by Dean Robertson
From “The Week” we have the following regarding; The Origins of Marriage: “The best available evidence suggests that it’s about 4,350 years old. For thousands of years before that, most anthropologists believe, families consisted of loosely organized groups of as many as 30 people, with several male leaders, multiple women shared by them, and children. As hunter-gatherers settled down into agrarian civilizations, society had a need for more stable arrangements. The first recorded evidence of marriage ceremonies uniting one woman and one man dates from about 2350 BC in Mesopotamia. Over the next several hundred years, marriage evolved into a widespread institution embraced by the ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. But back then, marriage had little to do with love or with religion. What was it about then?
The story of the twelve sons of Jacob is very interesting in relation to the topic of biblical sexuality. Jacob had two wives, Rachel and her sister Leah. Each had a servant. Rachael’s servant was Bilhah, and Leah’s servant was Zilpah. Rachael’s sons were Joseph and Benjamin, and Leah’s sons were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulon. Now we read in Genesis chapter 30 that both Rachael and Leah, at different times and for some reason, each gave their servant girls to Jacob, “as a wife.” He therefore had sex with them both. Rachael’s servant, Bilhah, gave birth to Dan and Naphtali, and Leah’s servant, Zilpah, gave birth to Gad and Asher.
Now it is interesting to note that, in both instances, we have this expression, “gave as a wife,” and the only thing that changed in the domestic situation was that Jacob started having sex with them. By definition, as already stated, Jacob was now married to all four women. Doesn’t it therefore seem preposterous that, in today’s world, there are sections of the church that would try to say that any couple living together and having sex outside of our definition of marriage are “living in sin” when, in fact, this is the only definition of biblical marriage that we have?
But there is also a further point of interest in this story. For nowhere, absolutely nowhere, in the Bible is there any reference to any distinction between any of the sons, or tribes, based on who their mother was. In fact, it would be safe to say that even the average pastor, minister, or biblical scholar could not tell you which mother gave birth to which son other than Rachael being the mother of Joseph and Benjamin.
Some might know that Leah was the mother of Levi and Judah because they became significant tribes in Israel. This is because the Bible makes no distinction between the sons of the two legitimate married wives or the sons of slave girls. And why doesn’t the Bible make any distinction? Because, biblically, there isn’t any distinction.
To read on, go to: https://www.sexwasgodsidea.com/books/SexWasGodsIdea