What does the Bible say about polygamy?

One of the more traditional lines in a marriage ceremony includes: "Marriage is a God-ordained institution," for the procreation of children, the happiness of the people involved, and to act as the foundation for a healthy society. The question of what that institution should look like has been at the forefront of people's minds.

While today in most Western cultures, it is commonly accepted that marriage is a partnership, over the centuries many have established polygamous marriages, commonly in which a man has more than one wife, although some have a woman with multiple husbands. Even in the Old Testament, some patriarchs and leaders had multiple wives.

However, the Bible never shows that these polygamous marriages are successful or appropriate. The more marriages the Bible shows and the more it is discussed, the more problems of polygamy come to light.

As an omen of the relationship between Christ and his bride, the Church, marriage is shown to be sacred and intended to bring two people together to draw closer to Christ, not to be divided among several spouses.

What is polygamy?
When a man takes multiple wives, or sometimes when a woman has multiple husbands, that person is a polygamist. There are many reasons why someone might want to have more than one spouse, including lust, the desire for more children, or the belief that they have a divine mandate to do so. In the Old Testament, many prominent and influential men have multiple wives and concubines.

The first marriage that God ordained was between Adam and Eve, for one another. Adam recites a poem in response to his encounter with Eve: “This will be bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she will be called woman, because she was taken from man ”(Genesis 2:23). This poem is about the love, fulfillment, and divine will of God.

In contrast, the next husband to recite a poem is a descendant of Cain named Lamech, the first bigamist. He had two wives named Adah and Zillah. His poem is not sweet, but about murder and revenge: “Adah ​​and Zillah, listen to my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I killed a man for hurting me, a young man for hitting me. If Cain's vengeance is sevenfold, then Lamech's is seventy-seven ”(Genesis 4: 23-24). Lamech is a violent man whose ancestor was violent and reacted on impulse. He is the first man to take more than one wife.

Moving forward, many men deemed righteous also take more wives. However, this decision has consequences that grow in magnitude over the centuries.