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Was polygamy practiced in the bible and what does it say about it?
Polygamy is the practice of having more than one husband or wife at the same time. When people think of polygamy, one of the first things that comes to mind is its seemingly constant presence in the Bible.
However, when people reference polygamy in the Bible, what they actually mean is polygyny: having more than one wife. The opposite, polyandry, does not appear, as women are not described with more than one husband.
Some people attribute the Bible’s tendency toward polygyny to Judaism at the time, but it tied in closely with the overarching cultural identity of the regions in which the Israelites would have lived. By understanding the historical context in which biblical groups are presented, readers can see why such practices feature so prominently in the Old Testament.
How the Ancient Near East Treated Polygamy
To understand biblical polygamy, we must first clarify the cultural and legal framework of how it worked in the Ancient Near East. This region, made up of Mesopotamia, Assyria, and nearby smaller areas, recognized and regulated polygyny. It was especially common among the elite class.
In many cases, marriage during this time was both a personal arrangement and a contract, socially and economically. Secondary wives may have been introduced in cases of infertility, and these second wives still had defined rights, although they were more limited than the primary wife. Inheritance rules typically protected the firstborn, even if they were born to a less-favored wife.
In the 20th century, researchers discovered the Nuzi tablets. This collection of cuneiform texts, dating around 15th to 14th century BCE, came from a Hurrian city in northern Mesopotamia and included important legal frameworks, such as marriage agreements, adoption records, and property transactions. This was invaluable for historians, as the contents demonstrated everyday legal practices, not the more complex (and sometimes nebulous) ideologies of the royal class.
Laws regarding polygamy could also be found. Clear distinctions were made between the primary wife and secondary wives, and in some instances, a wife may forbid her husband from taking another wife.
Another law addresses rulers such as kings, warning against the accumulation of “many wives.” This restriction is often interpreted less as a stringent rule and more as a critique of the potential excesses such positions can bring. Primarily, concerns seem to center on how multiple marriages could lead to foreign alliances and the resulting competing loyalties.
But why was polygamy more common during this time period in general? Placing biblical polygyny within a broader anthropological framework reveals that the Israelites were far from the only practitioners. In fact, many agrarian, kinship-based societies practiced polygamy. The reasons are diverse; labor organization is one factor. In subsistence agricultural economies, households functioned with productivity in mind. Additional wives were capable of increasing the home’s labor force; think food production, textile work, and childrearing. This made polygamy an economic strategy to support success and even survival.
Reproductive strategy was also a factor. High child mortality rates in premodern societies prompted households to maximize the odds that they would have at least one surviving offspring. Polygyny significantly increases the potential number of successful births within a single household. Add to this the possibility of infertility (that would have been previously unknown before marriage) and conception difficulties due to resource scarcity, and families were incentivized to accept all the help they could get when it came to reproduction.
In societies in which descent, inheritance, and identity passed through the male line specifically, ensuring male offspring became a central priority. This concern is very visible in biblical narratives and is why numerous women either accepted their husbands conceiving through a servant or concubine or even found one for them explicitly for this purpose.
Understanding the Bible’s Take on Polygamy
With this understanding in mind, it is possible to consider the biblical texts. This cultural influence is reflected in the Bible’s assumptions about marriage that were standard in the region, not unique to the Israelites.
The earliest of these biblical references occurs in the first book of the Bible: Genesis. The first recorded biblical polygamist was Lamech, a descendant of Cain (Adam’s son). This means that polygyny occurred almost as far back as the origin of humanity when tracing humans according to the biblical timeline. Later, Abraham’s household featured Sarah, his primary wife, and Hagar, his servant who bore him a son when Sarah was proven infertile.
Lamech holds his son Noah
Abraham was so influential that his name is the one from which the term “Abrahamic religions” arises. One of his descendants, Jacob, lived within an even more complex family structure. He sought to marry Rachel after working for seven years for the privilege, but he was tricked into marrying Rachel’s sister Leah instead. After working another seven years, he married Rachel, whom he favored more. Their servants, Bilhah and Zilpah, also bore him children.
It may come as little surprise that with so many partners in the family, interpersonal conflict was common. Within the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), polygamy was regulated to minimize strife and codify it as an accepted social reality. For instance, Exodus 21:10 states, “If he takes another wife, he must not diminish food, clothing, or marital rights.” This is an attempt at protection in a culture that took additional wives as an assumption.
Polygamy was much more prevalent among the elite class for logistical and economic reasons. As per the laws, men must support each wife with housing, food, clothing, and other necessities. Wives (those taking that term, not concubines) were granted full legal status, but even concubines needed to be provided for. The majority of lower-class individuals did not have the resources or income to supply these needs and thus only took one wife.
As the Israelite monarchy emerged (including famous biblical figures such as King David and Solomon), polygyny became even more prominent among the elite. David’s household included several wives, and as legal sources had warned, internal conflict was prevalent in his family. Rivalries among his sons, who were born to different mothers, contributed significantly to political instability, with Solomon as perhaps the most extreme case.
