Posted on 02/02/2020 2:51:32 PM PST by SeekAndFind
For your interest.
Allowing ≠ supporting.
Correct. Polygamous behavior was in defiance of God’s command, not in accordance with it. Reading the Bible as a whole makes it clear God allowed none of the behavior in question.
Polygamy is punishment via multiple wives. (Ducking for cover).
Yws. It is its own punishment.
It’s fun!
For all of today’s outrage over polygamy the fact is that it is still widely practiced. Men any more are serial polygamists marrying or living with one woman after another and then abandoning them for another. The few men who commit to multiple women are for some reason considered deviant.
The article posted is not scriptural.
God does not “permit” sin because of human rebelliousness.
No, MOSES allowance of divorce does not demonstrate that GOD makes allowances for sin.
The author needs to study more scripture and less humanism.
Make your life much, much simpler.
Don’t get married.
God never wanted that and it was a failure of Man, just like divorce.
These things did not exist in the beginning.
Why does God allow polygamy in the Old Testament?
Because all men are born of a woman married or not.
"These cultural realities give some insight as to why God didn’t explicitly condemn polygamy."
What about Deuteronomy 17:17?
"He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray."
Sure enough: God had Solomon pegged for what he would do later:
"He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray." (1 Kings 11:3)
I thought in the beginning it was to populate the earth? Adam and Eve had children. Who did their children marry/mate with to conceive children?
I have read different theories. The original family mated with one another to bear children.
The other, when they were kicked out of Eden they went out and conceived with people that God had also made.
Theories? Anyone?
I’ve heard, in context with the first theory you mentioned, that since Adam and Eve (Chavvah) were created genetically perfect, their siblings producing offspring would not incur the kind of chromosomal damage that incest causes today at least for a number of generations.
Science these days traces humanity back to a “mitochondrial Eve” and a “Y-chromosomal Adam”; in other words, just two ancestors for all of mankind.
Chavvah for Eve, is the Jewish name for her? Never heard her called that. Thanks for sharing your theory. Just was doing more reading. Jewish accounts say Adam and Eve had 33 sons and 23 daughters of which came the population of the earth.
BTW, the first bigamist in the Bible is named Lamech, a descendant of Cain (Gen. 4:19) who married two wives, Adah and Zillah. Lamech was also known for being an unrepentant murderer (vv. 23-24).
Interesting. Thank you. Will read up on Lamech.
1. Adam]s children did originally marry kin, as the effects of the Fall were progressive, and did not reach the point where marrying near kin would often have negative effects.
2. Since the average lifespan was hundreds of years, a man could marry a sister that was a 70 years younger or more, which would be less difference than a 50 year-old man marrying someone 25. Meaning that may be like mere acquaintances.
3. The potential problems with the above would be reduced with polygamy.
4. Children. In a mainly agrarian culture children were your laborers. The more the better.
5. Children were your social security. The more the better.
In contrast to early history, the trajectory of Scripture is toward one wife and even celibacy.
Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency. (1 Corinthians 7:2-5)
The above clearly is in the context of one wife.
But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment. For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. (1 Corinthians 7:6-7)
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; (1 Timothy 3:2)
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