Carbon Dioxide's Anti-Mormon Training Thread

[One Bad Pig]

In the face of records concerning people who had more than one wife concurrently without any trace of censure, I consider the interpretation unconvincing.

I do not recall a single instance of a positive portrayal of polygamy - every instance depicts strife. It also seems to me that by the time of Christ Judaism was quite firmly monogamous, as was early Christianity.

[Cow Poke]

Fair enough - but I had interpreted the statement to mean that Abraham had more than one wife at the same time. Which is not to say that I knew he had taken another wife ... and .... concubineS - that was a surprise.

I think what separates Smith from the examples in the Bible is that Smith married women who were ALREADY MARRIED to other men, often his own loyal supporters. Polyandry, not polygamy.

Source: FairMormon.org

Among Joseph's plural marriages and/or sealings, between eight to eleven of them were to women who were already married. Of the eight well-documented cases, five of the husbands were Latter-day Saints, and the other three were either not active in or not associated with the Church. In all cases, these women continued to live with their husbands, most of them doing so until their husbands died. These eternal marriages appear to have had little effect upon the lives of the women involved, with the exception that they would be sealed to Joseph in the afterlife rather than to their earthly husbands.

© Copyright Original Source

Note that even this MORMON source has a hard time digesting this...

Source: Cont'd

Of all the aspects of Joseph Smith's marital theology, this is the most difficult area to understand, because very little primary evidence exists.

© Copyright Original Source

EVEN IF Biblical justification for polygamy was presented, one would have to advance to the case for polyandry. And note that FairMormon calls it Smith's "marital theology".

I can't make this stuff up!

[tabibito]

As I recall most marriages are marked by strife, one way or another. Take Mrs. Nabal for instance (1 Samuel 25).
Instruction in the First Century churches, that an elder should be the husband of but one wife would tend to suggest that polygamy wasn't unknown in some sectors, and that it was accepted for ordinary church members.
Additionally

http://christianthinktank.com/polygame.html
Polygamy was practiced somewhat in 1st century Palestinian Judaism
"There is evidence of the practice of polygamy in Palestinian Judaism in NT times (cf. J. Jeremias, Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus: An Investigation into Economic and Social Conditions during the New Testament Period, 1969, 90, 93, 369f.). Herod the Great (37-4 B.C.) had ten wives (Josephus, Ant. 17, 19f.; War 1,562) and a considerable harem (War 1,511). Polygamy and concubinage among the aristocracy is attested by Josephus, Ant. 12, 186ff.; 13, 380; War 1, 97. The continued practice of levirate marriage (Yeb. 15b) evidently led to polygamy, which was countenanced by the school of Shammai but not by that of Hillel.

Given the foregoing, if polygamy was prohibited in the NT Churches, stated opposition to the practice should be in the New Testament record.

[One Bad Pig]

Given the foregoing, if polygamy was prohibited in the NT Churches, stated opposition to the practice should be in the New Testament record.

Not necessarily. The NT record is incomplete by its own admission (e.g., John 21:25); The epistles in particular were written to address problems in the church, not to be comprehensive theological works.