fairlight suggested:
Since "husband," "wife," and "marriage" are words not found in the Hebrew and Greek of the Bible, maybe we should get away from using those three words in any form, even as in "sister-wife" or "co-wife." (See Dr. Allen's articles about the origin of the three words.)
But what substitute words will so succinctly convey what we mean? When one uses the term "wife," most people think (and rightly so) of someone who has gone down to the courthouse with her fiance and obtained permission from the government to marry, then they stood before a government-authorized official and said some "shoobie-doos."
When I think of the lovely Navajo Princess who is my legal wife (we did the legal thing many years before I discovered the truth about Biblical Family Values) I think of her as my lifetime covenant partner in serving the Lord.
If a man has more than one such partner, maybe they could call each other "sister-partners." Or maybe "covenant-sisters."
But back to one of AnnaH's original questions:
Is it insane to consider a sw when there are already 6 children?
Isn't it a bit insane to have
any children? :lol:
Seriously, though, there
should be no problem in this. But the Church has taught false, non-Biblical expectations to the past zillion generations.
A little girl is taught that she will someday grow up and become the only wife of Prince Charming, who will then worship her as if she was a goddess. That false teaching came directly from the goddess-worshiping pagan religion of Greece, was adopted by the pagan Romans, was enshrined in Roman secular law, and sometime between AD 950-1100, Roman secular law about marriage was adopted by the Roman Catholic Church and declared to be "christian" with absolutely no Scriptural justification for doing so.
Since the RCC had near-absolute political power for a number of centuries, the false monogamy-only doctrine was made secular law by all countries under their political control. Since the US traces its roots back to those same countries, the various States, as well as the Federal Government, adopted monogamy-only laws. It is taught as the "norm" at every level of education - Head Start, preschool, K-12, College, Sunday School, most parents (at least, those who bother to teach their kids at home), etc.
So, as has been said already, it will be easier for the younger kids, but more difficult for the older, since they have been exposed to more years of false teaching than the younger kids.
And no, IMHO, it is not insane. It will be a challenge, though.