Polygamy in the Bible

[Aquila]

I’d like to address some of the points made in the posts above by Bro. Salaz to add some insight from this side of the discussion….

God has mercy on us knowing that the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. It is not because it is his desire for us to have multiple marriages, his mercy covers our iniquities. His grace showers us with blessings if we are by faith trying to do our personal best in spite of our many flaws. This does not however eliminate if we do wrong we will not pay the consequence for our wrongdoing on earth. Seed time and harvest time. Our eternal destiny is based on faith in doing what we know is to be the will of God. God deals with our sin based on his covenant with Adam of a coming savior/redeemer. If we keep his type and shadow of offering an animal sacrifice to take the place of our sin He then deals with the eternal consequence of sin. This does not eliminate the immediate consequence of sin and the pain, suffering it will bring to us when the harvest comes. What happened between Sarah and Hagar, and her seed and Hagar's?

He was tolerating sin and did not immediately condemn it. Before the law of Moses was established we see God had already established LAWS. We see in the action of the Patriarchs and know that God had given them laws regarding His will. This is called Oral Tradition which later began to be written down as the Mishnah and later included the rabbinic discussions with it known as the Talmud. Even some details of this are evident in the New Testament as we find further elaboration on what was written in the Tanakh or Hebrew Word of God that was not originally in there. The Midrash also included them which is a Hebrew Commentary on the scriptures.

God expressly stated through the prophet Nathan that He gave David the wives he received from the house of Saul. In addition God also stated that he would have been more than willing to give David even more of these same things if David so desired. Yet David still chose to commit Adultery with Bathsheba. What is interesting here, is that God not only expresses that he gave David multiple wives and that he would have even given David more…but God only rebukes David for his sin with Bathsheba. Lastly even the Law of God allows for more than one wife and illustrates inheritance rights for the wives and children.

Here’s the deal….if polygamy is sin God sinned in giving David the wives he received from the house of Saul. In addiction if God was only “tolerating sin” it was on his own account…because God himself never rebuked man for polygamy.

Also, you mention the Mishnah and the Talmud. I find that VERY interesting. Because my wife is from a Jewish family and I’ve sat and talked with two rabbis (Rabbi Press and Rabbi Kopmar) on more than one occasion. I firmly believe that this will make your argument far MORE complex. First, because these are not the, “Word of God”; second, because both the Mishnah and the Talmud both express strong rabbinical opinions in favor of polygamy explaining it’s ethics, especially in regards to in heritance rights. So you’re citing sources that agree with us! LOL

[Pastor DTSalaz]

Originally Posted by Aquila

I’d like to address some of the points made in the posts above by Bro. Salaz to add some insight from this side of the discussion….



God expressly stated through the prophet Nathan that He gave David the wives he received from the house of Saul. In addition God also stated that he would have been more than willing to give David even more of these same things if David so desired. Yet David still chose to commit Adultery with Bathsheba. What is interesting here, is that God not only expresses that he gave David multiple wives and that he would have even given David more…but God only rebukes David for his sin with Bathsheba. Lastly even the Law of God allows for more than one wife and illustrates inheritance rights for the wives and children.

Here’s the deal….if polygamy is sin God sinned in giving David the wives he received from the house of Saul. In addiction if God was only “tolerating sin” it was on his own account…because God himself never rebuked man for polygamy.

Also, you mention the Mishnah and the Talmud. I find that VERY interesting. Because my wife is from a Jewish family and I’ve sat and talked with two rabbis (Rabbi Press and Rabbi Kopmar) on more than one occasion. I firmly believe that this will make your argument far MORE complex. First, because these are not the, “Word of God”; second, because both the Mishnah and the Talmud both express strong rabbinical opinions in favor of polygamy explaining it’s ethics, especially in regards to in heritance rights. So you’re citing sources that agree with us! LOL

Where you are quoting from does not explicitly state that God gave David Sauls wives to be his own. No where do we find that David married them or took them into his palace. There are a small minority of scholars that believe that Davids sixth wife Eglah might have been a wife or concubine of Saul, however we find no proof of this. You are carrying this to an extreme to say that God would have Given him even more wives. Where is the proof in the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established. Are there any scholars that have held this view. If So Who.

Jamieson, Faussett, Brown Commentary
2Sa 12:8 I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives--The phraseology means nothing more than that God in His providence had given David, as king of Israel, everything that was Saul's. The history furnishes conclusive evidence that he never actually married any of the wives of Saul. But the harem of the preceding king belongs, according to Oriental notions, as a part of the regalia to his successor.

I also have a brother in law who is Jewish and have conversed with him and have gone to their synagogue for their children's celebrations. I have talked with their rabbis in the San Fernando valley near Reseda on several occasions. The Mishnah and Talmud are discussions like we are having here expressing various points of view. In many synagogues this is how they kept track of genealogies of the families through the centuries. My sister didn't convert to Judaism as he wanted her to, as she was raised Apostolic, but backslid and she would have had to deny Jesus was God.

I don't know who pointed out that the Pharisees were the more liberal and the Sadducee's more conservative. Being that the Sadducee didn't believe in the resurrection they were more liberal and lived for the here and now. They were the priestly line and more aristocratic. Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. The Sadducee believed in a more literal view of the Torah and the Pharisee's belief in the oral Torah by which they interpreted the Torah hermeneutically. For this reason the Sadducee held to a more strict adherence to the literal interpretation of the Torah The Pharisee was to find the intent of what the passage meant.

Thanks for the insight from your side

Pastor Salaz