This Part 2 concludes the topic “Polygyny – Lawful in God’s Eyes? (1)”. Before continuing, I urge you to first read Part 1; it contains the foundational verses. Please be advised…the subject is controversial!
This topic is highlighting Bible characters and God’s laws concerning plural wives & concubines. It doesn’t discuss the morals or differing marital laws of modern nations. (Western customs fall short.)
Regardless of cultures, God defines true morality in His word. He determines what is and isn’t sexual sin. Laws of human governments, customary practices, beliefs of churches…may or may not reflect God’s morality. (see the topic “Sexual Sins, Harlotry, Rape” for more about sexual immorality.)
Part 1 identified relative terms. Our English word polygamy includes polygyny, one man cohabiting with plural wives; polyandry, one woman cohabiting with plural husbands. The terms derive from the Greek poly/many, gamos/marriage, gyne/wife. Polygyny was seen as a lawful option in God’s eyes; polyandry wasn’t! (That’s not to say practicing polygyny is advised in modern Western nations.)
Many men in the Bible were monogamous, one man cohabiting with one wife (at a time). Divorce & remarriage is a form of sequential monogamy, otherwise called consecutive polygyny/polyandry.
Concubinage, from the Latin word concubina, was a respected polygynous marital option in the Old Testament (OT) and the ancient world. It resembles heterosexual civil union, or having a mistress, as done in some countries today. A mistress doesn’t have sex with plural partners (unlike a prostitute).
Godly and ungodly men of the Bible had plural wives. In Part 1, we saw that Abraham, his brother Nahór, Abimélech, Pharoah, Job…cohabited with plural wives & concubines! Jacob did too. Those men were born prior to the OT nation of Israel.
Christ was the God of OT Israel. (ref the topic “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.) During Moses’ time, Christ gave codified laws/regulations to His theocratic nation. Christ’s laws define His morality and marriage in God’s sight, adultery, and prescribe consequences for violations.
Part 1 noted: Christ’s law of concubines, war brides, levirate law so-called, and some Israelites who cohabited with plural wives/concubines…Manásseh, Caleb, Saul, Gideon, Samuel’s father, King Joásh.
John Milton (1608–1674) was an English theologian, statesman and poet. His best-known work is the epic poem Paradise Lost. Milton was a Puritan; they generally held very strict morals. But some of his personal Bible beliefs were ‘unconventional’. To quote from the manuscript of Milton’s theological treatise De Doctrina Christiana: “Either polygamy [polygyny] is a true marriage, or all children born in that state are spurious; which would include the whole race of Jacob [Israel], the twelve holy tribes chosen by God.” Ancient Israel, the people Christ loved, didn’t come from a progenitor living in sin!
Here in Part 2, we’ll note a few other polygynists in scripture, and look at New Testament (NT) verses.
Moses had more than one wife. Ex.2:21 he married Zipporáh, daughter of the priest of Midián (Ex.3:1). Midianites descended from Abraham and his concubine wife Keturáh (Ge.25:1-2, 1Ch.1:32). Nu.12:1 “Miriam and Aaron criticized Moses because of the Cushite (Strongs h3571) woman he had married.” Zipporah and Miriam both came from Shem→Abraham…whereas the Cushite/Ethiopian wife was from Ham (Ge.10:6). Moses was mighty and learned in the ways of Egypt (Ac.7:22). Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 2:10:2 “Tharbis was daughter of the king of the Ethiopians; she saw Moses as he led the army [of Egypt]. She fell deeply in love. Moses consummated his marriage.” She was his Cushite wife.
Jer.13:23 “Can an Ethiopian (h3569) change his skin, or a leopard his spots?” Leopard spots are black. Black-skinned Ethiopians. Miriam sounded racist in Nu.12:1. In return, the Lord struck her skin with leprosy, as white as snow (Nu.12:10)! John Milton op. cit. “It is not likely that the wife of Moses, who had been so often spoken of before by her proper name of Zipporah, should now be called by the new title of a Cushite; or that the anger of Aaron and Miriam should at this time be suddenly kindled.”
