Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes? (2)

This Part 2 concludes the topic “Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes? (1)”.  Before continuing, I urge you to first read Part 1; it contains the foundational verses.  Please be advised…the subject is controversial!  

This topic is highlighting Bible characters and God’s laws concerning plural wives & concubines.  It doesn’t discuss the morals or differing marital laws of modern nations.  (Western customs fall short.)

Regardless of cultures, God defines true morality in His word.  He determines what is and isn’t sexual sin.  Laws of human governments, customary practices, beliefs of churches…may or may not reflect God’s morality.  (see the topic “Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape” for more about sexual immorality.)

Part 1 identified relative terms.  Our English word polygamy includes polygyny, one man cohabiting with plural wives; polyandry, one woman cohabiting with plural husbands.  The terms derive from the Greek poly/many, gamos/marriage, gyne/wife.  Polygyny was seen as a lawful option in God’s eyes; polyandry wasn’t!  (That’s not to say practicing polygyny is advised in modern Western nations.) 

Many men in the Bible were monogamous, one man cohabiting with one wife (at a time).  Divorce & remarriage is a form of sequential monogamy, otherwise called consecutive polygyny/polyandry.

Concubinage, from the Latin word concubina, was a respected polygynous marital option in the Old Testament (OT) and the ancient world.  It resembles heterosexual civil union, or having a mistress, as done in some countries today.  A mistress doesn’t have sex with plural partners (unlike a prostitute).

Godly and ungodly men of the Bible had plural wives.  In Part 1, we saw that Abraham, his brother Nahór, Abimélech, Pharoah, Job…cohabited with plural wives & concubines!  Jacob did too.  Those men were born prior to the OT nation of Israel. 

Christ was the God of OT Israel.  (ref the topic “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.)  During Moses’ time, Christ gave codified laws/regulations to His theocratic nation.  Christ’s laws define His morality and marriage in God’s sight, adultery, and prescribe consequences for violations.

Part 1 noted: Christ’s law of concubines, war brides, levirate law so-called, and some Israelites who cohabited with plural wives/concubines…Manásseh, Caleb, Saul, Gideon, Samuel’s father, King Joásh.

John Milton (1608–1674) was an English theologian, statesman and poet.  His best-known work is the epic poem Paradise Lost.  Milton was a Puritan; they generally held very strict morals.  But some of his personal Bible beliefs were ‘unconventional’.  To quote from the manuscript of Milton’s theological treatise De Doctrina Christiana: “Either polygamy [polygyny] is a true marriage, or all children born in that state are spurious; which would include the whole race of Jacob [Israel], the twelve holy tribes chosen by God.”  Ancient Israel, the people Christ loved, didn’t come from a progenitor living in sin!

Here in Part 2, we’ll note a few other polygynists in scripture, and look at New Testament (NT) verses. 

Moses had more than one wife.  Ex.2:21 he married Zipporáh, daughter of the priest of Midián (Ex.3:1).  Midianites descended from Abraham and his concubine wife Keturáh (Ge.25:1-2, 1Ch.1:32).  Nu.12:1 “Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite (Strongs h3571) woman he had married.”  Zipporah and Miriam both came from Shem→Abraham…whereas the Cushite/Ethiopian wife was from Ham (Ge.10:6).  Moses was mighty and learned in the ways of Egypt (Ac.7:22).  Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 2:10:2 “Tharbis was daughter of the king of the Ethiopians; she saw Moses as he led the army [of Egypt]. She fell deeply in love. Moses consummated his marriage.”  She was his Cushite wife.     

Jer.13:23 “Can an Ethiopian (h3569) change his skin, or a leopard his spots?”  Leopard spots are black.  Black-skinned Ethiopians.  Miriam sounded racist in Nu.12:1.  In return, the Lord struck her skin with leprosy, as white as snow (Nu.12:10)!  John Milton op. cit. “It is not likely that the wife of Moses, who had been so often spoken of before by her proper name of Zipporah, should now be called by the new title of a Cushite; or that the anger of Aaron and Miriam should at this time be suddenly kindled.” 

Samuel Dennis Marriage from the Bible Alone “Moses [had] at least 3 wives: Zipporah (Ex.2:21); an Ethiopian woman (Nu.12:1); another…daughter of a man called Hobáb who wasn’t Zipporah’s father (Nu.10:29, Jg.4:11).”  The names aren’t completely certain.  However, Kenites preceded Abraham’s son Midian/Midianites (Ge.15:19, 25:2).  And Moses also had a Kenite father-in-law & wife (Jg.1:16, 4:11).

David was a great hero, Israel’s most famous king.  He had God’s Holy Spirit (HS).  ref 1Sm.16:13, 2Sm.23:1-2, Ps.51:11, Mk.12:36, Ac.1:16, 4:24-25.  This enabled David to walk in Christ’s statutes & commandments (1Ki.3:14).  1Ki.15:5 “David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and hadn’t turned aside from anything He commanded him, except in the matter of Uriáh the Hittite.”  David habitually obeyed the Lord (except in that one serious matter).     

Yet King David had many wives/concubines (2Sm.5:13, 1Ch.3:1-9).  His cohabiting with plural wives didn’t violate God’s morality!  It wasn’t sin in God’s eyes.  And Christ blessed David!  2Sm.12:7-9 the Lord gave David the wives of the deceased King Saul…the Lord would’ve even given David a larger palace and more wives!  And when David was old & weak, a beautiful girl warmed him at night (1Ki.1:1-4).  David loved the Lord (Ps.18:1); he was “a man after God’s own heart” (Ac.13:22).

John Milton op. cit. “The very argument which is used toward David [2Sm.12:8], is of more force when applied to the gift of wives, than to any other – you ought to have abstained from the wife of another person [Uriah].”  Christ’s gift of wives to David.

David’s son Solomon also had wives/concubines (Ec.2:8 NASB, JPS Tanakh, etc.).  1Ki.11:1-4 but King Solomon multiplied heathen wives through political marriages.  De.17:15-17 the king of Israel wasn’t to maintain a large harem of heathen women!  John Milton ibid “Deut.17:16-17 is so far from condemning polygamy [polygyny]… and only imposes the same restraints upon this condition which are laid upon the multiplication of horses, or the accumulation of treasure.”  A king was expected to have more than one horse, more than one ring/bar of gold…or wife!  Parallelism.  Solomon erred by marrying ungodly foreign women.  As a result, his heart later sought pagan gods.  Whereas the heart of his father David remained devoted to the Lord (1Ki.11:33-34), even though David had several Israelite wives.

Esther the Jewess was the king of Persia’s favorite wife, in the 400s BC.  Est.2:8-17 she became queen of Persia.  v.14 he also made many concubines of the virgins.  Polygyny was an accepted legal practice in the ancient Near East.  In scripture, neither the Persian king nor Esther committed adultery.

Christ, the God of OT Israel, Himself had two wives!  What?!  The Lord declared of Israel and Judah in Je.3:11-14 KJV, “I Am married to you”.  God Himself became figuratively married to two nations.  Is.54:5 “Your Maker is your Husband…the Holy One of Israel.”  The word of the Lord came in Ezk.23:  v.1-4 “There were two women. Their [allegorical] names were Oholáh the elder and Oholibáh her sister. And they became Mine, and bore sons and daughters.”  But God’s two OT wives became adulteresses (v.36-37).  So the Lord gave Israel a bill of divorce (Je.3:8, De.24:1), and later sent away Judah captive.

Daniel I. Block wrote in his OT Commentary, p.736 “Yahweh’s bigamy is all the more striking.”  Maurice Nelson The Monogamy Lie! “God’s polygyny is figurative, not literal…The church finds itself in a bit of a quandary, when God claims, in the Bible, that He is engaging in a supposedly ‘sinful’ act [polygyny]. It is ludicrous to believe that God would portray Himself participating in a sin as a method to teach us not to sin. God [was] the polygynous husband of two women who have cheated [Ezk.23:36-37] on their Husband (God) by pursuing other gods.”  Christ Himself is a figurative polygynist!

Moody Bible Institute Professor of Theology William F. Luck The Morality of Biblical Polygyny, p.51 “If it is a sin to be a polygamist, then God has referred to Himself as a Being with a character flaw.”

Ps.45:6-15 is a Messianic psalm (v.6-7 is quoted in He.1:8-9), and types Christ and His church.  Ps.45:14 relates to Est.2:8-17, virgins going in to the king.  Cambridge Bible Ps.45:9 “One of the wives takes precedence of the rest.”  Benson Commentary “As the queen is the church in general, so these honorable women are particular believers, added daily to the church.”  Jesus is figuratively betrothed to each believer!  2Co.11:2 Paul the apostle wrote to the church, “I betrothed you to one husband, Christ”.

