gengwall

Hi Gazza. Cultures, Hebrew or otherwise, do not define God. Just because a culture engages in some activity or paradigm does not mean that God approves or that it is a reflection of God’s intent. The Hebrew culture participated in polygamy for a large protion of its history. Does that mean that polygamy is godly? Certainly not. You have to be careful to distinguish biblical history from biblical teaching. Nowhere in the bible does God say that identifying (or even naming) something grants you authority over it. Who cares what the culture says about naming! It only matters what God says about naming and God is silent, at least in terms of authority.

Even if you appeal to cultural standards instead of God’s standards, you run into a problem if the bible is your source of truth. Other than Genesis, can you find even one other instance in the bible where a husband named his wife? The cultural argument is entirely irrelevant because naming (or renaming) one’s wife was not in fact a cultural practice. You can’t claim the culture sees an act as a demonstration of authority if that act is never actually carried out in the culture.