reblogged from today’s Independent
Social conservatives who object to marriage licenses for gay couples claim to defend “Christian marriage,” meaning one man paired with one woman for life, which they say is prescribed by God in the Bible.
Brother’s widow. If a brother dies with no children, it becomes a man’s duty to impregnate the brother’s widow. Onan is struck dead by God because he prefers to spill his seed on the ground rather than providing offspring for his brother (Genesis 38:8-10). A New Testament story (Matthew 22:24-28) shows that the tradition has survived.
Wife’s handmaid. After seven childless decades, Abraham’s frustrated wife Sarah says, “Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Her slave, Hagar, becomes pregnant. Two generations later, the sister-wives of Jacob repeatedly send their slaves to him, each trying to produce more sons than the other (Genesis 30:1-22).
Other slaves. A man should not have sex with a slave if she is betrothed to another man – but if they do, she is to be scourged (beaten) and he must sacrifice a sheep (Leviticus 19:20-22, KJV).
Rape victim. A Hebrew girl who is raped can be sold to her rapist for 50 shekels, or about $580 (Deuteronomy 22:28-29). He must then keep her “because she has been “humbled”.
Note: Female consent is simply irrelevant in the Bible, from the time that Eve gets made from Adam’s rib onward (Genesis 2: 18-22).
New Testament endorses Old Testament
Lest someone claim that the Old Testament doesn’t apply to modern Bible believers, please note that none of these norms or rules—is reversed or condemned by Jesus. Quite the contrary:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke or a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17-18)
read the rest of the article here
Categories: Bible, Christianity
Blogging Theology 
I’m not necessarily talking about this, don’t get me wrong but I was wondering since we believe that some of the Torah is true are we allowed to insult it in any way?
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insult?
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I think a more unbiased interpretation is called for which this woman is obviously not capable of.
For example I do not believe that Jesus sanctioned polygamy, I believe he did the opposite.
Nor is sexual slavery condoned in the bible.
She says: “Note: Female consent is simply irrelevant in the Bible, from the time that Eve gets made from Adam’s rib onward (Genesis 2: 18-22).”
This is nonsense. Obviously she has made her mind up and she is going to make the bible agree with her prejudices.
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madman nowhere does the Bible condemn polygamy. It is a thoroughly biblical practice.
Sexual slavery is implicitly supported in the Bible in many places. Here is just one example from the NT:
‘You who are slaves must accept the authority of your masters with all respect. Do what they tell you–not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel.’ 1 Peter 2:18.
In the Roman world slaves were used for sexual gratification by their owners (amongst other things). Here the NT tells women to utterly respect and obey willingly the slave owner who wants to have sex with her – against her will, even if he rapes her cruelly.
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Madmanna, I’d very much like you to look at Mark Henkel’s presentation on polygamy in the Bible. He is a strong advocate for polygamy and he believes polygamy is Biblical
Madmanna, to touch on what Paul is arguing concerning rape of slaves…is there anything in the Bible that forbids raping slave women – we’ve time and time again shown Islam to forbid raping of slave women – I’m curious if the NT has a similar teaching prohibiting it.
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‘we’ve time and time again shown Islam to forbid raping of slave women’
could you kindly show me the evidence?
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The Prophet ordered for slaves to not be forced into having sexual intercourse:”Musaykah, a slave-girl of some Ansari, came and said: My master forces me to commit fornication. Thereupon the following verse was revealed: “But force not your maids to prostitution (when they desire chastity). (24:33)” (Translation of Sunan Abu Dawud, Divorce (Kitab Al-Talaq), Book 12, Number 2304)” http://www.call-to-monotheism.com/does_islam_permit_muslim_men_to_rape_their_slave_girls_
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@Paul
This post carries a fair few proof texts showing rape of slaves is not Islamic:
http://thefactsaboutislam.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/ae-muslims-allowed-to-rape-slave-women.html
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Thanks
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Paul,
you said : “madman nowhere does the Bible condemn polygamy. It is a thoroughly biblical practice.”
I think Jesus condemns the practice implicitly through his teachings. For some reason God tolerated polygamy in the OT, perhaps in a similar way that he tolerated divorce.
That changed after Jesus came to shed more light on the subject.
You said: ” Here the NT tells women to utterly respect and obey willingly the slave owner who wants to have sex with her – against her will, even if he rapes her cruelly.”
I don’t think that is the case because the slave owner must obey God’s law which clearly forbids him to do such a thing. Paul assumes this. There is no need for him to re-state this because it is in the law of Moses. Otherwise Paul would be sanctioning a practice that is forbidden in the law and he would never have done that.
Apart from Lot all the examples given in the article are based on consensual relations. There is no proof that anyone is forced to have sex against their will.
Most of these examples are not classified as marriage so why they are said to be so is beyond me.
“The Prophet ordered for slaves to not be forced into having sexual intercourse:”Musaykah, a slave-girl of some Ansari, came and said: My master forces me to commit fornication. Thereupon the following verse was revealed: “But force not your maids to prostitution (when they desire chastity). (24:33)”
How does this prove that a slave owner cannot rape his slave? It just says that he cannot force her to sell her body to other men for sex.
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“Madmanna, I’d very much like you to look at Mark Henkel’s presentation on polygamy in the Bible. He is a strong advocate for polygamy and he believes polygamy is Biblical”
thank you Yahya,
I watched it and he did put up a good case. His weak point is the teaching of Jesus about visual adultery. He will always trip up on this and this is why he left it out of his presentation. He didn’t refer to the teaching of Jesus on visual adultery in the sermon on the mount. If he ignores this he can make a case, if he doesn’t he has no case. In my humble view.
If the polygamist who is already married adds another wife to his entourage he must go through the intermediate stage of visual adultery before he finally ties the knot as it were. What has it’s beginning in sin must remain sin. It can’t be reversed by a piece of paper or a marriage ceremony.
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Matthew 22 has nothing to do with polygamy. The woman’s previous husband was dead before she married the next one.
Another important thing to realise is that some of the laws were for the people at a particular time and could be revised over time. Likewise in the Quran the early Muslims were permitted or allowed to do certain things which later on became abrogated or revised, alcohol for example.
Also Jesus mentions an important thing in Mark 10:
5 “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. 6 “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’[a] 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] 8 and the two will become one flesh.’[c] So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Polygamy was never sanctioned by God, it was a human invention. God let certain things happen because human beings have free will and that comes with choices.
Proverbs 5:15 says “be faithful to your own wife and give your love to her alone”. There is no plural in the word “wife”. God may have not spoken against polygamy in the early biblical times because the human race was far less populated and also could have been used to serve as an example to the rest of humanity what happens in polygamous relationships; none of the polygamous relationships in the bible have happy outcomes, Abraham’s one leads to rivalries between the wives and children, likewise with Jacob and his wives Leah and Rachel, David and his wives and the list goes on.
In terms of everything else it is clear that some people do not wish to properly understand the bible and the context of particular passages yet wish for others to understand the context of their own scriptures or their own viewpoints.
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The Torah regulated the practice of polygamy. There is no teaching anywhere in the Bible where God expresses His disapproval towards polygamy or prohibits it. Paul in the NT permits polygamy for ordinary believers, but rules it out for ordained clergy.
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