All those arguing against marriage equality legislation on the grounds that they are defending “traditional” marriage, “as found in the Bible”, should be challenged to clarify just which biblical model it is they are supporting. As found in the Bible, there is not just a single form of marriage, but eight distinctive models.

For a light – hearted treatment of the subject, watch this You Tube video by Betty Bowers, “America’s Best Christian”:

It’s a serious matter though, and deserves serious treatment. For that, see a useful description of the eight types of marriage at Religious Tolerance, which describes each of these, together with examples and references for to the biblical verses.   From the extended analysis, I offer here just the introduction to each (for the more complete analysis, follow the link).

Type 1: The standard nuclear family: God is recorded as promoting the this type of marriage in Genesis 2:18: Referring to Adam, “…the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” (King James Version – KJV) “Help meet” also appears in the Jerusalem Bible. It is translated “helper” in many other translations (e.g. Amplified Bible, An American Translation, James Moffatt Translation, New American Standard Bible, New Century Version, New International Version, New World Translation, Revised Standard Bible, Young’s Literal Translation.) The Living Bible, New Living Translation, and Today’s English Version use a phrase like “a suitable companion to help him.“

Type 2: Levirate Marriage: The name of this type of marriage is derived from the Latin word “levir,” which means “brother-in-law.” It is called “yibbum” in Hebrew. This involved a woman who was widowed without having borne a son. She would be required to leave her home, marry her brother-in-law, live with him, and engage in sexual relations. If there were feelings of attraction and love between the woman and her new husband, this arrangement could be quite agreeable to both. Otherwise, the woman would have to endure what was essentially serial rapes with her former brother-in-law as perpetrator. Their first-born son was considered to be sired by the deceased husband. Before the details of conception were determined, such a belief made a lot of sense. It lives on in some version of Sharia law among Muslims which state that a woman can conceive any time up to seven years after engaging in intercourse.

Type 3: A man, one or more wives, and some concubines: A man could keep numerous concubines, in addition to one or more wives. These women held an even lower status than a wife.  As implied in Genesis 21:10, a concubine could be dismissed when no longer wanted.

Type 4: A male rapist and his victim: According to the New International Version of the Bible, Deuteronomy 22:28-29 requires that a female virgin who is not engaged to be married and who has been raped must marry her attacker, no matter what her feelings were towards him. A man could then become married by simply sexually attacking a woman that appealed to him, and paying his father-in-law 50 shekels of silver.

Type 5: A man, a woman and her property — a female slave: As described in Genesis 16, Sarah and Abram were infertile. Sarah owned Hagar, a female slave who apparently had been purchased earlier in Egypt. Because Hagar was Sarah’s property, she could dispose of her as she wished. Sarah gave Hagar to Abram as a type of wife, so that Abram could have an heir.

Type 6: A male soldier and a female prisoner of war: Numbers 31:1-18 describes how the army of the ancient Israelites killed every adult Midianite male in battle. Moses then ordered the slaughter in cold blood of most of the captives, including all of the male children who numbered about 32,000. Only the lives of 32,000 women – all virgins — were spared. Some of the latter were given to the priests as slaves. Most were taken by the Israeli soldiers as captives of war

Type 7: Polygynous marriage: A man would leave his family of origin and join with his first wife. Then, as finances allowed, he would marry as many additional women as he desired and could afford. The new wives would join the man and his other wives in an already established household.

Type 8: A male and female slave: Exodus 21:4 indicates that a slave owner could assign one of his female slaves to one of his male slaves as a wife. There is no indication that women were consulted during this type of transaction. The arrangement would probably involve rape in most cases. In the times of the Hebrew Scriptures, Israelite women who were sold into slavery by their fathers were slaves forever.

Related articles

• A Bible Based Marriage (scotteriology.wordpress.com)
• The Bible says marriage is one man, one woman, right? (pretentiousape.wordpress.com)
• Jim Wallis “Evolves” on Marriage Equality: Responses and Reflections (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
• The biblical case for marriage equality! (americanliberaltimes.com)