Posted on 03/27/2011 4:03:36 PM PDT by Baynative
Not so true.
Jewish law allows a Jewish man to have multiple wives.
Remember that the Jewish king Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines.
Polygamy is much, much more common in the Old Testament/Torah than Monogamy.
..and how did God feel about that?
They’re out there.
What you said.
I’m absolutely not an expert on the Bible, but it seems that biblical God tolerated polygamy to an extent.
Remember King Solomon’s sin was not having multiple wives, but having too many wives (and horses).
The doctrinal studies I’ve followed express 4 institutions established for humans by God, which include volition, marriage, family, and nation. Each of these institutions provide blessings for believer and unbeliever alike (sun shines on all, sort of thing), provided the legitimate authority is respected within those institutions.
One can argue that in God’s Plan, He provided and made logistical provisions for one man and one woman in each marital relationship.
We are not to have adulterous relationships. We aren’t to covet another man’s wife. A man is love his wife with an AGAPE love or sacrificial love, not merely a brotherly or erotic love.
My impression is that if Solomon had not violated a law, it was the case that he was riding the fence, making provisions for lust or other sin by legitimizing that sin in a formal marriage, without all the other devotion being provided to all his other wives.
For myself, there doesn’t seem to be enough time for a myriad of other responsibilities with one wife. I sort of pity the poor guy who foolishly thinks he can have multiple wives, not to mention the lack of devotion he would be affording them.
Monogamy was something to which the Israelites were gradually led. The history of the Jewish religion is one of the progressive revelation of God and His Law.
Islam was a syncretist religion that took much of the law and even the figures from the oldest part of the Old Testament into its own scriptures, at least in part because these reflected the earliest stage of the Jewish people, when they were still not fully differentiated from the pagan tribes around them (predecessors of the Arabs).
Mormonism is also a syncretistic religion, and like Islam, it also goes back to what it believes to be the “true” Old Testament.
And of course, what crazy old man, be he Mohammed or Brigham Young, doesn’t like the idea that he has some sort of divine right to an endless supply of nice, fresh young women? And how better to justify it than citing the Old Testament?
Another BUMP for a BRAVE and BEAUTIFUL individual.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.