Solomon’s large number of wives (described in 1 Kings as 700 plus 300 concubines) became explicitly linked to foreign alliances. As a result, foreign religions also became more popular, and these external influences threatened the monotheism of the Israelite nation.
Moving into the wisdom literature (Job through Song of Solomon), mentions of polygamy decrease. This does not mean that it vanished culturally, but for the Israelites, the push toward monogamy began as just an inkling. Texts such as Proverbs focus on household harmony and moral behavior, but what was considered moral within the context of marriage was not yet fully established. Framing during this time primarily referenced a single man and woman, but this could simply be attributed to ease of writing.
The prophetic texts then began to use marriage as a metaphor for one’s relationship with God, and especially for the bond between God and Israel. Thus, the relationship is typically presented as singular: one husband and one wife. However, as this connection is symbolic, it is not accurate to take it as direct evidence of the social norms during this time. Most likely, it was simply that these writers were focusing their attention on other areas, not making any sort of claim about polygamy.
Then came the Second Temple period (between 516 BCE and 70 CE) in which the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem stood following the exile from Babylon. Haggai and Zechariah (among others, such as Malachi, who all have Bible books named after them) were influential during this period as minor prophets, and it is in this era that evidence begins to arise pointing toward a gradual shift into monogamy.
Some Jewish texts from this period appear to reinterpret earlier practices, with certain communities adopting stricter norms or even prohibiting polygyny altogether. In large part, this decision seems to have stemmed from a focus on specific readings of Genesis, which emphasizes the union of one man and one woman.
However, it is likely based on historical records that polygyny did not disappear entirely during this time. Because interpretations of scripture were becoming more varied and contested, some groups moved toward monogamy while others maintained older, polygamist practices.
The Dead Sea Scrolls proved invaluable in conceptualizing this shift. Discovered near Qumran, these texts are direct evidence of biblical marriage law interpretation during the Second Temple period. This contrasts with the Nuzi tablets, which only provided external cultural parallels; the Dead Sea Scrolls were explicitly internal to the Israelite community.
Within the scrolls, the Damascus Document contains a passage widely interpreted as banning polygamy directly, with many biblical scholars at the time suggesting that the correct reading of the Torah already implied monogamy. This niche of Judaism is typically associated with the separatist Jewish community; however, many historians still debate whether that should be identified with the Essenes (a specific sect).
The New Testament Transition
By the time the New Testament came into being, the social environment had shifted to predominantly monogamy. Thus, the New Testament books do not contain explicit legislation regarding polygamy. This is especially true in the sense that Jesus’ teachings centered on the creation narrative, emphasizing the union of two individuals. Though this is not in direct address to polygamy, it further supports the sects that had shifted toward monogamy based on such biblical teachings.
It is important to note, also, that even outside of Judaism’s new bend toward monogamy, the Jews lived under Roman rule in the New Testament. Within the Roman Empire, monogamous marriage was the only legally recognized form. This also reflects the general sentiment in the Mediterranean region as a whole.
The Roman Empire did latently condone other types of relationships, but they were not legally recognized nor publicly standardized. These include free adult male citizens being socially permitted to engage in sexual relations with their male slaves because such individuals had no legal autonomy.
Sexual access was generally considered part of ownership rights and did not reflect in any way on the culture’s opinion of marriage, polygamy, or homosexuality. In part, this practice was influenced by earlier Greek customs, including pederasty (structured relationships between adult men and adolescent boys). However, freeborn Roman boys were protected by law.
With all of this going on in the background, there was still some flexibility in how the Jewish community perceived both physical and emotional relationships, and not all polygamy vanished. Instead, monogamy simply became the Christian norm (and, according to the community ideals, the rule, though in practice it was not so clear-cut).
Following the biblical period, both Jewish and Christian traditions continued to develop their positions on polygamy separately. In rabbinic Judaism, polygyny remained legally permissible for centuries. However, it became less common over time. Eventually, communities formalized restrictions that effectively prohibited the practice.
In parallel, early Christianity made monogamy the standard expectation. Church leaders consistently promoted it as normative, and increasingly, they rejected alternative arrangements. This, in part, led to the rejection of other types of two-person marriages, including same-sex marriages in many sects.
In the modern day, polygamy has all but disappeared from every version of Christianity. In its place, monogamy rose to prominence to such an extent that some branches have proceeded onward toward niches such as Quiverfull. This movement emphasizes the role of a man and woman to have as many children as possible because children are considered a gift from the Lord (or, as per the name of the movement, a quiver full of arrows).
Denominations of Christianity continue to navigate the increasingly complex tapestry of marriages, with some accepting same-sex coupling and others rejecting any form of bond besides male/female marriage. How this will continue to change in the future is uncertain, but because shifts have occurred consistently over centuries, it can be expected that things will likely not stay the same.The post Was polygamy practiced in the bible and what does it say about it? first appeared on History Defined.
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