Scholars note also that Genesis 2:24 uses the Hebrew word ‘dabaq’ for being joined, or cleaving. What does this mean? We find the word also used for Solomon and his many wives and for the relationship between two women, Ruth and Naomi. So on the face of it, whatever ‘dabaq’ means, it can apply to polygamous and same-sex unions.
Scholars ruefully admit Scripture offers no clear definition of marriage. Murdoch University’s Professor of New Testament William Loader suggests marriage in Biblical times was primarily to secure father to son inheritance.
“Men owned households,” he wrote in his submission to the Australian Senate in April. “That included sexual access to wives and slaves, but never incestuous relations. Men decided with other men whom their daughters would marry and so ‘gave them away’, a tradition which still survives at least in ceremony in many wedding liturgies.”
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Loader concludes that “there appears to be no sound reason to exclude same-sex couples” from marriage.
So Christians are quite free to argue for a definition of marriage as “the voluntary union for life of one man and one woman”.
But they are not free to claim this is Biblical.
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About the Author
Alan Austin is an Australian freelance journalist currently based in Nîmes in the South of France. His special interests are overseas development, Indigenous affairs and the interface between the religious communities and secular government. As a freelance writer, Alan has worked for many media outlets over the years and been published in most Australian newspapers. He worked for eight years with ABC Radio and Television’s religious broadcasts unit and seven years with World Vision. His most recent part-time appointment was with the Uniting Church magazine Crosslight.
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