What the Bible Really Says About Multiple Wives
Part 1: Before There Were Two Wives – God’s Original Design
When people talk about polygamy, one question usually comes up right away:
“If having more than one wife is wrong, why did men like Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon have multiple wives?”
That is a legitimate question.
The Bible openly shows that some of its most well-known figures had multiple wives. But there’s a big difference between the Bible telling us what people did and God telling us what people should do.
If we want to understand what God intended for marriage, we shouldn’t begin with Abraham, Jacob, David, or Solomon.
We need to go further back.
We need to go to the beginning.
Genesis 2:24: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”
Before sin entered the world, before Israel existed, before Moses gave the Law, and before marriage became complicated by human culture, God set the pattern.
One man.
One woman.
One covenant.
One flesh.
God didn’t give Adam several women. He gave him Eve.
This is even more important when Jesus talks about marriage in Matthew 19. When religious leaders asked Him about marriage and divorce, Jesus didn’t focus on the customs that had developed in Israel’s history.
He went back to creation.
Matthew 19:4–6: “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female… For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?… What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”
Pay attention to Jesus’ language:
Male and female.
His wife.
They two.
One flesh.
Jesus explains marriage based on how God created it, not on the traditions people developed later.
This gives us an important guideline for understanding the Bible:
Everything written in the Bible is true, but that doesn’t mean God approves of everything people do.
The Bible records murder.
It records adultery.
It records deception.
It records drunkenness.
It records divorce.
And it records polygamy.
Just because something is recorded doesn’t mean it’s approved.
It’s interesting that the first man the Bible specifically mentions as having two wives is Lamech:
Genesis 4:19: “And Lamech took unto him two wives…”
By Genesis 4, people were already moving away from the original design God set in Eden.
The question, therefore, shouldn’t simply be:
“Did biblical men have multiple wives?”
Obviously, they did.
The better question is:
“Is that what God designed marriage to be?”
Genesis 2 gives us the answer.
Marriage doesn’t start with one man joining with many women, but with two people becoming one.
When Jesus wanted His followers to understand marriage, He pointed them back to that original design.
Before culture changed marriage, before people complicated it, and before powerful men took many wives, God’s pattern was already set.
One man. One woman. One flesh.
