I admit, many are ignorant when it comes to the subject of biblical marriage. Just because you see people doing nasty things like Abraham having a child with Hagar, David committing adultery with Bathsheba, and various persons engaged in polygamy in the Bible, it doesn't mean God approves.
While we're on the subject, what exactly does a "biblical marriage" look like if you have people doing stuff like that in the Bible of all places?
Jesus defines marriage in this way: "He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?" Matt. 19:4 (ESV)
"But hasn't the Bible been edited throughout the years?" You say.
Yes, in one sense it has. There are "editions" out there which are very bad (ie. Jehovah's Witnesses' New World Translation, etc), but it's important to remember the Bible was divinely inspired in the original autographs. Translations are NOT inspired. However, most scholars will agree, the English Bible we have today is very reliable/accurate when compared with ancient Hebrew/Greek texts....
And besides, the very fact all those wrinkles and warts are left on those people only serves to seal the authenticity of it!
While we're on the subject, what exactly does a "biblical marriage" look like if you have people doing stuff like that in the Bible of all places?
Jesus defines marriage in this way: "He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?" Matt. 19:4 (ESV)
"Okay," you say, "but what about those people who raped women or committed incest and got away with it?
Stealing has always been wrong, even before God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, just as murder was always wrong, (ie, Cain and Able). I would view rape as a severe form of stealing. As for incest..., Yes, I believe Cain married his sister, but the same conumdrum comes about with Noah and his family after they leave the ark. But the world has to be populated/re-populated somehow. God establishes all moral standards and the laws against incest did not come down until many years later.
"But hasn't the Bible been edited throughout the years?" You say.
Yes, in one sense it has. There are "editions" out there which are very bad (ie. Jehovah's Witnesses' New World Translation, etc), but it's important to remember the Bible was divinely inspired in the original autographs. Translations are NOT inspired. However, most scholars will agree, the English Bible we have today is very reliable/accurate when compared with ancient Hebrew/Greek texts....
And besides, the very fact all those wrinkles and warts are left on those people only serves to seal the authenticity of it!
1 comment:
It's like when Jesus shot back at the Pharisees that Moses gave them a certificate of divorce because their hearts were hard; God hates divorce yet permitted it because of their sinfulness. God never caused the evil acts you mentioned by some of God's most humble servants (Abraham, David, etc), but ordained them to happen as they did to bring the fullest glory to His name. I think the Bible sets up a model for marriage, but the greatest proof of its being correct is the evidence found in actual marriages that follow it.
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