Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: marcoh@lccma.bos.locus.com (Mark Heroux) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Does the Bible prohibit Polygamy ? Message-ID: Date: 11 Feb 91 02:59:34 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Locus Computing Corporation --- Boston Office Lines: 40 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article you write: >You might try some passages from the New Testament (why do you guys >reach for the Old Testament so quickly?). > >1 Timothy 3 > >A church leader must be without fault; he must have only one wife > >Ipso facto more than one wife is a fault. Paul is not all that keen on >having this many. > Your argument seems to hinge on the way 1 Timothy 3:2 is punctuated. I get this idea because of your ipso facto implication of the fault. It is worth noting, however, that the Greek manuscripts from which the New Testament is translated not only have no punctuation, but words are not even separated by spaces. Any punctuation you find in an English version of the New Testament has been "interpreted" into the text by the translators. This leaves room for the interpretation of 1 Timothy 3:2 which appears in the New International Version of the New Testament: "...must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach". This interpretation communicates to me a laundry list of desirable qualities for leaders, each characteristic being able to stand alone. I am not arguing that my pet version is right and yours is not; rather, I have merely attempted to show that there is room for a varied interpretation of individual texts. The conclusion that "[having] more than one wife is a fault" is a little stronger than is warranted merely by 1 Timothy 3:2 in my opinion. 1 Corinthians 7:2 (NIV), however, makes a much stronger case. It says, "...each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband". Could someone with a version other than the NIV shed a little more light on this scripture? Marco ------------------------- E-mail: marcoh@locus.com