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NASB | 1 Kings 11:3 He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Kings 11:3 He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away [from God]. |
Subject: Does God endorse polygamy? |
Bible Note: 1) This is a good point to discuss (concubinage), but I really would rather not get into this one too deeply since the other is still an ongoing debate. However, I will say that even though the cultures of the Old Testament DID differentiate between wives and concubines, this was mainly done within the leadership of a nation or a tribe rather than among the common people. For all intents and purposes, a concubine was STILL the wife of the king (for example) since she was to be sexually and emotionally committed only to the king, just like a wife, but was not "officially designated" as his wife due to political expediency. This allowed the king to have multiple wives without there being problems with multiple queens within the realm fighting over whose child should ascend to the throne. This maneuver was not always realistically successful, but it did work in principal. 2) The issue of God appointing a king against His will is made quite plain within the text. However, there is not even the slightest intimation that God disapproved of a man having more than one wife. The Lord made governing provision for a man to have more than one wife. He governed it by telling the husband that he will not be allowed to instigate preferential treatment (provision) of the second wife over the first wife. If God disapproved of a man having more than one wife, He certainly did not speak as loudly as He did concerning the people having a king in place of His theocractic system of His Law and the judges. His alleged disapproval of polygamy is like silent thunder. 3) I never said that God approved of everything in the O.T. What was sin then is sin now, and what is sin now was sin then. Not one "jot nor tittle" has changed in the foundation of God's moral absolutes with the coming of Christ. God called His people to repentence MANY times throughout history. 4) This application of reason basically is a declaration that David was not one flesh with his many wives, as well as all the other patriarchs who practiced polygamy. Do you not remember where the word of God clearly delcared that a man who lays with a whore has become one flesh with her? It was nowhere mentioned within that context that he was considered one flesh with that whore ONLY if he were not married already. When a man lays with a woman, whether she is his wife or not, he is has become "one flesh" with her. In Christ Jesus Don Dean |