Haunted by Paradise

A Philosopher's Quest for Biblical Answers to Key Moral Questions

James Bernard Murphy

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781725269071
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Teologia cristiana

The Bible today is weaponized by both liberals and conservatives, side cherry-picking their favorite verses. Have you ever wondered why the Bible lends itself to supporting contradictory positions in moral debates--why even the devil quotes Scripture? If so, you will enjoy this book. Haunted by Paradise reveals the unity and coherence of the Bible in the light of paradise. The Bible begins in Eden and ends in the new Jerusalem--in between, the Bible is haunted by the memory of paradise lost and the hope for paradise regained. With paradise as the interpretive key, Murphy unlocks biblical ethics. He shows that there is no Old Testament ethics or New Testament ethics--only a unified biblical ethics. In sixteen short chapters, this book addresses urgent moral questions about issues ranging from capital punishment to war, including divine justice, homosexuality, marriage, nature, racism, patriarchy, and work. In each chapter, Murphy shows how the Bible negotiates the tension between divine ideals and human realities.

Marriage and Family: Are We Meant
to Live in Monogamy or Polygamy?

Many people wonder whether the biblical ideal of lifelong covenantal marriage still makes sense in a world where few people marry for a lifetime. Today, marriage is becoming more of a contract than a covenant. Some American states even permit couples to choose a contractual rather than a covenantal marriage. What is the difference between a contract and a covenant? A contract is an agreement to provide a limited set of goods or services over a limited period of time; a covenant is an agreement to give one’s self entirely to another person for the whole of life. The frequency of divorce and prenuptial agreements shows that many people today take a contractual view of the marital bond. Some biblical believers today assert that gay marriage is a threat to biblical marriage. As we shall see, however, what threatens biblical marriage today is not gay marriage but elective relationships that deny total self-giving and fidelity over the course of a lifetime.

According to the Bible, our most fundamental marital covenant is with God. We can live out that covenant in a variety of ways, including celibacy, monogamous marriage, and polygamy. But covenantal human marriage will always be how most people live out their relationship with God. Unlike a contractual marriage, covenantal marriage requires a total self-giving of each spouse until death. It is the closest most of us will ever come to the infinite generosity and faithfulness of God. So long as there are those who accept God’s invitation to a covenantal relation with him, there will also be those who enter covenantal marriage with a human spouse. Like contracts, covenants are agreements expressive of the free consent of the parties. Many biblical marriages do not live up to the consensual ideal of covenantal marriage—especially for the wives. But there is no doubt that the biblical view of marriage as a covenant has laid the basis for the modern ideal of fully consensual marriage.

Many people today assume that the Bible simply endorses the unique dignity of monogamous marriage. How surprising it is, then, if not disturbing, to discover that God permits polygamy in the Old Testament and that Jesus endorses celibacy in the New Testament. Yet Old Testament polygamy always looks back to the monogamous garden of Eden just as New Testament monogamy looks forward to the celibate kingdom of God. We cannot understand marriage in the Bible without careful attention to our beginning and our end. We are created for monogamy but we are destined for celibacy. What, then, gives unity to these different practices of monogamy, polygamy, and celibacy? They all get their meaning from the biblical ideal of covenant. God relates to Israel not by blood or descent but by mutual promises. Marriage is the paradigm of a permanent relationship based not on blood but on the free exchange of promises. Once we see that every believer is married to God, either directly in celibacy or indirectly through a spouse, we can understand biblical marriage. An entire book of the Bible, the Song of Solomon, is an allegory about God’s courtship of Israel; the Christian church is described as the bride of Christ (2 Cor 11:2; Rev 21:2). God is a partner in every biblical marriage. The human marital covenant is a primary way—but not the only way—in which we live out our divine marital covenant.

There is no doubt that human beings are created for monogamous marriage, as we see when Adam and Eve are joined together and become one flesh as husband and wife in paradise (Gen 2:24–25; Eph 5:31). How do we know that the marriage of Adam and Eve is meant to create a norm for all future marriages? Gordon Paul Hugenberger, in his book Marriage as a Covenant, points out that the rule that “a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife” does not apply to Adam (who has no parents) but only to all future husbands. The “one flesh” unity of Adam and Eve is intended by God to be indissoluble, as Jesus insists (Matt 19:8; cf. Mal 2:16).

