Wondering if anyone has any materials on “multiple marriages” in the Old Testament? Would like to hear your views on why this was tolerated among God’s people. I understand this was not God’s choice, however, there is no outcry from the prophets against such. The practice of multiple wives and concubines in the Old Testament is part of a class I am teaching on The World of The Bible.<\/p>\n\t
Why polygamy is in the Old Testament is a matter of conjecture.\u00a0 In Deuteronomy 25:5-10 God commands that a man marry his brother’s childless widow without regard to his current marital status. Given that it was a command of God would suggest to me that God expected it to be followed.\u00a0\u00a0 That sounds far beyond just toleration to me.\u00a0 Also in I Kings 15:5, God sums up David’s life by saying he did everything correctly except for the matter of Uriah. If you leave out Bathsheba, David still had his own host of wives and concubines.\u00a0 That would easily explain why the prophets don’t speak out against it.\u00a0 Polygamy was allowed and in some cases expected.<\/p>\n
You also allude to “this was not God’s choice”.\u00a0 I suspect that you arrive at that conclusion from things that Jesus said in Matthew 19.\u00a0 Jesus’ comment in Matthew 19:8 actually says that God permitted divorce because their hearts were hard.\u00a0 He does not say that God permitted multiple marriages because their hearts were hard.\u00a0 God gives his opinion on divorce here (and in Malachi 2:16), but there is no comment on what he thinks about polygamy. There is only an implication given that marriage was intended to be between one man and one woman in Matthew 19:4-5 by the statements that mankind was made male and female and that the two (one man and one woman) become one flesh.<\/p>\n
To find what is required in the New Testament we need passages like Ephesians 5:33, I Timothy 3:2, and I Timothy 3:12.\u00a0 Here we find that the direction of the church was to be one husband for one wife.\u00a0 Why the shift?\u00a0 I don’t know, but it is obvious that there is a shift.<\/p>\n
I don’t know that there is anything useful to be gained by speculating on why God would allow polygamy in the Old Testament and not allow it in the New.\u00a0 We don’t always get an answer on “Why?”\u00a0 I could ask why God forbade that one fruit to Adam and Eve, but he does not forbid us any fruit.\u00a0 I expect that it has to do with seeing if we will follow His word more than because there is inherent harm in the action.\u00a0 Certainly, most things that are identified as sin have a negative physical impact, but that does not mean all things are that way.\u00a0 Some things are wrong only because God said they are wrong.\u00a0 God is free to have one covenant where an action is required for religious purposes (like circumcision – Leviticus 12:3) and the other where it is condemned if done for religious purposes (Galatians 5:1-4).\u00a0 I know of several people who try to find a health benefit to circumcision, but it was not given for health reasons, it was given as part of that older covenant.<\/p>\n
So it is with polygamy.\u00a0 There may be logical social benefits that one could derive that would explain “why” to a level of satisfaction of our intellect.\u00a0 For example, “they did not have another good system for taking care of widows in an age where men died young”.\u00a0 I don’t personally like that reasoning because that implies that God was incapable of devising another rule whereby the widows could be taken care of.\u00a0 He chose that way for that time and we should respect it for what it was.<\/p>\n
Darrell Hamilton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Wondering if anyone has any materials on “multiple marriages” in the Old Testament? Would like to hear your views on why this was tolerated among God’s people. I understand this was not God’s choice, however, there is no outcry from the prophets against such. The practice of multiple wives and concubines in the Old…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[533],"class_list":["post-8851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-polygamy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":84955,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-study-of-polygamy\/","url_meta":{"origin":8851,"position":0},"title":"A Study of Polygamy","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dudley Ross Spears via Sentry Magazine, Vol. 15, No. 1, March 31, 1989 Polygamy is probably the least important issue Christians face today. Yet, issues associated with it are becoming more and more prominent as they relate to the general issue of marriage. Few, if any, would dare to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4009,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-a-country-permits-polygamy-is-there-a-biblical-reason-not-to-have-multiple-wives\/","url_meta":{"origin":8851,"position":1},"title":"If a country permits polygamy, is there a biblical reason not to have multiple wives?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When I read the Old Testament, I find many passages glorifying men who had multiple wives, and, in fact, glorifying the possession of multiple wives. When I read the New Testament, I find nothing telling me, a man who doesn't seek to become an elder or a deacon, from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6880,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-god-allow-polygamy-and-concubines\/","url_meta":{"origin":8851,"position":2},"title":"Why did God allow polygamy and concubines?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been wondering for a while about why polygamy and concubines were allowed.\u00a0 Why was God okay with this stuff? Answer: We are not specifically told, but I can make some reasonable guesses. But to put it into context, as you were growing up were there not things\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4063,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-divorce-is-allowed-then-shouldnt-polygamy-be-allowed\/","url_meta":{"origin":8851,"position":3},"title":"If divorce is allowed, then shouldn’t polygamy be allowed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm replying to a question I asked earlier, to which you posted your answer as \"If a country permits polygamy, is there a biblical reason not to have multiple wives?\" You said this: \"Mankind often practices things of which God disapproves. God regulates the practices, but it would be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2340,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-god-change-his-mind-about-sexual-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":8851,"position":4},"title":"Did God change His mind about sexual sins?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Did God change? How is it that God that was so quiet about fornication, adultery, and polygamy in the Old Testament and then suddenly changed in the New Testament? Answer: It is in the Old Testament that we learn that a man is to leave his family, get married,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4181,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-only-reason-polygamy-is-condemned-is-because-the-church-condemns-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":8851,"position":5},"title":"The only reason polygamy is condemned is because the church condemns it.","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I believe that every word in Scripture is there for a reason. I don't think God plays around with the words in Scripture unless there's a good reason to do so. With that said, have you ever wondered why Matthew 19 is the only quotation of Jesus that includes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8851\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}