Adherents of the two dominant world religion- Christianity and Islam- differ sharply in their beliefs and teachings on polygamy. While the Muslims believe that God (Allah) expressly permitted polygamy (up to a maximum of four wives), contemporary Christian preachers have over the years taken an uncompromising stand against polygamy since the nineteenth century when it was outlawed by the Romans and the subsequent infusion of the new order into Christianity. These preachers who are generally referred to as “men of God” and who are believed to possess extraordinary spiritual knowledge have successfully convinced their multitude of followers to believe that it’s God who abhors polygamy.
But does the judeo-christian God trully forbid polygamy? Or is the law against polygamy simply a Western initiative and subsequent imposition on other cultures rather than a fulfilment of God’s injunction? This article is the outcome of a carefully researched venture into this subject, leaning mostly on the same bible that is coveted as the standard moral book of Christianity. And contrary to the erroneous posturing of antagonists of polygamy, there is no valid biblical proof of its condemnation by God. Paradoxically, biblical evidences abound to show that the judeo-christian God encouraged and supported polygamy as enunciated herein.
When king Saul fell out with God, the latter gave out all of Saul’s wives to King David as a reward for his loyalty (2 Samual 12:8). This was in spite of the fact that David already had many wives at the time.
The bible recorded that David had 8 named wives and other unnamed ones and concubines. Yet, he remained “a man after God’s heart” until he committed adultery with Uriah’s wife – Bathsheba. In fact, when God was expressing His displeasure with King David over his adulterous encounter with Bathsheba, He said: “I gave you all your master’s houses and WIVES, and all of Israel and Judah. And if all these were not enough, I would have given you more” (2 Samuel 12:8). It therefore implies that God was willing to grant David even additional wives instead of him engaging in adultery. How then could anyone claim that this same God forbids polygamy?
Rather than legislate against polygamy, the bible on the contrary makes room for polygamy and prescribes acceptable code of conduct for it. Exodus 21:10 expressly gives conditions for polygamy. It prescribes that the first wife should not be denied marital rights by a man who takes up a second wife.
Furthermore, the Bible prohibits men from marrying biological sisters (Leviticus 18:18).
These bible verses would have been irrelevant if polygamy was not a valid marital option.
Many preachers have hinged their anti polygamy posturing on Jesus. It’s noteworthy that Jesus never preached about marriage throughout his lifetime in spite of the fact that polygamy was the norm at that time. The only time he referred to marriage was when he answered questions from the Pharisees about DIVORCE (Matthew19: 3-12). Proponents of monogamy have relied heavily on verses 4-6 where Jesus reportedly said: “in the beginning God made them male and female”, ending that “both shall become one”. This, they claim, suggests that the original plan of God was one woman to one man. This is an assumptive error of the highest order. Recall that the world had existed and practiced polygamy thousands of years before Christ and God had a tradition of conveying his likes and dislikes to the people through the prophets and kings but there’s no biblical proof that any of them preached against polygamy let alone not being heeded to. Was the coming of Jesus part of God’s original plan? No! Did God need to wait until Jesus came (an afterthought) before denouncing the practice of polygamy among His people? Jesus went further to state that adultery was the only permissible ground for a man to divorce his wife. (verse 9). This means that incorrigibly unruly behaviour, incompatibility, diabolism and other extreme marital breakers are not “christianly” acceptable reasons for divorce. Yet, the rate of divorce not based on sexual immorality is at its apogee in all monogamous Christian societies. The bible documented that the audience viewed what Jesus said as an impossible mission hence they replied him saying: “if this is the case, then it’s better not to marry” (verse 10). It was at this point that Jesus made it known that what he said was optional and not meant to be binding on everyone (verses 11-12).
It’s therefore gravely erroneous to claim that Jesus recommended monogamy for the whole world.
Supposing we even demote ourselves to this level of primordial reasoning and accept that monogamy was the original intention of God for the entire human race, it’s clearly arguable that He changed His mind at some point. Hence instead of faulting his loyal servant David for having multiple wives, He added more to him. And this is not the only instance where God changed his “original plan”, probably to suit the prevailing circumstances. For instance, His original plan was for us not to have knowledge and not to die (Genesis 2:17) and to be going about naked (Genesis 2:25). But are these attributes sustained? Did God himself not make clothes for Adam and Eve, against his supposed original plan? (Genesis 3:21)
The phrase “in the beginning” as referenced by Jesus in Matthew 19 cannot therefore be used by any intellectually sound mind to argue that God still prohibits polygamy (and there’s no evidence He ever did). It’s extremely irrational to selectively apply this phrase only to marriage while turning a blind eye to its usage in other contexts.
