Marriage and the old hekaya book

Bible writers give the divine thumbs-up to [B]many kinds of sexual union or marriage[/B]. They also use several literary devices to signal God’s approval for one or another sexual liaison: The law or a prophet might prescribe it, Jesus might endorse it, or God might reward it with the greatest of all blessings: boy babies who go on to become powerful men.

While the approved list does include one man coupled with one woman, the Bible explicitly endorses polygamy and sexual slavery, providing detailed regulations for each; and at times it also rewards rape and incest.

Polygamy. Polygamy is the norm in the Old Testament and accepted without reproof by Jesus (Matthew 22:23-32).Biblicalpolygamy.com contains pages dedicated to 40 biblical figures, each of whom had multiple wives.

Sex slaves. The Bible provides instructions on how to acquire several types of sex slaves. For example, if a man buys a Hebrew girl and “she please not her master” he can’t sell her to a foreigner; and he must allow her to go free if he doesn’t provide for her (Exodus 21:8).

War booty. Virgin females are counted, literally, among the booty of war. In the book of Numbers (31:18) God’s servant commands the Israelites to kill all of the used Midianite women along with all boy children, but to keep the virgin girls for themselves. The Law of Moses spells out a ritual to purify a captive virgin before sex. (Deuteronomy 21:10-14).

Incest. Incest is mostly forbidden in the Bible, but God makes exceptions. Abraham and Sarah, much favoured by God, are said to be half-siblings. Lot’s daughters get him drunk and mount him, and God rewards them with male babies who become patriarchs of great nations (Genesis 19).

Brother’s widow. If a brother dies with no children, it becomes a man’s duty to impregnate the brother’s widow. Onan is struck dead by God because he prefers to spill his seed on the ground rather than providing offspring for his brother (Genesis 38:8-10). A New Testament story (Matthew 22:24-28)shows that the tradition has survived.

Wife’s handmaid. After seven childless decades, Abraham’s frustrated wife Sarah says, “Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Her slave, Hagar, becomes pregnant. Two generations later, the sister-wives of Jacob repeatedly send their slaves to him, each trying to produce more sons than the other (Genesis 30:1-22).

Other slaves. A man should not have sex with a slave if she is betrothed to another man - but if they do, she is to be scourged (beaten) and he must sacrifice a sheep (Leviticus 19:20-22, KJV).

Rape victim. A Hebrew girl who is raped can be sold to her rapist for 50 shekels, or about $580 (Deuteronomy 22:28-29). He must then keep her “because she has been “humbled”.

Note: Apart from forcible rape, female consent is simply irrelevant in the Bible, from the time that Eve gets made from Adam’s rib onward (Genesis 2: 18-22).

New Testament endorses Old Testament

Lest someone claim that the Old Testament doesn’t apply to modern Bible believers, please note that none of these norms or rules—is reversed or condemned by Jesus. Quite the contrary:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke or a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17-18)

Bible believers or simply change-averse?

For centuries, Christian leaders disagreed about concubines and polygamy, just as they disagreed about slavery. The nuclear family so prized by America’s fundamentalists emerged from the interplay between Christianity and European cultures, including the monogamous tradition of Rome.

As humanity’s moral consciousness has evolved, coerced sex and marriage have become less acceptable. Today even devout Bible believers oppose sexual slavery. Marriage, increasingly, is a commitment of love, freely given.

Freedom to marry will expand, as will other rights related to sexuality, reproduction, and family formation; and some conservative Bible believers will adapt to these changes as they have others: reluctantly and with angry protests, but in the end accepting the new normal, and perhaps even insisting that it was God’s will all along.

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I am hoping some talker from the christian right will come and address these points with Bible quotes and more.

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interesting read

Hata kama, Faggots will never be part of normal in our african culture and tradition. Thats totally abnomal!!!

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…until everything is accomplished…what does that mean to you?

Whatever Mr Jesus wanted to achieve. Maybe something similar to sharia.

People like to quote verses without really expounding anything or saying anything meaningful at all. Starting with the issue of polygamy, can you actually copy and paste what Matthew 22:23-30 says? It has nothing to do with Jesus Christ’s acceptance of polygamy. Absurdity is what this is!

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Do you even know the Sharia? The woman who was caught in the act of adultery, what did Jesus do? Is that what the Sharia would’ve said to do?

@MgangAlchemist point of correction Abraham’s slave was his legal wife.

She was a slave exactly; Hagar was never the covenant wife. Where does it say she wasn’t a slave? She gave birth by the Law of nature, a slave to the Law. Her child was not the child of Faith like Isaac was. Even today, the struggle is between faith and works (the Law) just as much as it’s between the true seed and heirs of God’s spiritual promises (Jews and Christians) versus the children of Ishmael.

I did not say that she wasn’t a slave, your Bible says that Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham to be his wife.

“So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife.” Genesis(16:3)

When people start saying that the Bible endorses incest and then go ahead and use Abraham example, its ridiculous because as @Acoustic says you should get the whole picture. Consider this, whom did Abel, Seth marry…?? whom did their children, Adam & Eve grandchildren get their spouses from…?? My point is, upto some point God allowed close family members to marry each other (thats why ALL people on earth are one family), upto a certain point.

Lev 20:17 ; If a man marries his sister or half sister, they shall be publicly disgraced and driven out of the community. He has had intercourse with his sister and must suffer the consequences.

(When the Israelites reached Mt. Sinai, God told them, from now henceforth no-one is allowed to marry a sister. So actually, its just like the laws made here in Kenya. Several years back, a person could pay very little fine for raping until Njoki Ndung’u introduced the Sexual Offences Bill. Same case applies to Mututho laws. Kitambo people used to enter pub at 8am.)

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and by the way, The Bible quote of

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke or a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17-18)”

if you decide to use it, you will have to consider many many other laws that have been ignored these days… i.e day of worship, feast days, etc

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@Acoustic and @mayekeke it is good of you to stand up for your religions despite the contradictions. Am still studying Islam so I will not say much but so far so good it has not come out as innocent. As for christianity, this thread points out from their very holy book how life could be.

hehehe that is the problem with people. rarely understanding context. let me get home and i’ll respond to this.