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Is it ever ethical to plan to be married only temporarily?

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Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.

2 If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

3 If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he were married, then his wife shall go out with him.

4 If his master have given him a wife, and she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself.

5 And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free:

6 Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.

7 And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.

8 If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.

9 And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.

10 If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.

11 And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.

Exodus 21:1-11 KJV

If I understand this correctly a man under the circumstances listed in exodus 21:1-6 could choose to deliberately marry a woman for only six or seven years or less ( not sure how it is counted) with the plan of ending the marriage at the end of the six or seven years without sinning. That is he could premeditatively have a marriage of less than seven years planning to end the marriages before either spouses lifetime ends before he initiates the marriage and stay married to the woman temporarily without sinning.

Under what if any circumstances could people agree to temporary marriages that end before death due them part without sinning? Is this different than divorce?

Could a couple in modern times under certain circumstances (not necessarily all circumstances) agree to marry for only six or seven years at the beginning of a marriage and then live together for six or seven years and then end their marriage at the agreed upon time at the end of the six or seven years without sinning through the pre-planned and later implemented ending of a marriage? Is this different than divorce? Is this(/how is this) different than what some people call fornication (for those who consider fornication to be where two unmarried people have physical relations (there are multiple definitions of fornication used by society))? How does this compare morally with someone meeting someone at a bar and then agreeing to marry them for one night and pre-agreeing to end the marriage in less than 24 hours ? And how would someone meeting someone a a bar and agreeing to marry them for one night and end the marriage in less than 24 hours compare morally with someone meeting at a bar and agreeing to have physical relations for one night without marrying them?

Please do not respond in a way that gets the post locked. I want some good answers
 
Re: Is it ever ethical to plan to be married only temporaril

I'm sorry. Where did it say that the marriage ends? He simply doesn't have the right to take her away with him. It's like she has a job that she cannot quit, unless he, perhaps, goes to work and earns enough money to pay her master/debt off.
 
Re: Is it ever ethical to plan to be married only temporaril

If I understand this correctly a man under the circumstances listed in exodus 21:1-6 could choose to deliberately marry a woman for only six or seven years or less ( not sure how it is counted) with the plan of ending the marriage at the end of the six or seven years without sinning.
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DTT, you are bastardizing scripture here.

2 If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

It is only pertinent if you are sold into slavery and your master provides you with a wife that will not be free to leave with you.
Methinks that you are studying a religion practiced by some of Hagar's progeny. They do have doctrine about "temporary wives".
 
Re: Is it ever ethical to plan to be married only temporaril

steve said:
If I understand this correctly a man under the circumstances listed in exodus 21:1-6 could choose to deliberately marry a woman for only six or seven years or less ( not sure how it is counted) with the plan of ending the marriage at the end of the six or seven years without sinning.
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DTT, you are bastardizing scripture here.

2 If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

It is only pertinent if you are sold into slavery and your master provides you with a wife that will not be free to leave with you.
Methinks that you are studying a religion practiced by some of Hagar's progeny. They do have doctrine about "temporary wives".
Click to expand...

But if someone met the circumstances of being a slave or servant do you think he could ethically get married temporarily (as opposed to permanently) to a woman who is also a slave or servant of the same master with the permission of the master of both of them?
 
Re: Is it ever ethical to plan to be married only temporaril

In my understanding, it appears that the answer would be yes. It is a form of concubinage.
But, as Cecil pointed out, it does not have to end. He has the option of staying, for one.
 
Re: Is it ever ethical to plan to be married only temporaril

Maybe you could squeeze scripture into the temporary marriage mould, but...

When I went looking for a wife, I wanted to find someone to spend the rest of my life with.

I really like my wives.

I do not like being apart from them even for a day.

So the idea of a temporary marriage is totally bizarre to me.
 
Re: Is it ever ethical to plan to be married only temporaril

You let us know where you are enslaved and extraction planning will commence.
 
Re: Is it ever ethical to plan to be married only temporaril

*LIKE*
 
Re: Is it ever ethical to plan to be married only temporaril

*LIKE* too.
 
Re: Is it ever ethical to plan to be married only temporaril

steve said:
In my understanding, it appears that the answer would be yes. It is a form of concubinage.
But, as Cecil pointed out, it does not have to end. He has the option of staying, for one.
Click to expand...

Are there any other cases where it would be acceptable and if so on what basis?
 
Re: Is it ever ethical to plan to be married only temporaril

No, there are no other cases. These laws were for Hebrew servants, not everyone. Now, if we just want a bit more to talk how about the grounds for the servant wife to leave the servant husband:
10 If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. 11 If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money.
 
Re: Is it ever ethical to plan to be married only temporaril

So if the Master had the a male servant for seven years who married a female servant and then then the male servant left and was no longer the masters servant at the end of the seven years the female servant would still belong to the male master but would she still be married to the first male servant? Now if the first male servant never said he divorced the female servant and did not get a certificate of divorce for the female servant and master got a second male servant for seven years could the second male servant marry the female servant with the masters permission without (the second male servant and first female servant) committing adultery or would she still be married to the first male servant?
 
Re: Is it ever ethical to plan to be married only temporaril

As we are not told otherwise, the regulations around marriage would still apply, a wife is a wife, and she'd still be his wife and thus not available to another. This is supported by the only similar example in scripture that I can think of:

Note that when David fled from Saul, Saul gave his wife Michal to another. This is a similar situation, as since Saul was the king both David and Michal were his servants - David working directly for Saul, Michal being Saul's daughter. Later David took Michal back. Now if the marriage of Michal to another had been legitimate, David would have been sinning by disobeying Deuteronomy 24:4 in taking her as his wife again. However David did not sin in doing this, because Michal was not free to marry another, she had always been his wife and he had not divorced her. Her "marriage" to another man, despite being authorised by her father, was actually purely adultery against David, because her father did not have the authority to give her to another even though he was most certainly her master (her father and her king). So David was able to forgive her for this adultery (possibly because she hadn't even agreed to it, we are never told her opinion on the matter) and take her back as his wife. In reality, she had never ceased to be his wife.

In the same way, the servant's wife would never cease to be his wife unless he divorced her, although bound to serve her master in other ways he would not have the authority to cause her to marry again.
 
Re: Is it ever ethical to plan to be married only temporaril

I go alone to work every day. I am still married to my wife. I come back to her in the evening.

I could go alone to another country for any length of time, leaving my wife here - but if I hadn't divorced her she'd still be my wife. People do this (e.g. poor families where the husband goes to a wealthier country to work and sends money back to the family).

"go alone" does not necessarily mean divorce. It might mean divorce, but we aren't told that so cannot assume it.
 
Re: Is it ever ethical to plan to be married only temporaril

At the end of the seven years if the man decides not to stay the servant of his master can he divorce his wife at the same time his seven year term expires without sinning since he is going to leave his master and leave the woman he was married to with the man who was his master?
 
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