Scripture and Race

The Bible never directly addresses the subject of race. There really isn't a Biblical example of a multi-racial society. The darkest-skinned people in the Bible would have been Ethiopians. The lightest-skinned would have likely been Italians. And both were fairly rare. From what I understand, most people in the Bible would have looked like modern Palestinians.

The Old Testament is quite comfortable with clans, and favoritism based on family. The New Testament deals less with a clan system, but strongly reinforces the family-first mentality.

1 Timothy 5:8 (ESV) But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

If we assume that a "race" is a collection of related clans, then it is difficult to reconcile Christianity and the doctrine of universal human equality. It can't be sinful to prioritize people more closely related to you, if we are commanded to prioritize people more closely related to us.

Of course, "race" is a very ambiguous concept. And people define it differently.