Episodes 209 & 210: Does That Scripture Mean What You Think it Means? Marriage Edition | A Conversation with Dr. Jennifer Bird
“If we want to look at this sacred collection called the Bible as our guide, let's be really clear and honest about what it was saying on its own terms first, then leave it up to everyone to figure out what we're going to do with that, because we're going to do different things with it,” suggests Dr. Jennifer Bird. In Episode 209, she joins Susan and Cynthia for part one of a conversation about biblical marriage. Is it possible that in our reading of the Bible, we’ve layered a lot of our own ideas about marriage and relationships on top of it that were never there to begin with? What can we understand about biblical marriage based on what the texts actually say?
Episode 210 contains Part 2 of the conversation, focusing on virginity, purity culture, and—of course!—biblical polygamy. Joseph Smith drew on polygamy in the Hebrew Bible to justify instituting the practice in early Mormonism, teaching that sometimes God not only condoned but actually mandated it. So what does a feminist biblical scholar say about it?
Notes & Quotes:
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Marriage in the Bible: What Do the Texts Say?, by Jennifer G. Bird, PhD
Permission Granted: Take the Bible into Your Own Hands, by Jennifer Grace Bird
Eunuchs and the Postgender Jesus: Matthew 19.12 and Transgressive Sexualities, by J. David Hester
“We might want to ask ourselves about this aspect about the Bible: there are times that the ‘original,’ such as we have it, has been perceived to be too offensive to translate directly. This Is why so many of our current translations take the edge off of the rawness in order to make it palatable for people today. At times it is done by adding marital labels, at other times by adding a layer of possession that might be implied in the original contexts but is not specified. But it seems to me that people today would be better served by more honest or raw translations in order to have a better sense of what these sacred texts were up to initially.” —Jennifer Bird, Marriage in the Bible, p. 99
“This is why I engage with a great number of people who feel betrayed or let down by their faith communities. Why have they not been given a chance to have more mature readings of their scriptures?......The ways that human relationships are presented in sacred writings have staying power for the communities that read them.” —Jennifer Bird, Marriage in the Bible, p. 123