Wednesday Bible Study: Miscegenation

Formatting problem with the previous post is fixerated, I hope. So, Ezra discovers that the Jews have been intermarrying with other people of the area and he completely loses his marbles. He pulls out his hair and beard, and can ' t even manage to stand up for hours. Then he finally pulls it together, berates the people, and convinces them to expel their gentile wives and children, which they do without, apparently, a murmur of protest. Indeed the Torah, and notably Deuteronomy, which was actually written late in the First Temple period, does forbid intermarriage. But there is some tension about this in the Tanakh. The Book of Ruth was written somewhat later than this but is set in the mythical time of the Book of Judges, so it ' s presumably based on an ancient tale. It ' s all about a Moabite woman marrying a prominent Israeli man, and nobody has the slightest problem with it, in fact it ' s presented as a required leverite marriage. To be sure, Ruth had avowed loyalty to Yahweh, but there was no formal conversion process. In Joshua, the Canaanite brothel keeper Rahab and her family become incorporated into the Israelite people. There is no specific mention that she ended up marrying an Israelite, and indeed she probably couldn ' t because of her former profession, but presumably her children did. Scholars believe this tale is there because in fact, some Canaanite people became incorporated into the Israelites. Indeed, given human nature, it would be surprising if...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs