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This has quite a few of them, but I don't really want to copy\paste each one. I know I saw a very nicely formated list with pertinent pro-poly comments on the Internet some years ago, but I'm not sure if anyone happens to have such a list handy.
I actually got a list from E Boyd Daniels in the mean while. I can share it if anyones interested, probably he's on here somewhere as he's in the general Christian Polysphere.
Actually I'm happy atheists are making those statements. Being condemned for righteousness is a blessing on the condemned, but having to defend where Christians are wrong is something that can bring conviction. So what do you do?
The best is when the enemy celebrates the churches that promote open homosexuality while still condemning polygamy.
Either way it's the humanist moral system that is our enemy, but when it's pro homo anti poly you can see the humanism much more easily.
I know that Benjamin, Josephs brother had two wives although I don’t remember exactly where I read it. Also Abimelech, Abraham’s peer had multiple wives. Moses definitely had more than one as well as King Joash.
For anyone unfamiliar with the significance of Abimelech and Joash....
Abimelech is mentioned in Genesis 20, where he tries to take Abraham's wife Sarah as his own wife, thinking that she was available. God intervenes in this, and in verse 6, God assents to Abimelech's plea of integrity and innocency from verse 5. In verse 17 we see that Abimelech is polygynist, or at least intending to be. The "intending to be", is if discount his maid-servents as not being concubines; then he still knew he was taking an additional wife (Abraham's wife Sarah), and God still spoke well of him and protected him from sinning against Him by taking another man's wife.
King Joash is mentioned in 2Ch 24:2-3.
"And Joash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest. And Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he begat sons and daughters." So King Joash had two wives, AND simultaneously did that which was right in the sight of the LORD.
And the high priest that brings him his two wives is Jehoiada. One of the most remarkable high priests listed in the history of Israel. A man who has served God faithfully in the Temple through incredibly hard difficult times and has a testimony that no one would be able to tarnish.
That's great about Jehoiada the priest. Just a little ways down from the comment about King Joash, in verses 15-16, is this comment about him that I just recently saw;
But Jehoiada waxed old, and was full of days when he died; an hundred and thirty years old was he when he died. And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God, and toward his house.
Current views on marriage and relationships in general are very damaging to our societies marriages and our culture in general. Forced divorces in missions due to the monogamy doctrine is just the tip of the iceberg.
I’m going through the book of Judges right now. There are several men who were judges who are credited with more children than one woman can reasonably birth.
Jair had 30 sons in chapter 10
Gilead raises his son with a harlot in the same house as his wife’s sons in chapter 11.
Ibzan of Bethlehem had 30 sons and 30 daughters in Chapter 12
Abdon had 40 sons and 30 nephews? (Both words for the son and nephew are the same Hebrew word ‘ben’ Strongs #1121) in Chapter 12. If these are all sons, is the distinction perhaps that there are 40 ketubah’ed sons and 30 from ketubah-less wives/concubines?
All of these men (aside from Gilead) are noted as being raised up by God to lead his people.
Abdon had 40 sons and 30 nephews? (Both words for the son and nephew are the same Hebrew word ‘ben’ Strongs #1121) in Chapter 12. If these are all sons, is the distinction perhaps that there are 40 ketubah’ed sons and 30 from ketubah-less wives/concubines?
Just checking online, he has 40 banim (sons), and 30 bene banim (son's sons), which the vast majority of translations render as "grandsons", and a few (including WEB) leave as "sons' sons". KJV is one of the few that says "nephews".
I’m going through the book of Judges right now. There are several men who were judges who are credited with more children than one woman can reasonably birth.
Jair had 30 sons in chapter 10
Gilead raises his son with a harlot in the same house as his wife’s sons in chapter 11.
Ibzan of Bethlehem had 30 sons and 30 daughters in Chapter 12
Abdon had 40 sons and 30 nephews? (Both words for the son and nephew are the same Hebrew word ‘ben’ Strongs #1121) in Chapter 12. If these are all sons, is the distinction perhaps that there are 40 ketubah’ed sons and 30 from ketubah-less wives/concubines?
All of these men (aside from Gilead) are noted as being raised up by God to lead his people.
While I agree with your conclusions, monogamy only types will argue with "wives died in childbirth, they were blessed by God with twins and triplets"....and so on. It's a poor way of study, but I've heard these explanations more than once.
While I agree with your conclusions, monogamy only types will argue with "wives died in childbirth, they were blessed by God with twins and triplets"....and so on. It's a poor way of study, but I've heard these explanations more than once.
Come to think of it, Job falls into this category also. Twenty children. The first 10 old enough to have their own houses and partying. Followed by the next ten. I wonder how old his single wife was when she was finished having kids.
And yet, to my knowledge, Scripture only records this type of event twice, once with Jacob and Esau and once with Pharez and Zerah. Both times it seems to be somewhat distinct or out of the ordinary. Conversely, If there were twins and triplets everywhere, seems logical that someone would have commented somewhere on the babies and children overrunning the place.
Seems like a fine time to say, what would lead you to believe such an idea? The other judges interspersed with them are not recorded as having any children except the one who offers his only daughter as a 'sacrifice '.
I'm going with Job being monogamous. The second set of children were Job's punishment and his wife's chastisement.... Also we are given a fairly complete list of Job's holdings and family. If Job had other wives that provided no input during his trials and weren't worth mentioning as part of his family, that is exactly where I would begin my argument AGAINST polygamy.
His wife may indeed have been quite old, especially if the man we know as Job is listed as Jobab in Genesis 10. The life expectancy back then was still falling, but was by no means down to Abrahamic levels.
The name Job is really Iyyov, and needs to be distinguished from the Job (Yov) who was the son of Issachar (Genesis 46:13), and from the Jobab (Yovav) who was one of the kings of Edom (Genesis 36:33), with both of which it has been mistook for. The form of the name means “the assaulted one,” and its meaning was derived from “was an enemy.”
Job couldn't have been the Jobab from Genesis 10. Jobab was from a settlement that stretched from Mesha to Sephar which was in Moab and Job was from Uz which was in Edom.
