The Bible talks about polygamy however that doesn't suggest God counseled it, pointed out Peter Gentry, a professor of ancient testament interpretation who stressed the value of understanding ancient narratives in Scripture.
In a video posted on The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's YouTube channel on Monday, Gentry mentioned readers need to distinguish between what God commands versus how He handled His individuals and how His individuals, who were no longer trustworthy, treated Him.
"God is the one which designs marriage. God is the one who invents marriage. Marriage is not whatever thing invented via people. God is the one who gives the primary girl to the primary man. God is the one who presides over that marriage ceremony," he defined.
for this reason, in Genesis 2:24 when Moses writes of a man leaving his mother and father and clinging to his wife, and both shall become one flesh, it's God's fashioned standard, he stated. a good deal of the historic testomony, however, is the documented background of God's covenantal relationship along with his people.
"A covenant is like a marriage, the place two parties make a dedication to be committed to each other, to be loyal, to be faithful," he said, noting the historic testament includes a sequence of these covenants.
Such covenants are the place God makes new begins with people like Noah, with Abraham and his family, and with Israel. but historical past suggests that the human companions within the covenants are the untrue, disloyal, and rebellious ones, a history where a constant violation of the fashioned ordinary befell, he said.
An instance of this is how Abraham did not believe God or watch for His promise of a son, and then has a relationship with Hagar, yielding Ishmael. a different is Jacob's relationship with two better halves, which turned into no longer a stupendous association as the Bible indicates how it led to all types of difficulty, he observed. The book of Judges additionally recounts how the judges had distinctive better halves as a result of they were aspiring to be king.
"Most americans in the ancient near East had only one wife. simplest kings might manage to pay for to have many better halves," Gentry brought.
"when you read the Bible, the Bible isn't advertising polygamy. it be showing us that most effective royal figures had many wives. or not it's additionally showing us that this is now not surest, that this caused every kind of difficulty and worry and challenge and the fighting among the better halves. And it be no longer a enough relationship."
one other example of how God didn't recommend the observe of many other halves is when King David become confronted by the prophet Nathan in 2 Samuel 12. Nathan told the king a parable about a man who had many sheep and a poor man who had only one sheep. the man with many sheep stole and slaughtered the sheep of the bad man for himself when he had to reveal hospitality to a guest.
The prophet's message of rebuke to David became, almost, "you have got many wives and nonetheless you might be now not convinced, and you have got to go an steal the one lady that this one adult has," Gentry talked about, underscoring the routine theme that polygamy yields turmoil.
additional nevertheless, he continued, "Solomon was a tragic determine as a result of he did not practice what he preached."
despite the fact Solomon produced volumes of wisdom in his writings, it changed into no longer displayed in how he lived, he stated.
"He dismissed his personal wise principles, he multiplied other halves, which is expressly forbidden for kings in Deuteronomy 17," he noted.
"as a result of who's the king going to marry? he'll marry a princess from an extra nation and it goes to create a political alliance and that they're going to believe in that alliance and they're not going to trust within the Lord."
The biblical historical past indicates that these men could have had religion in God, but that doesn't mean they were men of morality or that each one their moves were moral, he stated.
"in case you appear at the New testomony and also you look at what Jesus says in the New testomony and examine what the apostles say, they not ever dangle up any individual from the old testomony as an ethical instance. They cling them up as examples of faith, however now not as examples of morality," Gentry emphasized.
"there's a very clear change between what God commands and instructs us to do in marriage and the way His individuals in reality behaved in the background it is recorded for us. just as a result of these things took place in the ancient testomony, we have to listen to what the narrator is asserting. The narrator isn't saying this is decent issue. he's showing that here is a nasty thing ... since it is forsaking the advent typical."
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