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Originally Posted by blankall
I think my post got a bit muddled in my editing. What I meant was that overall in the bible, there are very few examples of rules concerning what a family should look like, and many examples of non-traditional families (multiples wives, slaves, servants, etc..) But yes, those all seem to exist in the old testament.
My overall point is that there is no Judeo-Christian standard for a traditional family. The old testament actively tolerates and even supports non-traditional families. The new testament seems to just comment on existing family structures, which, as you point out, are largely Hellenistic, not religious, in origin. The new testament speaks about right and respect between husband and wife, which was the norm in that region at that time, but at no point does it forbade or alter the rules on polygamy from the old testament.
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I think I am getting tripped up by your use of "traditional." It seems backwards since it presumes maintaining something from the distant past—adhering to the way things were always meant to be. It's weird, because in this sense, "traditional family" is much more innovative than ancient concepts of "family."
As to your point about there being no rules, I think that is because these are the sorts of things which did not happen to survive in the texts that we have, or rather, that they were so ubiquitous as to not require any specific legislation in the first place. There is so much of this affecting the texts that we do have, and this has rather contributed to the ways in which the Church ultimately decided to read and interpret the Bible in the first place. Description becomes prescription and proscription.
An important clarifying note: there are no OT rules for polygyny (the more appropriate term, since in the ancient world the custom extended only as far as a man having multiple wives, and not the other way around). There are descriptions of polygynous families as part of the narrative structure of the text, but where family relationships and behaviours are legislated there is never any indication that polygyny is what is preferred. By the time the Hebrew Bible texts were written these sorts of relationships were very much not the norm, and were exclusively practiced only among the upper classes.
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Another interesting question is the one of celibacy for the clergy. The new testament seems to explicitly state that you should use marriage as a way to avoid temptation. Jewish priests all traditionally married.
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I don't know the history, but it seems to me that this stemmed from Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 7, but especially in v.8. Also, there is no record of Jesus having been married, so I think this is another case of description becoming prescription.