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FYI: I'll probably be coming back to this one with links to the various parts of the Bible referenced here. It's always good to read the words for yourself.
If you missed my previous posting, I am writing a (hopefully) brief series of essays in response to a YouTube video that supposedly lays out the dirty truth behind what a Biblical marriage really is. In the course of the video approximately fifteen examples of “marriages” are brought up, each one completely outrageous and jaw-dropping if you’ve never heard of them. Each one is also actually in the Bible. However most of them are not examples of a Biblical marriage.
What does “biblical mean?” Well it can mean “Of, relating to, or contained in the Bible” as defined in BrainyQuote.com. This, I think, is the meaning that most of us have in mind when we talk about something being “biblical”: that it reflects the character and precepts of God as set forth in the Bible.
Just because something is in the Bible (the first definition) doesn’t mean that it is in fact biblical (the second definition). The Bible doesn’t just show you what you’re supposed to do and then give examples of people who did wonderful things, the Bible shows us people in their real lives doing real things. Often real crazy, downright outrageous things. Because real people do real outrageous, crazy things. Just because someone lives their life in the heart of Crazy Town, however, doesn’t mean we make them an example of the new standard for living. Usually we use it as an object lesson of what not to do. Why? Because it’s an indication of a wild deviation from the standard, whatever that standard is. And we know they’re deviating from a standard because when there is no standard, there can be no deviation, and where there’s no possibility for deviation you can never have shocking, outrageous behavior.
And so I am compelled to make the distinction between the marriages in the Bible, as mentioned in the YouTube vid, versus what a biblical marriage actually is.
In my last essay I tackled the statement made in the video that a biblical marriage is one man, one woman, and incest with your murderous son. The reference is to Adam, Eve and Cain (and Abel, his murdered brother). The statement is incorrect in saying, or insinuating, that Eve and Cain were ever sexually involved. He actually gets kicked out of the area pretty quickly after killing Abel. There is, however, incest. At some point Cain marries a woman who must have been his sister or niece or great-niece. This isn’t a sin though. Gross? Yes. Sin? No.
Why? Because at that point there was no law against incestuous relationships, much to my own chagrin, but whatever. There would be a law, a very detailed, covers-all-the-points-including-things-you-didn’t-think-of law, but at the time when Cain marries his female relation, it doesn’t exist. As such he’s never condemned for it.
Which brings me to the next example in the video: Abraham and Sarah. In the video it claims that Abraham and Sarah are brother and sister. And they’re half right. They are half-siblings. Apparently Abraham and Sarah have the same father, but not the same mother (see Genesis 20:12 as Abraham tries to explain why his lie about not being married to Sarah isn’t bad as it seems). ( Read more... )
If you missed my previous posting, I am writing a (hopefully) brief series of essays in response to a YouTube video that supposedly lays out the dirty truth behind what a Biblical marriage really is. In the course of the video approximately fifteen examples of “marriages” are brought up, each one completely outrageous and jaw-dropping if you’ve never heard of them. Each one is also actually in the Bible. However most of them are not examples of a Biblical marriage.
What does “biblical mean?” Well it can mean “Of, relating to, or contained in the Bible” as defined in BrainyQuote.com. This, I think, is the meaning that most of us have in mind when we talk about something being “biblical”: that it reflects the character and precepts of God as set forth in the Bible.
Just because something is in the Bible (the first definition) doesn’t mean that it is in fact biblical (the second definition). The Bible doesn’t just show you what you’re supposed to do and then give examples of people who did wonderful things, the Bible shows us people in their real lives doing real things. Often real crazy, downright outrageous things. Because real people do real outrageous, crazy things. Just because someone lives their life in the heart of Crazy Town, however, doesn’t mean we make them an example of the new standard for living. Usually we use it as an object lesson of what not to do. Why? Because it’s an indication of a wild deviation from the standard, whatever that standard is. And we know they’re deviating from a standard because when there is no standard, there can be no deviation, and where there’s no possibility for deviation you can never have shocking, outrageous behavior.
And so I am compelled to make the distinction between the marriages in the Bible, as mentioned in the YouTube vid, versus what a biblical marriage actually is.
In my last essay I tackled the statement made in the video that a biblical marriage is one man, one woman, and incest with your murderous son. The reference is to Adam, Eve and Cain (and Abel, his murdered brother). The statement is incorrect in saying, or insinuating, that Eve and Cain were ever sexually involved. He actually gets kicked out of the area pretty quickly after killing Abel. There is, however, incest. At some point Cain marries a woman who must have been his sister or niece or great-niece. This isn’t a sin though. Gross? Yes. Sin? No.
Why? Because at that point there was no law against incestuous relationships, much to my own chagrin, but whatever. There would be a law, a very detailed, covers-all-the-points-including-things-you-didn’t-think-of law, but at the time when Cain marries his female relation, it doesn’t exist. As such he’s never condemned for it.
Which brings me to the next example in the video: Abraham and Sarah. In the video it claims that Abraham and Sarah are brother and sister. And they’re half right. They are half-siblings. Apparently Abraham and Sarah have the same father, but not the same mother (see Genesis 20:12 as Abraham tries to explain why his lie about not being married to Sarah isn’t bad as it seems). ( Read more... )