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
These are the facts my friends. I know that some will refer you
to Keturah; but this is the fact in regard to her: Abraham lived
thirty-eight years after the death of Sarah; the energy miraculously
given to Abraham's body for the generation of Isaac was continued after
Sarah's death; but to suppose that he took Keturah during Sarah's
lifetime is to do violence to his moral character. But it is said
he sent away the sons of Keturah with presents during his lifetime,
therefore it must have been during the life time of Sarah. He lived
thirty-eight years after the death of Sarah, and he sent these sons
away eight years before his death, and they were from twenty-five to
thirty years old. Then this venerable Patriarch stands forth as a
monogamist and not as a polygamist.
Then we come to the case of Jacob. What are the facts in regard to him?
Brought up in the sanctity of monogamy, after having robbed his brother
of his birth-right, after having lied to his blind old father, he then
steals away and goes to Padan-aram and there falls in love with Rachel;
but in his bridal bed he finds Rachel's sister Leah. He did not enter
polygamy voluntarily but he was imposed upon. As he had taken advantage
of the blindness of his father and thereby imposed upon him, so also
was he imposed upon by Laban in the darkness of the night. But I hold
this to be true that Jacob is nowhere regarded as a saintly man prior
to his conversion at the brook Jabbok. After that he appears to us in a
saintly character. It is a remarkable fact that Jacob lived 147 years
all told, eighty-seven of which he lived before he became a polygamist.
He lived twenty-two years in polygamy, he lived forty years after
he had abandoned polygamy, so that out of 147 years there were only
twenty-two years during which he had any connection with polygamy.
I wish my friend had referred to the case of Moses. In his sermon
on celestial marriage he claims that Moses was a polygamist, and
he declares that the leprosy that was sent upon Miriam was for her
interference with the polygamous marriage of Moses. What are the facts?
There is no record of a second marriage. Zipporah is the only name
given as the wife of Moses. What, then, is the assertion made? Simply
this: It is recorded: and Moses was content to dwell with Jethro. He
gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter. Josephus speaks of Jethro having
two daughters, and distinctly says that he gave Moses one of them. In
Numbers xii and 1st, it is said:
And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian
woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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