What Does the Bible Say About Interracial Marriage?
The Bible's answer to this question is clear and liberating: Scripture never forbids interracial marriage. The boundary God draws around marriage is faith, not skin color.
What the Bible says
- Scripture
And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
Acts 17:26 Paul declares all nations of one blood: racial divisions have no basis in creation.
- Scripture
And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
Numbers 12:1 When Miriam opposed Moses's marriage to a Cushite (African) woman, God struck Miriam with leprosy (Numbers 12:10): Scripture records divine judgment on racial opposition to a marriage.
- Scripture
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
2 Corinthians 6:14 The marriage boundary the Bible does draw is faith: believers are not to marry unbelievers, whatever their ethnicity.
A grounded way to understand this
Old Testament commands against marrying foreigners (e.g., Deuteronomy 7:3) were about idolatry, not ethnicity: Ruth the Moabite married into Israel and stands in Christ's genealogy (Matthew 1:5). In Christ, "there is neither Jew nor Greek" (Galatians 3:28).
Ask your own Bible question
Get an instant Bible-grounded answer in plain language using Scripture (KJV).
What's shaping your heart underneath this?
Take a Scripture-grounded reflection on the patterns, fears, and strengths shaping moments like this one.
Related answers
People also ask
Is interracial marriage a sin?
No. The Bible never forbids it; God judged Miriam for opposing Moses's interracial marriage (Numbers 12). The biblical marriage boundary is shared faith (2 Corinthians 6:14), not race.
What about the Old Testament bans on marrying foreigners?
Those bans targeted idolatry, not ethnicity (Deuteronomy 7:3-4): foreign wives turned hearts to foreign gods. Ruth, a Moabite who trusted Israel's God, was welcomed and became an ancestor of Christ.
What does the Bible say about racism?
God made all nations "of one blood" (Acts 17:26), shows no partiality (Acts 10:34), and judges racial pride. The church is "one new man" of every tribe and tongue (Ephesians 2:15; Revelation 7:9).
Every answer is grounded in Scripture (KJV) and written to bring clarity, comfort, and truth.