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How does a man become one flesh with more than one woman?

1 Corinthians 6:16
"What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh."

Is there an exemption for a married man? Does a married man, already one flesh with his wife, not become one flesh with the harlot? Or are we told that becoming one flesh with the harlot means he is no longer one flesh with his wife? We aren't told either. So this verse makes it very clear that, whatever "one flesh" is (and that is an interesting discussion in itself), a man can most certainly become it with more than one woman simultaneously.
 
FollowingHim said:
1 Corinthians 6:16
"What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh."

Is there an exemption for a married man? Does a married man, already one flesh with his wife, not become one flesh with the harlot? Or are we told that becoming one flesh with the harlot means he is no longer one flesh with his wife? We aren't told either. So this verse makes it very clear that, whatever "one flesh" is (and that is an interesting discussion in itself), a man can most certainly become it with more than one woman simultaneously.
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Thank you :)

Someone on social media was asking and I was unsure of how to respond. I'd never thought about it much myself.
 
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theleastofthese said:
Someone on social media was asking and I was unsure of how to respond. I'd never thought about it much myself.
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One flesh when you break down the words doesn't actually mean a singular body. The Hebrew word "echad" means united or bound together. So when a man marries a woman they unite their flesh. When I was a server at a steakhouse one of the responsibilities was to "marry" the ketchup bottles. That means you empty one bottle into another one. So even in common usage, marrying two things simply means to mix them up, or make it so you can't really tell where one beast ends and the other begins, a tangle of limbs, a creature with two backs... Or as the Hebrew words transliterated imply.... "United flesh" (Echad basar)

However there are actually biological and physiological discoveries in recent years that proves a man's "genetic material" permanently changes a woman's body. So like with many things in scripture, we sometimes find out that descriptions in scripture were vague but astoundingly accurate at what actually is occurring beyond our abilities to perceive.
 
Moshe Yoseph Koniuchowsky has a lot to say on this in the book "Yisraelite Marriages Restored,"if you don't mind having Truth served up with a heavier-than-healthy sprinkling of sarcasm on top. Essentially, The Hebrew word "Echad," meaning "one," is the term used to describe the man's marriage covenant to each of his wives, separately from each other. For a visual, envision a man with six wives (an ambitious man indeed but for the sake of visualization, I digress). If you displayed the man and each of his wives with a dot, the man would be the dot at the center and each of the six wives would be arranged in a hexagon pattern around him. Now, draw an oval around the man and one of the six wives, let's say the one on the far right. Then draw another oval encompassing only the man and the next wife. Then another for the man and the next, and so forth. No oval encompasses more than one wife, and all six ovals encompass the man.Each oval represents a "one flesh" covenant. The man is bound by six separate "one flesh" covenants, one with each of his wives, while each wife is only bound by one, to her husband.

If you prefer a political allegory, it's the same way the Head of State a Great Power nation can stand with six separate heads of state from six separate allies at six separate press conferences and say "we are one" when signing mutual defense treaties. The US's mutual defense treaty with ISrael, for instance, does not preclude our obligations incurred by our mutual defense treaty with the Philippines. If you envision the US as the husband, with Israel and the Philippines as wives, this then gives you frame of reference.
 
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But the existence of a one flesh does not imply permanence especially with a prostitute. Did God join together a man and his whore? Dont think so. However the sharing of his sperm in her and the creation of a child with said whore is the miracle of life and God says dont cut that child assunder in baal worship.
 
It is similar to the way that each individual believer is united personally to our One Lord and Savior.

"But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him." (1 Cor. 6:17 NKJV)

I am in a one spirit relationship with Christ. You are in a separate and equivalent one spirit relationship with Him.

Like R.A Harris mentioned, it all goes to the principle of Covenantal headship.
 
NickF said:
However there are actually biological and physiological discoveries in recent years that proves a man's "genetic material" permanently changes a woman's body. So like with many things in scripture, we sometimes find out that descriptions in scripture were vague but astoundingly accurate at what actually is occurring beyond our abilities to perceive.
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This is part of why I rail at religious types who eschew secular knowledge and secular research. Oftentimes the secular folks will inadvertently validate Biblical wisdom and Biblical truth.

This bit you mention is particularly fascinating because it means that some truths about male and female relationships were patently obvious to illiterate shepherds who were in many ways so much more sophisticated than modern people who can't tell a he from a she.
 
NBTX11 said:
By having sex with more than one woman.
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That's exactly the way I view.

If "One flesh" = marriage then we have to assume that Paul was saying that every time a man has sex with a prostitute she becomes his wife.

Likewise if "One flesh " = creating a child then we have to assume that Paul was saying that when a man has sex with a prostitute then he does so with intention of having a child with her.

In Genesis 2:24 it says
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”.
Notice that it says that she is already his wife/woman.
So that shows that "One flesh" does not mean they get married.

In my opinion "One flesh" simply means having sex and think Paul understood that and gave the cleast example that he could.

Just opion.
 
There are lots of "unintentional" babies. You didnt know that?
Standing rule: Babies Happen! Babies happen with hookers all the time. They just are not convenient for money making so just abort them. It is economical for them. But it is economical financially and reputationally for the married secretary having an affair with the big guy(not her hubs). The man with the whore does not come to any agreement with the exception of price therefore the oneness can only be explained by conception.
 
Yes I know there are "unintentional" babies created in prostitution.
Never the less for Paul to use prostitution as an example then we have to assume based on what you are saying is that Paul was saying that every man that has sex with a prostitute intends to have a child with her.
And that every prostitute does so with the intention to have a child with the man.
As you pointed out they just get abortions.

Prostitutes then and now do it for money.
Men then and now do it for sex.
Neither of them do it to have a baby.
 
Why cant BF folks understand that pregnancy does NOT always involve intent? Sheesh Pauls statement basically says "even with a prostitute you can become one" which negates intent.
 
Maddog said:
Why cant BF folks understand that pregnancy does NOT always involve intent? Sheesh Pauls statement basically says "even with a prostitute you can become one" which negates intent.
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No wait!
Paul did not say "even".
He "is".

"1 Corinthians 16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh."

That's doesn't sound to me like he was saying that they may become one.
It sounds like he was saying that will or do become one.
Every time.

So again the attention would have to be to get pregnant.

Other wise it's just sex
 
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