Many theologians view the Song of Solomon not only as a human love story but also as a type of the spiritual love Christ has for His Bride, the church.  SSol.6:8-9 “There are 60 queens and 80 concubines, but my dove is unique.”  Christ marrying His Bride(s) was here typified by Solomon and his 141 wives!  John Milton op. cit. “In Canticles 6:8-10 [SSol.6:8-10], the queens and concubines are evidently mentioned with honor.”  This minimally prefigures 2Co.11:2.  Eventually Christ ‘marries’ way more than 141 Christians!  (Note: Again, Solomon later wrongly engaged in political marriages with pagan women who drew him to other gods; 1Ki.11:1-4 indicates 1,000 total women, not just 141 Israelitesses.)

Paul wrote in Ep.5:30-32, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”  The Greek term for church is ekklésia (g1577), a feminine compound noun which means a group or gathering or assembly of people.  cf. a ‘flock of sheep’.  Christ doesn’t marry only one person.  Each Christian becomes His figurative Bride, each spiritually becoming “one flesh” with Him.   

“One flesh” refers to unseparated or organic union.  Paul wrote in 1Co.6:16-17, “Don’t you know that a man who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For God says [Ge.2:24], ‘The two will become one flesh.”  In regards to a harlot even, who has many partners!  As a harlot has plural partners, a man could have plural wives.  Samuel Dennis op.cit. “So the married man who sleeps with a harlot is now ‘one flesh’ with his wife, and ‘one flesh’ with the harlot. He is ‘one flesh’ with two women. The ‘one flesh’ relationship isn’t limited to a monogamous couple only.”  It’s not exclusive. 

It is apparent “one flesh” in scripture isn’t only confined to ‘a man with only one woman’.  That was a sham restriction of pagan Roman culture (which in actuality was licentious).  Paul and Jesus referred to Ge.2:24 LXX, Adam & Eve as “one flesh”.  Jesus said in Mt.19:5 Good News, “A man…will remain united with his wife, and the two shall be one flesh”.  Ge.2:23 Adam said Eve is “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.”  Ge.29:14 Laban said his nephew Jacob is “my bone and my flesh.”  Yet Esau too is Laban’s nephew!  Jg.9:2 Abimelech said via his mother’s relatives (plural), “I am your bone and your flesh”.  The (idiomatic) expression “my/your bone and flesh” didn’t mean a monogamous marriage.       

Mt.19:3-ff is about divorce, about remaining united, not about monogamy.  Lauren Heiligenthal Evaluating Western Christianity’s Interpretation of Biblical Polygamy, p.49 “Ultimately, Mat.19:3-9 does not explicitly emphasize the monogamist ideal nor does it exclude polygamy.”  (However, Jesus’ words in v.5 also indicate that for a marriage, plural wives aren’t mandatory; one wife is enough.) 

Moses wrote Ge.2:24.  He knew what God meant by “one flesh”.  Christ chose Moses to record His laws which authorized & regulated polygyny!  (see Part 1.)  And Moses himself had more than one wife.

1Co.12:27 “You [the church] are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.”  Each believer is His Bride, a spiritually chaste virgin to be one with Christ (2Co.11:2).  Mt.25:1-13 is Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins.  Five were wise.  Jesus is the Groom/ Bridegroom, and they are His Brides (plural)!  v.10-12 “The door was shut” refers to the entrance to the bridal chamber where a marriage was consummated.  (also see “Wedding Pattern in Bible Holydays”.)  In Mt.25 too, Christ depicts Himself as a polygynist.

Re.19:9 “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”  Christ figuratively marries virgins.  The typology corresponds to OT plural marriages (SSol.6:8-9).  Perhaps this makes more understandable 2Sm.12:7-8 where the prophet Nathan said the Lord would have given King David even more wives.  The King of kings, Christ Himself…had two OT wives, plus numerous NT Brides!    

Clyde L. Pilkington The Great Omission, p.62 “The [Bible] text speaks of the relationship between God and Israel, and later between Christ and the church, in polygamous terms.”  (Some writers use the terms ‘polygyny’ and ‘polygamy’ interchangeably, though there’s a difference in today’s English.)

The ancient Near East was polygynous.  Pagan Greco-Roman society marriages were monogamous.  But Rome allowed 1^st century Jews (and Persians?) to continue the (OT) laws & customs of their traditional marriages.  David I. Brewer writes, “Polygamy [polygyny] was undoubtedly part of life in 1^st century Judaism. It is now known that the middle classes also practiced polygamy. It is likely that there were few polygamous marriages outside Israel, because they wouldn’t be recognized in Roman law.”

The NT epistles were written to gentile areas which were under Roman law.  Paul was a Roman citizen (Ac.22:27-28).  As such, he didn’t put himself at risk by faulting Roman law or its ostensible marital monogamy.  And faulting might have increased division between Jewish & gentile Christians in areas.

Nathan Braun The History & Philosophy of Marriage, p.71 “The first Christians, while they themselves were scarcely tolerated, were not inclined to attempt a social revolution by opposing the established [Roman] system of monogamy; but they attempted to oppose only its vices, and to remove them.”

{Note: The NT repudiates religious prostitution, incest, homosexuality/lesbianism, adultery, polyandry, some consecutive polygyny (divorce & remarriage), pornéia or sexual immorality in general.}

Paul wrote in 1Ti.3:2, 12, Ti.1:6 that church leaders (Jewish & gentile) should be the “husband of one wife”.  This advice wouldn’t put leaders at odds with Roman monogamy laws for gentiles.  David Brewer “There would have been a few converts with more than one wife. These were allowed to keep their wives, but could not serve as leaders.”  It’s not that polygyny is immoral according to God’s laws.

William Luck op. cit., p.46 “If we cannot find a prohibition of polygyny up to this point of the inspired text, we are in trouble (hermeneutically speaking) finding it here [1Ti.3:2, Ti.1:6]. Second, we should remember that polygyny was considered barbaric by the Greeks and had not been practiced in Ephesus or Crete (where Timothy and Titus lived) [1Ti.1:3, Ti.1:5]….”  Paul wrote to the Greco-Roman world.

However, the way many churches interpret “one wife” in 1Ti.3:12…Abraham the father of the faithful, and David “a man after God’s own heart”, couldn’t even serve as deacons today!  The Christian Bible distributor Gideon’s International is named after a polygynist (Jg.8:30) who couldn’t even be a deacon?  

Polygyny is a moral marital option of God, a choice; but He didn’t explicitly command it.  However, in 1Co.7 we glimpse the allowance for its practice among Christians (laymen only?).  1Co.7:10-11 the Lord said a wife who’d separated from her husband should reconcile with him, or else remain unmarried.  And a man shouldn’t divorce his wife.  Then Paul said in v.27-28, a man who was released from a wife and had remarried, wasn’t in sin.  And if his 1^st wife was to later reconcile with him, as the Lord said in v.11, this man would then be cohabiting with two wives.

The historian Josephus (37–100 AD) wrote of his Jewish people in Antiquities of the Jews 17:1:2. “It is the ancient practice among us to have many wives at the same time.”  1Co.7:39 & Ro.7:2-3 pertain to wives, not husbands.  Because God allowed a man to add a 2^nd wife while his 1^st was alive with him.    

George Joyce Christian Marriage “Justin Martyr [100–165 AD, a gentile] makes it a reproach to Trypho [a Jew] that the Jewish teachers permitted a man to have several wives. When in 212 AD, the lex Antoniana de civitate gave the rights of Roman citizenship to great numbers of Jews, it was found to tolerate polygamy among them. On the other hand, the Romans were strictly monogamous.”  Augustine (354–430 AD) later wrote in Treatises on Marriage and Other Subjects, “According to Roman law it is not permissible to marry a 2^nd wife as long as he has another wife living”.  In 1563 AD, the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) made polygyny anathema at the Council of Trent.  Polygamy was condemned.

Maurice Nelson op. cit. “Polygyny was prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church, not by God. A monogamous society criminally punishes men for relationships allowed by God.”

The society of pagan Rome was morally corrupt.  Juno, the wife of Jupiter, was the Roman goddess of love & marriage.  The 6^th month of Caesar’s Julian calendar (46 BC) was Iunius, the ‘month of Juno’.  Our present Gregorian calendar comes from the Julian calendar.  Western society today resembles decadent Roman society in some respects.  And our ‘June’ is the most popular month for weddings.

