OT Polygymy and NT Chastity

[SoldierOfSoul]

In the OT there is rampant polygamy, what really gets me though is that the polygamists were the ones closest to God: Abraham and David, etc. What I'm trying to understand is if it is sin to have sex with a woman before marriage (fornication) as well as adultery in marriage. How did the likes of David and Abraham get out of this law and marry numerous women (and have numerous other concubines, even worse). This has been troubling me lately. I have a problem with lust and I just want to see it as the sin that deep down I know it is. But when I read about these people of God (friends of God) in the bible and how they basically had another woman for every day of the month...How am I to reconcile this with "whoever lusts after a woman commits adultery"?

Can someone help me reconcile these things with the truth of the word of God, I do not doubt this can be done, I just haven't been able to do it.

 

[chingchang]

In the OT there is rampant polygamy, what really gets me though is that the polygamists were the ones closest to God: Abraham and David, etc. What I'm trying to understand is if it is sin to have sex with a woman before marriage (fornication) as well as adultery in marriage. How did the likes of David and Abraham get out of this law and marry numerous women (and have numerous other concubines, even worse). This has been troubling me lately. I have a problem with lust and I just want to see it as the sin that deep down I know it is. But when I read about these people of God (friends of God) in the bible and how they basically had another woman for every day of the month...How am I to reconcile this with "whoever lusts after a woman commits adultery"?

Can someone help me reconcile these things with the truth of the word of God, I do not doubt this can be done, I just haven't been able to do it.

I highly recommend the following book for a thorough study of Biblical sexual ethics:

Amazon.com: Divine Sex: Liberating Sex from Religious Tradition (9781553954002): Philo Thelos: Books

CC

 

[dewba]

A godly person (Like Job, who God saw as blameless) sinning is an example of God's perfection and man's imperfection. God cannot be tempted, nor does he tempt; man will get tempted and sometimes fall. The important thing is to realize dependance on God; He will forgive.

 

[dewba]

I just want to see it as the sin that deep down I know it is.

You know it is.

Keep resisting that temptation; kick it's butt until we're in heaven.

 

[tturt]

I've looked at the cases in Scripture regarding polygamy. Seemed to be man's idea not Yahweh's. But Jesus set the standard in Matt 5:28 Another poster said the standards in the Bible are there because we can do them. I quickly add - with Yahweh's help.

Seems it would be good for a male Christian to help you, encourage you, perhaps someone who has a testimony regarding this area.

 

[LWB]

It's interesting to note that both Abraham and David came to serious grief because of their polygamous ways.

Abraham lost faith in the promise of God and sought a child through Hagar. Through the offspring of this child, Israel was fated to suffer conflict. A conflict that perhaps is still active today.

David fell in lust with Bathsheba, and had Uriah taken out of the way so he could marry her. David was severely punished for his evil.

 

[chingchang]

It's interesting to note that both Abraham and David came to serious grief because of their polygamous ways.

No. David came to serious grief because of his sin...which was adultery with Bathsheba and ordering her husband to be killed. When God spoke to David through the Prophet Nathan...after the Bathsheba incident...he told David that he would have given David even more (wives/concubines) if what he had was not enough...implying that his women were a blessing/gift from God.

CC

 

[LWB]

No. David came to serious grief because of his sin...which was adultery with Bathsheba and ordering her husband to be killed. When God spoke to David through the Prophet Nathan...after the Bathsheba incident...he told David that he would have given David even more (wives/concubines) if what he had was not enough...implying that his women were a blessing/gift from God.

CC

Solomon would later discover that all the concubines in the world was nothing but vanity. That fear of the Lord was the greatest thing a person could aspire toward.

God may well have given David all the concubines he desired, but I doubt the implication was one of blessing.

 

[SharonL]

Even if you don't get the right answer - just take it to heart and look at the results....

Even through all these ages the results of Abraham's lying with his handmaiden is seen in people coming at us with swords, dressed in clothing and head gear that sets them apart - it all started with Abraham and his son Ishmael.

Just a side note - I have asked this question many, many times - as yet no answer.

 

[SoldierOfSoul]

Even if you don't get the right answer - just take it to heart and look at the results....

