|
SUBJECT: Monogamy & polygamy
QUESTION: Where is monogamy referred to in the
Bible? When did it become the accepted practice?
ANSWER:
The clearest evidence that monogamy is God’s ideal is from
Christ’s teaching on marriage in Matthew 19:3–6. In this
passage, He cited the Genesis creation account, in
particular Genesis 1:27 and 2:24, saying ‘the two will
become one flesh’, not more than two.
Another important biblical teaching is the parallel of
husband and wife with Christ and the Church in Ephesians
5:22–33, which makes sense only with monogamy — Jesus will
not have multiple brides.
The 10th Commandment ‘… You shall not covet your neighbor’s
wife [singular] …’
(Exodus 20:17) also presupposes the ideal that there is only
one wife. Polygamy is expressly forbidden for church elders
(1 Timothy 3:2). And this is not just for elders, because
Paul also wrote: ‘each man should have his own wife, and
each woman her own husband.’ Paul goes on to explain marital
duties in terms that make sense only with one husband to one
wife.
The example of godly people is also important. Isaac and
Rebekah were monogamous — they are often used as a model in
Jewish weddings today. Other examples were Joseph and
Asenath, and Moses and Zipporah. And the only survivors of
the Flood were four monogamous couples.
Polygamy’s origins and consequences
A very important point to remember is that not everything
recorded in the Bible is approved in the Bible. Consider
where polygamy originated — first in the line of the
murderer Cain, not the godly line of Seth. The first
recorded polygamist was the murderer Lamech (Genesis
4:23–24). Then Esau, who despised his birthright, also
caused much grief to his parents by marrying two pagan wives
(Genesis 26:34).
God also forbade the kings of Israel to be polygamous
(Deuteronomy 17:17). Look at the trouble when they
disobeyed, including deadly sibling rivalry between David’s
sons from his different wives; and Solomon’s hundreds of
wives helped lead Solomon to idolatry (1 Kings 11:1–3).
Also, Hannah, Samuel’s mother, was humiliated by her husband
Elkanah’s other wife Peninnah (1 Samuel 1:1–7).
What about godly men who were polygamous?
Abraham and Sarah would have been monogamous apart from a
low point in their faith when Hagar became a second wife —
note how much strife this caused later. Jacob only wanted
Rachel, but was tricked into marrying her older sister Leah,
and later he took their slave girls at the sisters’ urging,
due to the rivalry between the sisters. Jacob was hardly at
a spiritual high point at those times, and neither was David
when he added Abigail and Ahinoam (1 Samuel 25:42–43).
Why did God seem to allow it, then?
It is more like the case of divorce, which God tolerated for
a while under certain conditions because of the hardness of
their hearts, but was not the way it was intended from the
beginning (Matthew 19:8). But whenever the Mosaic law had
provisions for polygamy, it was always the conditional ‘If
he takes another wife to himself …’ (Exodus 21:10), never an
encouragement. God put a number of obligations of the
husband towards the additional wives which would discourage
polygamy. It is no wonder that polygamy was unknown among
the Jews after the Babylonian exile, and was even the rule
among the Greeks and Romans by New Testament times.
Source of this document:
Jonathan Sarfati (Ph.D., F.M.)
Research Scientist and editorial consultant Answers in
Genesis (Brisbane, Australia)
Sources
Geisler, Norman L., Christian Ethics: Options and Issues,
Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI, pp. 280–281, 1989.
Archer, Gleason L., Jr., Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties,
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, pp. 121–124, 1982
back to the top |