Polygamy is "the practice or custom of having more than one wife or husband at the same time". Polygamy has been practiced by many cultures throughout history.
Although the Old Testament describes numerous examples of polygyny (one male, one wife with multiple concubines) among devotees to God, most Christian groups have historically rejected the practice of polygamy and have upheld monogamy alone as normative. Nevertheless, some Christian groups in different periods have practiced, or currently do practice, polygamy. Some Christians actively debate whether the New Testament or Christian ethics allows or forbids polygamy and there are several Christian views on the Old Covenant.
The practice primarily focuses on polygyny (one man having more than one wife) and not polyandry (one woman having more than one husband), as polyandry is implied to be unlawful by the Hebrew Bible's laws of adultery (e.g., ) and in the New Testament (e.g., ).
Jewish background
The Torah contains a few specific regulations that apply to polygyny (a male with multiple wives), such as Exodus 21:10: "If he take another wife for himself; her food, her clothing, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish".The Jerusalem Bible: The Holy Scriptures. Ed. Harold Fisch. Trans. Fisch. Jerusalem: Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 1980. states that a man must award the inheritance due to a first-born son to the son who was actually born first, even if he hates that son's mother and likes another wife more;Deuteronomy 21:15–17 from mechon-mamre.org and states that the king shall not have many wives.
The Torah may distinguish concubines and "sub-standard" wives with the prefix "to" (e.g., lit. "took to wives").Women, similar to wives from vadimcherny.org Despite these nuances to the biblical perspective on polygamy, many important figures had more than one wife, such as Esau (Gen 26:34; 28:6-9), Jacob (Gen 29:15-28), Elkanah (1 Samuel 1:1-8), David (1 Samuel 25:39-44; 2 Samuel 3:2-5; 5:13-16), and Solomon (1 Kings 11:1-3).
Despite its prevalence in the Hebrew Bible, some scholars do not believe that polygyny was commonly practiced in the biblical era because it required a significant amount of wealth.Gene McAfee "Sex" The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan, eds. Oxford University Press 1993. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. 19 March 2010. Michael Coogan (and others), in contrast, states that "Polygyny continued to be practiced well into the biblical period, and it is attested among Jews as late as the second century CE".
The monogamy of the Roman Empire was the cause of two explanatory notes in the writings of Josephus describing how the polygamous marriages of Herod the Great were permitted under Jewish custom."The Jewish Family: Metaphor and Memory", David Charles Kraemer, p. 21, Oxford University Press, 1989, Antiquities of the Jews, xvii. 1, § 2
Polygamy was a rare exception in post-exilic Israel. The practice began to be criticized and declined during the intertestamental period but there is some extant evidence of polygamy being practiced in the New Testament period. The Dead Sea Scrolls show that several smaller Jewish sects forbade polygamy before and during the time of Jesus. The Temple Scroll (11QT LVII 17–18) seems to prohibit polygamy for kings.
New Testament Three passages in the pastoral epistles (, and ) state that church leaders should be the "husband of one wife." This has been read by some Christian denominations as a prohibition of polygamy. Others argue that polygamy is allowed, but not for church leaders. Still others argue that the passage only prevents church leaders from divorcing their first wives. In his 1990 book Walter Lock argues that it simply prevents marital unfaithfulness since "no Christian, whether an overseer or not, would have been allowed to practice polygamy."
In 1 Corinthians Paul the Apostle states that a man is to have his own wife and a woman is to have her own husband.
Matthew Henry comments on 1 Corinthians 7:
John Gill comments on 1 Corinthians 7 and states that polygamy is unlawful; and that one man is to have but one wife, and to keep to her; and that one woman is to have but one husband, and to keep to him and the wife only has a power over the husband's body, a right to it, and may claim the use of it: this power over each other's bodies is not such, as that they may, by consent, either the husband allow the wife, or the wife the husband, to lie with another.
Although the New Testament is largely silent on the issue, some point to Jesus' repetition of the earlier scriptures, noting that a man and a wife "shall become one flesh." (, ) However, some look to : "Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh."" Supporters of polygamy claim this indicates a physical, rather than spiritual, union.
Most Christian theologians argue that in and referring to Jesus explicitly states a man should have only one wife:
Polygamists do not dispute that in marriage "two shall be one flesh"; they only disagree with the idea that a married man can only be "one flesh" with one woman. Assuming the man is married, the act of a man becoming "one flesh" with a harlot apparently does not negate his being "one flesh" with his wife. Further, if a man is married, he and his wife are "one flesh." To add another wife would mean that the new wife becomes "one flesh" with the man and his current wife. Gill argues that polygamists in disagreeing with the idea that a married man can only be "one flesh" with one woman are in fact disagreeing with Apostle Paul, who makes it clear that in the Christian Covenant the man who already has one wife can not add another wife because his body belongs to the one wife and is no longer his; if the man adds another wife, then that woman is coveting another woman's husband. In the Christian Covenant, a woman shalt not covet another woman's husband just like in the Mosaic covenant a man is shalt not covet another man's wife.
