablus. They very much dispute II Kings 17:24-41's account of their origins & claim that II Kings 17 does not refer to them at all. They accept only the 5 Books of Moses, their version of which differs from that revered by Jews & Christians, and reject the rest of the Tanakh. They revere Mt. Gerizim in Nablus instead of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem & claim that the Binding of Isaac took place there, that Jacob had his dream there, etc. They consider Jews to be errant cousins & we pretty much consider them the same. A Samaritan who wishes to adopt Judaism must undergo a full conversion; marriage with Samaritans is not permitted (unless the Samaritan partner converts). (John Hyrcanus also destroyed the then-existing Samaritan temple on Mt. Gerizim.)

Be well!

ssv

For God ( and now science) there are no human races.