What Does the Bible Say About Polygamy?

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Does the Bible condone polygamy? Let's start with the patriarchs. Abraham was married to Sarah, but then he also married

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Hagar and later Keturah. His son Isaac had one wife, Rebekah, but then their son Jacob had two wives who were sisters,

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Zeliah and Rachel, and then he also married Bilhah and Zilpah. What about the prophets, like Moses? Well, Moses is never mentioned as having more than one wife.

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Zipporah was his first wife in Exodus 2 .21, and then he married a Cushite woman in Numbers 12, a union his siblings

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Aaron and Mariam disapproved of because she was a foreigner. But then there are the kings, like David. He had at least eight wives we know of, and there were probably others.

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And his son Solomon had 700 wives. So God is apparently cool with polygamy, right?

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No. Narrative is not normative. The Bible never speaks favorably of anyone having more than one wife.

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In Matthew 19, 4 -6, Jesus said, Have you not read, that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said,

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For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

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So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.

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So God's intention for marriage from the beginning was one man and one woman. Furthermore, pastors and deacons, who are to be models of Christian maturity, are to have only one wife.

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Jesus has one bride, the church, whom he loved and gave himself for. So let us follow his word and his example, and keep marriage sacred when we understand the text.