Yet polygamy emerges soon thereafter when “Lamech took two wives” (Gen 4:19). Now Lamech is a cursed descendent of Cain and himself also a killer (Gen 4:23)—so not exactly a biblical role model. Subsequently, of course, patriarchs and kings take many wives and concubines. Not only is this polygamy not punished but God rewards his favorites with wives, children, and land (2 Sam 12:8). At least sixteen Old Testament men practice polygamy. Solomon, one of God’s favorite kings, is reported to have had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kgs 11:3). What accounts for the transition from Edenic monogamy to polygamy? Eden reflects God’s intentions for us before we foil his plans by disobedience. Once we are expelled from paradise, we are punished with patriarchy (Gen 3:16), while still subject to the divine aspiration that we “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen 8:17; Ezek 36:11). The combination of patriarchy and fertility yields polygamy. Given the biblical assumption that infertility is always due to a woman’s barrenness (Gen 11:30; Luke 1:7; 23:29), polygamy is the most fruitful form of marriage. Polyandry (where one woman has many husbands), by contrast, is not only inconsistent with patriarchy but also produces far fewer children than does polygamy.

In a fallen world of patriarchy with a felt imperative to multiply, polygamy thus seems inevitable. What is remarkable is the extent to which the Bible proceeds to undermine polygamy. Polygamy is permitted but never enjoined by Mosaic law. The legal duty of Levirate marriage—when a man is required to marry his widowed sister-in-law to raise children in his brother’s name (Deut 25:5; Luke 20:28)—may result in polygamy if the man is already married, but polygamy is certainly not the purpose of the Levirate duty. Mosaic law merely tolerates polygamy and expresses moral disapproval by strictly constraining its practice to protect the interests of wives and children. One may not be married at the same time to a woman and her sister (Lev 18:18)—an arrangement that tends to produce conflict among wives (Gen 30:1, 15). Much more constraining is the duty to “not diminish the food, clothing, or marital rights of the first wife,” when a man takes a second (Exod 21:10; 1 Cor 7:3). What are a wife’s marital rights? According to the Bible, her rights include physical intimacy with her husband. Paul is clear that marital rights impose extensive duties: “The husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does” (1 Cor 7:4). Even a rich man might not be able to honor the marital rights of more than one woman. The patrimony of children born to disfavored wives is also protected (Deut 21:15–17). In every legal system, some activities are regulated by law even when morally disfavored by lawmakers.

Mosaic law also strongly condemns adultery (Exod 20:14; Rom 13:9) and a strict prohibition of adultery undermines biblical polygamy. Although polygamy in theory does not strictly violate the injunction against adultery, which forbids sex outside of marriage, biblical polygamy is never sharply distinguished from concubinage. Some wives are called concubines while some concubines are called wives (2 Sam 5:13; Song 6:8): Abraham’s last companion, Keturah, is called his wife (Gen 25:1) but also his concubine (1 Chr 1:32). Patriarchs and kings possess many formal wives and informal concubines. The Bible never clearly distinguishes among wives, concubines, slave wives, and captive wives. Although the Mosaic precepts against adultery are sex-neutral (“you shall not commit adultery”), in practice they apply principally to women. In much of the Bible, even a married man is permitted to take any woman as a concubine or wife who does not already belong to another man. A woman, by contrast, is not permitted to have sex with anyone except her one husband. Given the absence of sharp boundaries between formal wives and informal concubines, biblical polygamy makes a mockery of the divine commandment against adultery. The only kind of marriage truly consistent with the spirit of the Mosaic prohibition of adultery is monogamy.

The Edenic ideal of monogamy is also honored in other ways. When God’s creation is renewed after the flood, Noah becomes a new Adam, with stewardship over all the animals and plants (Gen 9:3, 10). In the ark, as in Eden, there is perfect harmony within nature and between man and God. It is thus noteworthy that Noah and his sons all live in monogamy. God’s ideals are often...