The Biblical Concept Of Marriage Part 2
As uncomfortable as it may be for many people to consider, the biblical facts for men are that anyone they have had physical intercourse with they made their wife, from the very beginning. Biblically, for men this is not so much of a problem, if they were to accept full responsibility for each of these women, but for women the situation becomes rather problematic. Refer to our definition of adultery for the reason, but basically for men it means that they are actually worse than infidels if they fail to take responsibility (1 Ti 5:8), and for women it means that, for every act of intercourse they have participated in after the first time, they have committed an act of adultery.
I know that many women will take offense to this idea, saying that we are all equal, and that God doesn’t respect persons and so forth, often times quoting Gal 3:28. To this, we would agree, in that we are all equal when it comes to salvation. But salvation is not the issue at hand, and what they are actually promoting is egalitarianism, which is not a biblical concept. Paul’s point in 1 Cor 6:16 is that going to a prostitute is sin and defiles the body, for both of them, since they invoke a covenant by their actions that both, by virtue of her being a prostitute, have agreed on breaking again immediately.
But back to the original argument: There is no reason to assume that “twain” means anything other than a man and a woman coming together, two people at a time. Interpreting this as “proof” for a New Testament proclamation of monogamy, and, by extension, an alteration of Old Testament law, means reading these verses with the presupposition that polygamy is wrong, which can hardly be called intellectually, or theologically, honest. We must be careful to allow scripture to shape and define our theology, and not permit our theological presuppositions to shape and define scripture.
To continue, the primary function of marriage is the perpetuation of the family, which is rather contrary to our more modern attitude of marriage as the romantic union of soul mates. Regardless, today we still refer to becoming “one flesh” as consummation, something that, in its absence, will nullify a “legal” marriage in the courts.
Read on here:
The Biblical Concept Of Marriage Part 3
Jump to Part 4 here:
The Biblical Concept Of Marriage Part 4
Go back to the beginning here:
