Quote:

Pariah said:
Abraham didn't marry Hagar. He had a child by her, but he didn't marry her.



The Bible - Genesis 16:3, to be more specific - says otherwise.

From http://www.utj.org/Torah/parshah/03Lech_Lecha.html

Quote:

16:3 And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to be his wife.



As for the rest of your comments:

Quote:

Pariah said:
And none of these cases are endorsements of multiple marriage made by the Bible.



If you'll forgive my saying so, reading over the debate over multiple marriages, it didn't start out as a question of endorsing them. Maybe that's what it turned into, but that didn't seem to be the original intent when the discussion began. It was you questioning their existence within the Bible.

Quote:

Pariah said:
Quote:

r3x29yz4a said:
you're arguing morality based on modern standards. what about the multiple wives in the bible?



What "multiple wives in the Bible"?



As for the question of the Bible endorsing them, the Bible gives us a bunch of cases and examples where men have more than one wife, and those are presented as acceptable scenarios. Can't one therefore argue that it is indeed an endorsement - or at least that it's acceptable? Especially since Elkanah, who is not a king, is allowed to have a second in wife in post-Moses days?

And to some degree, the Bible does endorse multiple marriages, when it says that a king cannot have more than eighteen wives.

Speaking of which, I just remembered another guy with multiple wives: King David (how could I forget about him? I gate-crashed his wedding party when he got hitched to Bath-sheba. If only the caterer was an immortal like I am...)

Last edited by Methos; 2005-08-16 6:30 PM.
"Just because I don't like to fight doesn't mean that I can't."