Polygamy in the Bible: Is It Allowed?

If you’re a parent, you’ve likely read the biblical accounts of the patriarchs to your children. If they were paying attention, perhaps they asked you an awkward question that you didn’t know how to answer: “Mom, Dad, was God okay with Abraham and Jacob having more than one wife?” How do we understand polygamy in the Bible?

Polygamy, believe it or not, has seen a resurgence of discussion among many professing Christians, with some even arguing that it is not only biblically permissible, but good. While most cultures today still view polygamy as abhorrent, when pressed, Christians may struggle to develop a thoroughly biblical argument against it. Some so-called pastors argue that Scripture’s lack of explicit condemnation, especially in the Old Testament, leaves room for its legitimacy in Christian marriage. But as we’ll see, Scripture is clear: polygamy has no place in God’s creation ordinance of marriage or in the body of Christ.

Marriage from the Beginning: One Man and One Woman

The Bible establishes one definition of marriage in Genesis 2 and then repeats and affirms that definition with Jesus and Paul in the New Testament: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).

If that weren’t clear enough, Jesus makes the exclusivity of one man and one woman even more obvious in his statement, “the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh” (Matt. 19:5–6, my emphasis). Paul also highlights that the number of participants in marriage is two in 1 Corinthians 6 and Ephesians 5.

Both Old and New Testaments establish that God’s creation of marriage was designed for one man and one woman. This is the best expression of the exclusivity of Christ and his bride, the church. Jesus is not in a polygamous marriage with many individual Christians, he has one bride, the church.

In these kinds of discussions, we must remember a key hermeneutical principle when interpreting Scripture: Let the clear parts of Scripture interpret the less clear parts. The clearest testimony we have in Scripture is that marriage was designed by God to be between one man and one woman. We must never depart from this foundation. Then, from that foundation, we can start to ask the more difficult questions surrounding polygamy in the Bible.

Polygamy in the Bible: Marriage in a Fallen World

We live in a fallen world that is broken and corrupted by sin. Nothing operates the way God originally intended, and that includes marriage. In Matthew 19, Jesus makes it clear that Moses gave allowances for divorce not because divorce was ever God’s original intent, but because of the people’s hardness of heart. God needed to provide regulations around this fallen reality.

You will not find one positive example of polygamy in the Bible.

This accommodation also applies to polygamy in the Old Testament. Polygamy was a common practice in the ancient world, and, practically speaking, to remain unmarried or widowed at that time would leave women and children in vulnerable and potentially dangerous predicaments. So it is true that the Old Testament does not explicitly condemn polygamy or require capital punishment for it in the same way it does for other deviations from God’s design for marriage and sexuality.

The Old Testament law regulated this practice, just as it regulated divorce. Exodus 21:10–11 and Deuteronomy 21:15–17 speak directly about husbands who take more than one wife. These passages do not say that husbands should take more than one wife, but if they do, the law is concerned with making sure that all wives and their children are treated fairly. Rather than simply telling the husband to cast that second wife and her children out in destitution, God instead tells the husband to give his second wife all her marital rights. In some cases, the second wife might be more loved than the first, and therefore the husband might be tempted to give preferential treatment to the loved wife and her children. But the law forbids this, requiring that if the unloved wife bears the firstborn son, that son still retains all the rights of the firstborn.

There are many stipulations in Old Testament law that acknowledge unideal situations produced by sin. In some cases, the law’s primary concern is with reducing the damage that comes from these sinful scenarios. Polygamy in the Bible is not approved, commended, or neutral; it is one of these sinful scenarios.

And apart from just the law, what we see highlighted in the biblical narratives of men who take multiple wives is the consistent theme of brokenness, strife, jealousy, and heartache for these families. This is especially true for the wives and children. No wife should ever have to bear the burden of feeling she is in competition for her husband’s love, protection, and provision. Leah suffered daily with the knowledge that she was not first in Jacob’s heart, and her life was marked by a constant striving to win her husband’s affection. Even when a wife was the most loved by her husband, such as Hannah or Rachel, they suffered the constant torment of barrenness and the mocking and ridicule of their fertile competition. You will not find one positive example of polygamy in the Bible. We see in the Old Testament that polygamy is always shown to be extremely problematic for everyone involved.

