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NASB | 1 Corinthians 6:16 Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Corinthians 6:16 Do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her? For He says, "THE TWO SHALL BE ONE FLESH." [Gen 2:24] |
Bible Question:
Hi Doc, I'm very grateful for the reply. Thank you. What was the original meaning of marriage before the overlays? What event created a marriage? I understand things have changed. He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but *from the beginning* it has not been this way. (Mat 19:8 NASB) |
Bible Answer: Dear Thomas, You asked, "What event created a marriage?" The universal consensus of Christendom is that God Himself invented the concept of marriage, which thing we read about in Genesis 2:18-24. Furthermore, we can be pretty certain that that is what Moses understood as he penned Genesis. You used the word "overlays" and asserted "I understand things have changed." That isn't precisely what I meant. Pray for me, as I try to make my meaning clear. :-) Now, I understand your desire to dig down to the fundamental definition of marriage. I can sympathize and empathize -- I've been there! However, based on my being able to identify with you and on my own experience, I can say pretty certainly that you've got things turned around. You see, we are products of our Western culture and the times in which we live. We tend to think of the views and discussions of others as clouding the real truth. We want to clear away the fluff. As believers, we've learned that there are more opinions out there than there are people! They question everything. We've learned to filter out all the hubbub and do the research ourselves. The problem we run into, though, is where to draw the line as we filter. You see, if we aren't careful, we'll throw the baby out with the bathwater. The Scriptures are God's progressive revelation. He didn't give us the Word all at once. The light available to Moses in Genesis was much less than the light available to John in Revelation. Nevertheless, we believe in the verbal plenary inspiration of Scripture. What that means is that every word that Moses wrote is just as much the Word of God as every word that John wrote. For example, we've actually had people come on the forum who thought the red letters in their Bible were more precious than the black ones. What a hermeneutic mistake! They are all equally precious, equally authoritative, equally sure, equally holy, etc. The Holy Spirit was behind every single word! While it is true that the Old Testament was written before the New Testament, and that there is some value in reading it chronologically, that really isn't the way to build up the whole picture. You see, the New Testament provides light by which we are able to understand the Old Testament. Consequently, when Christ comments, for example, on Genesis 2, He isn't overlaying the original, He is exposing its truth. The same applies to Paul. Don't be afraid that they are applying some kind of cultural bias. The Holy Spirit spoke within the context of history, fully utilizing the cultural context. Therefore, I suggest that you draw together all that the word has to say on marriage -- and, indeed, on any given topic that the Bible addresses. In Him, Doc |