Polygamy - not condemned in scripture?

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James_2_24

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An Orthodox Friend told me this about polygamy:

Why we are monogamous has nothing to do with the Tradition…
We adopted it from Roman civil law because it was a matter of good order. And that is what Morals are for: good order. Polygamy isn’t promiscuity or adultery. The Church did have polygamy in the past and the Eastern Church for a long time. The Church first made monogamy required for Bishops in the Apostolic era and it was extended by the Ecumenical Councils to all Christians

In other words, ‘Good Order’. The Church adopted universal Monogamy from Roman Civil Law because it was for the best. Polygamy was the natural practice of all Jews in the time of Christ, before then, and even after then up to the Middle Ages

You cant be polygamous now because its a matter of canon law but… you can find nothing in Scripture to condemn polygamy and nothing in the Fathers either our whole tradition of monogamy comes from the Ecumenical Councils.

Jesus didn’t frown upon polygamy.
 
We get monogamy from Jewish Tradition. Examples of women having only one husband are few, and can be found in Proverbs 31:23 and 12:4. Examples of men having one wife are also few, and can be found in Proverbs 19:14 and Psalm 128:3. Despite the monogamous trend these verses show, polygamy was practiced, but mainly in the upper class. Examples of this are Judges 8:30, II Samuel 5:13, and I Kings 11:1. I believe the best reason to believe that God wanted and wants us to be monogamous is the fact that when He saw Adam’s loneliness in the garden, He gave him one woman, Eve. He didn’t give Adam a group of women. Another indirect example of God’s desire for us to be monogamous is the criteria for a priest, shown in Titus 1:6. If priests were to have only one wife, why wouldn’t God want all men to have only one wife? If you want more info on monogamy in Jewish Tradition, check out jhom.com/lifecycle/marriage/polygamy.htm
 
Hey James,

I think it is fair to say that there is nothing in Scripture which explicitly prohibits a man from having multiple wives. This is something that Martin Luther and John Milton recognized. Mark Shea in in little book By What Authority remarks on this. But his point was directed at sola scriptura types in his attempt to show that some pretty non-negotiable beliefs cannot be found in scripture alone. We need both Scriputre and Tradition to explain all of our Christian beliefs.

But your Orthodox friend is making a different point, namely that this prohibition is not found in The Tradition. There, I suspect, he is quite wrong.
 
Polygamy is its own punishment: having more than one wife. I have often wondered what heinous sin Solomon committed to have what 1,000 wives and concubines?
 
What about the line in the Gospel that talks about a man is to take a wife and become one?

Matthew 19:5

‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’

It doesn’t talk about taking two or more wives or husbands. It might not be a condemnation but it doesn’t sound like it is in his plan.
 
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Tom:
Polygamy is its own punishment: having more than one wife. I have often wondered what heinous sin Solomon committed to have what 1,000 wives and concubines?
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And they say he was wise??? yeah right…
 
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Tom:
Polygamy is its own punishment: having more than one wife. I have often wondered what heinous sin Solomon committed to have what 1,000 wives and concubines?
Click to expand...
🙂 Ha! I hear you there. I have a hard enough time keeping one wife happy. I can’t imagine being asked 10 times to mow the lawn each week.
 
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Marauder:
What about the line in the Gospel that talks about a man is to take a wife and become one?

Matthew 19:5

‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’

It doesn’t talk about taking two or more wives or husbands. It might not be a condemnation but it doesn’t sound like it is in his plan.
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Amen.

It also doesn’t say “shall be joined to his husband” or “shall be joined to his goat,” so I think we can safely say there is no Biblical support for anything EXCEPT the union of a MAN and a WOMAN.
 
Polygamy isn’t, strictly speaking, against the Natural Law. Polyandry probably is. But in the Divine Law established by Jesus…he restricted it to monogamy, clearly.
 
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ferdgoodfellow:
But your Orthodox friend is making a different point, namely that this prohibition is not found in The Tradition. There, I suspect, he is quite wrong.
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This is correct. I found a few Church Father references to monogamy being the only way for marriage. I can’t type them in now, though.
 
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