The Bible devotes much of its narrative to passages about marriage and the love between
husbands and wives. In fact, a whole book in the Old Testament, Song of Songs, is effectively
one long poem about love and romantic longing between a man and a woman. Similarly, in the New
Testament, the writer of Galatians tells husbands to love their wives, even to the point of death,
comparing a husband's love for his wife to Jesus' sacrifice of his own life for mankind.
But often when the Bible mentions marriage,
it's within the context of polygamy. So why do most religions today avoid polygamy?
"Utah's a fine state, fresh air, fine people,
Orrin Hatch, you've got it all. But this polygamy thing…"
Certain sects of Mormonism aside, it's curious that most other Western religions avoid polygamy
given that many of the men mentioned in the Old Testament had multiple wives: Jacob had four,
David had eight, and King Solomon had hundreds. It's a striking contrast to the New Testament,
where most of the marriage relationships mentioned seem to refer to one man and one woman
even though, according to Chabad, polygamy was still being practiced in the culture at the time.
When the Old Testament mentions polygamy, though, it's mentioned neutrally: the practice is neither
promoted nor condemned. Indeed, sometimes men who took on extra wives did so to their peril,
but mainly because of other problems as opposed to the marriage itself. Solomon, for example,
had hundreds of wives but didn't get into any real trouble until he disobeyed God
and took on foreign wives, who then convinced him to worship idols. So it wasn't the fact
that he had multiple wives that was the problem — it was that some of them were the wrong wives.
The one exception to this neutral approach to polygamy comes,
unsurprisingly, in the New Testament. Over in 1 Timothy,
the Apostle Paul instructs readers on appointing leadership positions in the church and,
according to some English translations, declares that any candidate for a certain job must be
"faithful to his wife." According to the King James Version, the translation is roughly,
quote, "the husband of but one wife." Regardless of translation nuances, the original text
effectively calls for any candidate for such a leadership position to be a "one-woman man."
Still, if the Bible treats polygamy neutrally overall,
then why do the overwhelming majority of the world's Christians and Jews eschew the practice?
Writing for Chabad, Rabbi Naftali Silberberg
said that while the Old Testament does not outlaw polygamy,
nearly all of the polygamous marriages in the text were entered into for a specific reason. He wrote,
"As far as Jewish thought is concerned ... polygamy is not, and never was, an ideal state.
The [Old Testament is] replete with references to husband and wife being two halves of one whole."
Indeed, in A.D. 1000, Rabbi Gershom banned polygamy for all Ashkenazi Jews,
with other Jewish communities outlawing polygamy later.
Christendom has, by and large, taken on the same view. In the 1500s, the Council
of Trent outlawed polygamy for all Catholics. And when the Protestant Reformation came along,
church leaders ultimately moved toward fully banning plural marriage for the same basic reason
as the Jewish community: Though the Scriptures don't forbid polygamy directly, the broader
ideal is that a marriage is a relationship between two people, and two people only.
Another thing to consider about the Bible's teachings about polygamy was
that times were different. Women were forced to be largely dependent on men,
whether it was their relatives or their husbands. If there was no man to support them,
they had little recourse other than to become slaves or sex workers. So while not ideal,
joining or forming a polygamous family was sometimes done as a matter of protection.
Polygamy was also a matter of practicality for some men. It ensured the family lineage was
kept intact if his first wife could not bear him children. Marriage was also a way to form
alliances between nations, which was reportedly the situation for Solomon and King David.
Yet even though the Bible didn't explicitly forbid polygamy,
it was still generally avoided if possible. Though God was willing to let polygamy
slide because he understands the human condition and the demands of its societies,
ultimately the Bible suggests that when it comes to marriage, two is the magic number.
"I'm going to go home and sleep with my wife!"
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Grunge videos about religion
are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.