Samuel Dennis Marriage from the Bible Alone “Moses [had] at least 3 wives: Zipporah (Ex.2:21); an Ethiopian woman (Nu.12:1); another…daughter of a man called Hobáb who wasn’t Zipporah’s father (Nu.10:29, Jg.4:11).” The names aren’t completely certain. However, Kenites preceded Abraham’s son Midian/Midianites (Ge.15:19, 25:2). And Moses also had a Kenite father-in-law & wife (Jg.1:16, 4:11).
David was a great hero, Israel’s most famous king. He had God’s Holy Spirit (HS). ref 1Sm.16:13, 2Sm.23:1-2, Ps.51:11, Mk.12:36, Ac.1:16, 4:24-25. This enabled David to walk in Christ’s statutes & commandments (1Ki.3:14). 1Ki.15:5 “David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and hadn’t turned aside from anything He commanded him, except in the matter of Uriáh the Hittite.” David habitually obeyed the Lord (except in that one serious matter).
Yet King David had many wives/concubines (2Sm.5:13, 1Ch.3:1-9). His cohabiting with plural wives didn’t violate God’s morality! It wasn’t sin in God’s eyes. And Christ blessed David! 2Sm.12:7-9 the Lord gave David the wives of the deceased King Saul…the Lord would’ve even given David a larger palace and more wives! And when David was old & weak, a beautiful girl warmed him at night (1Ki.1:1-4). David loved the Lord (Ps.18:1); he was “a man after God’s own heart” (Ac.13:22).
John Milton op. cit. “The very argument which is used toward David [2Sm.12:8], is of more force when applied to the gift of wives, than to any other – you ought to have abstained from the wife of another person [Uriah].” Christ’s gift of wives to David.
David’s son Solomon also had wives/concubines (Ec.2:8 NASB, JPS Tanakh, etc.). 1Ki.11:1-4 but King Solomon multiplied heathen wives through political marriages. De.17:15-17 the king of Israel wasn’t to maintain a large harem of heathen women! John Milton ibid “Deut.17:16-17 is so far from condemning polygamy [polygyny]… and only imposes the same restraints upon this condition which are laid upon the multiplication of horses, or the accumulation of treasure.” A king was expected to have more than one horse, more than one ring/bar of gold…or wife! Parallelism. Solomon erred by marrying ungodly foreign women. As a result, his heart later sought pagan gods. Whereas the heart of his father David remained devoted to the Lord (1Ki.11:33-34), even though David had several Israelite wives.
Esther the Jewess was the king of Persia’s favorite wife, in the 400s BC. Est.2:8-17 she became queen of Persia. v.14 he also made many concubines of the virgins. Polygyny was an accepted legal practice in the ancient Near East. In scripture, neither the Persian king nor Esther committed adultery.
Christ, the God of OT Israel, Himself had two wives! What?! The Lord declared of Israel and Judah in Je.3:11-14 KJV, “I Am married to you”. God Himself became figuratively married to two nations. Is.54:5 “Your Maker is your Husband…the Holy One of Israel.” The word of the Lord came in Ezk.23: v.1-4 “There were two women. Their [allegorical] names were Oholáh the elder and Oholibáh her sister. And they became Mine, and bore sons and daughters.” But God’s two OT wives became adulteresses (v.36-37). So the Lord gave Israel a bill of divorce (Je.3:8, De.24:1), and later sent away Judah captive.
Daniel I. Block wrote in his OT Commentary, p.736 “Yahweh’s bigamy is all the more striking.” Maurice Nelson The Monogamy Lie! “God’s polygyny is figurative, not literal…The church finds itself in a bit of a quandary, when God claims, in the Bible, that He is engaging in a supposedly ‘sinful’ act [polygyny]. It is ludicrous to believe that God would portray Himself participating in a sin as a method to teach us not to sin. God [was] the polygynous husband of two women who have cheated [Ezk.23:36-37] on their Husband (God) by pursuing other gods.” Christ Himself is a figurative polygynist!
Moody Bible Institute Professor of Theology William F. Luck The Morality of Biblical Polygyny, p.51 “If it is a sin to be a polygamist, then God has referred to Himself as a Being with a character flaw.”
Ps.45:6-15 is a Messianic psalm (v.6-7 is quoted in He.1:8-9), and types Christ and His church. Ps.45:14 relates to Est.2:8-17, virgins going in to the king. Cambridge Bible Ps.45:9 “One of the wives takes precedence of the rest.” Benson Commentary “As the queen is the church in general, so these honorable women are particular believers, added daily to the church.” Jesus is figuratively betrothed to each believer! 2Co.11:2 Paul the apostle wrote to the church, “I betrothed you to one husband, Christ”.
