The Narrow Path Ministries

A friend of mine who is in a linguistics class at Texas A&M Univ. sent me the following story. I thought it was interesting....

------------------------------------------------

In my linguistics class, we were talking about cultural stereotypes and ventured into the area of polygamy. Someone mentioned a conversation they had with a person in whose culture polygamy was not only accepted, it was normal.

The student mentioned that it was a bit of a culture shock, because in America, polygamy is not really accepted. The man was stunned. "What do you mean, polygamy is not accepted in America?" Well, the student explained, it was really looked down upon. It was seen as oppressive and backward, and you would be hard pressed to find anyone outside of fundamentalist Mormons who would say anything else.

The man was silent for a moment, still seemingly in shock, before he responded, "But Americans practice polygamy! They are serial polygamists. Instead of marrying many wives at once, they marry many wives one right after the other. They have the pleasure of polygamy without the responsibility of taking care of those they had previously been committed to which, in my culture, would be a grave sin."

The entire class was speechless.

In the beginning, God created one man and one woman as husband and wife.

Yet, in the early Hebrew culture, it was common for men to have many wives. David, a man after God's own heart had 8 (I think). In those days, God never seemed to rebuke anyone for having several wives. Of course, it was forbidden to have someone else's wife. God dealt severely with David concerning his adultery and murder of Bathsheba's husband. But God never seemed to say anything against a man for simply having several wives. Nor were the men of God rebuked for copulating with their maid-servants.

I have often wondered why, in those days, and today in cultures which practise polygamy, only the men have several spouses. Why not the women?

By the way, concerning "serial polygamy" in America, I would tend to call it "serial adultery" since often a first spouse opposes divorce and is often hurt by it.

It seems that under the law of Christ, the underlying purpose of God's laws were taught --- what is in the heart. Coveting is heart theft. Hatred is heart murder. Desiring someone else's spouse is heart adultery.

Paul specified that elders and deacons were to have only one wife.

I'm not sure how to bring all of this together. Does anyone have some ideas?

I always thought the reason God allowed men to have multiple wives in the OT was due to the fact that woman back then had no means of income/support. There's also the issue of carrying on one's family name, which was incredibly important in ancient (and some modern) cultures. Multiple wives meant a man could have more children.

One might argue that women in NT times still needed to be supported and Hebrew men still wanted many children so why does there seem to be a new standard in the NT? Well, I do see one difference and it's the church. It was the church's responsibility to help widows who couldn't support themselves, and the Godly men of the NT weren't nearly as concerned about someone "carrying on their bloodline" since Paul said it's better for a minister not to even take a wife.

Also, while God never forbids polygamy in the Bible, we can easily see that it's not an ideal situation. Many of the OT saints had family problems because of jealousy in the household. It seems impossible to avoid.

This old thread on polygamy might be of interest:

http://www.wvss.com/forumc/viewtopic.ph ... my&start=0