Our modern society too is corrupt…illicit sex, licentiousness, abortion, is commonplace.  Prostitution and divorce rates are high in Western nations which have marriage laws based upon the Greco-Roman model and proliferated by the RCC.

Wikipedia: Marriage in Ancient Rome “Marriage was a strictly monogamous institution. It is one aspect of ancient Roman culture that was embraced by early Christianity, which in turn perpetuated it as an ideal in later Western culture.”

“Polygamy is not forbidden in the OT. The NT is largely silent on polygamy. Polygyny is legal in 58 out of nearly 200 sovereign states. Polyandry is illegal in virtually every country.” (Wikipedia)  In the Bible, polyandry is adultery.  William Luck op. cit., p.56 “The husband functions as the head [1Co.11:3], while the woman functions, let us say, as the arm. The head may control more than one arm at a time. But to have two heads [husbands] attempting to control the same arm would be monstrous.”

Many nations today don’t adhere to the Western practice of solely monogamous marriages.  Polygyny is legal in much of Africa.  It’s been said that some peoples there have no vocabulary term for ‘prostitution’!  And African plural wives generally have high social status.  Some Christians too practice polygyny in nations where it’s legal (African & Asian).

Wikipedia: Polygamy in Christianity “Although the Old Testament describes numerous examples of polygamy among devotees to God, most Christian groups have historically rejected the practice of polygamy and have upheld monogamy alone as normative. Nevertheless, some Christian groups in different periods have practiced, or currently do practice, polygamy.”

There are African pastors who resent Western church attempts to compel African churches to disallow what God showed was lawful in the OT!  A lead pastor in Ghana, Stephen Boateng, says, “There’s no single quotation in the Bible that forbids polygamy, even God favors it”.  His colleague, Daniel Eshun, said rhetorically, “At what point did polygamy become a sin?”  1Ti.3 & Ti.1, not written before the 60s AD, would be late for God to somehow change His mind and suddenly rule that polygyny is sin!       

John Milton op. cit. “I argue as follows from Heb.13:4: Polygamy is either marriage, or fornication, or adultery; the apostle recognizes no fourth state…so many patriarchs were polygamists…whoremongers and adulterers God will judge, whereas the patriarchs were the objects of His especial favor.”

It is possible for a man to simultaneously love more than one woman.  Adriana Blake Women Can Win the Marriage Lottery “Why should we think that it is possible to love only one person as a mate? We acknowledge that we can love more than one child and more than one parent.”

The premise that monogamous families produce better-adjusted children is disputable.  Yes, contention did develop between polygynous Abraham’s sons Ishmael & Isaac and between the two wives of Samuel’s father Elkanáh.  But many monogamous families too are contentious.  For example, the twins Jacob versus Esau!  Adam & Eve was a monogamous couple…yet their firstborn son Cain became a murderer, killing his brother Abel (Ge.4:8)!

God the Father is a monogamist.  He’s not a single parent; single parenthood isn’t God’s ideal! ref “Godhead in Prehistory”.  Christ, the Husband of two OT nations and of Christians…is a polygynist.

However, Jesus the man didn’t come to be made physical king (Jn.6:15) or lead a rebellion against Rome and its laws.  His purpose wasn’t to enact Roman legislation regarding morality, to meet His higher standards.  It wasn’t time for His laws to be implemented in their government (Jn.18:37, Re.19:16).

Marrying someone while still legally married to another is bigamy.  Christian men shouldn’t break laws prohibiting bigamy and risk imprisonment.  (Yet polygyny may be viable in some circumstances.)

God made men with more testosterone, whereas wives may not want to be bothered with sex.  A wife shouldn’t feel compelled to have sex!  In the OT, God authorized a solution to satisfy the realistic needs of both sexes and extend the family lineage & wealth. 

The content of the NT, with the words of Jesus, shouldn’t be separated from the OT roots of Christ’s words to His nation Israel.  Christ’s morality isn’t a double standard!  Mal.3:6 “I, the Lord, do not change.”  His laws regulate, not prohibit, polygyny.  And it should go without saying that the 1^st century laws & customs of men in pagan Rome, which we glimpse in the NT, are inferior to Christ’s OT laws!  Beware self-righteousness, based on the customs/traditions of (religious) men.

Modern society can glean true concepts and standards of God’s morality from Christ’s OT guidelines!  He, His character and morality, is “The same yesterday, today, and forever” (He.13:8).

The ultimate and highest determinant of morality is God’s word, not mans’ customs.  Jesus & Paul affirmed God’s word, saying, “It is written”.  And 1Pe.1:25, “The word of the Lord abides forever.”

Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape – (2)

Foundational scriptures for this topic were addressed in “Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape – (1)”.  Part 1  laid the groundwork for (2).  Verses noted in (1), not restated here, are essential to better grasp Part 2!

In Part 1, the various types of sexual immorality were listed.  Two definitive passages are Le.20:10-22, 5-6 and Le.18:5-24.  Those scriptures tell us what sexual sin is, according to the Lord’s standard (not men’s standards).  Sexual sin includes: adultery, incest, beastiality, homosexuality/lesbianism, transvestism, menstrual sex, idolatrous prostitution.  Pornography is a form of wrong coveting, if the desired object is illicit or cannot be rightfully obtained.  Paul wrote in 1Co.6:9, “The unrighteous won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolators, adulterers, nor practicing homosexuals will inherit the kingdom.”  Sexual acts which the nations today deem as/not as sexual sin…may or may not be sin, based upon the true standard of God’s written word.

Children born from forbidden adulterous or incestuous relationships weren’t the guilty ones.  Yet they were excluded from eldership or government in Israel; see De.23:2 in Matthew Poole Commentary and Gill Exposition.

Jesus said, Mt.19:9-10 “Whoever puts away his wife, except it be for sexual immorality [pornéia], and marries another [wife], commits adultery”.  In the New Testament (NT), porneia (Strongs g4202, Greek) meant any type of sexual sin (Le.18 & Le.20).  Any type is just cause for divorce.  Pulpit Commentary “All illicit connection is described by this term, it cannot be limited to one particular kind of transgression.”  Christ in the NT didn’t contradict what the Lord Christ had instructed Moses/Israel (De.6:1) in De.24:1-4. “When a man marries a woman and she displeases him because he finds some indecency in her, he writes her a bill of divorce.”  But in Jesus’ day, many wrongly thought that wives could be divorced for any cause.

In Mt.19, Christ wasn’t giving a comprehensive sermon on marriage.  Jesus didn’t address desertion, serious neglect, or marriages where there is physical brutality…and the life of a spouse or child may be endangered.  In Jesus’ day among Jews, remarriage was assumed for the innocent spouse.  But Jesus indicated that remarriage with those not having just cause for divorce can be sin.  Remarriage (to a Christian, 2Co.6:14) is permissible in cases involving porneia, brutality, life endangerment, desertion.  1Co.7:15 after abandonment, the spouse needn’t remain in the bondage of that marriage…he/she is free to remarry and have children.  Christ didn’t disapprove of all remarriage (e.g. De.24:2).  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (He.13:8).

Although a lifestyle of harlotry can have grave consequences, lay prostitution wasn’t sin or iniquity that required strict penalty or even an expiating animal sacrifice.  That is, if it wasn’t religious harlotry (temple prostitution) and she wasn’t married or still living at home.  Part 1 examined Bible passages.

Jesus declared in Mt.21:31-32, “Truly I say to you that tax collectors and harlots will get into the kingdom of God before you”.  Jesus said the harlots who believed John the Baptizer will go into the kingdom of God before those Jewish leaders who opposed Him!  (Must all harlots and tax collectors change jobs…did Zacchéus, Lk.19:1-10…must IRS agents?!)

The Greek term porneia (g4202) referred to idolatrous harlotry in the Septúagint/LXX, then to sexual sin in general in the NT.  In the LXX, it’s one of four Greek terms used for zanáh (h2181), which occurs 93 times in the Hebrew Bible, ‘be a harlot’.  (Also porneia is used for h2183 & h2184, meaning whoredoms.)  Porneúo (g4203), the verb form of porneia, meant to practice idolatrous prostitution.  Porné (g4204) usually referred to secular prostitutes.  The LXX ekporneúo (g1608, occurs 36 times) was one given over to idolatrous sex.  Also the NT pórnos (g4205, 10 occurrences: 1Co.5:9-11, 6:9, Ep.5:5, 1Ti.1:10, He.12:16, 13:4, Re.21:8, 22:15) comes from pernemi or pernáo, ‘to sell’.  It was used for a male prostitute, a sodomite or a catamite.  It is sin.  That’s five Greek Bible terms for harlotry.

