02-10-2005, 02:12 PM
Quote:This was an age that looked upon plural marriages with favor and in a society that in pre-biblical and post-biblical days considered polygamy an essential feature of social existence. David had six wives and numerous concubines (2 Samuel 5:13; 1 Chronicles 3:1-9, 14:3) and Solomon was said to have had as many as 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3). Solomon’s son Rehoboam had 18 wives and 60 concubines (2 Chronicles 11:21). The New Testament contains no specific injunction against plural marriages. It was commonplace for the nobility among the Christians and Jews to contract plural marriages. Luther spoke of it with toleration (Caesar E. Farah, Islam: Beliefs and Observances, 4th edition, Barron’s, U.S. 1987, p. 69).
Why did the author have to bring the Bible into this? If one does not really understand the Biblical position, they should not mention it at all.
God specifically said that kings should NOT multiply wives unto themselves. Thus, it was DISOBEDIENCE, Biblically speaking, for David and Solomon to do what they did.
Quote:Deut. 17:14-17 "When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,' <b>you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses</b>, {one} from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way.' <b>Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away</b>; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.
But of course this law was not obeyed. King Solomon did multiply wives for himself.
1Kgs. 11:3-4 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away. For <b>it came about when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods</b>; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father {had been.}
Speaking of the New Testament, Jesus said, "Matt. 19:5-6 "...'A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER, AND SHALL CLEAVE TO HIS WIFE; AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH'. Consequently they are no longer two, but one flesh."
He didn't say that 3 or 4 or 5 people would become one flesh, but <b>TWO</b>.
Jesus also appealed to the fact that in the beginning, God created MALE and FEMALE. There was Adam and Eve in the beginning.
It is interesting to note that God, the Creator and Originator of the marriage covenant, made Adam and Eve, not Adam, Eve, Sarah and Tracy.
If Islam supports this, then fine. But don't drag the Bible into it to try and support something that is not supported Biblically.