The Bible and Polygamy: Does the Bible Sanction Polygamy?Newman, John Philip
Religion
The Bible and Polygamy: Does the Bible Sanction Polygamy?
Newman, John Philip
Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines; Polygamy -- Religious aspects
Let us see in relation to the text he quoted, "If brethren dwell
together," though he wanders back, and it was difficult for me to see
what relation the antediluvians, and what relation old Adam had to
this passage; but he referred to the antediluvians and to Adam, and he
also referred to Lamech. Who was Lamech? He is the first polygamist
on record, the first mentioned in the first two hundred years of the
history of the world. He had two wives; and what else did he have?
He had murder in his heart and blood on his hand, and I aver that
whoever analyzes the case of Lamech, will find that the murder which he
committed grew out of his plurality of wives; in other words, it grew
out of the polygamy which he attempted to introduce into the world.
Said he to his wives, "I have slain a man;" and the inference is that
this man had come to claim his rights.
My friend says that Cain was a murderer, and went down to the land of
Nod; he don't exactly know the geography, but it was somewhere. And
there he found a woman and married her. Now I affirm this, that when
Cain killed his brother Abel he was not married, and he didn't go down
to the land of Nod, then, therefore the murder he committed didn't
grow out of monogamy, and seems to have had no relation to monogamy;
but it grew out of this fact: these two brothers came before the Lord
to present their offerings. Cain was a deist, a moralist as we may
say, that is, he had no sins to repent of. He therefore did not bring
the little lamb as a sacrificial offering, but he came with the first
fruits of the earth as a thank offering. He comes before God Almighty
and says: "I have no sins to atone for, none at all; but here, I am
conscious that thou hast created me and that I am dependent upon thee,
therefore I present to thee the first fruits of the soil." Abel comes
with his thank offering. He brings his lamb and lays it upon the altar,
and that lamb pre-intimated the coming of Jesus Christ, who is "the
lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world;" and if there is
any record that Abel brought a thank offering, it is a principle in
theology and in scriptural exposition that the whole includes the
part, just as Saint Paul says: "I beseech you, by the mercies of God,
to present your bodies a living sacrifice to God." Do you think that
he excluded the soul? No, he speaks of one as including the other. So
the offering which Abel presented was an offering, sacrificial in its
nature, pointing to Christ. Now, perhaps by sending down fire from
heaven, or at all events in some significant manner, God recognized the
righteousness of Abel, and expressed a preference for his offering, and
Cain was wroth, and his pride belched forth and he slew his brother.
The murder, therefore, had no reference, directly or indirectly, to
marriage, while the murder which the first polygamist mentioned in
history committed grew out of the marriage relation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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