Polygamy is recorded quite early on in Genesis and seems to be common throughout the Old Testament and even regulated, though not blessed, in the law of Moses (e.g., Deuteronomy 21:15-17). In the New Testament, we see Jesus reinforces the establishment of marriage as a creation ordinance...
www.puritanboard.com
historical setting:
1. Polygamy was
NOT practiced in Greek and Roman societies of the time:
"Even though we may find numerous traces of polygamy and polyandry in the Gk. myths,
monogamy predominated in the Gk. world in the historical period.
Morality within marriage was strict. The Homeric hero had one wife, who was faithful and inviolable, a good manager of the home and mother.
Gk. marriage was monogamous. [
NIDNTT:s.v. "Marriage, adultery, bride, bridegroom"]
"
Polygamy was not practiced in the Roman world outside Palestine, though illegal bigamy and certainly adultery were. [
EBC: in.loc. 1 Tim 3]
2. Polygamy was
practiced somewhat in 1st century Palestinian Judaism (by the
government/aristocratic leaders):
"In the Second Temple period,
Jewish society was, at least theoretically, polygamous, like other oriental societies of the time but
in contrast to the neighboring Greek and Roman societies...."[HI:JWGRP:85]
"There is
evidence of the practice of polygamy in Palestinian Judaism in NT times (cf. J. Jeremias,
Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus: An Investigation into Economic and Social Conditions during the New Testament Period, 1969, 90, 93, 369f.). Herod the Great (37-4 B.C.) had ten wives (Josephus,
Ant. 17, 19f.;
War 1,562) and a considerable harem (
War 1,511). Polygamy and concubinage
among the aristocracy is attested by Josephus,
Ant. 12, 186ff.; 13, 380;
War 1, 97. The continued practice of levirate marriage (Yeb. 15b) evidently led to polygamy, which was countenanced by the school of Shammai but
not by that of Hillel. [
NIDNTT:s.v. "Marriage, adultery, bride, bridegroom"]
3. Among the Jews, it was
not accepted by the prestigious school of
Hillel (above), nor by the strict
Dead Sea Sect (Qumran), and was
not widely practiced, esp. among the
rabbi's:
"But even if polygamy was permitted by
tannaitic halakhah, other
halakhic systems counseled otherwise. During the Second Temple period, monogamy was preferred even on the conceptual plane by, above all, the
Dead Sea Sect whose
halakhah explicitly prohibited polygamy. In the reworked version of the statutes of the king in the
Temple Scroll, it is stated: "he
shall not take another wife in addition to her, for she alone shall be with him all the days of her life" (LVII 17-8). In the
Damascus Covenant, criticism is leveled against the 'builders of the wall' (Pharisees?) in the following terms: '
they shall be caught in fornication twice; once by taking a second wife while the first is still alive...' [HI:JWGRP:85]
"it was known in Jewish society as represented in rabbinic literature,
polygamy was not widespread in practice, especially not
among the sages themselves." [HI:JWGRP:86]
So, polygamy was present only in a particular subset of Palestinian Judaism (not in Roman society, Greek society, Diaspora Jewish communities, the Hillel-school, or Dead Sea Sect), and generally confined to the aristocracy.
Justin Martyr (c.160) rebukes the Jews for allowing polygamy:
"Your
imprudent and blind masters [i.e., Jewish teachers] even until this time
permit each man to have four or five wives. And if anyone sees a beautiful woman and desires to have her, they quote the doings of Jacob." [ANF, vol. 1, p. 266]
2. Irenaeus (c.180) condemns the Gnostics for, among other things, polygamy:
"Others, again, following upon Basilides and Carpocrates, have introduced promiscuous intercourse and
a plurality of wives..." [ANF, vol. 1, p.353]
3. Tertullian (c.207) was also explicit:
"
Chapter II.-Marriage Lawful, But Not Polygamy. We do not indeed forbid the union of man and woman, blest by God as the seminary of the human race, and devised for the replenishment of the earth and the furnishing of the world, and therefore permitted, yet
Singly. For Adam was the one husband of Eve, and Eve his one wife, one woman, one rib. (ANF: Tertullian,
To His Wife)
4. Methodius (cf.290) was clear on the issue, arguing that it had stopped at the time of the Prophets:
"The contracting of marriage with several wives had been done away with from the times of the prophets. For we read, 'Do not go after your lusts, but refrain yourself from your appetites'...And in another place, 'Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.' This plainly forbids a plurality of wives." [ANF, vol. 6, p.312]
5 The Pseudo-Clementine Literature boasts about how St. Thomas taught the Parthians [i.e., an Iranian culture] to abandon polygamy:
"But I shall give a still stronger proof of the matters in hand. For, behold, scarcely seven years have yet passed since the advent of the righteous and true Prophet; and in the course of these, inert of all nations coming to Judaea, and moved both by the signs and miracles Which they saw, and by the grandeur of His doctrine, received His faith; and then going back to their own countries, they rejected the lawless rites of the Gentiles, and their incestuous marriages. In short,
among the Parthians-as Thomas, who is preaching the Gospel amongst them, has written to us-not many now are addicted to polygamy; nor among the Medes do many throw their dead to dogs; nor are the Persians pleased with intercourse with their mothers, or incestuous marriages with their daughters; nor do the Susian women practise the adulteries that were allowed them; nor has Genesis been able to force those into crimes whom the teaching of religion restrained. (ANF 8: "Book IX: Chapter XXIX.-The Gospel More Powerful Than 'Genesis.'"]
The Council of Neocaesarea A.D. 315 (circa) refers to a 'purification period' for polygamists. By that time, sinners had to 'sit out' of Church activities until they had demonstrated reformation. If a sin showed up on this list of canons, it was considered a 'bad sin'--and polygamy shows up here:
"
Ancient Epitome of Canon III. The time (for doing penance and purification) of
polygamists is well known. A zeal for penance may shorten it." [ANF]
7. Basil, Archbishop of Caesarea, mentioned it a number of times in his letters, generally concerning the period for exclusion from church for polygamists, calling it 'limited fornication'(!):
"IV. In the case of trigamy and polygamy they laid down the same rule, in proportion, as in the case of digamy; namely one year for digamy (some authorities say two years);
for trigamy men are separated for three and often for four years;
but this is no longer described as marriage at all, but as polygamy; nay rather as limited fornication. It is for this reason that the Lord said to the woman of Samaria, who had five husbands, "he whom thou now hast is not thy husband." He does not reckon those who had exceeded the limits of a second marriage as worthy of the title of husband or wife. In cases of trigamy we have accepted a seclusion of five years, not by the canons, but following the precept of our predecessors. Such offenders ought not to be altogether prohibited from the privileges of the Church;
they should be considered deserving of hearing after two or three years, and afterwards of being permitted to stand in their place;
but they must be kept from the communion of the good gift, and only restored to the place of communion after showing some fruit of repentance. [ANF:
(Canonica Prima
.)To Amphilochius, concerning the Canons. Letter CLXXXVIII written c.347.]
The data for the NT seems rather clear. Although it was already a minority practice (outlawed in many countries), the stance of Jesus, Paul, and the early church is emphatically condemnatory towards it. Monogamy is upheld as God's design, His will, and His expectation for His people.
Polygamy in the NT period
en-academic.com
boards.straightdope.com
triablogue.blogspot.com
www.christianityboard.com
