Last summer I had some mutually beneficial dialogue with an agnostic friend about Christianity. I appreciated the opportunity to think through some issues. My friend admitted there were some remarkable things about the Bible that point to its trustworthiness, but expressed concern over things in the Bible like polygamy, incest and gang rape. She wondered how Christians can be so against gay marriage or otherwise be on moral crusades when the Bible is filled with polygamy and other moral atrocity. She saw the Bible (and Christians) as inconsistent. Here are some of my thoughts in reply. [This post is NOT about gay marriage or Christians being on moral crusades - so please don’t turn it into something it is not about. Rather this post is about how to view and understand the Bible.]
There are som
e very disturbing things in the Bible, and this can’t be denied. And if you weren’t aware – yes – polygamy, incest and gang rape are all in there!
A number of times I’ve heard someone say, “the Bible has polygamy in it!!” as a reason to condemn the Bible or to accuse Christians of hypocrisy when they take a stand on certain moral issues.
My initial response would be “Well, duh, of course the Bible has polygamy in it!” – The Old Testament took place in an ancient eastern culture where polygamy was a cultural norm. God wanted to call out a people who were different and did not practice polygamy, yet he had to start working with people “where they were” - imperfections and all and in their current cultural environment. For example, in our modern western culture today, things like divorce, co-habitation, and illegitimacy have become a cultural norm. If the Old Testament was being written now, it would reflect that. God would be dealing with people in these life situations – not endorsing those behaviors – but meeting people where they are and teaching them a better way.
There is a big difference between something being descriptive and prescriptive! This is a critical point. Just because a behavior or activity is in the Bible does not mean it is being endorsed! This would be similar to other books, historical records, or news reports. Recording the truth of what happened does not mean it is being sanctioned.
For example, in the book of Judges in the Old Testament troubling immoral things take place. (Such as gang rape in Judges 19.) Yet, a theme of Judges is that this was a very dark time in Israel because “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” The book of Judges is a warning. People were not following God’s ways and dark times resulted. The mayhem is described because it was the truth of what was taking place, not because it was being endorsed as acceptable behavior.
Another example would be famous King Solomon with his many wives and concubines – that would be 1,000! Deuteronomy 17 specifically says the kings of Israel should not multiply their horses (accumulate wealth) and should not multiply their wives (have many wives). King Solomon disobeyed and did not follow God’s law on this matter. Solomon’s grand life ended very badly (I Kings 11). I Kings states that Solomon’s heart was not loyal to God. His marriage to multiple foreign women led him into idolatry. This is a warning for all of us that we can start well for God and end terribly when we do things our way instead of God’s way.
Several verses in the New Testament (Rom. 15:4 for example) emphasize that the Old Testament was written for our learning. We can learn from the bad decisions of God’s people in the past so we don’t make the same ones.
I actually see the moral mayhem in the Bible as pointing to it being a true record of God’s dealings with humanity. It is a real and accurate portrayal of the human condition. Watch the news or read the newspaper – people are really messed up. Better yet, look more closely at yourself and your family. Biblical families weren’t perfect and neither are our families today. Yes, people also do good things and humanity can make progress but the depravity of humanity seems overwhelming.
If the Bible had nothing bad in it, and only recorded wonderful, near perfect people and families - I’d suspect it was a fairytale or completely whitewashed. (And I’d also feel pretty darn discouraged about myself and my family!) But…God meets people where they are, with all their hang ups, and transforms them into better people who reflect Jesus. That’s how God worked in biblical times and how he works today.
I know this post is not exhaustive, and not every issue or argument has been addressed – but those are some general thoughts which I hope will help bring a better view of certain aspects of the Bible. I may have some other posts where I delve into other related concerns, like some of the bizarre laws in Leviticus.
I was raised Catholic and were in all girls Catholic Orphanage , even then reading the Bible I realized that it contained accounts that I did not fully understood at the time. I remember asking questions but for the most part I was punished for asking such indiscreet questions. I remember in particular asking about one of the apostles letter to Jesus , which to me even in childhood sounded more like love letters from one human to another , and that was the time when I was severely punished which left me with more questions than answers and even more curious than ever
Thanks for your comment yiyime. It happens in Protestant settings too. Sadly, when children or teens (or adults for that matter) ask some hard questions about the Bible – they are too often scolded, shut down, or given trite answers. This is so wrong. We need to be open to discussion. We need to be willing to wrestle with/think through these tough issues – instead of trying to ignore them.
I totally agree . I respect and value the Bible as a piece of Historic significance but I am totally aware that anything that is written includes bias and the perception of the writer and there were many versions of the Bible that were destroyed as they were other status of power or religious significance. I guess i have to be grateful that my questions weren’t answered as this was and is my reasons for look into it on my own and come to my own conclusions.Thank you for writing me back.
Nice job. I’ve thought the same thing about how the Bible would look if it left all the horrid bits out. Fairy tale is a good description, Laura. The Bible has a lot of writing genres in it, including historical narrative as in much of Judges. I think the people who criticize it like you pointed out are folks who have not read the while thing for themselves.
It’s interesting that you are writing on this now, because unklee just started a series he is doing on responsible Bible reading too. In fact, tomorrow he is guesting at my place on how reading the Bible should lead to doing it too.
Cheers,
Tim
Thanks Tim for the encouragement, and for the heads up on unklee’s series and the guest post.
The logic seems to work this way: If it’s mentioned in the Bible, it must be endorsed by the Bible. Strange that that sort of standard tends not to be forced on any other work, literary or otherwise.
I agree Jenny! We don’t read other books assuming a description of certain behavior means it is being sanctioned.
I think your distinction between descriptive and prescriptive is very important, and I agree with you.
But I think what troubles most of us who aren’t Christians are the things (especially in the OT) that were prescriptive, like this from Numbers 31:17-18:
I find it hard to imagine that God or his spokesman would actually command something so horrendous. If you really think about what this directive would have entailed, it makes things like the Sandy Hook tragedy pale in comparison.
Thanks for your comment Nate! You actually bring up a separate/different issue than the one I was trying to address in this post. But it is another genuine and very real area of concern – how do we handle God ordering the wide scale slaughter of people groups? This is indeed on my list to blog about but I just haven’t gotten there yet. My present post has a different focus. So many times I’ve heard people say “the Bible has_______ in it” as a reason to discredit it (or Christians) – and it is clearly a descriptive vs prescriptive issue.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to get off-topic. I only mentioned this passage because it seems to imply divinely-sanctioned rape in addition to the genocide. But I’ll definitely keep an eye out for your post on the slaughter issue.
Thanks!
I liked your sentence: ” If the Old Testament was being written now, it would reflect that. God would be dealing with people in these life situations – not endorsing those behaviors – but meeting people where they are and teaching them a better way.”
I was once in an inner city church where there were many recently converted teens and twenties, some of them literally off the street. A young but wise friend was a leader of a share house, and one of the boys living in his house, a new convert, was still smoking pot. I asked my friend what he was going to do about it and his reply was illuminating. He said that guy had many issues to deal with, and he wasn’t going to try to push him top deal with them all at once, but rather allow the Holy Spirit to address them at his pace.
I feel the OT is similar, as you have indicated.
Thanks Unklee. Good example and illustration with the inner city work. It is usually not feasible to expect an individual (or a society for that matter) to instantly change. Change takes time. God is so patient with us. Now if we as believers could get better at being patient with others…
I just read in Jeremy White’s The Gospel [un]Cut a good insight on this. He said that the struggle a person experiences with sin may be the growth itself.