Polgamy is in the bible, is it okay to have mulitple wives?
Hi Matthew,
Genesis 2:23-24 KJV
23) And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
24) Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
One woman was taken from one man, and for this reason, A man shall leave his parents, and be joined to his wife, singular, and they, that is, the man and the woman, shall be one flesh.
Matthew 19:4-6 KJV
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?
6) Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
And of course Jesus affirms this and clarifies that it's because God made them male and female that the two shall be joined together to be one, and that God does this.
Again, two become one, that is the work of God.
Ephesians 5:28-33 KJV
28) So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
29) For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
30) For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
31) For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
32) This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
33) Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Paul tells us that this is a mystery concerning Christ and the church. He says the same thing as in Genesis, and Jesus, "for this cause a man shall . . . be joined to his wife", but he gives a different reason, that we are members of Jesus' body, bone of His bone, and flesh of His flesh.
He is tying together our "leaving and cleaving" to our wife, to our being joined to Him, and saying that our union with Him is why He designed "male and female" and marraige the way He did.
Because He makes us one with Him, He ordained "male and female", and marraige, to give us a picture of that.
Much love!