Last week on #CanonicalMondays (Instagram & Facebook series) I brought up the question of whether or not polygamy was OK in the lives of the Old Testament patriarchs. Those men seemed to slide by with little trouble for themselves (the trouble seemed to fall on the wives and children). 

And strikingly, for narratives that show God speaking with men, there is no obvious declaration within the narrative of God's condemnation for their actions associated with polygamy.

At the end of last week’s post, I asked to take a look at Genesis 1-3 and Genesis 12 and look to see if you noticed any repetitions between those narratives. This is because the Canonical Approach looks for patterns in narratives to discover what the author is trying to teach readers through those stories.

First, let's observe some important points and patterns from pre-Fall marriage (remember, Jesus claims that marriage in the beginning is our reference for questions, Matt. 19):

1.  God made a male and a female in His image, and God blesses them, saying “Be fruitful and multiply,” and gives them dominion over the land and all the living things (Genesis 1:28-30).

2.  God sees and says that everything He made was good (beneficial for mankind).

3.  Shifting over to Gen. 2, we get a zoomed in view of Day 6 (chp. 1), when after making the man, God says it is not good for the man to be alone. An exceptional statement after chapter one's long line of "it was good."

4.  God says He will make a corresponding partner for the man and thus builds (literally) a woman from the man's side.

5.  The author of the narrative includes a paradigmatic explanation in response to what God has done in building a woman from the man and bringing her to the man as his suitable partner: a man will leave his father and mother and glue to his wife and they become one flesh.

6.  An important observation that should not be overlooked: in solving the problem of what is “not good” for the man (being alone), God builds one woman for him. She is sufficient to remedy what was not good, as well as sufficient to carry out the blessing of multiplication.

After the joining of the man and the woman in God’s paradise, the narrative shifts to the testing of the man and the woman, and their Fall. This is recapitulated in the polygamy passages: the man and woman have God’s blessing and then comes a test.

1. The snake deceives the woman. Gen. 3:1-5

2. The writer uses the same words to describe what God does in creation in chp 1 with what Eve does when she comes to the forbidden tree: she sees that the tree is good for food, and attractive to the eyes, and desirable for making one wise. Gen 3:6

3. In response to her evaluation of the tree, she takes some and eats and gives some to her husband who then eats. Gen. 3:6

4. Their response was to try to cover themselves up and they hide from God’s face (His presence) amongst the trees.

5.  But God, walking in the garden, calls to Adam, and says, “Where are you?” Gen. 3:9

6.  The judgment scene begins. This is important because there are parallel scenes in chps. 12, 16, & 20.

7.  God asks the woman: What on earth have you done?

8. Both the man and the woman blame shift when they are being questioned by God regarding their actions.

9. Both the man and the woman are told about the increased pain and labor that will characterize their lives. Their relationship, which was intended for partnership & unity, now becomes a great source of disunity and domination. And, ultimately, they will die and return to dust.

10.  And finally, the narrative ends with their expulsion from the garden by the creator & ruler of that paradise. They expelled out from His presence to the East, they lose access to the Tree of Life, and leave the abundance of food.

Recap: The deceiver lies; the woman takes from the beautiful, forbidden tree and her husband eats too; they’re afraid and hide from God’s presence; God calls for them and they blame shift; they receive their judgments, and are banished from the land of abundant food by the ruler of that land, and are on a course toward death.

Why does all of this matter in response to the polygamy passages?

The writer of this historical narrative employs the literary device of repetition of words, phrases, and themes, that show the reader his theological points. Jesus Himself says that the pattern established in Creation is the answer to marriage questions (Matt 19), so we have just seen what that pattern is supposed to look like (Genesis 1-2). But the problem for the readers in Moses’ day, and for the people in Jesus’ day, and of course our day, is that we are living in a fallen world with sinful human beings. The Fall in Genesis 3 started us all on a course toward death, and disrupted the perfect creational pattern of everything, including marriage.

