815. The Bible speaks about miracles without making apology or even changing its tone. In other words, it doesn't anticipate skepticism. It considers the whole creation rather miraculous. Its writers show the same awe for a sunrise as for a day when the sun stands still.
816. Male-female relationships in the Bible do-compared to our present-day standards-put women in a subordinate position to men. But when the Bible is compared to the standards of the day in which it was written, it continually gave women a better place in life than that culture allowed them.
817. A modern atheist says that he or she doesn't believe ion God-not gods. Antiquity knew no such atheists. Everyone and every nation had a god of their own, and usually more than one. The proclamation of monotheism must have sounded very strange to the surrounding cultures of that time.
818. The issue of intermarriage is still a divisive and emotional question among contemporary Jews because it defines who is a Jew. According to Jewish law, a Jew is one who is born to a Jewish mother or is converted to Judaism.
819. The Mosaic law allowed polygamy (more than one wife) among the Hebrew people. Wives were given certain protections against abuses and there were various regulations regarding these marriages. There was among the Israelites, however, a marked tendency toward monogamy (only one wife). The main reason may have been that the custom of having more than one wife was too expensive people.
820. The Mosaic law did forbid multiple wives for the kings of Israel with the warning that the king's heart would be led astray (Deut. 17:17). The cause of much trouble in the lives of David and Solomon, as well as Ahab, was that they followed the example of the kings in their day of taking many heathen wives, (sometimes many concubines) rather than obeying God's law. Men like Adam, Noah, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, and Job had only one wife.
