Hello and welcome back! Last week we published the post: "Is Polygamy Endorsed in the Bible?" and thanks to you and all of the people that have engaged in our posts, we noticed a high engagement with the posting and topic (thank you!). As we discussed in the topic of polygamy released last week, we were able to conclude with much biblical evidence that polygamy is NOT endorsed neither by God nor the Bible. Polygamy is a practice that was started by those who separated themselves from the will of God and that although we see characters in the Bible practicing it, it does not mean that the Bible or God supports it. For more reference, please refer to the mentioned post.
As we read through the comments, questions and arguments made by many, we came across this one comment, one argument that used 2 Samuel 12:8 as evidence that the Bible and God indeed do endorse polygamy. Let's read the verse together:
"I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more!" - 2 Samuel 12:8
A glance at 2 Samuel 11 and 12 comes to show that King David had greatly sinned against God and this verse that we just read is God basically telling David that he should not have done that. That He could've blessed him greatly shall he needed it, there was no reason for King David to do what he did. Within that context, the verse reads that God gave David his master's 'wives' and with the final statement it seems to suggest that God is saying that, should he wanted, He could've given him even more... At first glance, it would indicate that the Bible endorses polygamy indeed. Yet, as we've studied, there's a LOT of evidence to suggest the opposite. The obvious questions is... what's the deal with this verse?!
As I tried to sit down and think about how to respond to this, the idea of further discussing the 'Principles of Biblical Interpretation' came to mind.
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3 Principles of Biblical Interpretation
As students of the Bible, there are 3 things, 3 principles, that we need to keep in mind at all times:
The Bible has Divine Authority - although written by men, the Bible was inspired and directed by God.
The Bible is its own authority - the Bible and the Bible only as the word of God
The Bible interprets itself - means we don't need anything but the Bible itself to interpret Bible
With these 3 principles, then, we can safely state that the Bible does not contradicts itself as God doesn't contradict Himself... therefore, an apparent contradiction in a verse with respect to another would simply be a misinterpretation on behalf of the reader. See, for every apparent contradiction that I've ever heard regarding the Bible, I've also come to understand that the verse was taken out context. If one does not use a methodical and careful approach to Bible study, one can endorse basically any behavior we could possible think off. God is a God of order, and the Bible needs to be studied in such manner.
Often times when reading Bible, "what we read is what we get", meaning that there's not much study needed to understand the message/meaning of the verse. On many other instances, however, it's important for the reader to be mindful of the verse context, the time when it was written, the writer of the verse, the original language used for the verse, other verses in the Bible that allude to the same topic... among others. It is only when we have that 'big-picture' that often times we can safely interpret the verse. The verse of 2 Samuel 12:8 falls into this latter category; it is important to understand the 'big picture'.
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So... is Polygamy Endorsed?
As discussed last time, there is MUCH evidence in the Bible that puts God directly endorsing, creating and supporting a monogamous marriage. The Bible has many verses that speak to marriage and these always show that monogamy is what God intended for a marriage. Let's list some of these.
1 Corinthians 7:2-3
Proverbs 12:22
Ecclesiastes 4:9
Matthew 19:4-6
Genesis 2 (first marriage by God)
... and others!
With this much evidence pointing towards monogamy, are we to say that just because we have this one verse that now seems to suggest polygamy as valid, then polygamy is endorsed? Are we to say that God contradicts Himself? Of course not... I don't believe 2 Samuel 12:8 is a verse that states that polygamy is endorsed. As I studied the verse, read it over and over, studied the context, I thought of several reasons why this verse is not indicative of polygamy endorsing. Let me share these reasons with you:
In the times of king David, it was custom / tradition that when a king would defeat or take over another, all of the defeated king's possessions would transfer and be acquired by the 'winner' king. God in this verse could very possibly be generally speaking to the fact acquired everything from the previous king.
In the times of king David, a king's power was greatly determined by the amount of properties and wealth he or she (in the case of a queen) had. The more people, land, properties, wealth, resources the king owned, the more powerful the king was. Considering who David was and the fact that the Bible makes it clear that God wanted to proper David's kingdom, God could very well be just speaking to the fact that He could've made David even more powerful than what he was. He could've given David more, should he wanted/needed it.
The text of 2 Samuel 12:8 is merely God communicating to David how He felt and how disappointed He was that David behaved how he did. Note that David was a king of Israel. With this, we do know that God gave strict instructions on the books of Exodus to Deuteronomy to the Israelites as to how these were to act and behave. It comes at no surprise that God left specific and clear instructions as to how kings were to act and in Deuteronomy 17:17 we see just that. A section in Deuteronomy 17 is specifically dedicated to kings and in verse 17 is clearly states that a king "shall not multiply wives for himself". Here we have an actual command from God, to kings, asking them not to take more than 1 wife. Once again... monogamy!
Finally, 2 Samuel 12:8 does not say that David got those women to marry them... the verse simply states that the women were 'given to him' which could mean many things even including just as servants in his palace.
One could make more arguments as to why 2 Samuel 12:8 does not endorse polygamy, but the clearest and best explanation is that nowhere else in the Bible is polygamy endorsed. We have no reason to believe that God would contradict Himself, furthermore, considering He created the first marriage between one man and one woman... we believe it's safe that's the way He wanted a marriage to be.
Conclusion
Once I heard this sarcastic and to some degree funny made-up story about a guy who asks God to speak to Him. He tells God that he's going to open the Bible with his eyes closed, and put his finger somewhere in the page; wherever his finger landed on, was the message He would think God was giving Him. He does what he said he was going to and when he reads the verse it says: "Judas hanged himself"... the guys freaks out, shuts the Bible and asks God to please talk to him as he repeated the exercise again. He does and when he opens his eyes and read the verse said: "do unto you as well"... ... Obviously, we need to be careful as to how we're reading the Bible.
The Bible can be read in many ways and people can and do use Bible to support their own selfish believes and conveniences. Don't join that group. God left us his word for us to study together with Him by the help of the Holy Spirit. We believe, because God tell us through the Bible, that when the Bible is properly studied, God reveals His truths in mysterious ways and clarifies all doubt one may have about a particular text. Of course, when it doubt, it is also a proper thing to ask. One loses nothing from getting outside perspective, yet, remember, never just take what others say for granted - nothing beats self-understanding and study.
Finally, we encourage you to watch the video we prepared about this topic (see below) as it discusses some more about biblical interpretation and examples. As always, feel free to reach out with any questions, comments, suggestions, concerns... God bless you and until next one!!
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