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Originally Posted by milanya
Have you ever sat down and read the OT, I mean really READ? Those men who had more than one wife, trouble came with it. The two women bickered, competed and some even lead the men off course with God. That is why the priests in the OT were only to have 1 wife.
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Milanya,
the Bible mentions in specifics very few men. And of those few men who are mentioned, even fewer are mentioned for having their multiple wives bicker and compete. That leaves millions of other men who were happily polygamous. I think you're using an exception here to try and justify a rule.
Also you are trying to judge an ancient mind-set with the present one. Right now there is no way you can be polygamous, not because it's wrong, but because you were brought up in a society and culture that is all about one man and one woman. If you lived 4,000 years ago, where polygamy was the norm, you would have absolutely no issue with being in a polygamous relationship. In fact you might be making fun of those friend whose husbands are too poor to have more than one wife. And if your husband was that poor guy who only had you as his one wife, you'd encourage him to get rich and marry more wives so you stop being the laughing stock of the village.
Quote:
Originally Posted by milanya
God never condemns polygamy in the old testament but he doesn't encourage it either. Marriage was instituted in the OT, "for this reason a man shall leave his mother and father and be joined to his WIFE" not "wives." In the OT polygamy is a tradition of the time period and culture but not an institution by GOd.
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In the OT, god had tons and tons of laws for all things from how you dress to what you can eat to how you can farm your land. It therefore makes sense to assume that if he had beef with polygamy, he would have specifically made a law against it. If polygamy was a major sin with him, like homosexuality, he would not have described as "good" all his great men who were polygamous (David, Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, etc, to name a few). I am absolutely certain that god was pro-polygamy.