The bible does show that multiple wives/concubines usually results in tragedy...but the bible also seems to encourage the practice in the OT, I just don't see how to reconcile the OT standard to the NT. I have heard different apologetics on the issue, some say that men were allowed more than one wife so that the population could increase faster. Another one I've heard is that in a patriarch society women had no hope without the protection of a man and so it would be better for them to become one of many wives then remain single and starve. None of these apologetics address the moral problem of the practice and the seeming contradiction of sexual integrity/morality in the OT contrast to the NT. If God is the same always and His holiness doesn't change, why the contradiction concerning sexual morality?

 

[KrimsonDraegon]

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Peace be upon you,

Despite the opinion of some of the people here, the Almighty One, blessed be He, does permit polygamy in the Tanakh. However, He also demonstrates the paradigm of marriage in Genesis, with Adam and Eve. Further, as some posters have rightly pointed out, virtually every instance of polygamy is also met with some level of undesirable consequence. Take, for example, the competing wives Hannah and Peninah, or the rival half-siblings such as Jacob and King Jacob's sons. Further, the very verse that permits polygamy is heavily tainted as though polygamy is not the ideal.

15 If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love,

So, then, why does the Tanakh, particularly the Torah, permit polygamy? The Torah is a book that commands and directs inhabitants of Earth. It deals with life in the real world. Sure there is an ultimate, one ideal for all of mankind to follow; but, this is not realistic when you consider the obstacles presented in our world.

Take, for example, that a famine or plague wipes out most of the male population of a tribe or village. How are they to repopulate without the mechanism of polygamy? An excellent example is that of Rabbi Tarfon and his 300 wives. During his time there was a great famine. Being a Kohen, a Priest, he was continuously receiving the priestly tithes from the community. These Biblically mandated tithes were only for the Kohen and his family to eat - the priestly tithe is not to be shared with anyone else. Rabbi Tarfon married the women of the village so that they and their children might eat of the tithes. Without the green-light on polygamy an entire village faced the very real probability of annihilation. (Jerusalem Talmud, Yevamot 4:12)

On a side note, Rabbi Gershom ended the practice of polygamy with a Rabbinical commandment. (There are loopholes for extenuating circumstances) The majority of the Jewish world no longer practices polygamy under Rabbinical ordinance.

Now, let us consider Jesus' comments:

27Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
28But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Jesus is well known for using hyperbole in His teachings. Further, it is important to note that almost all Rabbis create "fences" around mitzvot (commandments) to cause their students/followers to feel as though they have actually broken the mitzvah (commandment) well before they've gotten anywhere close to committing an actual sin.

Particularly, this is a clear example of Jesus using hyperbole, as well as creating a fence, to warn His followers of the path to adultery. Simply lusting after a married woman is not enough to constitute adultery, but He wants you to feel like it is so you will stop well before you're anywhere near actually going home with her.

Furthermore, it is important to note that it is perfectly appropriate for you to lust after your own wife.

Most respectfully,
S.
​

 

[SoldierOfSoul]

Well I've been struggling with this apologetic for a few days now, when these doubts come into my mind I always make it a mission to research and try and find a solution to reconcile truth and scripture over my doubt. I am slowly coming to a conclusion on my search for a reasonable opinion and apologetic on the subject of polygamy in the OT. One particular website I found was John Macarthurs', here some things he said on the issue that helped me a lot:

Why did God allow polygamy in the Old Testament? Now, first of all, I want you to know that what God allows and what God wills are two different things. You understand that? You think God wills that any should perish? No. Does He allow some to go to hell? Yes. Do you think God wills that you sin? No. Does He give you the freedom to do that? Yes. God does not will polygamy. That's multiple marriage. Bigamy on to polygamy. Bigamy would be two...two married to one. Polygamy would be ad infinitum.

You say, "Well, how did polygamy get started?" It got started in the reprobate line of Cain the murderer. Look at Genesis 4 if you're there, in verse 23. One of the sons of Cain, the Cainitefamily, dwelled in the land of Nod in the east of Eden. Cain produced some family, and one of them was Lamech. Lamech was unbelievable. He was the first...artist. Verse 23, "Lamech said unto his wives, 'Adah and Zillah...that's from A to Z. That's his two wives, Adah and Zillah...He said unto his two wives, Adah and Zillah," and so forth. This is the first occasion of polygamy in the Bible, and it is in...notice that is in the line of Cain, the sinful line. Monogamous marriage was always God's will; but, listen, in the Old Testament, because of cultures, God allowed a certain developing process.

