Commentary on Ezra

Tertullian (155–240)

After the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian storming of it, every document of the Jewish literature is generally agreed to have been restored through Ezra. [On the Apparel of Women 1.3]

If these things are so, it is certain that believers contracting marriages with Gentiles are guilty of fornication, and are to be excluded from all communication with the brotherhood, in accordance with the letter of the apostle, who says that "with persons of that kind there is to be no taking of food even." [To His Wife 2.3 ANF v.4]

Assuredly also, when (the apostle) rules that marriage should be "only in the Lord," (1 Cor. 7:39) that no Christian should intermarry with a heathen, he maintains a law of the Creator, who everywhere prohibits marriage with strangers.

See also

• More works by Tertullian

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