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When did Christians & Jews Become Monogamous?
Join us as we explore the fascinating evolution of marriage traditions from polygamy to monogamy within biblical, Roman, and early Christian contexts. This discussion delves into Old Testament laws, New Testament teachings, and Roman cultural norms, shedding light on how figures like Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon navigated polygamous practices. We also examine the impact of Roman culture on Christianity and Judaism, the role of marriage norms in societal stability, and the modern implications of these historical traditions. Reflecting on both ancient and contemporary perspectives, we dissect the complex interplay between monogamy, polygamy, and cultural evolution, offering a thought-provoking take on the roots and consequences of marital practices.
Malcolm Collins: [00:00:00] Understanding, the meta narrative of the evolution of monogamy was in the church as a norm. Tells a deeper story that is missed if you attempt to misinterpret them to make your modern sexual mores.
Look like they were the mores that were had at the time of various parts of the bible being written which which hides from you I think a deeper and more interesting truth it is kind of weird that the Bible isn't that explicit about one husband, one wife, but seems to assume it in the New Testament, where in the Old Testament, it seems to assume that wealthy men have multiple wives.
Yes, yes, actually in Roman cultural norms, it was one wife. , Rome definitely represented a, The core of of civilizing force
And I think what we see here is civilization crashing into religion, creating something that is a merger of both of them. [00:01:00]
Speaker: It's law.
Speaker 2: Roman law. Is there some other form of law, you wretched woman?
One thousand apologies.
Malcolm Collins: One, In the form of Christianity, but also in the form of post second temple Judaism. And this is where things get really, spicy
Speaker 3: You must guarantee, of course, to keep your Jews in line. They will do as I say, or they will suffer the consequences. Congratulations, then, Herod, you have the full backing of Rome.
Would you like to know more?
Malcolm Collins: Be talking with you today. Today we are going to be talking about an issue that I think just doesn't get a lot of good and honest coverage, which is What does the Bible actually say about taking multiple wives? And the reason why you're not going to get good coverage of this is [00:02:00] Christians generally sweep under the rug that there's a lot of people of the Bible with multiple wives because now it is normal within modern Christianity to only have one wife.
And it's the same with modern Judaism. Modern Judaism is mostly a monogamous religious system. So they just, you know, the, the people who are like super pro Christian or super pro Jew generally don't dwell on this point too much. So when you go and you're reading about this, it's usually people who want to dunk on the Bible or who want to dunk on Jews or who want to dunk on, you know, early, whatever.
Right. And I think. Because of that, people miss interesting things we can learn about the development of Christianity and Judaism by studying both one, what does, what are the actual rules laid out in the Bible around this? And two, how and why did they develop and change over time?
Simone Collins: Okay. I'm excited for this.
Any thoughts? I, I, I'm, I'm kind of afraid of what we're going to [00:03:00] learn. Is it, is it more in the end biblical to just I'll give you a
Malcolm Collins: summary of what you're going to learn, because this is really interesting. So it is kind of weird that the Bible isn't that explicit about one husband, one wife, but seems to assume it in the New Testament, where in the Old Testament, it seems to assume that
Published on 1 year, 2 months ago