She had a salvation experience. I don’t know the mechanism but she came to faith. Everything that happened before was no longer relevant. No I can’t prove it.
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Virgin in Hebrew
- Thread starter Sons of Issachar
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I think you don't have to prove it.
I'm not an anthropologist, but I'm fairly certain that the overwhelming amount of traditional/tribal cultures around the globe (African, Amazonian, Aboriginal, Asian, Polynesian, etc) segregate the sexes for most activities, marry their women young, and frown upon rampant promiscuity. I don't think it would be much different in 1st century Judea.
@steve are you saying Joseph was definitively a polygynist? What's your proof? I would say it's a great possibility, but unless you're seeing something in scripture that I've never seen, how are you so certain?
@steve are you saying Joseph was definitively a polygynist? What's your proof? I would say it's a great possibility, but unless you're seeing something in scripture that I've never seen, how are you so certain?
I can’t prove it, the concept has been discussed in one of these forums in the past. I don’t remember most of the arguments. The Universal (Catholic) church has pretty much whitewashed the concept. There are Jewish scholars that have this understanding and laugh at the Christians for their beliefs.
I believe that it is true, but it’s not a hill that I will die on trying to defend.
Wasn't expecting you to battle it. I'm more on your side and wish more people in Christianity would be open to it. I'm just not seeing it definitively anywhere in scripture.
It would explain a lot, and could even help the RCC in their pursuit of perpetual virginity for Mary. Maybe after Yeshua, Joseph left her alone and stayed active with his other wives. Possibility?
That’s what I lean towards.
That spot would be a bit too “holy ground” for me to stick sensitive body parts into.
One possible indicator was that Joseph knew so early that she was pregnant. How could he have known if she was with her family yet? Would they volunteer the information before she was showing?
A good possibility is that younger sister wives were sometimes living in the family already, maybe purchased from an impoverished family. The other wives would have noticed the symptoms that often show up in the first month or so.
Nothing that we can know for sure, but it sure makes for a different scenario in the stable.
A good possibility is that younger sister wives were sometimes living in the family already, maybe purchased from an impoverished family. The other wives would have noticed the symptoms that often show up in the first month or so.
Nothing that we can know for sure, but it sure makes for a different scenario in the stable.
Is there information other than in Luke 2:4-5 about Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem for the census and Jesus being born during that time? The account Luke gives indicates only Joseph and Mary traveling to Bethlehem. Luke also says that when the shepherds went to see the Child, it was Joseph, Mary and the Babe present (Luke 2:16). There is no indication in the text other wives or siblings were present at any of these situations so I'm wondering where they might have been - if they existed? Since Matthew records that Joseph did not know Mary until she had given birth to a Son (note: until; Matt. 1:25), I find it a bit speculative to suggest Joseph and Mary never consummated the relationship, and those referred to in e.g. Matt. 13:55, 56 are not Joseph and Mary's other children. The number of children here would be consistent with only one wife; there aren't 70 sons like Gideon had, so there is nothing to indicate more than one wife being necessary. I'm wondering then, is it extra biblical sources that are being relied upon for this understanding on Joseph being polygynous? Shalom
In the apocryphal book The Gospel of Herobenelux, Joseph is portrayed as the inventor of soft-serve ice cream, but kosher practices at the time prohibited anyone but female wives of an owner of such technology to operate the machines, which either affirms that Joseph had multiple wives or explains why it took so long for soft-serve to catch on.
Firmly wrestling my tongue out of my cheek, my original reaction to reading that some have concerns about whether Christ had full siblings was that the Roman Church was likely to have an agenda that included proving that Mary was forever a Virgin, something that stretches credulity unless any full siblings of were also sired by YHWH. I went looking for an online explanation of all this and found: https://www.gotquestions.org/Joseph-married-before-Mary.html
Pulling out my ancient and well-worn "apocryphal New Testament" that I found in a bookshop years ago...
The Gospel of the Birth of Mary states that Joseph was "very advanced in years", but "not married".
The Protoevangelion calls Joseph a "widower", and Joseph says "I am an old man, and have children".
Both of these documents are highly questionable and could be entirely incorrect. However, if we are looking for evidence of Joseph being either monogamous or polygamous, there's nothing here to suggest polygamy.
The Gospel of the Birth of Mary states that Joseph was "very advanced in years", but "not married".
The Protoevangelion calls Joseph a "widower", and Joseph says "I am an old man, and have children".
Both of these documents are highly questionable and could be entirely incorrect. However, if we are looking for evidence of Joseph being either monogamous or polygamous, there's nothing here to suggest polygamy.
That last paragraph in that article... Amusing how everyone asserts that, but then when it comes to polygyny they backtrack on it.