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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]. |
Bible Question: King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Polygamy was not uncommon in Old Testament times. Did God endorse polygamy then? Does He now? |
Bible Answer: I would agree alot more readily with the should-be monogamy crowd if there hadn't been so many righteous polygamous people, even listed in the heros of faith. Thus examples were given of righteous men to follow, David being a man after God's own heart. I've read most of this thread, and it's the same tired answers from both sides. Was polygyny allowed in Scripture? Certainly it was recorded. Was there a record of any one of those men being chastised for polygyny specifically? NO! For other things, yes, even for allowing the wives to lead him astray. But the sin was allowing them to lead him astray, not in actually having more than the so-called ideal of one wife. Yes, I agree with polygyny in certain circumstances, under proper headship. Most monogamous marriages fail miserably at this same headship. My advice to all of you is to work on the proper headship order as our brothers laid out in Scripture, only then can relationships really thrive. 1Co 11:3 lays this out quite clearly. echoed in Eph 5:23 Thus God the Father is head of Christ the Messiah. Christ is head of Man, he is also head of the church. Man is head of the woman. Please note that the man is to love his wife as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it. Headship is not dictatorship, even if the wife sometimes accuses the husband of such. I've seen chruches also falsely accuse Christ of being a dictator. Rebellion will do that. Also, please notice that the church is NOT head over the man. This is something else many folks seem to not notice. My suspicion is that if human nature would allow it'self submission to proper authority, this whole thing would be a non-issue. But as long as women rule over men by passive agressive insubordination, marriages and in fact, all human relationships will suffer. Likewise men must learn to submit to Christ, and allow His ways to be our ways, instead of trying to make our ways be His ways. After all, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways than our ways. This should-be monogamy is another example of our righteousness being filthy rags. Yes, look up the Strong's word H5708. Menstrual rags. This self-righteousness stinks! |