Many critics of polygamy also point to the Pauline epistles that state that church officials should be respectable, above reproach, and the husband of a single wife. (, ) hermeneutically, the Greek phrase mias gunaikos andra is an unusual Greek construction, capable of being translated in multiple ways, including (but not limited to): 1) "one wife man," (prohibiting plural marriage) or 2) "a wife man" (requiring elders to be married) or 3) "first wife man" (prohibiting divorcés from ordination).
In the time around Jesus' birth, polygamy (also called bigamy or digamy in texts) was understood as having several spouses consecutively, as evidenced for example by Tertullian's work De Exhortatione Castitatis. Paul the Apostle allowed widows to remarry (1 Cor. vii. 39. and 1 Tim 5:11–16). Paul says that only women older than 60 years can make the list of Christian widows, but that younger widows should remarry to hinder sin. Some conclude that by requiring leaders of the Church be monogamous, Paul excluded remarried widowers from having influence. Perpetual monogamy — even after the death of one's spouse — would have been a more strict understanding of monogamy than Roman law codified, and would have been a new and unusual demand on men.
On this subject William Luck writes:
Early Church period
Jewish polygamy clashed with Roman monogamy at the time of the early church:
Tertullian, who lived at the turn of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, wrote that marriage is lawful, but polygamy is not: Augustine wrote in the second half of the 4th century:The 3rd century Eusebius of Caesarea wrote the lost work "On the Numerous Progeny of the Ancients". Eusebius references this twice, in the Præparatio Evangelica, and in the Demonstratio Evangelica. Although his work has been given as an example of plural marriage being reconciled with the ascetic life, the problem dealt with was the contrast presented by the desire of the Patriarchs for numerous offspring and the honour in which continence was held by Christians.
Augustine tackled this objection by arguing that polygamy, for the sake of the populating of the earth, "was to holy men at that time a matter of duty not of lust." Defending the continence of the Patriarchs while condemning Polygamy among Christians. Tertullian likewise tackled the objection that Patriarchs were unrighteous in Polygamy. He wrote, "each pronouncement and arrangement is (the act) of one and the same God; who did then indeed, in the beginning, send forth a sowing of the race by an indulgent laxity granted to the reins of connubial alliances, until the world should be replenished, until the material of the new discipline should attain to forwardness: now, however, at the extreme boundaries of the times, has checked (the command) which He had sent out, and recalled the indulgence which He had granted". (De Monogamia chapt. VI.) According to chapter XVI of De Monogamia, Hermogenes thought it was allowed for a man to take several wives. Tertullian also made a direct attack on the polygamous practice of some cults in his work Adversus Hermogenem. This is the same Hermogenes mentioned above. Tertullian writes that he was a sect leader, who mixed Stoic, Gnostic and Christian views to create a new religion.
Socrates of Constantinople wrote in the 5th century that the Roman Emperor Valentinian I took two wives and authorized his subjects to take two wives, supporting that Christians were then practicing plural marriage. There is no trace of such an edict in any of the extant Roman Laws. Valentinian I divorced his first wife according to John Malalas, the Chronicon Paschale and John of Nikiu, before marrying his mistress, which was viewed as bigamy by Socrates, since the Church did not accept divorce.
Middle Ages The Church held a synod in Hertford, England, in 673 that was supervised by Archbishop Theodore. Chapter 10 issued by the synod declared that marriage is allowed between one man and one woman, and separation (but not divorce) is only granted in the case of adultery, but even then remarriage is not allowed.
In the medieval period, multiple wives were often obtained through kidnapping. It is with this in view that we must interpret the following laws: The Frankish Laws of 818–9 strictly forbade kidnapping of women. The XXVII. law issued by King Stephen I of Hungary (1000–1030) declares that the kidnapper must return the woman to her parents even if he has had sexual intercourse with her, and must pay a penalty to the parents. According to the Hungarian law, the kidnapped girl was then free to marry anyone.
The Roman councils of 1052 and 1063 suspended from communion those laymen who had a wife and a concubine at the same time. Divorce was also forbidden, and remarriage after a divorce counted as polygamy. Nicholas the Great (858–67) forbade Lothair II of Lotharingia to divorce his barren wife Teutberga and marry his concubine Waldrada, with whom he had several children. After a council of the Lotharingian bishops, as well as the archbishop of Köln and Trier, had annulled his marriage to Theutberga, the Pope voided this decision, and made him take his wife back.