According to the Gospel of Matthew (see Matthew 5:17-20; 23:1-3; 23:23) Jesus upheld the Torah law which regulates polygamy. If he was opposed to polygamy he would not have said this. Furthermore there is no verse anywhere in the New Testament that prohibits polygamy for lay Christians.
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Blogging Theology 
With that mind I have a query about a certain text (Matthew 19)
Jesus in this text refers to Adam and Eve as the model of marriage that was Gods purpose since the very beginning. It is true that the Tanakh does not prohibit Polygamy and there are no explicit commands in the NT about polygamy being banned. However it has also been curious to me that when Polygamous relationships are being presented such as that of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar or that of Jacob with Leah and Rachel are usually done with a negative slant.
I’m not aware of any polygamous relationships in the Bible being shown in a positive light. With this in mind is Polygamy in the Bible considered more a reality of the times (and indeed human nature) to pursue a number of partners,however Gods purpose was of a Monogamous relationship?
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Matthew 19 needs to read along with the other passages I listed above from that same Gospel: Matthew 5:17-20; 23:1-3; 23:23. One can fairly conclude from these passages that Jesus upheld the Torah law which regulates (not abolishes) polygamy. So permission for a man to marry more than one wife is still given by Jesus and is not abrogated. Islam endorses this practice too but limits the number of wives a man may have to four, and there are other conditions attached.
The examples you cite do not cancel out the legal permission found in the Torah, reiterated by Jesus (see 23:1-3), and further confirmed by God Himself in the Quran.
Wrong use does not vitiate right use.
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Makes sense. With that in mind, why exactly was this later redacted from Christian views on marriage?
Since if indeed Polygamy is accepted in the Tanakh and you are right in that there was no reference to it being abolished in the same spirit that Christians claim about eating swine was abolished?
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My view is that as the Christian faith evolved and developed in the Roman world and became virtually gentile in composition it adopted the marriage customs of that culture which rejected polygamy.
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p.s that dude on the left looks very confused when Nabeel is speaking. Perhaps he is a big RC Sproul fan 😉
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PW said: “The examples you cite do not cancel out the legal permission found in the Torah, reiterated by Jesus (see 23:1-3), and further confirmed by God Himself in the Quran.”
Just as a matter of interest where is the legal permission or sanction for polygamy in the Torah that you refer to here?
If you say “legal” then I assume it must be in the law of Moses somewhere.
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Madman you can just google the verses.
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The writer of 1 Timothy says that an elder should only have one wife.
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indeed. Which is why I wrote the following in my article above:
‘Furthermore there is no verse anywhere in the New Testament that prohibits polygamy for lay Christians.’
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Mr Williams you wrote…”Torah law which regulates polygamy.” Question where does it “regulate” polygamy? It mentions that there was polygamy, it details the disastrous affects of polygamy but no where does it regulate it. So I challange you to provide torah “Regulations” not just mentioning polygamy.
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Been A while
I challenge you to use Google and do a search for the verses. It’s not rocket science dear boy.
Anyway lets see how long you last before getting banned this time. I give you 20 minutes.
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@Been A While
Check the video from the 1 min timeframe. It mentions regulation of polygamy. Exodus 21:10.
Peace
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This could be regulation of an evil that is permitted because of the hardness of the human heart. As Jesus described regarding adultery. This does not mean the practice is approved of by God.
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nowhere does the Bible prohibit polygamy, or decribe it as an evil practice, or say it is permitted because of, or caused, by human sin.
If God disapproved of this kind of marriage he would have banned it. Even St Paul permits it.
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Permission is not approval or sanction. It is just that there is no criminal punishment for this sin. It is merely permitted by not having a punishment attached. There are many sins that do not have a legal punishment attached. Does this mean that they are not sins.
The clear logical implication of Jesus teaching on adultery is that polygamy is sin.
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you keep saying it is a sin, but the Bible does not teach that anywhere.
Jesus is recoded as upholding the law which permits polygamy.
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As I said above:
Matthew 19 needs to read along with the other passages I listed above from that same Gospel: Matthew 5:17-20; 23:1-3; 23:23. One can fairly conclude from these passages that Jesus upheld the Torah law which regulates (not abolishes) polygamy. So permission for a man to marry more than one wife is still given by Jesus and is not abrogated. Islam endorses this practice too but limits the number of wives a man may have to four, and there are other conditions attached.
The examples you cite do not cancel out the legal permission found in the Torah, reiterated by Jesus (see 23:1-3), and further confirmed by God Himself in the Quran.
Wrong use does not vitiate right use.
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Jesus taught that some of the laws of Moses regulated evil practices, such as divorce. How do you know that polygamy is not also in this category?
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where does Jesus say “some of the laws of Moses regulated evil practices”?
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Matthew 19:
” 8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.”
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madmanna
What is “put away your wives”? It means divorce. It does not mean “polygamy”. The verse has nothing to do with polygamy.
It means if you divorce your wife and marry another you commit sin. The verse is against those who divorce their wives and marry another.
The verse says, if your wife commit fornication you can “put away” i.e. divorce her. It is talking about divorcing your wife and marrying, it did not talking about adding another wife to your wife. It is not just there madmanna, just like how “3 person 1 God is the true God” cannot be found in the Bible.
Thanks.
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Intellect,
I am not saying it has anything to do with polygamy.
It is just an example of OT law that regulates a wickedness. In this case divorce. It was then abrogated by Jesus teaching.
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‘wickedness’? Where does the Bible say divorce is evil? You sound like a Catholic!
Matthew 19:
Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
Note that Jesus does not say divorce is always wrong – sometimes it is clearly acceptable.
Im many other passages Jesus affirms the lawfulness of polygamy.
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madmanna
We keep refuting you, but you refuse to see the truth and pick it and convert to Islam. You read your scriptures with “Jesus died for your sins” at the back of your mind which blinded you in seeing the truth like what Paul Williams has in bold above.
Thanks.
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Madmanna,
Lets take another look at Mat19:9 with me striking out ‘except for sexual immorality’ part :
I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, e̶x̶c̶e̶p̶t̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶s̶e̶x̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶i̶m̶m̶o̶r̶a̶l̶i̶t̶y̶, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
According to the verse – the person commits adultery if he divorce his wife and marries another. However polygyny is defined being :
‘the state or practice of having more than one wife or female mate at a time’
Therefore if the said person does not divorce his wife while marrying another , it is ok by the bible in mat19:9.
The bigger issue here is that there is no limit as to how many wives the person can have. According to mat19:9 , the person can have 99 wives and can still marry ‘I don’t know how many more’….
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