by Mark Niwot

Created on: November 19, 2009

Scripture repeatedly commands (Deut. 4:2 and 12:32, Rev. 22:18-19, etc) that man is not to "add to" nor "subtract from" the Written Word of God. Our Savior was likewise critical (Matthew 23 is just one obvious example) of those "Hypocrites!" who took it upon themselves to insert their own "traditions" into "law" and thus make His commandments "of no effect". (Matt. 15:6, Mark 7:13, etc.) But there is perhaps no better example of a false doctrine elevated by tradition alone to the status of unquestioned "Law" than the false idol of Monogamy.

If this concept is new to you, your own reaction may well serve as a proof of just how strongly that tradition is revered. I contend that so "knee-jerk" is the response to any serious challenge to this 'sacred cow' doctrine that it can literally be said to fall into the category of "forbidding to marry" that was the subject of I Timothy 4:1-3. Don't believe me? Then I challenge you to be like the Bereans (Acts 17:10-11) and study for yourself. "Let God be true and every man a liar."

There are some studies in Scripture that might be called "difficult" - after all, the Savior Himself called several things "hard teachings". But this isn't one of them. Honest scholarship will show without question that NOWHERE in the Bible does God prohibit men from taking more than one wife. The converse, however, will almost certainly surprise you. What follows may even shock you, if you have come to believe that this tradition comes from Scripture, rather than false doctrines and even pagan practices.

The stories of the practices, patriarchs, and prophecies in the Bible associated with marriage, and specifically with polygyny, occupy literally hundreds of pages in the Bible. An analysis of all of them would of course require at least a book-length study. But there are a number of observations which are consistent, and readily verified. They all make the point. For example, there IS no specific word in Biblical Hebrew to describe "polygyny" - there is just "marriage", and what is Written about it. "Poly" is a Greek root word, and the distinction is literally foreign to the original Biblical mindset. I use the English word "polygyny" here in preference to the less-specific term "polygamy" because God permits a man to have multiple wives, while the converse is simply defined as "adultery". Whether our own society likes it or not, God's Word makes it clear that a woman is to have only one "covering".

Even most "non-believers" are aware that

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• Next Page >>