The term “fornication” originated from two Latin words, “fornix” and “fornicare”.  A fornix was the vaulted archway of the cellar place where prostitutes sold their bodies, to marrieds & singles.  A man who visited a brothel was a fornicare.  Fornication pertained to sex for sale, not premarital sex!

Somewhere along the way, Christianity adapted or devised a different meaning for fornication.  That is, fornication became equated with premarital or unmarried sex!  Berean Bible Church “Fornication’, i.e. the Greek ‘porneia’, actually describes a much larger class of activities, however, than ‘intercourse between unmarried people.”  Various sex acts are porn.  Actually, in Bible times women married young, age 13-14, so any window after puberty for premarital sex was quite small.  Since the meaning of “fornication” has changed over the centuries, I rarely use the term, so as not to be ambiguous.

Religious prostitution was used in the worship of pagan gods.  Ac.15:29 the church is to avoid sacrificing to pagan gods with: blood, unslaughtered animals, prostitution.  (also see the topic “Acts 15 – Four Prohibitions”.)  Re.2:14 some in the Pérgamos church were engaging in cult prostitution as worship.  Sexual immorality figuratively relates to pagan gods.  Le.17:7 “They must no longer sacrifice to goat demons, to whom they play the harlot.”  Sacrificing to demon idols was a form of idolatry & whoredom.  In Nu.25:1-8, the Israelites played the harlot when the daughters of Moab invited them to offer sacrifices to the god Báal-Péor…this included religious sex.  Ex.19:15-17 sex was to be completely separate from worship of the true God, unlike sex rites for pagan gods.  Ex.20:26 Israelite priests were not to show any nakedness in performing their duties.

1Co.6:15-20 “He who is joined to a harlot is one body with her. For it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh’. Flee porneia! Your body is the temple of God.”  cf. Ge.2:24 & Mt 19:5.  Paul indicates that “one flesh” means more like general organic union than one husband & one wife.  Because…a harlot has many partners with whom she is “one flesh”, not just one man; and for that matter, a man could visit more than one harlot.  When Paul wrote to Corinth, idolatrous temple prostitution prevailed in the area.  There were 1,000 priestesses at the temple of Aphrodíte on Acro-Corinth!  Ancient heathens thought sex rites would cause the gods to become so moved to make the soil fertile.

Christ had warned ancient Israel in Ex.34:14-17, “You shall not worship any other god, and not cause your sons to prostitute themselves with their gods. You shall not make any molten gods.”  No more golden calf sensual revelry either! (see Pulpit Commentary Ex.32:6, Ellicott Commentary, Gill Exposition.)

Ho.8:9 “Ephráim has hired lovers.”  Israel was trusting in their allies rather than their God.  Ho.9:1 “You have gone whoring from your God.”  They made alliances with nations who worship pagan gods.  But Israel & Judah were metaphorically married to the Lord (Je.31:32, Is.54:5)!  They were His wives (Ezk.23).  Israel & Judah became Christ’s adulterous wives; so He sent away them both into captivity.

Married harlots are adulteresses.  Pr.7:10-11 “A woman dressed as a harlot. She is loud and defiant; her feet don’t abide at home.”  v.18-21 she says “Come, let us take our fill of love. My husband isn’t at home, he’s gone on a long journey.”  Since this prostitute is married, any sexual relationship she has with another man is adultery.  Ezk.23:2-5, 11, 45-47, Ezk.16:2, 8, 35-38 Israel/Samaria & Judah were as married prostitutes.  Ho.1:1-3 God even instructed the prophet Hosea to marry a harlot, to symbolize God’s own marriage to adulterous, idolatrous ancient Israel.

Re.17:1, 5 “Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.”  She was the metaphorical epitome of (adulterous) religious sex.  Re.18:7 she boasted, “I sit as a queen and am not a widow”.  But Re.19:2 “God has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth [Land] with her immorality [porneia].” (see the topic “Babylon the Great’ in Revelation”.)

The ‘oldest profession’, public prostitution, wasn’t ‘sin’ that required an animal sacrifice.  In Ge.1:28, God’s first command to humanity was, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth”.  To enable humans to fulfill His command, God created sex hormones, testosterone and estrogen, etc.  God is responsible for placing sexual desire in humans!  However, misuse or perversion of sex through immorality and prostitution can result in harmful consequences such as STDs, AIDS, social stigma (e.g. 1Ki.22:38).

Harlotry was tolerated in ancient Israel, but harlots had a lower social status.  Jg.11:1-2 Jephtháh the judge was the son of a harlot (or perhaps a concubine, LXX), and his brothers wanted him disinherited.

Lk.15:30 the prodigal son, a single man, wasted the inheritance he’d demanded on harlots.  Pr.29:3 “He who consorts with harlots wastes his wealth.”  A man who frequents harlots squanders his money, and puts himself at risk of suffering a disease.  Pr.23:27-28 “A whore is a deep ditch, a loose woman is a narrow well.”  Ironically, a single man may view his circumstances or loneliness as an ox in the ditch.

The sexual crime of rape receives much media publicity these days.  2Sm.11:2-4, 12:4 King David seduced Uriáh’s wife Bathsheba.  Some view rape as a form of kidnapping, done against the victim’s will.  Kidnapping, including sex trafficking, is a serious crime (De.24:7).  De.22:28-29 the man who seized (h8610) or raped an unengaged virgin must marry her.  Benson Commentary “He wasn’t at liberty to refuse her, if her father consented to his marrying her, and he was deprived of the privilege of ever divorcing her.”  Also he must pay her father a substantial fine, 50 shekels of silver, plus perhaps the bride-price.

2Sm.13:1-2, 10-11 David’s son Amnón desired his half-sister Tamár, and got her alone in the bedroom.  v.12-18 she tried to talk him out of raping her, suggesting Amnon ask the king for her hand.  However, their union would be incest (Le.18:11).  Possibly she is unaware of God’s law…more likely, she’s grasping at straws to dissuade him from raping her, or is speaking impulsively.  Amnon rapes her.  But it was more lust than love.  He then despised her (he said ‘get out’).  2Sm.13:32 later Tamar’s full-brother Absalóm had Amnon killed in revenge.  De.27:22 “Cursed is he who has lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or his mother.”  Also Le.20:17, the incestuous brother shall bear his iniquity.

Bible readers view the tragic ‘love’ between Shechém and Jacob’s daughter Dinah as: seduction, or an ancient form of elopement, or rape.  Ge.34:1-8 “Shechem the Hivite took [h3947] her, lay with her and humbled her.”  Here the Hebrew term translated as “took” isn’t the term translated as “seized”/raped (h8610) in De.22:28.  (cf. Ge.11:29 Abram took [h3947] Sarai for a wife; Ge.24:67 Isaac took Rebekah and she became his wife.)  Shechem loved Dinah and wanted her for a wife.  Ge.34:25-30 therefore it was very wrong for Jacob’s sons Simeón & Levi to kill Shechem and all the males in that town!  Ge.49:5-7 before Jacob died, he cursed the cruelty and violent action done by Simeon & Levi!

Christ’s guidelines concerning war brides are in De.21:10-15. “When you see among the captives a beautiful woman and desire to take [h3947] her as a wife, she shall remain in your house a full month and mourn her father & mother. After that you may have relations with her and she shall be your wife.”  (also see “Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes?”.)  Israelite soldiers weren’t to rape the enemy’s women!  In Nu.31:16-20, 35 Israelite soldiers didn’t rape the women; purification rites were also required.  But prophesied in Is.13:16-17, the wives of Babylon would be raped by the conquering Medes. “Their wives will be ravished.”

In the 1960s occurred the tragic affairs which resulted in Viet Nam war babies.  Smithsonian Magazine 2009 “They grew up as the leftovers of an unpopular war, straddling two worlds but belonging to neither. Most never knew their fathers. Many were abandoned by their mothers at the gates of orphanages. Some were discarded in garbage cans. Schoolmates taunted & pummeled them and mocked the features that gave them the face of the enemy – round blue eyes and light skin, or dark skin and tight curly hair if their soldier-dads were African-Americans. Their destiny was to become waifs & beggars, living in the streets and parks of South Vietnam’s cities, sustained by a single dream: to get to America and find their fathers.”  Very sad.  American laws & customs differ from those Christ gave to Moses/Israel.