Some may point out the fact that many key redemptive figures came from polygamous marriages. Consider Jacob’s twelve sons, Samuel, or David’s heir to the throne, Solomon. Why would God choose to use polygamy as the context for so many key Old Testament figures?

The answer should be obvious: God loves to use crooked sticks to draw straight lines. A major theme in salvation history is God using broken and sinful people, despite themselves, to bring about his redemptive purposes. The genealogy of Jesus is a wonderful summary of this theme.

The Progressive Revelation of God’s Standards from Old to New Testament

God has one moral law that reflects his unchanging character. This means his law does not change. It is binding on all people, at all times, throughout all of history. But how this law is administered to God’s people changes throughout different redemptive epochs. The explicit commands that Old Testament Israel had to follow never contradicted God’s character. However, some of them revealed only parts of his character and not its fullest expression. We see this most clearly in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7). In this sermon, Jesus took elements of the Old Testament law and revealed a greater depth to the nature and heart of God in giving the law, and therefore a greater responsibility for New Testament believers in living it out. Israel knew that murder was against the law. But Jesus explains that there is a deeper sin that results in murder: sinful anger. So, too, Israel knew that adultery was a grave sin. But Jesus showed that lust is adultery of the heart.

A major theme in salvation history is God using broken and sinful people, despite themselves, to bring about his redemptive purposes.

Scripture is the progressive revelation of God’s character and activity in this world. He doesn’t reveal everything to Abraham or Moses. He progressively revealed himself throughout redemptive biblical history, with the culmination being the revelation of his Son (Heb. 1:1–2) and the following interpretation and application of his salvific work in the New Testament.

Therefore, it’s fitting that the New Testament commands a standard of living that is commensurate with our place in redemptive history. And what do we see regarding polygamy in the New Testament?

First, as I already mentioned, the exclusivity of marriage between one man and one woman is reaffirmed multiple times.

Second, Paul says that an elder of the church must be the husband of one wife. Apart from the ability to teach, virtually every requirement Paul gives for elders is a test of his character, not his ability. This standard, while explicitly applied to elders, would be expected of all believers in the church. And not practicing polygamy is no exception. Therefore, the New Testament clearly condemns polygamy and prohibits any believer from practicing it.

A Thorny Pastoral Case Study

But what if an unbeliever marries multiple women and then becomes a believer? What should he do? This is not an easy situation. But we do find principles from Paul in 1 Corinthians 7. We know from other places in the Bible that believers are forbidden to marry unbelievers. But Paul says that if one spouse becomes a believer, they shouldn’t divorce their unbelieving spouse—although they are not bound to stay with them if their unbelieving spouse abandons them.

The same principles can apply to a polygamist who becomes a believer. It is not obvious that he should cast out his second wife. But it is obvious that he is unfit for the office of elder in his church. This is especially significant in some developing countries, where polygamy is still a common practice. Casting out a second wife could leave her and her children in a desolate situation, and while the church should never condone or conduct a polygamous marriage—just like it should never condone the marriage of a believer with an unbeliever—so too, divorce is not the obvious solution to this broken situation.

Particularly on the mission field, there have been a minority of pastors who believe a converted polygamist should cast off every wife except his first but still provide financially for the women and holistically for the children. However, the majority position of most missionary pastors has historically been not to require divorce for any of the wives, but also to restrict any further taking of wives.

Now and Not Yet: Biblical Marriage and Future Glory

How do we reconcile the standard against polygamy in the Bible with the reality of polygamy today? Even in the New Covenant, we still live in a fallen world, with broken situations that don’t have easy solutions. Some sins people commit as unbelievers will not find full resolution this side of eternity. As the gospel makes inroads in cultures where polygamy is still a common practice, the hope would be that this would gradually become less common, especially among communities with a strong Christian influence. Ultimately, these painful realities of ongoing brokenness in the world should make us all the more zealous to see the return of our Savior, when he will finally and permanently make all things new.