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God’s Edenic standard.
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The inspired narratives with their implicit theology of
disapproval speak even louder, and more eloquently, than explicit condemnation.
With regard to Abraham’s relationship with Hagar, although Hagar was
humanly regarded as Abram’s wife (Gen. 16:3), the narrator carefully records the
contrast between human understanding and the divine perspective. Throughout the
story, God regularly calls Sarah Abram’s wife (e.g., Gen. 17:15, 19; 18:9–10) but refers to
Hagar only as “Sarai’s maid” (Gen. 16:8–9; cf. 21:12) and not as Abram’s wife.
Furthermore, by juxtaposing the account of Abraham’s return to a monogamous status
(Gen. 21) with the account of Abraham’s test of faith on Mt. Moriah (Gen. 22), the
narrator seems to suggest that it was after returning to faithfulness in his marital status
that Abraham was prepared to pass the supreme test of loyalty to God.
With regard to the polygamy/concubinage of Jacob, in addition to the narrative
bristling with details of the disastrous consequences of polygamy in Jacob’s
dysfunctional family, there are also hints in the text that after Jacob’s wrestling with the
Angel at the Jabbok River (Gen. 32:24–28), he returned to a monogamous state. Before
the encounter at the Jabbok, the narrative repeatedly mentions Jacob’s sexual
relationship with all four wives/concubines, but after this event, the only conjugal
relations mentioned are with his wife Rachel (Gen. 35:16–19). Whereas before Jacob’s
name (character) change at the Jabbok, he had called both Rachel and Leah “my wives”
(Gen. 30:26; cf. 31:50), after the Jabbok experience, he called only Rachel “my wife”
(Gen. 44:27). Most telling of all, in the genealogy of Genesis 46, the narrator mentions
Leah, Zilpah, and Bilhah as women who “bore to Jacob” children, but only Rachel is
classified as “Jacob’s wife” (Gen. 46:15, 18, 19, 25). Thus the narrator seems to imply that
after Jacob’s conversion experience at the Jabbok, he continued to care for Leah, Zilpah,
and Bilhah, but no longer considered them his wives and concubines, and returned to a
monogamous relationship with the wife of his original intention, Rachel.
MOSAIC LEGISLATION
According to some interpreters, several laws in the Pentateuch assume, allow for, and
even approve of the practice of polygamy. But a careful analysis of these passages
reveals that none of them supports polygamy or concubinage as the will of God.
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For example, Deuteronomy 17:16–17 does not give the king permission to have
several wives, as some have claimed; rather the divine will in these verses is that the
king have no multiplication of horses (i.e., no chariotry), no multiplication of wives (i.e.,
no harem), and no amassing of excessive wealth.
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