Ge.19:5 the desire of the men of Sodóm to have relations with Lot’s guests was a form of homosexual, or beastial rape with a different kind of being.  Ge.19:31-35 two daughters conspired to rape their father on successive nights.  Jg.19:22-28 resembles Ge.19:5, but the Benjamite men in Gibeáh desired same-sex relations with a Levite guest passing through.  The men proceeded to rape and murder the Levite’s concubine.  The penalty for murder was death, Jg.20:13; v.46-48 the incident led to civil war in Israel.  The tribe of Benjamin was almost annihilated.  Jg.21:7, 12-23 to preserve the tribe, the remaining men “caught” virgins for wives.  Perhaps this unusual scheme to obtain a wife seemed like rape to some?

Ge.39:6-21 the wife of Potiphár, an Egyptian officer, tried to rape the patriarch Joseph.  But she failed.

Rape isn’t addressed in the NT.  In many of the Old Testament passages which relate to rape, there were other (serious) sins involved too.  It appears that God didn’t punish the heterosexual non-incestuous rape of a single woman or man, of and by itself…to the extent some nations punish today, according to man’s laws.  That is, unless it was clearly a kidnapping against the victim’s will.

The best preventative against Biblical porneia is sex within a godly marriage.  1Co.7:2-4 “To avoid immorality [porneia], let every man have his own wife and each one her own husband. The husband should give to the wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.” (cf. Ex.21:10)  It works both ways.  And not with somebody else’s wife!  He.13:4 “Let marriage be honored among all, and the bed undefiled. But the sexually immoral and adulterers God will judge.”  Sex should be pure.

Celibacy and total abstention from sex will also prevent porneia.  But that ignores God’s first command to humanity in Ge.1:28. “Be fruitful and multiply.”  Ti.4:1-3 Paul said liars were forbidding marriage.  Again, God created testosterone, and wants people to reproduce themselves…made in God’s image!

To conclude: Prostitution, even non-religious prostitution, certainly isn’t God’s ideal!  Heterosexual marriage and family is (He.13:4).  Ge.2:24 “A man shall leave father and mother and cling to his wife.”  Yet God isn’t a prude.  God, in His word, is surely more loving than the self-righteous.  I realize some of the verses quoted in this two-part topic seem odd to our western minds, maybe even shocking.

Verses from Part 1 indicated, by definition…it was impossible for a widow, or a woman rightfully divorced, or an otherwise single woman to commit adultery (unless she was betrothed).  And it was impossible for a man to commit adultery with an unmarried or unengaged woman.  Also, Roman Catholic Church (RCC) influence later contributed to changing the meaning of (the Latin) fornication.

If it was a ‘sin’ for a man to sleep with anyone other than his wife, the Lord could have simply said that in His Word.  But He didn’t.  1Th.4:3 “It is God’s will that you should avoid sexual immorality [porneia g4202].”  We’ve referenced many verses, to learn what sexual sin really is….using more verses from Christ’s theocracy than from NT conditions extant in heathen Greco-Roman society.  I haven’t used as a final authority the morality filtered through the RCC & Puritanism into the modern church, nor the morality of humanistic nations today.

God wants the best for us.  God’s will and His true morality are revealed through His word.  May His perfect will be done in our individual lives!

Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape – (1)

Sexual sins and crimes are big concerns in society and in the church.  Cultures of the world have differing standards of morality/immorality.  Here we’ll look at sexual immorality from God’s word.

At creation, the first command God gave to man/ánthropos (Greek LXX) was about reproduction.  Ge.1:28 “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”  Human reproduction was a creation mandate!  God subsequently set guidelines which are recorded in His word to identify moral versus immoral.

Types of immorality or lewdness and harlotry are identified in Le.20:10-22, 5-6.  A similar listing of sexual sins is found in Le.18:5-24.  Without understanding what actions constitute immorality based on Christ the Lord’s commands to Moses/Israel, a person wouldn’t know all that is sexual sin in God’s eyes!  Sexual sin includes: adultery, incest, homosexuality/lesbianism, transvestism, beastiality, menstrual sex, idolatrous prostitution.  Without learning these foundational scriptures, knowledge of sexual sin may just be based on or skewed by the customs & traditions of our nation or church.

From Le.20: Sexual immorality with a married or betrothed woman (v.10) is adultery…with a near relative (v.11) is incest; 1Co.5:1 “It is reported that there is immorality [pornéia] among you, someone has his father’s wife”.  Intercourse with a person of the same sex (Ro.1:26-27, Le.20:13, De.22:5) is homosexuality or lesbianism…with an animal (v.15-16) is beastiality…with a menstruating woman (v.18) is uncleanness…with a harlot/prostitute to a pagan god (v.5-6) for pay or barter is idolatry.  As we see from reading Le.20, Christ prescribed serious penalties for those who committed such acts!

From Le.18:  v.20 adultery “Do not lie sexually with your neighbor’s wife.”  v.6–ff incest “None of you shall have sexual relations with a close blood relative.”  v.22 homosexual intercourse “You shall not lie with a male, as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.”  v.23 beastiality “You shall not have intercourse with any animal, to be defiled with it; nor shall a woman offer herself to an animal.”  v.19 menstrual sex “Do not have intercourse with a woman during her menstrual impurity.”  Ex.34:16 religious prostitution “They will seduce your sons and daughters to whore after their gods.”

There are many other scriptures which add detail and amplify the above passages.  e.g. Re.18:2-4 of Babylon the religious harlot. “All nations have drunk of her immorality [pornéia Strongs g4202, Greek], and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her. Come out of her My people.”

In the LXX/Septúagint the Greek term for idolatrous (and adulterous) harlotry was “porneia” (g4202).  The term was rare in classical Greek, but occurs often in the LXX and the New Testament (NT) koiné Greek.  During the intertestamental period, the meaning of porneia expanded to include other sexual sins too.  In the NT, porneia had come to mean sexual sin in general.

Some rabbis also believed ‘unnatural forms of intercourse’ are immoral, anal & oral sex.  Humans are unclean to eat (cannibalism is wrong, even when there’s no killing.  cf. Ezk.4:12-15, Is.36:12, De.23:13.)

To avoid confusion, I’ll rarely use the word “fornication”, from older English translations.  There is no ancient Greek term for “fornication”.  It came into English from two Latin words associated with brothels.  Since the meaning of this word has changed over the centuries, the term is a misnomer.  Rev. Bill McGinnis “Fornication’ is not really a very good translation for the word ‘porneia.”

Testaments of the XII Patriarchs, Test. Benj.9:1 “You will commit porneia with the porneia of Sodom.”  Homosexual intercourse and sex with a different kind/“strange flesh” are also forms of porneia and sin.  Jude 7 “Sodom and Gomorrah indulged in gross immorality [ekporneúo, cf. Le.17:7 LXX], going after strange flesh.”  ref Ge.19:1-5 Sodom.  Transvestism too is wrong.  De.22:5 “A woman must not wear that which pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on women’s clothing; anyone doing these is an abomination to the Lord your God.”  Pulpit Commentary “The divinely instituted distinction between the sexes was to be sacredly observed.”

The meaning of adultery in Christ’s theocracy of ancient Israel, as well as in most of the ancient world, differed from the meaning of adultery in modern western nations today.  Christ was the God/Rock of Israel.  In ancient Israel, adultery is…sexual activity between a married (or betrothed) woman and a man not her husband.  The man’s marital status isn’t a factor.  So by definition, it was impossible for a widow, divorcee, or otherwise single woman to commit adultery (unless she was betrothed)!  And it was impossible for a man to commit adultery with an unmarried or unengaged woman!

Biblical Archaeology Society: Understanding Israel’s 10 Commandments “You will not commit adultery.’ In our world, adultery is defined as sexual relations with someone who is not your spouse.  The Biblical understanding of adultery, however, is gender-specific. In the ancient world, a married man could engage in sexual relations with [his] wives & concubines, and prostitutes; a married woman could only have sex with her husband. Thus, committing adultery for a man consisted of sleeping with a woman who was someone else’s wife; for a [married] woman, adultery was sex with someone other than her husband. The same law and definition is ubiquitous throughout the ancient world.”

Christ told Moses/Israel the adultery penalty was death.  (even Jn.8:7 “Let him throw the first stone.”)   De.22:22-27 shows that the adultery law applied to betrothed women too.  If the adultery was by mutual consent, both the man and woman were guilty.  If he’d raped her, only the man was guilty.