In further proof of the irrelevance of the supposed God’s original marriage plan, the author of Genesis where the phrase “in the beginning” was used is Moses. And do you know what? Moses was polygamous with 2 wives – Zipporah (Exodus 3:1) and the Cushite/Ethiopian (Numbers 12:1).
Some have argued that if God wanted polygamy, he would have made 2 or more Eves for Adam. This argument is absurd at best. Did God create the exact number of any creature on earth or just a sample which was equipped with the machinery to propagate itself? Did God not have only one begotten son? Why then do Christians bear more than one? And why does a Christian man marry a woman born of another woman instead of waiting to be put to sleep so that one of his ribs would be used to cast a wife for him? Since Jesus borrowed only a horse to Jerusalem, does it make it ungodly to have more than one horse? Did Jesus drive a car or use iPhone? Must we deteriorate to this level of base thinking just to advance Western imperialism and appear religiously correct? If God abhors polygamy, He would have included it among the commandments which He handed over to Moses (a polygamous man) in which He expressly stated what He forbade. But He did not.
Most of the notable men that God worked with in the bible were polygamous.
Abraham, the “father of faith” had 3 wives (Sarah, Hagar and Keturah) (Genesis 16:3 and 25:1).
Moses, the author of Genesis had 2 wives.
Jacob, the father of the 12 tribes of Israel had 4 wives (Leah, Rachael, Bilhah and Zilpah) (Genesis 29:23, 29:28, 30:4 and 30:9).
David, a man after God’s heart had at least 8 wives (Michal, Abigail, Ahinoam, Eglah, Maacah, Abital, Haggith and Bathsheba) (1 Samual 19: 11; 25:39 and 25:43; 2 Samual 3:2-5).
Solomon the wisest man had 700 wives !!! (1 Kings 11:3, 7:8 and 11:1). Yet the same God who is touted to detest polygamy not only promised him wisdom, riches, honor and long life, but also fulfilled them. (1 Kings 3:1-15). Under the reign of Solomon, the most polygamous man the world has ever known, Israel attained her greatest power and fame under the watch of God of Israel. The same man wrote the book of Ecclesiastes and most of the Proverbs. His “super polygamous” status was never an issue to God. Instead, Solomon fell out with God when he started worshipping other gods besides the God of Israel and that led to his downfall (1 Kings 11:1-13).
From the foregoing, it is patently discernible that there’s no biblical basis against polygamy. The then very powerful Romans outlawed polygamy for economic reasons and infused same practice into the church, and subsequently shoved monogamy down the throat of her conquests. Subsequently, anti polygamy laws were enacted in England and the United States after long years of battle for and against it. It’s instructive to note that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the United States was one of the fiercest supporters of polygamy and all her members continued to preach and practice it until 1890 when they were subdued. Their founder and prophet, Joseph Smith had claimed in 1843 that he had a divine revelation that men should marry more than one wife but the larger Catholic church which didn’t believe his revelation fought him to a standstill and through the US congress, succeeded in getting anti polygamy law passed in 1856.
But all these obnoxious laws will eventually amount to an exercise in futility because they are anti nature. God had revealed through Prophet Isiah that monogamy would not be sustainable, stating that a time will come when women will be begging for polygamy, just to answer a man’s name (Isiah 4:1). Has the prophecy not begun to unfold? In Kenya for instance, women kept protesting against monogamy lamenting that many of them were attaining menopause without a husband, until their government legalized polygamy in 2014. It’s happening here now with majority of slay queens hanging out with married men offline, only to go online and speak against polygamy for fear of social media attack. For how long should we accommodate this hide and seek? And who are the ultimate losers? Women!
My dear readers, if you want to embrace monogamy, you are 100% at liberty and you have not offended God. However DO NOT by any inch blame or condemn anyone who chooses to be polygamous on the pretext that such practice is offensive to God because by so doing you unveil your ignorance about the same religion you claim to profess. Neither Allah nor God of Israel nor any African God prohibits polygamy.
The truth is that ANTI POLYGAMY LAWS ARE ARTIFICIAL CREATION OF THE WEST AND NOT GOD’S INJUNCTION.
The West themselves have corrupted these laws through the instrument of divorce that has made it possible for their men to be changing partners every 3-5 years. Many men in their 6th decade of life in America today are at least in their 4th marriages. This is what I call “serial polygamy”.
Now, having established the the divine right of every man to marry more than one wife, the next question is: should every man go polygamous? No! Why? Watch out for my next article.
Ugwu, an Associate Professor of Medicine, writes from Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu.
