Toward the end of the Old Testament history, a controversy arose about how far God's grace and care extended. The real question was not put in those metaphysical terms, but took shape as the Jewish people thought about how far their love extended. Some held that in order to maintain the purity of worship and faith it was necessary to eliminate all foreign influences. Cited in support of this argument was the historic debacle of Solomon, whose foreign wives, with their back-home religions, caused endless trouble for Israel.

When the rag-tag group of returnees from Babylon defined the rules they were to live by, the leaders were quite certain that God's care could not extend beyond the blood line of the Hebrew people. "No intermarriage!" said Ezra, the priest. The race had to be kept pure. …