But God’s meaning of adultery was altered over the centuries.  It was altered in Greco-Roman society too, differing from Christ’s meaning in His older theocracy.  Jesus and Paul lived in the Roman Empire, where the laws of Christ’s theocracy weren’t enacted.  Yes, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (He.13:8).  He knew what adultery is and what it isn’t.  But Jesus wasn’t the Roman ruler.  Although the inferior laws of men/heathens don’t change God or God’s morality, it wasn’t wrong to avoid Roman legal action, while not disobeying God.  But some laws & customs of Rome became part of early Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church, etc., and filtered down into Christian belief today.

For example, Ge.29:30, Ge.30:4, 9, the man Jacob/Israel isn’t an adulterer (he had four wives simultaneously)!  Ex.21:10 “If a man takes another wife, he must not diminish the food, clothing, or conjugal dues of the first wife.”  De.21:15 “A man might have two wives and love one but not the other, and they have borne him sons.”  1Sm.1:1-2 is about Elkanáh the father of Samuel. “He had two wives, one named Hannáh and the other Peninnáh.”  1Sm.25:42-43 “Abigail followed the messengers of David, and became his wife. David had also taken Ahinóam, and they both became his wives.”  Those marriages weren’t adultery in Christ’s theocracy.  Pagan Greece & Rome enjoined serial monogamy on their societies long before Christianity began.  These scriptures seem so strange to our modern western minds!

Yet God’s word is authoritative!  Jesus and Paul both said several times, “It is written”.  However, also ref Is.4:1 (which relates to Ex.21:10), and Jg.8:30 & SSol.6:8 for exorbitance.  Although a few Israelites were excessive, overindulging in this matter of plural wives…that doesn’t mean Christ erred in the commands & guidelines He gave to Moses/Israel regarding this marital option.  Jesus Christ is Lord!

It would be too lengthy to examine details of: the marital excess of Solomon (e.g. De.17:16-17), examples of concubinage in the Bible, lévirate marriage, and marital defilement.  Those matters relate to morality/immorality, but are beyond the scope here.  (see the topic “Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes?”.)  And based upon the marriage customs in most (western) nations, it seems that only rarely would it be advised for a man to have plural wives today.

In ancient Israel, a young daughter belonged to her father or protector prior to her marriage.

Her father would eventually be paid the bride-price from the bridegroom.  Le.19:29 “Don’t profane your daughter by making her a harlot, so that the Land may not fall into harlotry and lewdness.”  Many commentaries relate this command to the practice of heathens, whose custom was to fund the daughter’s dowry with earnings from idolatrous prostitution.  A father wasn’t to degrade his daughter by making her a common prostitute, lest secular harlotry become the norm in the Land instead of marriage/family.

De.23:17-18 “None of the daughters or sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute. You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a dog into the house of the Lord, both of these are an abomination.”  God wouldn’t accept the offerings of religious prostitutes.  A “dog” in this context was the sodomite whose position for homosexual intercourse resembled a dog’s.  ref Re.22:15.  (The label of ‘dog’ also became an epithet against gentiles.)  2Ki.23:7 King Josiah “broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes.”  It seems that quarters in the temple precinct even housed sodomites in those days!  Le.21:9 “The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by harlotry profanes her father.”  Her prostitution at the sanctuary reflected on her father.  Le.21:7, 14 also priests weren’t to marry a profane woman.  Ancient Israel’s worship of Christ the Lord wasn’t to be a fertility cult…no religious sex!

A virgin living under her father’s roof was to remain chaste, else De.22:13-21 could later apply (I won’t quote the passage here).  But people in love may not always follow the usual or customary channels.  Christ made allowances for them too.  Ex.22:16-17 “If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed, has sexual relations with her, he must pay the bride-price and marry her. If her father refuses to give her to him, he still must pay the bride-price for virgins.”  The man was then to marry the girl.  This wasn’t casual sex, it was another way (not the usual way) of obtaining a wife.  But if her father refused to let them marry, this non-virgin daughter would bring her father a lower bride-price in the future.  So taking a daughter’s virginity could also be a form of theft from her father too.  (And possibly there could be serious De.22:13-21 repercussions, if deceit is subsequently involved.)

Yet scripture is mostly quiet in regards to sexual relations with the unmarried non-virgin (not a harlot) with no protector, who’s not living under her father’s roof.  In Christ’s theocracy, it appears that intimacy with divorcees, widows, orphan women (not priests’ daughters) generally isn’t barred by scripture.  For example, Ru.3:7 Ruth the goodly widow lay down secretly in Bóaz’ bed one night.  The text gives no indication that Ruth’s action was sin.  And after spending the night with Ruth, Boaz didn’t rest until he’d obtained her the next day (Ru.3:18–4:10)!

In some cultures, economic conditions are such that an unmarried woman (e.g. divorcee, widow) with no protector/provider…could become destitute!  God didn’t outlaw commercial prostitution in Israel.

Again, a virgin living under her father’s roof must be chaste, else De.22:13-21 could apply.  But for a single non-virgin (not a temple harlot), who solicited her favors to obtain income (perhaps to avoid starvation)…Christ didn’t require strict punishment for her or her clients, and not even a blood sacrifice for sin!  It seems that wasn’t ‘sin’ or iniquity in God’s theocracy.  This may seem strange to western society.  Fathers were forbidden to prostitute their daughters (Le.19:29), but otherwise single women away from home weren’t prohibited from prostituting themselves, selling their body possibly to survive.

Other than Jesus Christ, King Solomon is called the wisest man who ever lived.  1Ki.4:29-34 “God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind.”  God said to Solomon in 1Ki.3:12, “I have given you a wise and discerning heart, there has been none like you”.  Four verses later is the famous story of the two harlots who as ‘plaintiffs’ came to Solomon to settle their dispute.  1Ki.3:16-28 the king received even harlots, and rendered his wise decision.  He didn’t have them arrested for prostitution!  There was no animal sacrifice offered for any ‘sin’.  (Yet ironically, Solomon himself acted unwisely when he was older; his heathen wives turned his heart to pagan gods, 1Ki.11:1-10.)

Samson was an Israelite judge in whom the Spirit of God worked mightily with superhuman strength!  Jg.16:1 “Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there.”  Samson, a single man, had relations with a harlot.  v.4 “After this he loved a woman in the valley of Sorék whose name was Deliláh.”  It is thought that Sorek was not far from Samson’s home town of Zoráh (in the tribe of Dan, Jg.13:2).  Samson loved Delilah.  Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 5:8:11 said Delilah was a harlot among the Philistines who Samson lived with.  Jg.16:12 “Delilah took new ropes and bound him. Then Delilah said, ‘The Philistines be upon you Samson.’ But he snapped the ropes from his arms like they were threads.”  God is still with Samson, even after he visited a harlot (v.1) and had relations with Delilah!  Those acts weren’t sin that separated Samson from God.  Sleeping with harlots didn’t violate Samson’s Nazarite vow!  Jg.16:19-20 God leaves Samson only after his hair is cut, in violation of the vow (Jg.13:5, Nu.6:1-5).  Perhaps we think Christ should have left Samson earlier when he had relations with those women?  But we’re not God.

In Jsh.2:1-3, the two faithful Israelite spies wanted to stay with the harlot Raháb!  v.13 she’s unmarried.  (A married harlot is an adulteress.)  God didn’t rebuke either the spies or Rahab.  In Ja.2:25, Jesus’ relative James indicated that this gentile harlot Rahab was justified by her works.  He.11:31 Rahab is in God’s Who’s Who!  Mt.1:5 and her descendant Boaz (cf. Ru.4:18-22) is an ancestor of Jesus Christ.

In Ge.38, Judah was a single man whose wife had died.  He was one of Jacob’s sons and patriarch of the Jewish people.  v.11-19 Judah had sex with a woman who looked like a prostitute.  He didn’t know she was his disguised daughter-in-law, whose betrothal to Sheláh his son should have already resulted in marriage.  So she tricked Judah for procrastinating.  v.24 death was the penalty for a betrothed woman who has sex with another man.  The narrative is involved.  The point here…God didn’t rebuke Judah for having sex with a supposed prostitute.  And the son she conceived by Judah is an ancestor of Jesus.

There are those who might say that Boaz, Samson (before his haircut), the two faithful spies, the patriarch Judah…have ‘fallen from grace’, so to speak…if their above behavior was done today.  But that’s not what the scriptures indicate.  In recent decades, many churchmen have been maligned and accused of sexual sin/miscues, when their behavior may not have been sin according to scripture (unlike our customary beliefs in most modern nations)!  In the NT, Christ didn’t change His morality for Rome.

