Reply #8: Touche! [View All]

I was getting hammered left and right on some issues yesterday. :P

Having studied the bible for a good part of my college education, I should have thought better than putting it that way.

However, even while fundies like to ignore the Old Testament, and anything else in the bible that doesn't agree with their predetermined point of view, and they have an odd way of interpreting the bible using their idea of dispensationalism, they may still have a little bit of ground here.

Biblical exegesis is complicated. Even taking the OT by itself, the 3000 years BC and the Documentary Hypothesis almost preclude a person in some instances from saying "OK. This is it. This is *the* answer." Then that interpretation needs to be applied to daily life, and because culture changes, it's nearly impossible to do so. In this situation, these facts would mean that it is very difficult to use the argument that it is "Biblical" in support of polygamy. We could argue something similar regarding animal sacrifice at the temple.

OT aside, the fundies may have grounds to argue that by NT times, this practice was largely outmoded. The NT, despite what your link above may argue, did forbid it, and it was largely this section of the bible that was the basis for the traditional christian doctrines. The best that I can say about the linked polygamy site's take on the NT is that I spent some time with the Septuagint this morning, and they seem to be using the King James translation and making what I like to call "loop-hole" arguments based on the decisions of the translators in rendering the text from the ancient greek into english. This doesn't really pertain to the actual text as much as that it's a common way of rationalizing non-mainstream view points. It would take me a while to make a good study of it, though.

So because of the traditional Christian beliefs on this matter, maybe I should have used "Traditional Christian" instead of "Biblical?" But my opinion still remains the same: even thinking about the subject of polygamy would fry a fundie's brain! :)