Many theologians view the Song of Solomon not only as a human love story but also as a type of the spiritual love Christ has for His Bride, the church. SSol.6:8-9 “There are 60 queens and 80 concubines, but my dove is unique.” Christ marrying His Bride(s) was here typified by Solomon and his 141 wives! John Milton op. cit. “In Canticles 6:8-10 [SSol.6:8-10], the queens and concubines are evidently mentioned with honor.” This minimally prefigures 2Co.11:2. Eventually Christ ‘marries’ way more than 141 Christians! (Note: Again, Solomon later wrongly engaged in political marriages with pagan women who drew him to other gods; 1Ki.11:1-4 indicates 1,000 total women, not just 141 Israelitesses.)
Paul wrote in Ep.5:30-32, “For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” The Greek term for church is ekklésia (g1577), a feminine compound noun which means a group or gathering or assembly of people. cf. a ‘flock of sheep’. Christ doesn’t marry only one person. Each Christian becomes His figurative Bride, each spiritually becoming “one flesh” with Him.
“One flesh” refers to unseparated or organic union. Paul wrote in 1Co.6:16-17, “Don’t you know that a man who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For God says [Ge.2:24], ‘The two will become one flesh.” In regards to a harlot even, who has many partners! As a harlot has plural partners, a man could have plural wives. Samuel Dennis op.cit. “So the married man who sleeps with a harlot is now ‘one flesh’ with his wife, and ‘one flesh’ with the harlot. He is ‘one flesh’ with two women. The ‘one flesh’ relationship isn’t limited to a monogamous couple only.” It’s not exclusive.
It is apparent “one flesh” in scripture isn’t only confined to ‘a man with only one woman’. That was a sham restriction of pagan Roman culture (which in actuality was licentious). Paul and Jesus referred to Ge.2:24 LXX, Adam & Eve as “one flesh”. Jesus said in Mt.19:5 Good News, “A man…will remain united with his wife, and the two shall be one flesh”. Ge.2:23 Adam said Eve is “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” Ge.29:14 Laban said his nephew Jacob is “my bone and my flesh.” Yet Esau too is Laban’s nephew! Jg.9:2 Abimelech said via his mother’s relatives (plural), “I am your bone and your flesh”. The (idiomatic) expression “my/your bone and flesh” didn’t mean a monogamous marriage.
Mt.19:3-ff is about divorce, about remaining united, not about monogamy. Lauren Heiligenthal Evaluating Western Christianity’s Interpretation of Biblical Polygamy, p.49 “Ultimately, Mat.19:3-9 does not explicitly emphasize the monogamist ideal nor does it exclude polygamy.” (However, Jesus’ words in v.5 also indicate that for a marriage, plural wives aren’t mandatory; one wife is enough.)
Moses wrote Ge.2:24. He knew what God meant by “one flesh”. Christ chose Moses to record His laws which authorized & regulated polygyny! (see Part 1.) And Moses himself had more than one wife.
1Co.12:27 “You [the church] are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.” Each believer is His Bride, a spiritually chaste virgin to be one with Christ (2Co.11:2). Mt.25:1-13 is Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins. Five were wise. Jesus is the Groom/ Bridegroom, and they are His Brides (plural)! v.10-12 “The door was shut” refers to the entrance to the bridal chamber where a marriage was consummated. (also see “Wedding Pattern in Bible Holydays”.) In Mt.25 too, Christ depicts Himself as a polygynist.
Re.19:9 “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Christ figuratively marries virgins. The typology corresponds to OT plural marriages (SSol.6:8-9). Perhaps this makes more understandable 2Sm.12:7-8 where the prophet Nathan said the Lord would have given King David even more wives. The King of kings, Christ Himself…had two OT wives, plus numerous NT Brides!
Clyde L. Pilkington The Great Omission, p.62 “The [Bible] text speaks of the relationship between God and Israel, and later between Christ and the church, in polygamous terms.” (Some writers use the terms ‘polygyny’ and ‘polygamy’ interchangeably, though there’s a difference in today’s English.)
