Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. “The Case Against Polygamy”. The Huffington Post. April 23, 2008 – “The Bible makes it clear that G-d created Adam and Eve, not Adam, Eve, Cindy, and Bonnie. The ideal of monogamy is thus established at the very outset of creation. Similarly Abraham, the first Jew, has one wife, Sara, until she pushes him to take another wife since she is barren. Likewise, Isaac is completely monogamous, and Jacob intends to be so as well until he is tricked by his own father-in-law into marrying the wrong woman which will later necessitate marrying the correct woman as well.
The only real Biblical examples of men with many wives are the Jewish kings, like David and Solomon. When it came to Kings, who back in ancient times would usurp whatever women they craved, the Bible sought to impose upon Jewish rulers a respect for women. This was done by allowing them to take a woman, beyond their original wives, so long as they married them, which would thereby grant their rights, rather than simply being used and discarded. But this was a concession to a virile male nature and never an ideal to be upheld, with monogamy always being the legitimate standard to which men were directed. Later, after Biblical times, Rabbeinu Gershom took the monogamous standard and made it law, enacting an edict binding on all European Jewry outlawing polygamy forever. And that has been the Jewish norm for more than a thousand years.”
John R. Llewellyn, former polygamist. “Polygamy vs. common sense”. Retrieved 4.24.08 – “Doctrine & Covenants Section 132. Section 132 has an ambiguous and nefarious beginning. To accept it as a commandment from God takes a lot of imagination and faith, but if you can ignore the revelation’s questionable chronology, especially its inconsistency with the Bible, archeology and world history, then you have the makings of a true, blue Mormon fundamentalist. Mormons and Christian polygamists are fond of saying that polygamy is Biblical, implying that because Moses, Abraham, David and Solomon had more than one wife that polygamy is a religious undertaking. Mormons promote the notion that the Bible ratifies Section 132, but it is my contention that the Bible does more to discredit 132 than ratify.”
Deut. 17:15-17: He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
Reasons to disagree
Genesis 16:1-11: 1 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.” Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me.” 6 “Your servant is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. 7 The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered. 9 Then the angel of the LORD told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.” 11 The angel of the LORD also said to her: “You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery.
Genesis 25:1: Abraham took another wife, whose name was Keturah.
Genesis 29:29: So Jacob agreed to work seven more years. A week after Jacob had married Leah, Laban gave him Rachel, too.
Genesis 30:4: So Rachel gave her servant, Bilhah, to Jacob as a wife, and he slept with her.
Genesis 30:9: When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her maidservant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
Genesis 30:26: Give me my wives and my children for whom I have served you, that I may go, for you know the service that I have given you.”
Exodus 21:10: If a man who has married a slave wife takes another wife for himself, he must not neglect the rights of the first wife to food, clothing, and sexual intimacy.
Deut. 21:15: 15 If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love, 16 when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love. 17 He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.
2 Sam. 2:2: So David went up thither, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail Nabal’s wife the Carmelite.
2 Sam. 5:13: And David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he was come from Hebron: and there were yet sons and daughters born to David.
2 Sam. 12:7-9: Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
1 Kgs: 11:1-4 1 But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites: 2Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. 3And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. 4For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as was the heart of David his father.
2 Chr. 13:21: Meanwhile, Abijah of Judah grew more and more powerful. He married fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
2 Chr. 24:3 Jehoiada chose two wives for him, and he had sons and daughters.
Isa 4:1 In that day so few men will be left that seven women will fight for each man, saying, “Let us all marry you! We will provide our own food and clothing. Only let us take your name so we won’t be mocked as old maids.”
Comment & Debate