continued
It should be noted that Paul also repeatedly uses the anti-polygamist rendering of Genesis 2:24 (1 Corinthians 6:16, Ephesians 5:31). Ephesians 5 is inherently anti-polygamist. Paul tells us that there’s only one Christ and only one church (Ephesians 4:4-5), then he makes that relationship the model for the marriage relationship. He also uses the head/body imagery (Ephesians 5:23), and there can be only one head and one body. Paul goes on to cite Genesis 2:24 (Ephesians 5:31). I think that the most natural way to read Ephesians 5 is as a New Testament expansion of Genesis 2. In other words, Ephesians 5 is about the nature of all marriage, not just some marriages (monogamous marriages). To argue that Ephesians 5 doesn’t apply to polygamists would be like arguing that Genesis 2 doesn’t either. If polygamists aren’t going to get their model for marriage from Genesis 2 or Ephesians 5, then where are they going to get it?
Romans 7:3 seems to be contrary to polygamy as well. Douglas Moo writes:
“he [Paul] certainly uses the word ‘law’] in 6:14, 15 and in most of chap. 7 with reference to the Mosaic law…It is almost certain, then, that Paul here refers to the Mosaic law…Since Paul does not mention divorce, we can assume that the remarriage of the woman has taken place without a divorce of any kind; and any such remarriage is, of course, adulterous. Further, any body of law that Paul may be citing - Roman or OT (cf. Deut. 25:1-4) - allows for remarriage on grounds other than the death of the spouse.” (The Epistle To The Romans [Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1996], pp. 411-412, n. 24 on p. 413)
Some of the most explicit passages that can be cited against polygamy are from the Old Testament, such as Genesis 2 and Proverbs 5. In Proverbs 5, we aren’t told to be satisfied with our wife if she’s all God allows us to have. It isn’t suggested that we could seek other women if we want to. Rather, we’re told to be satisfied with her throughout our life. Solomon’s answer to sexual temptation is monogamy with the wife of your youth, not polygamy. Bruce Waltke cites Proverbs 5 as an illustration of 1 Corinthians 7:4-5 and writes that “Marriage is here thought of as strongly monogamous.” (The Book Of Proverbs: Chapters 1-15 [Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2004], pp. 317, 321) Proverbs 5:17 refers to your wife being yours alone, which can only be monogamy, and the wife is referred to as satisfying the husband’s sexual thirst, which is, again, monogamy. The woman is to meet the man’s sexual desires “at all times” and “always” (Proverbs 5:19), which, again, can only be monogamy. Solomon is referring to sexual relations, so he can’t be saying that a husband is to be always satisfied with his first wife, even as he’s having sex with his second, third, and fourth wives. Similarly, Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 9:9 about how one wife is the reward a man is given, as if he should be satisfied with her alone.
it is interesting to me that Mormon scripture seems to strongly condemn OT polygamy:
Jacob 2:27
“Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none.”
And Jacob 2:24 says,
“Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord.”
as far as tradition helping us we can look to the ECFs and see their condemnation of polygamy (Justin Martyr, Theophilus of Antioch, Athenagoras, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian) which is the result of their understanding of scriupture. Justin Martyr is especially uotspoken:
If, then, the teaching of the prophets and of Himself moves you, it is better for you [followers of Judaism] to follow God than your imprudent and blind masters, who even till this time permit each man to have four or five wives; and if any one see a beautiful woman and desire to have her, they quote the doings of Jacob called Israel, and of the other patriarchs, and maintain that it is not wrong to do such things; for they are miserably ignorant in this matter." (Dialogue With Trypho, 134) and Eusebius mentions Christians who avoid polygamy even when living in polygamous regions (“neither in Parthia do the Christians, Parthians though they are, practise polygamy”, Preparation For The Gospel,6:10).
I believe that the powerful combination of scripture and tradition gives the Catholic church a powerful (and True) foundation from which to proclaim authoritatively that polygamy is NOT what God wants for man and it never has been. The Mormon position, regardless of what is practiced on earth today is that polygamy is God’s preference and will be the rule in the Celestial Kingdom.
