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[quote=Anonymous]Personally, I'm more interested in the New Testament than in the Old Testament. As we all know, Jesus eliminated many of the rules from the Old Testament, particularly with respect to what you eat ("It doesn't matter what goes into your mouth, what matters is what comes out of your mouth" and so on) and instead Jesus focused on the foundational rules of loving God, loving your neighbor, and loving your enemy. Hagar and Abraham leave me a little cold, frankly.

So, let's whittle your cut-and-paste to what comes from the New Testament.

[quote=Anonymous]
[b]Luke 16:18 ESV.[/b]  Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
[/quote]

This passage argues that because Jesus said divorce is impossible (context is important!), therefore divorcing is equivalent to taking a second wife, and *taking a second wife is the same as adultery.* The only possible conclusion: polygamy is as bad adultery.

==> actually refutes your claim that Christianity supports polygamy. Says Christianity considers it to be equivalent to adultery. Says nothing about concubinage/slavery.

[quote=Anonymous]
[b]1 Timothy 3:2 ESV.[/b]  "Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach...."
[/quote]

Arguing that those who are "above reproach" do[i] not [/i]take a second wife. Again, context is important. In the very early days of Christianity when Timothy was writing, Christians were a small minority. There were plenty of non-Christians who were candidates to be overseers. The point Timothy is making is that [i]monogamy is a criteria for being "above reproach,"[/i] whether the overseer candidates are Christians (monogamy is assumed) or non-Christian monogamists.

==> no support for concubinage/polygamy/slavery here.

[quote=Anonymous]
Acts 16:1-40 ESV. Paul came also to Derbe and to Lystra. A disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him, and he took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in those places, for they all knew that his father was a Greek. As they went on their way through the cities, they delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.
 [/quote]

==> A mystery quote that says nothing about concubinage/polygamy/slavery. Why did you even post this? Unless you think "disciple" means "slave" or "polygamist" or something (hint: "disciple" means "follower").

You've just demonstrated the hazards of cutting and pasting from a proselytizing Islamic site.... I'd criticize your reading comprehension for giving us the Timothy quote, but it's clear from the Acts verse that you didn't even bother to read any of these.

For your reading pleasure, here's a site with quotes from the New Testament that support monogamy over polygamy:  http://www.openbible.info/topics/monogamy.  I'll leave you to peruse the many, many quotes supporting monogamy from writers Paul, Timothy, and the like. Interestingly, this source actually uses the exact some of the same quotes you used (Luke and Timothy, above), but [i]n support of monogamy.[/i]  I'll just leave you with a few quotes from the gospels (recordings of Jesus' sayings).

Mark 10:8 ESV. And the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.

Mark 10:7 ESV. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife....

Matthew 19:3-6 ESV. And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

And there's more, so much more. Go ahead, here's the link again: http://www.openbible.info/topics/monogamy.
[/quote]

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