I understand the biblical model for marriage is one man and one women for life. I recently had a curious nonbeliever ask me why God tolerated men having multiple wives in the Bible. What would your response be?
If you don't count Solomon, there isWhich men did God "tolerate" having multiple wives in the Bible? Those are not the stories I remember, so, I genuinely don't know.
I understand the biblical model for marriage is one man and one women for life. I recently had a curious nonbeliever ask me why God tolerated men having multiple wives in the Bible. What would your response be?
It was the culture at the time. And more than likely most men probably still only had a single wife. To have more than one wife, even in the ancient world, was generally tied to wealth.
There are a lot of things that we don't find explicitly condemned about the ancient culture in which much of the Bible was written. Perhaps the most glaringly obvious example of this is the lack of any explicit condemnation of slavery as an institution. Instead slavery is treated as normal (because in those times it was), and thus we instead tend to see commands about treating slaves justly, or as we do in the New Testament about erasing the boundaries between slave and free through how we relate to one another as members in the Body of Christ.
The question as to why don't we have clear condemnation of things like slavery or polygamy in the Bible is, on some level, going to be unanswerable. I would argue that one of the things we see in the unfolding narrative of the Bible is that God doesn't give everything all at once, but seems to give a little at a time. For example, in the Torah God restrains violence by restricting it to a court of justice in which there can be an "eye for an eye". Now, "eye for an eye" does not mean someone can just go and harm someone who harmed them, but that this is settled in an orderly court of law. So already violence is curbed by restraining it and restricting it to a court of law which cannot go beyond a maximum--no more than an eye for an eye. But then later, we have Jesus who says, "You have heard it was said long ago, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." (Matthew 5:38-39).
Jesus' command is that we don't even seek the compensation of injury, we do not seek an eye for an eye, injury for injury. But that instead we imitate Him in His sufferings, loving our enemy and being compassionate even toward those who despise and hurt us.
So it would seem that, at least in part, God worked from within the ancient culture, but we see Him guiding the course of history, the unfolding of the historical drama of salvation, leading us to Jesus and His Way.
Polygamy, we might say, was something that was normal for the time and culture; but that we should aim for a better kind of relationship, one rooted in equality and partnership--of husband and wife coming together, with mutual respect and partnership. That is the better way.
Curbing slavery (such as the release of all slaves every Jubilee Year) mitigated the evils of slavery, but the ideal, what we should strive for, is the abolition of slavery entirely.
So there are the cultural artifacts of the Bible, but then the ideals we should strive for, which the Scriptures themselves show us by pointing us to Christ.
-CryptoLutheran
It was the culture at the time. And more than likely most men probably still only had a single wife. To have more than one wife, even in the ancient world, was generally tied to wealth.
There are a lot of things that we don't find explicitly condemned about the ancient culture in which much of the Bible was written. Perhaps the most glaringly obvious example of this is the lack of any explicit condemnation of slavery as an institution. Instead slavery is treated as normal (because in those times it was), and thus we instead tend to see commands about treating slaves justly, or as we do in the New Testament about erasing the boundaries between slave and free through how we relate to one another as members in the Body of Christ.
The question as to why don't we have clear condemnation of things like slavery or polygamy in the Bible is, on some level, going to be unanswerable. I would argue that one of the things we see in the unfolding narrative of the Bible is that God doesn't give everything all at once, but seems to give a little at a time. For example, in the Torah God restrains violence by restricting it to a court of justice in which there can be an "eye for an eye". Now, "eye for an eye" does not mean someone can just go and harm someone who harmed them, but that this is settled in an orderly court of law. So already violence is curbed by restraining it and restricting it to a court of law which cannot go beyond a maximum--no more than an eye for an eye. But then later, we have Jesus who says, "You have heard it was said long ago, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." (Matthew 5:38-39).
Jesus' command is that we don't even seek the compensation of injury, we do not seek an eye for an eye, injury for injury. But that instead we imitate Him in His sufferings, loving our enemy and being compassionate even toward those who despise and hurt us.
So it would seem that, at least in part, God worked from within the ancient culture, but we see Him guiding the course of history, the unfolding of the historical drama of salvation, leading us to Jesus and His Way.
Polygamy, we might say, was something that was normal for the time and culture; but that we should aim for a better kind of relationship, one rooted in equality and partnership--of husband and wife coming together, with mutual respect and partnership. That is the better way.
Curbing slavery (such as the release of all slaves every Jubilee Year) mitigated the evils of slavery, but the ideal, what we should strive for, is the abolition of slavery entirely.
So there are the cultural artifacts of the Bible, but then the ideals we should strive for, which the Scriptures themselves show us by pointing us to Christ.
-CryptoLutheran
From Sabertooth below...stories
If God killed people whenever they sinned, there would be no one left.I understand the biblical model for marriage is one man and one women for life. I recently had a curious nonbeliever ask me why God tolerated men having multiple wives in the Bible. What would your response be?
There is not one single verse suggesting that polygamy is a sin. And, no, Paul saying qualifying elders should have only one wife does not indicate that having more was a sin.God gave to Adam one wife, her name was Eve. That was God's original design for marriage. The characters in the Bible who had multiple wife were guilty of sin. We are all guilty of sinning against God. Thankfully he is slow to anger and forgiving.
God gave him multiple wives ... and would have given him more.I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.
For the Jews, there were times when a man was obligated to marry his sister-in-law (if his brother died before giving her children). It didn't matter if he already had a wife of his own. Even if you call other instances of polygyny sin, that one was required by God (for the Jews).The characters in the Bible who had multiple wife were guilty of sin.
There is not one single verse suggesting that polygamy is a sin. And, no, Paul saying qualifying elders should have only one wife does not indicate that having more was a sin.
2 Samuel 12:8 God gave him multiple wives ... and would have given him more.
For the Jews, there were times when a man was obligated to marry his sister-in-law (if his brother died before giving her children). It didn't matter if he already had a wife of his own. Even if you call other instances of polygyny sin, that one was required by God (for the Jews).
Because God is not against the practice.why God tolerated men having multiple wives in the Bible.
Jacob would be like, "Oy vey! Now you tell me..."Leviticus 18:18 is a bit redundant if a man was not premitted multiple wives.
I get the sense that "the one wife paradigm" resulted from people reading the spiritual adultery texts in the prophecies.I understand the biblical model for marriage is one man and one women for life. I recently had a curious nonbeliever ask me why God tolerated men having multiple wives in the Bible. What would your response be?
I understand the biblical model for marriage is one man and one women for life. I recently had a curious nonbeliever ask me why God tolerated men having multiple wives in the Bible. What would your response be?
There is a reason for it just as there is reasonI understand the biblical model for marriage is one man and one women for life. I recently had a curious nonbeliever ask me why God tolerated men having multiple wives in the Bible. What would your response be?