There are men & women who love each other but don’t have a government-issued marriage license, for whatever reason.  (Whether marriage should be authorized by the state, the church, the families, private contract…is debatable.)

God didn’t forbid non-incestuous responsible sexual relations between a man and an (independent) unmarried/unbetrothed woman, with mutual consent.  It wasn’t punished.

A pastor and his wife had raised several successful grown children.  She’d done her part, and was tired from childbearing.  (As Greta Garbo said in the old movie, “I vant to be alone.”)  Pastor provides for her & respects her wishes to abstain.  But he is still a man (with testosterone God created within us).  Pastor then fell in love with a younger single woman.  He now loved two women.  Christians were stunned.  This is heartrending…but the church/society doesn’t follow the relevant guidelines Christ gave Moses/Israel!

Maybe we too have judged others rigidly or unjustly for their supposed sexual indiscretions, based upon traditional societal or church beliefs…not the word of God.  God isn’t a prude.  Or perhaps we’ve had difficulty forgiving ourselves for our having committed (years ago or recently) what we’d been taught to believe was sexual sin…and it wasn’t really ‘sin’ after all in God’s eyes!

Greco-Roman society and later tradition has altered what sexual immorality is/isn’t, and the meaning of “fornication”.  Religious sex, eroticism, homosexuality, pederásty was widespread in the Roman Empire.  Regardless…marriage is best, if possible (e.g. 1Co.7:2, 6 as Paul suggested).

Secular prostitution in ancient Israel wasn’t sin as we might think it, for a single woman not dependent on her father.  But there are often grave consequences to that lifestyle!

A harlot who doesn’t take needed precautions may end up destroying “the temple of God” (1Co.3:16-17) with disease…her own body and/or that of her clients.  That isn’t loving her neighbor or herself; opposing the will of God.

There’s more to this broad topic of sexual immorality.  “Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape – (2)” concludes it.

‘Babylon The Great’ in Revelation

The book of Revelation originated with Father God (Re.1:1), who gave it to Jesus Christ, who revealed it to the apostle John.  John wrote it to seven (persecuted) 1^st century churches located along a mail route in Asia Minor (Re.1:4), western Turkey today.

The word of God is true (Jn.17:17)!  In Re.2:1-5, Jesus warned His church at Ephesus to repent, else He would remove it…Ephesus harbor is now a plain!  He removed it.  Re.3:14-19 Jesus warned the church at Laodicéa to repent.  It didn’t.  Consequently, the ruins of Laodicea are seen today.  Jesus does what He says He will do!

When John wrote Revelation, he used the apocalyptic method.  That is, to take predictions/prophecies which were unfulfilled in the literal sense, and recast or reinterpret them in hidden or symbolic terms.  (That was unlike the rabbinic methods.)  Identifying the original text of the book of Revelation (Rev) is difficult, as there are 500 variant terms in early manuscripts.  The book has been described as a revised Ezekiel and a commentary on Daniel.

The main text for this topic is Re.17:5-7. “Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations.”  Who was this symbolic or encoded mystical Babylon?  Babylon the Great originally wasn’t: New York City (with the woman Statue of Liberty in the harbor waters, as some view Re.17:1, she “who sits on many waters”), nor the USA, nor European Union nations, nor an Islamic block, nor modern Iraq, nor the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages…nor ancient Rome.

Historically, in 586 BC King Nebuchadnézzar of Babylon (Chaldéan Empire) conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the first temple.  Jews were taken captive to Babylon.  Babylon was later judged, conquered by the Medes/Persians in 539 BC, and King Belshazzár was killed.  Is.47:1-3 the Medes exposed Babylon’s shame.  Je.51:6-9 relates to the ancient exit of Jews fleeing Babylon.  In 538 BC, Jews began returning to Jerusalem, bringing Babylonian influences with them.  Christian author Ron Dart wrote, “Roman Catholicism wasn’t the only gateway by which Babylonian mystery religions found their way among God’s people”.  The Jewish Babylonian Talmud, e.g., also contains religious traditions.

Da.7:1-3 while in Babylon, the Jewish prophet Daniel envisioned four Beasts, which represented gentile kingdoms.  Bible historians identify these as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome.  v.7 the 4^th Beast or empire, Rome, having 10 horns, was dreadfully strong.  Re.13:1 John sees this 4^th Beast, having 10 horns, on the scene 600 years later.  This Beast, Rome, direly affects the harlot in Re.17-18!

It is recorded in the Old Testament (OT) where some nations committed spiritual harlotry: Tyre (Is.23:17), Assyria/Nineveh (Na.1:1, 3:4), Egypt, Ephráim/Israel (Ho.5:3-4).  The northern kingdom of Israel’s adulterous harlotry resulted in God sending them into captivity to Assyria (721 BC).

Also, Judah/Jerusalem committed adulterous harlotry…ref Je.2:20, 28, 3:1-3.  God/Christ was spiritually ‘married’ to Israel and Judah.  Is.54:5 “Your Maker is your husband.”  The grievous end of that relationship was foretold in Ezekiel 16 & 23.  Especially note Ezk.16:1-2, 8-45, 23:1-5, 11-19, 45-49 (Sodom); as these two chapters will resolve in Re.17–18.

Is.1:1, 21 “The faithful city [Jerusalem] has become a harlot.”  The Lord is just, even in judging His wives – adulterous Israel & Judah!  Je.13:27 “As for your adulteries…Woe to you, Jerusalem.”  God wouldn’t allow her idolatry and abominations to forever go unpunished.  In De.28:49-68, Moses had warned Israel in prophecy that disobedience to their Lord would result in terrible consequences!

The expression “great city” (mégas pólis, Strongs g3173 g4172, Greek), is crucial to us understanding the identity of Babylon the Great, Re.17:5.  Re.11:8 “The great city, which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.”  Here the great city is Jerusalem, recast as Sodom and Egypt.  Besides Re.11:8, other Rev verses which refer to mystical Babylon the great city/harlot are: 14:8, 16:19, 17:1, 5, 18, 18:2, 10, 16, 18-19, 21, 19:2.  (Finally, in 21:10, the great city is again identified as Jerusalem, but now she’s the holy new Jerusalem!…more on this aspect at the end.)

Jeremiah too had referred to Jerusalem as the “great city”!  Je.22:6-9 Septúagint/LXX “Why has the Lord done thus to this great city (g3173 g4172)?”  Josephus Wars of the Jews 7:8:7 “Where is not that great city, the metropolis of the Jewish nation.”  And ibid 7:1:1 “Jerusalem…a city of great magnificence, mighty of fame among all mankind.”  Jerusalem was renowned as a great city!

Re.17:9 “Seven mountains on which the woman sits.”  The woman/harlot/city is on seven mountains.  Historians say that Jerusalem and Rome both contained seven literal mounts or hills.  The seven hills of Jerusalem have been identified as: Acra, Antonio, Bezétha, Millo, Ophel, Moriah, Zion.  (Of note, the Vatican area was a later addition across the Tiber River from the traditional seven hills of Rome, which are on the east side.  The state of Vatican City doesn’t fit in Re.17:9.)

Re.17:16-18 “The Beast will make her desolate and burn her with fire.”  The Beast destroys the harlot city.  From this verse, it’s evident that the Beast and the harlot aren’t the same entity.  (Rome was never God’s wife anyway.)  The Beast/Rome/abomination who makes desolate…burned the harlot city with fire in 70 AD.  cf. again Ezk.16:41, 23:47, Je.22:7-8, where Ezekiel and Jeremiah prophesied that Jerusalem would be burned with fire!  Also Jesus’ parable of Mt.22:7. “The king sent his armies…and set their city on fire.”  Pulpit Commentary Mt.22:7 “The Romans, under Vespasian and Titus.”  (Also in Le.21:9, a Levitical priest’s harlot daughter in Israel was to be burned with fire!)

Rome, the Beast of Da.7:7 and Re.13:1, destroyed the harlot Jerusalem during the 3 ½ year period of 66–70 AD.  ref Re.12:6, Mt.24:15-16, 21 for this time of great tribulation!

That which Jesus said in the book of Revelation did happen to Ephesus and Laodicea, e.g….and most significantly to Jerusalem and Judea!  (This isn’t to say that prophecy can’t repeat itself.)  Re.18 detail:

Re.18:1-4 traditionally the saints in Jerusalem fled 60 miles east to Pella in 66 AD.  In Lk.21:11, 20-21, Jesus had said there’d be great signs and, “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, flee”.