The ancient Near East was polygynous. Pagan Greco-Roman society marriages were monogamous. But Rome allowed 1st century Jews (and Persians?) to continue the (OT) laws & customs of their traditional marriages. David I. Brewer writes, “Polygamy [polygyny] was undoubtedly part of life in 1st century Judaism. It is now known that the middle classes also practiced polygamy. It is likely that there were few polygamous marriages outside Israel, because they wouldn’t be recognized in Roman law.”
The NT epistles were written to gentile areas which were under Roman law. Paul was a Roman citizen (Ac.22:27-28). As such, he didn’t put himself at risk by faulting Roman law or its ostensible marital monogamy. And faulting might have increased division between Jewish & gentile Christians in areas.
Nathan Braun The History & Philosophy of Marriage, p.71 “The first Christians, while they themselves were scarcely tolerated, were not inclined to attempt a social revolution by opposing the established [Roman] system of monogamy; but they attempted to oppose only its vices, and to remove them.”
{Note: The NT repudiates religious prostitution, incest, homosexuality/lesbianism, adultery, polyandry, some consecutive polygyny (divorce & remarriage), pornéia or sexual immorality in general.}
Paul wrote in 1Ti.3:2, 12, Ti.1:6 that church leaders (Jewish & gentile) should be the “husband of one wife”. This advice wouldn’t put leaders at odds with Roman monogamy laws for gentiles. David Brewer “There would have been a few converts with more than one wife. These were allowed to keep their wives, but could not serve as leaders.” It’s not that polygyny is immoral according to God’s laws.
William Luck op. cit., p.46 “If we cannot find a prohibition of polygyny up to this point of the inspired text, we are in trouble (hermeneutically speaking) finding it here [1Ti.3:2, Ti.1:6]. Second, we should remember that polygyny was considered barbaric by the Greeks and had not been practiced in Ephesus or Crete (where Timothy and Titus lived) [1Ti.1:3, Ti.1:5]….” Paul wrote to the Greco-Roman world.
However, the way many churches interpret “one wife” in 1Ti.3:12…Abraham the father of the faithful, and David “a man after God’s own heart”, couldn’t even serve as deacons today! The Christian Bible distributor Gideon’s International is named after a polygynist (Jg.8:30) who couldn’t even be a deacon?
Polygyny is a moral marital option of God, a choice; but He didn’t explicitly command it. However, in 1Co.7 we glimpse the allowance for its practice among Christians (laymen only?). 1Co.7:10-11 the Lord said a wife who’d separated from her husband should reconcile with him, or else remain unmarried. And a man shouldn’t divorce his wife. Then Paul said in v.27-28, a man who was released from a wife and had remarried, wasn’t in sin. And if his 1st wife was to later reconcile with him, as the Lord said in v.11, this man would then be cohabiting with two wives.
The historian Josephus (37–100 AD) wrote of his Jewish people in Antiquities of the Jews 17:1:2. “It is the ancient practice among us to have many wives at the same time.” 1Co.7:39 & Ro.7:2-3 pertain to wives, not husbands. Because God allowed a man to add a 2nd wife while his 1st was alive with him.
George Joyce Christian Marriage “Justin Martyr [100–165 AD, a gentile] makes it a reproach to Trypho [a Jew] that the Jewish teachers permitted a man to have several wives. When in 212 AD, the lex Antoniana de civitate gave the rights of Roman citizenship to great numbers of Jews, it was found to tolerate polygamy among them. On the other hand, the Romans were strictly monogamous.” Augustine (354–430 AD) later wrote in Treatises on Marriage and Other Subjects, “According to Roman law it is not permissible to marry a 2nd wife as long as he has another wife living”. In 1563 AD, the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) made polygyny anathema at the Council of Trent. Polygamy was condemned.
Maurice Nelson op. cit. “Polygyny was prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church, not by God. A monogamous society criminally punishes men for relationships allowed by God.”
The society of pagan Rome was morally corrupt. Juno, the wife of Jupiter, was the Roman goddess of love & marriage. The 6th month of Caesar’s Julian calendar (46 BC) was Iunius, the ‘month of Juno’. Our present Gregorian calendar comes from the Julian calendar. Western society today resembles decadent Roman society in some respects. And our ‘June’ is the most popular month for weddings.