And by means of observing the parallels in the “polygamy passages” with the narratives of Creation and the Fall, the readers will see how the author intentionally crafts those Abrahamic narratives to mimic the Fall of Adam and Eve.

Genesis 12 & its Parallels to Creation and the Fall

1.   We see God speaking to the man, Abram. He says to him that He will make and He’s going to bless. Just like in 1:26 & 28.

2.  The beginning of chapter 12 spends time focusing on the land that Abram is walking through, just as chapter 1 focuses on God’s preparation of the land.

3.  Abram obeys God’s commands, unlike Adam and Eve.

4.  Abram comes to a land described by its tree - just as the focus on the location of Adam and Eve is in the land of abundant fruit trees.

5.  God appears to Abram in the land, just as God walks with and speaks to Adam and Eve in that first land.

6.  Abram then moves to a mountain, in parallel to the mountain paradise of Eden. There, Abram builds and altar and calls on the name of the Lord.

7.  In parallel to the paradise of Gen. 1-2, things have been going well for Abram. Now, like Adam and Eve, there comes a test. The land that is promised to Abram’s multitude of seed (the blessing of Genesis 1) is in grievous famine (a word related to the word for ‘evil,’ which is contrastive to ‘good.’ The land is no longer good, but evil).

8. Because of the famine, Abram takes his family down to Egypt. But Abram is afraid because his wife is so attractive to the eye. She is beautiful of appearance. Because of this, he is afraid that he will be killed so that she can be taken by another man. In order to avoid this, Abram tells her to say she is his sister that “it may go will for me because of you.”

9.  Again, this is on the heels of the blessing of God to Abram. He has been told that the land will be given to his multitude of descendants, and that his name will be made great, and that he will be a blessing to the nations. If things are going good for Abram, it’s because of God and not because of lying about his wife so that he’s not killed.

9. They enter Egypt and the Egyptians do see that Sarah is beautiful of appearance, and she is taken into Pharaoh’s house.

10.  Recap of the repetitions here in chapter 12 to Genesis 1-3 so far: God has promised to make Abram’s name great, that the land will be given to his multitude of seed, and that he will be blessed and will be a blessing. Then, due to famine, Abram goes to Egypt and is afraid for his life because his wife is so beautiful. He deceives the Egyptians, and his wife is seen to be beautiful and is taken into Pharaoh’s house.

11.  Now, just as there were consequences to the fruit being taken, there are consequences to Abram’s wife being taken. God sends plagues on Pharaoh’s house.

12.  And when Pharaoh perceives what has happened, he calls to Abram and says, “What on earth have you done?” In direct parallel to what God had said to Eve. Pharaoh had done the actual taking of the forbidden thing (person vs. fruit), but the true judgment is made against Abram.

13.   After Pharaoh confronts Abram, he and his family are expelled from the land of abundant food by the ruler of that land.

Genesis 12 illustrates two failures based on the observing of its connection to the Creation and Fall narratives of Genesis 1-3. We see the repetition of these failures by parallel words, themes, and results.

1.  Just as Adam and Eve failed to trust the word of God and took from the tree, so Abraham failed to trust God’s word to him (you have to be alive to produce children…) and let his wife be taken as a wife to another to save his own skin. Expulsion and death are the results.

2.  Failing the creational marriage pattern: cleaving to your wife. A disruption of the command for a man to cleave (“glue”) to his one wife.

In response to these failures, God doesn’t come down on a cloud and rebuke Abraham inside the narrative. But the Spirit-inspired author of the scriptural accounts intentionally uses words and themes to re-picture the failure of Adam and Eve in Abraham’s actions in chapters 12.

The words that comprise the narrative of the Fall are repeated in Abraham allowing his wife to be taken and they show the reader what God has to say about what Abraham did. That’s how this kind of literature is written.

I don’t think that the author could picture these narratives in a worse way than correlating them to the Fall and doom of humankind!

What do you think?