If the Bible is the word of God then should Polygamy be practiced?

Answer 1

Genesis 16 1-4 Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children : and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai ... gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. ; Genesis 25 6 But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had.... ; Genesis 26 34 Esau ... took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. ; Genesis 31 17 Then Jacob rose up, and set ... his wives upon camels. ; Exodus 21 10 If he take him another wife.... ; Deuteronomy 21 15 If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated.... ; Judges 8 30 And Gideon had threescore and ten sons of his body begotten : for he had many wives. ; 1 Samuel 1 1-2 Elkanah ... had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. ; 2 Samuel 12 7-8 Thus saith the LORD God of Israel ... I gave thee ... thy master's wives.... ; 1 Kings 11 2-3 Solomon ... had seven hundred wives ... and three hundred concubines. ; 1 Chronicles 4 5 And Ashur the father of Tekoa had two wives, Helah and Naarah. ; 2 Chronicles 11 21 Rehoboam ... took eighteen wives, and threescore concubines. ; 2 Chronicles 13 21 But Abijah waxed mighty, and married fourteen wives.... ; 2 Chronicles 24 3 Jehoiada took for him two wives.... :

Since The Bible is the word of God, we ought to follow what it clearly says and not de-contextualize it to make it say something it does not say. Every one of the above verses are irrelevant to the question as they do not teach polygamy but merely give either examples of things which happened in ancient culture or were allowed due to 'hardness of heart'.

God's very clear direction and His original and lasting intention was 'one man for one woman' as outlined in Genesis and re-iterated by Jesus. The reference from Matthew 19: 4 -5 below shows this.

Matthew 19:4-5 (King James Version) 4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? If the Bible is the word of God, then Polygamy should not be practiced.

Gen.2 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Dt.17 17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself. ;

Mt.19 4-5 Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh.

Mt.19 9 Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

Mk.10 11 Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.

1 Cor.7 2 Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

Eph.5 33 Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

It is certainly all well and good to toss verse after verse to answer people's question, but I prefer to just answer the quickest, and in my mind, the best way I know how. Just give it to them straight on the straight and narrow. I guess there is truth to the adage, the shortest path between two points is a straight line.

Polygamy was practiced in the Old Testament, as the biggest example would be King David's son Solomon who had about 600 wives (political) and about 400 concubines, I believe. God did not most certainly condone this practice but allowed it to happen (as with so many other things then and even now) to teach Israel and undoubtedly Solomon himself a huge lesson, which they, as well as he did get. After all of his gold, his women, his unbelievable grand palace, the great king (who onced asked for wisdom instead of anything else) said this: "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity". And yes, vanity means the essence of being vain (empty, self-possessed greed). What? No references? Well our people did break up the Bible into chapters and verses, but I believe that the great stories of David and his son are found in the books of Samuel (David) and Kings (Solomon).