Our modern society too is corrupt…illicit sex, licentiousness, abortion, is commonplace. Prostitution and divorce rates are high in Western nations which have marriage laws based upon the Greco-Roman model and proliferated by the RCC.
Wikipedia: Marriage in Ancient Rome “Marriage was a strictly monogamous institution. It is one aspect of ancient Roman culture that was embraced by early Christianity, which in turn perpetuated it as an ideal in later Western culture.”
“Polygamy is not forbidden in the OT. The NT is largely silent on polygamy. Polygyny is legal in 58 out of nearly 200 sovereign states. Polyandry is illegal in virtually every country.” (Wikipedia) In the Bible, polyandry is adultery. William Luck op. cit., p.56 “The husband functions as the head [1Co.11:3], while the woman functions, let us say, as the arm. The head may control more than one arm at a time. But to have two heads [husbands] attempting to control the same arm would be monstrous.”
Many nations today don’t adhere to the Western practice of solely monogamous marriages. Polygyny is legal in much of Africa. It’s been said that some peoples there have no vocabulary term for ‘prostitution’! And African plural wives generally have high social status. Some Christians too practice polygyny in nations where it’s legal (African & Asian).
Wikipedia: Polygamy in Christianity “Although the Old Testament describes numerous examples of polygamy 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.”
There are African pastors who resent Western church attempts to compel African churches to disallow what God showed was lawful in the OT! A lead pastor in Ghana, Stephen Boateng, says, “There’s no single quotation in the Bible that forbids polygamy, even God favors it”. His colleague, Daniel Eshun, said rhetorically, “At what point did polygamy become a sin?” 1Ti.3 & Ti.1, not written before the 60s AD, would be late for God to somehow change His mind and suddenly rule that polygyny is sin!
John Milton op. cit. “I argue as follows from Heb.13:4: Polygamy is either marriage, or fornication, or adultery; the apostle recognizes no fourth state…so many patriarchs were polygamists…whoremongers and adulterers God will judge, whereas the patriarchs were the objects of His especial favor.”
It is possible for a man to simultaneously love more than one woman. Adriana Blake Women Can Win the Marriage Lottery “Why should we think that it is possible to love only one person as a mate? We acknowledge that we can love more than one child and more than one parent.”
The premise that monogamous families produce better-adjusted children is disputable. Yes, contention did develop between polygynous Abraham’s sons Ishmael & Isaac and between the two wives of Samuel’s father Elkanáh. But many monogamous families too are contentious. For example, the twins Jacob versus Esau! Adam & Eve was a monogamous couple…yet their firstborn son Cain became a murderer, killing his brother Abel (Ge.4:8)!
God the Father is a monogamist. He’s not a single parent; single parenthood isn’t God’s ideal! ref “Godhead in Prehistory”. Christ, the Husband of two OT nations and of Christians…is a polygynist.
However, Jesus the man didn’t come to be made physical king (Jn.6:15) or lead a rebellion against Rome and its laws. His purpose wasn’t to enact Roman legislation regarding morality, to meet His higher standards. It wasn’t time for His laws to be implemented in their government (Jn.18:37, Re.19:16).
Marrying someone while still legally married to another is bigamy. Christian men shouldn’t break laws prohibiting bigamy and risk imprisonment. (Yet polygyny may be viable in some circumstances.)
God made men with more testosterone, whereas wives may not want to be bothered with sex. A wife shouldn’t feel compelled to have sex! In the OT, God authorized a solution to satisfy the realistic needs of both sexes and extend the family lineage & wealth.
The content of the NT, with the words of Jesus, shouldn’t be separated from the OT roots of Christ’s words to His nation Israel. Christ’s morality isn’t a double standard! Mal.3:6 “I, the Lord, do not change.” His laws regulate, not prohibit, polygyny. And it should go without saying that the 1st century laws & customs of men in pagan Rome, which we glimpse in the NT, are inferior to Christ’s OT laws! Beware self-righteousness, based on the customs/traditions of (religious) men.
Modern society can glean true concepts and standards of God’s morality from Christ’s OT guidelines! He, His character and morality, is “The same yesterday, today, and forever” (He.13:8).
The ultimate and highest determinant of morality is God’s word, not mans’ customs. Jesus & Paul affirmed God’s word, saying, “It is written”. And 1Pe.1:25, “The word of the Lord abides forever.”
Bible Topic Exposition 