Missionaries today face the same thing. There are many occasions when a missionary has gone to a certain tribal people and found that they engaged in polygamy. Well, you don't just go in there and here is a situation where a man, and he's got three wives, and they have children, and in their culture, it's established as a family unit. The women are dependent upon him. They can't be thrown out. What are you gonna say? "Now that I'm here, everybody pick one. The rest out." Boy, that's tough. So even in modern missions, there has had to be a certain period of time in toleration until the culture can work out of its system those kinds of things; and the way to approach it is to begin with the new and the young and give them direction, and let the old phase itself out. In a similar way, once this thing got started in the cultures of the Old Testament period, God had to allow for it to work out as the...as the message of God's truth got into the hearts of those people; and God was patient...in that area. That doesn't mean that's God's will.

I'll tell you something else. In the early days of the Bible, remember, that families were huge, and they had their roots back, and...and there were such great big families, inclusive, consanguinal families. That word means they're related by blood. Families were so big that people were also marrying relatives, but they had to at the start. Did you know that Jacob married Leah and Rachel, and they were his first cousins? Do you know that? That's right, first cousins. You say, "That's not right." Later on in the Mosaic economy, it wasn't right. But it had to work its way out, because during the patriarchal periods, there were huge groups of families living together; and that had to come in time. So God patiently allowed for it to work out; but I believe all polygamy and bigamy was sin; but allowed a certain time of ignorance, as the Book of Acts says, for the working out of some of those cultural things.

Bible Questions and Answers, Part 2 (1/5/1975)

These paragraphs were enough to calm my doubts and satisfy my reason, but if you are as interested as I am about this subject here is a link to the whole sermon, God bless and thank you all for your input.

 

[Zebra1552]

If a story is in the Bible, are the events of that story automatically condoned?

 

[SoldierOfSoul]

If a story is in the Bible, are the events of that story automatically condoned?

The question is: If a story is in the bible does that mean God condoned it? The answer to that would be no.

Example: God did not condone David sleeping with Bathsheba and then killing her husband but God did allow it in scripture.

 

[Zebra1552]

The question is: If a story is in the bible does that mean God condoned it? The answer to that would be no.

Example: God did not condone David sleeping with Bathsheba and then killing her husband but God did allow it in scripture.

Then you have your answer.

 

[SoldierOfSoul]

Then you have your answer.

Yes, thank you.

 

[chingchang]

Solomon would later discover that all the concubines in the world was nothing but vanity. That fear of the Lord was the greatest thing a person could aspire toward.

God may well have given David all the concubines he desired, but I doubt the implication was one of blessing.

Point is that it obviously was not a sin...unless you believe God contributes to sinful behavior?

CC

 

[chingchang]

The question is: If a story is in the bible does that mean God condoned it? The answer to that would be no.

Example: God did not condone David sleeping with Bathsheba and then killing her husband but God did allow it in scripture.

Bad example because David immediately suffered as a result of that sinful behavior. God punishes the sin of Israel and it's Kings. So...if we find a specific behavior reoccurring in the OT with no prohibition of that behavior in the law...and no direct punishment from God for that behavior there is no logical reason to believe that behavior is sinful.

CC

 

[SoldierOfSoul]

Bad example because David immediately suffered as a result of that sinful behavior. God punishes the sin of Israel and it's Kings. So...if we find a specific behavior reoccurring in the OT with no prohibition of that behavior in the law...and no direct punishment from God for that behavior there is no logical reason to believe that behavior is sinful.

CC

Are you arguing with yourself or what?

 

[Armistead14]

It's really a false argument to say polygamy caused grief and less desired. We read of the many OT saints that were polygamous, but the fact is the entire jewish nation was polygamous. Sin was the problem, not polygamy, etc...God doesn't allow sin or just wink at it.

One can argue it was a cultural issue as women outnumbered men 4-1. As stated, polygamy insured the care of women and children. The taking of slave women was also common and we have biblical guidelines on the taking of women captured in bible. Actually, the bible states that men could have sex with slave women with no intent to marry as long as they followed certain laws.

One can argue as culture changed the need for polygamy doesn't hold the same benefit. I don't see Christ, nor any apostle calling polygamy sin, but we do see a different tone. However, with many nations falling economically some are debating allowing polygamy since govts can no longer afford many social programs.