alit53 said:
I am curious, Victor, if "God hates polygymy as being an instrinsically iniquitous practice," why does He describe Himself as being in a polygynous relationship?
I can not address vague assertions, please give specific citations. As for analogies, metaphors, & other rhetorical devises; they are precisely that. Rhetorical devises. They prove nothing beyond their use as figures of speech. Is Israel an anatomical part of God's eye merely b/c God says Israel is the apple of my eye? Are to mutilate ourselves b/c Jesus said we should rip out an offending eye? He obviously did not intend this statement to be understood literally. If it were, every Christian should have become blind long ago.
How 'bout this, I'd like to have someone cite me an example of God actually commanding someone to take a 2nd wife. Laws
ALLOWING for polygamist practice prove no more then lawas allowing for divorce prove anything. Jesus was clear that many laws were mere concessions to hard hearthedness. Statutory laws prove nothing re: fundamental principles of intrinsic justice. The Constitution of the United States allowed slavery to persists where its was sadly already well established. It commanded no state to establish slavery.
The Bible also says that sinful, idolatrous Judah was given into the hands of Babylon. Babylon was a tool of chastisment in God's hand. Does this make Babylon holy, & just in God's eyes?
The Bible nowhere states that slavery is intrinsically evil. It doesn't have to, the principle of love of neighbor covers this & all matters of intrinsic justice. There is no way that polygamy can be justified in light of the Golden Rule. Any discussion beyond this is just guilding the lily.
As the intrinsic injustice of slavery is illustrated by the Book of Exodus, so the intrinsic injustice of polygamy is illustrated by the Book of Genesis. We must remember, the Torah or the Pentateuch (that is the original 5 books of the Bible) were all written by Moses to illustrate a point. That point being, to explaing to Isreal why they find themselves in the predicament where they find themselves, & to show them how God will deliver them. Genesis is about the seperating the light from the dark, finally, this means seperating sin from righteousness. The ways of the nations, which lead to sin, are contrasted w/ the ways of God. The nation of Israel is being taught (however reluctantly originally) to reject evil & to choose righteousness.
Genesis seems like a random set of incidents, but it is not. It is a tightly woven tapestry, by a Master Weaver. Not one thread is placed w/ a sublime purpose. There are NO incidental details in this divine book. But, one needs a clear grasp of typological idiom beloved by Israel to grasps it structure. What would a Spaniard make of the American expression, when in doubt punt? One needs to understand football to understand this expression. So it is w/ the typological idiom of the Bible. If you don't know it is there, you'll pass right over it not notice.
When one grasps typology, on sees that Genesis is divided into 3 main sections. The distinctions & parallels of detail are shown by many typological figures. When one sees the different though parallel sections, one sees that polygamy plays a central role in this drama of sin verses righteousness. Polygamy is always associated w/ sin, polygamy IS sin. Polygamy is associated w/ sinful people outside the covenant, it leads people into sin who are part of the covenant. In Exodus & in Joshua, all the sinful nations which oppose Israel are associated w/ polygamy & other forms of unrighteous behavior.
I will develope this argument as the discussion progresses, if your moderators allow me to.
The tables of generations are central to seeing how this works. The 1st leg of 10 generations runs from Adam to Noah, the 2nd set of 10 generations runs from Noah to Abraham. There is a 3rd leg which is not directly shown in Genesis, it runs from Abraham to Moses. That takes us out of Genesis & it is simply assumed by Moses. This is paralleled in the NT The Gospel of Matthew. Mat. 1: 17 cites 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the Babylonian exile, & 14 from Babylon to Christ. 14 is the numerical value of David in Hebrew, this is WHY Matthew mentions the number of generations. It is something that would have impressed his Jewish audience but which is usually incomprehensible to us. The D letter in Hebrew, Dalet = 4. The V letter, Vav = 6. Thus, 4+4+6=14. Saying 14 & 14 & 14 is like saying, David, David, David. Triple repetition is the supreme superlative in Hebrew. Thus, Jesus is the ultimate son of David.
Now for how all this ties into sexual sin as symbolic device in Genesis. In the 1st leg of the cycles of generations. We have line of sin through Cain. Cain's linve becomes associated w/ murder. In Lamech in the 6th generation from Adam through Cain, we also have the line of murder then also linked to polygamy. This & other typological devices will also link this line to other sinfull lines later on. In the line beginning w/ Noah, the sinful line from Ham through Canaan (note the pun on Cain) is associated w/ incest. The phrase, "saw the nakedness of his father" in Gen. 9:22 is a euphemism. As it touches on a subject so distasteful to the Israelites, they couldn't use the actual term. Compare this passage to Lev. 18. This is a term for incest. Ham has raped his mother. Canaan is the product of an incestuous union. That is why the Canaanites practiced ritual incest in their temples. Archeologists have uncovered (so to speak) the evidence for this. This is the progress of sin that is being illustrated here. From the sin of Adam (the forbidden fruit) to Cain (murder) to Lamech (murder & polygamy), & them from Lamech to Ham & Canaan (incest). Adam was undone by the fruit of the knowledge of good & evil. Noah is undone by the fruit of the vine. This leads to both violence & sexual sin togther. That is why ritual incest was like Thanksgiving & The 4th of July to the nation of Canaan when Israel invades.
But things only get worse, if that is even possible. When we begin the 3rd generational leg from Abraham to Moses, we see the same things progressing (or degenerating). Abraham's nephew Lot experiences a catastrophy like Noah's After his family is delivered from the judgement on Sodom, he also is undone by the fruit (of the vine again). He also ungoes a trial by incest, bigamy (his two daughters) & violence. The magnitude & speed of the degeneration increases in each generation. Every generation after Abraham experiences some defecttion from the covenant through polygamy. Let's review: Lot (bygamy & incest), Esau (bigamy, also reference Malachi 1:2,3 "...says the Lord, 'Yet Jacob I have loved, but Edom I have hated'"). It is also ISHMAELITES who sell Joseph into slavery in Egypt. The Edomites are the descendents of Esau, Esau = Edom. Every example of a nation associated w/ some product of a bygamist or incestuous union becomes an enemy of Israel.
The Canaanites are from Canaan obviously. The Moabites (meaning from the father) are descended from Lot & his daughters. Edom is descended from Esau. By the way; King Herod, who tried to kill Christ, was an Edomite.
Moses is clearly harping on sexual sins as being central to Israel's troubles. Bigamy is clearly associated w/ incest. This is undoubtedly the case w/ Lot.
It is noteworthy that Joseph uniquely resists sexual sin. He is made even the ruler of Jacob. Jacob was tricked into bigamy, still sin has its consequences. The only truly chaste son of Abraham becomes the master of all. Also Moses must have also been monogamous. All the illustrious patriarchs have their wives listed by name. Only one wife of Moses is mentioned by name. The Cushite wife of Moses that Miriam & Aaron object to must have been Zipporah.
Abraham only took Hagar as a concubine, she was never counted as a wife. He only takes Keturah as wife after Sarah's death (Gen. 25:1). While she is called a wife, only after Sarah's death, her children are a concubine's inheritance. Abraham's estate in its whole goes to Isaac only. (Gen. 25:5) The children of Keturah were only given gifts, like the son of Hagar. Keturah must be counted amongst the concubines mentioned in Gen. 25:6. Thus it is illustrated that Abraham can only be shown to have had relations w/ 3 women. Hagar was NEVER a wife, Keturah only became a wife after Sarah's death.
Thus all of the supposed examples of polygamy in Pentateuch are disposed of. Your fallacious Biblical defense of polygamy is vapor wishful thinking.