In Wars of the Jews 6:5:3, Josephus recorded the amazing event of angelic armies seen in the clouds surrounding Jerusalem in 66 AD!  So did the Roman historian/senator Tacitus in The Histories 5:13, “There had been seen hosts joining battle in the skies, the fiery gleam of arms, the temple illuminated by a sudden radiance from the clouds.”  That’s historical evidence!  It’s reminiscent of when the Syrians attacked Israel around 800 BC. In 2Ki.6:15-17 the Lord opened the eyes of Elisha’s servant and, “Behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots all around Elisha”.  Heavenly hosts were seen by human eyes!

Babylon the harlot said in Re.18:5-7, “I sit as queen and am not a widow”.  Israel/Judah/Jerusalem was the figurative ‘wife’ of YHVH!  cf. Je.3:8.  A wife or queen can become a widow, but an unmarried woman cannot.  (The Tyndale translation also rendered Re.17:6 as “wife”).  Re.18:8-10 woes to the great city.  cf. Ezk.16:22-23 & Je.13:27 which reflect woes to Jerusalem.

Re.18:11-16 the harlot city’s wealth & adornment.  cf. Ezk.16:13-14 Jerusalem’s fame & adornment.  Jewish scholar Jacob Neusner of Harvard University wrote, “The only city which is differentiated from all other cities is the metropolis, the mother of cities, Jerusalem”.

Re.18:17-18 again, her burning.  Ge.38:24 the patriarch of the Jewish people, Judah, had declared against the woman who was pregnant with his own posterity…“Let her be burned!”

Re.18:19-23 & Je.7:32-34 glad voices of the bridegroom and bride would cease in Jerusalem/Judea.  In Wars of the Jews 5:12:3, the Gehenna valley was heaped with Jewish corpses from the Roman siege.

Re.18:24 when the autopsy was performed on the great harlot, the blood of prophets & saints was found in her!  The Greek term “ge”, g1093, can mean earth or Land.  Jesus had declared in Lk.13:33-34, “It cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which kills the prophets.”  Stephen accused the Jerusalem court in Ac.7:52. “Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?”  Ac.7:58 Stephen was then stoned to death in Jerusalem.  James, Jesus’ relative, was thrown down from the Jerusalem temple in 62 AD and killed (prior to 70 AD).

{Sidelight: Re.2:9 Jesus/John warned the church at Smyrna about the “synagogue of Satan”.  Jn.8:44 Jesus had called the Pharisees the “children of the devil”.  Jesus had warned His disciples would be flogged, cast out of the synagogues, killed (Mk.13:9, Jn.16:2).  Judea was justly punished by God.}

Re.16:18-19 “A great earthquake” occurred.  Josephus Wars 4:4:5 there were “concussions and bellowings of the earth” at the time Jerusalem was besieged.  Re.16:21 “Huge hailstones the weight of a talent.”  In Wars 5:6:3, Josephus wrote that stones thrown by catapults of the 10^th Roman legion weighed…a talent!  (In the Bible, hail may also symbolize government change of cataclysmic magnitude.)  Some of Josephus’ statements in Wars of the Jews seem like a parallel historical account or detailed commentary on the book of Revelation!  Further verse-by-verse detail of the destruction in Revelation would make this too lengthy.  (also see the topics: “The Last Days”, “Two Witnesses in the Bible”, “Day of Atonement (2) – in Revelation”, “John Wrote Five Bible Books?”.)

Jesus had said of the temple in Lk.21:5-6, “There will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down”.  After burning the temple cedars in 70 AD, the Roman soldiers tore down the temple stones to get at the melted gold which had congealed in the cracks!  Roman General Titus even tried to stop the temple burning…but to no avail.  Jesus’ prophecy was not to be denied.  It happened!

Jesus opposed the corruption and intolerance of the Jewish religious leaders of His day, and their oral additions to His written Toráh.  These additions survive in normative Judaism today.  Interestingly, they prefer the Babylonian Talmud to the Jerusalem Talmud, and many value it above the written OT!

A corrupt Jewish priesthood is cited back in Mal.2:11.  Many high priests were actually selected by the Greeks & Romans.  The priestly line of succession was violated.  Harvard’s Frank Moore Cross Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic “The Éssenes of Qumrán were a priestly party. The community referred to itself as the sons of Zadók. They heaped scorn and condemnation upon the ungodly priests of Jerusalem who, they argued, were illegitimate.”  This is Jewish history, not a biased anti-Semitism.

In surveying the New Testament books, the chief persecutors of Jewish Christians were disbelieving Jews, not Romans or gentiles.  e.g. 2Th.2:14-15 the Jewish apostle Paul affirmed that disbelieving Jews had “killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets”.  The expression “(of) the Jews” occurs 15 times total in the synoptic gospels, but 50 times in John’s gospel!  And it was John who wrote Revelation.  The allusions to the temple throughout Revelation don’t relate to Rome or gentiles.  e.g. Re.16:15 “Keep your garments” alluded to sleeping temple guards whose clothes could be set afire.

Le.26:18, 21, 24, 28 Moses had warned there would be increasing sevenfold intensities of punishment upon Israel for disobeying the Lord!  Correspondingly, Re.5:1, 6:1-ff reveals seven seals, Re.8 then seven trumpets of destruction, Re.15:6 culminating in seven last plagues of the wrath of God!  Re.6:16 during the seven seals those afflicted will say “to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us”.  Jesus foretold they would be the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Lk.23:28-30 “Daughters of Jerusalem…the days are coming when they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us.”  (Also ref Ho.10:1, 8-9 in regards to Israel. “They will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ You have sinned O Israel.”)  Not Rome’s church.

Then Re.19:1-2. “Hallelujah! God has judged the great harlot. He has avenged the blood of His bondservants upon her.”  The harlot city was burned, the temple destroyed in 70 AD.  God’s servants, including the faithful remnant of Judah, were avenged.  God is just.

Centuries before Jesus walked the earth, Jews had returned to Judea from Babylon.  The punishments in the book of Revelation primarily refer to Jerusalem the great harlot, and Judea.  Mic.3:12 prophesied “Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins.”  As fulfillment, the Romans plowed it over, and even refashioned Jerusalem as a gentile city in 135 AD.

Yet the book of Revelation has a glorious ending! Jerusalem/Yerushaláyim (h3389, Hebrew) is a plural term.  The book of Revelation is also…a tale of two cities!  F.M. Cross op. cit. “Essenes searched for prophecies of the end of days when they, the poor of the desert, would be reestablished in a new, transfigured Jerusalem.”  The older Jerusalem was made desolate.  But at the end of Revelation….

Re.21:1-2 “I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.”  There’s another Jerusalem!  Re.21:9-10 “I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven.”  Not the great city, old Jerusalem…but the holy city, new Jerusalem.  And there’s a new wife.  This new Jerusalem isn’t an adulterous harlot wife, but is a holy Bride.  The rest of Re.21 describes the glorious adornment of the Lamb’s faithful wife, new Jerusalem!

British historian Margaret Barker conveys a similar view of mystical Babylon in her book The Older Testament. “Jerusalem, restored Jerusalem [1^st century], was perpetuated in the apocalyptic tradition as Babylon, the place of great evil. The city of Rev.17 was not always Rome, for Rev.17:16 says that the ten horns of the beast, i.e. ten Roman rulers, would attack her. The image of the harlot city upon many waters had originally been applied to Jerusalem, drunk with the blood of earlier saints.”

Also Peter J. Leithart Between Babel and Beast, p.46 “The harlot-city of Revelation is not Rome, but Jerusalem….As in the Old Testament (cf. Ezk.16, 23; Hosea), Jerusalem has turned harlot.”

As for the Jerusalem temple doors, Josephus Wars 4:4:5 “Before these doors there was a veil of equal largeness with the doors. It was a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue & fine linen, and scarlet & purple. Nor was the mixture of colors without its mystical interpretation, but was a kind of image of the universe.” (ref the colors in Re.17:4.)  Amazingly, even the temple veil was mystical Babylon!

Old Jerusalem was mystical Sodom & Egypt (where our Lord was crucified, Re.11:8)…and Babylon.  The system is perpetuated in part by the Babylonian Talmud.  Talmuds are a mixture of good & bad.  Also the system may be churches that proclaim as God’s truth their own traditions which contradict or wrongly add to His written word.  And again, all this isn’t to say that prophecy can’t repeat itself.

Re.22:14 KJV “Blessed are they that do His commandments…that they may enter in through the gates into the city.”  The holy city, new Jerusalem.  By the grace of God, and through the sacrifice of Jesus/Yeshúa the Bridegroom…the saints will enter in!