Garden of Eden and the The missing scriptures...

[Man_in_the_Middle]

I was having a conversation today with a man regarding marriage. He mentioned Matthew 19, telling me that he thought that Jesus was telling the pharisees that it is not ok to divorce your wife for any reason and in fact, reminded them that even from the time of the garden of Eden, the biblical concept of one man and one woman in marriage was established, banning multiple wives.

I reminded him that King David had multiple wives before his adultery with Bathsheba. And that God did not have any issue with him having multiple wives.

1Ki 15:4 Nevertheless for David's sake did the LORD his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem:
1Ki 15:5 Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

This man I was talking to said "yes, at that time, it was OK for men to have multiple wives...."

The point is this, if, in Mathew 19, Jesus said that monogamy only was instituted since the time of the garden of Eden, and 1 Kings 15:5 says that David was OK having multiple wives, WHERE ARE THE MISSING SCRIPTURES?

Specifically, after the Garden of Eden, where are the scriptures that say that a man CAN have multiple wives? Because if Monogamy only was instituted since the Garden of Eden, then David was sinning...


And if David could have multiple wives without it being a sin, then Jesus was not saying that monogamy only was instituted in the garden of Eden.

Food for thought...

 

[The Revolting Man]

I’ve never understood why Matthew 19 gets used as anti-polygamy verse. A polygamist could live in total obedience to that verse passage with any number of wives.

 

[frederick]

Specifically, after the Garden of Eden, where are the scriptures that say that a man CAN have multiple wives? Because if Monogamy only was instituted since the Garden of Eden, then David was sinning...


And if David could have multiple wives without it being a sin, then Jesus was not saying that monogamy only was instituted in the garden of Eden.

Good points. This is the problem with faulty presuppositional thinking. Rather than start with what is actually written, most start with their presuppositions and build their understanding of scripture from there. Matthew 8:11 is a valuable passage to point people to as both Abraham and Jacob were polygynists and were not shut out of God's kingdom (cf. 1 Cor. 6:9-10).