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Religions of the Fertile Crescent
By: Kristen Wells Boehnlein
Biblical Polygamy DoesNot Turn Out Well
Mike Schultz
Society
Though polygamy is clearly allowed in the Bible, it almost
always leads to really bad situations. Of the three religions
coming out of the Bible, Christianity (early) and Judaism
(much later) ended polygamy while Islam continued it.
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bible hebrew bible
old testament polygamy
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01 Jacob Marries Two Sisters: Rachel and Leahwww.biblegateway.com
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There are several stories of polygamyin the Bible, and they almost all turnout badly.
In Genesis 29 (see this learning for thecomplete story), Jacob has fledCanaan from his murderous brotherEsau after deceptively obtaining Esau'sblessing from Isaac. He makes his wayto Haran, to his uncle Laban's house.There he ends up marrying Laban'stwo daughters, Leah and Rachel, as
well as their two handmaidens, Bilhah and Zilpah. But he only married Leahbecause he was tricked into it, and as verse 29:31 records, Leah was hated.Some translations offer the nicer "unloved" or "not loved," but the literal Hebrewis quite clearly hate.
Reading through this chapter, and the explanations that Leah gives to thenames each of her children receives, it's heart-wrenching to see what it can belike for one wife when a different wife is clearly preferred by her husband. Andwhen they're sisters, of course, it's that much worse.
This dynamic doesn't end - the children of Rachel are preferred by Jacob to thechildren of Leah, leading to a lot of resentment and ultimately the brothers'selling Joseph (Rachel's son) down to Egypt.
Later on in the Bible, the reality that it's not such a good idea to marry twosisters is turned into a proper prohibition:
"You shall not take a woman as a wife after marrying her sister, as her rival, touncover her nakedness beside the other during her lifetime." (Vayikra 18:18)
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11/14/13 Biblical Polygamy Does Not Turn Out Well | Society | Learnist
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02 Abraham, Sarah and Hagar: Hagar is Banishedwww.torah.org
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A couple of generations earlier,Abraham's wife, Sarah, who he loves,is barren for many years. So shesuggests that Abraham take hermaidservant, Hagar, as his secondwife. But she ends up regretting itpretty quickly, as Hagar startsdisrespecting her from the momentthat she becomes pregnant. In twoseparate episodes, Sarah demandsthat Abraham banish Hagar, first whenshe is pregnant and then after Hagar's
teenaged son, Ishmael, is mistreating Sarah's young son, Isaac (don't let theimage trick you - Ishmael is 13 years older than Isaac, not the same age as inthis painting). In each case, Hagar and Ishmael almost perish in the desert butare miraculously saved.
So Sarah and Hagar did really poorly as co-wives. This learning retells the fullstory and suggests based on a rabbinic source that Sarah actedinappropriately. Here maybe the message is not to marry your wife and herservant.
Very interestingly, after Sarah dies, the midrash suggests that Isaac took anunusual step. Abraham's servant was off searching for a wife for Isaac. Isaac,according to the midrash, felt that the least he could in return was make surehis father wasn't alone. So in Genesis 24:62, he went to the Well of the EternalOne Who Sees, the well named by Hagar after her miraculous salvation. Whydid he go there? The midrash suggests that this is where Hagar went to liveafter having been sent away the second time. (Interestingly, I believe Islam saysthe same thing - this is the Zamzam well outside of Mecca.) And Isaac wentthere to bring Hagar back to be his father's wife once more.
So there you have quite a co-wife dynamic: the son of the preferred wifeencouraging his father to remarry the rejected wife after his preferred wifepasses away. And then after Abraham dies, it says in 25:11 that Isaac went backto the Well again, to ensure that Hagar remains part of the family.
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03 Rival Wives: Hannah and Peninahbiblehub.com
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Even when there's no priorrelationship between two wives, itstill can go quite badly. In thebeginning of the Book of Samuel, asyou can read in this learning,Elkanah has two wives, and as usualthe one he loves better (Hannah) isbarren while the one he loves less(Peninah) has kids. And just as thispainting captures, Peninah does nothesitate to torture Hannah withincessant reminders of herbarrenness.
In Biblical Hebrew, the word tzarahmeans both "trouble" and "co-wife."So that makes it pretty clear, I'd say -no illusions here about whether co-wives were likely to get alonghappily.
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04 King David & King Solomon and their Many Wiveswww.mechon-mamre.org
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When it came to the kings, they can'tsay they weren't warned.Deuteronomy 17:16-17 warns, "The kingmust not acquire great numbers ofhorses for himself or make the peoplereturn to Egypt to get more of them, forthe Lord has told you, "You are not togo back that way again." He must nottake many wives, or his heart will beled astray."
King David took at least 22 wives and concubines, and suffered greatly fromthe infighting as to who would inherit his throne.
But King Solomon's story offers more of a warning. This learning takes you to IKings 11, where we read of King Solomon's 1000 wives (which doesn't includethe Queen of Sheba, pictured here, with whom he had a more ambiguousrelationship, but the Ethiopian Orthodox Church claims descent from theirunion, as well as the resulting possession of the holy Ark of the Covenant).
Just as Deuteronomy warned, they lead him astray, building sites of idolworship in his old age, as a result of which he is punished by having thekingdom torn in two in the next generation.
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05 Why (and When) did Christianity Outlaw Polygamy?en.wikipedia.org
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If polygamy was so clearly allowed in the Hebrew Bible, how did it come topass that the early Church prohibited it?
You could say they were good readers of the Hebrew Bible and saw how thisdidn't go so well. But this Wikipedia article suggests that a major driving forcemay have been the fact that Roman marriage had to be monogamous. Andsince Christianity began within the Roman empire, that may well have had amajor impact.
As you can see in this learning, there is debate as to what the Christian Biblehas to say about polygamy. Though there are several Biblical passages thatseem to outlaw it, none of them are 100% clear, leaving open the possibilitythat the Christian prohibition came only after the Bible.
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Polygamy in Christianity
Search Wikipedia
This page has some issues
Polygamy is a marriage which includes more than two partners.[1] There are numerous
examples of polygamy in the Old Testament, but it is generally not accepted by modern
Christianity. Some Christians actively debate whether the New Testament or Christian ethics
allows or forbids polygamy. This debate focuses almost exclusively on polygyny (one man
having more than one wife) and not polyandry (one woman having more than one husband).
Old Testament polygamy
Intertestamental period
New Testament
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06 Learnboard: The Learning Channel--Sister Wives:Mormonism and Polygamylearni.st
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It's well known, thanks to shows likeBig Love and the TLC's series ofdocumentaries of real-life families,that an offshoot of the Mormonchurch still practices polygamytoday.
This learnboard from Discoveryhighlights TLC's "Sister Wives"documentary featuring Kody Brownand his four wives. There's also aninteresting learning about the historyof polygamy in the US and theoriginal position of the Mormonchurch on the question.
Finally, there's a learning that looksat this issue from a totally differentperspective. Many traditional Africansocieties today have polygamy, andin this learning the author argueswhy polygamy is a good thing.
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07 Maasai Tribe: The Meaning of Love & Polygamyadded from Tribal Wives: Marriage and Polygamy via www.youtube.com
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From this learnboard about the BBC show "Tribal Wives" (where British womenget integrated into indigenous tribes around the world), this video providessome interesting perspective on polygamy. If marriage is not about love butabout successfully running a household, then polygamy could take on a totallydifferent feel. In the Bible, it kind of feels like marriage is about both love andpracticality, or sometimes one and sometimes the other.
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08 Does Jewish Law Forbid Polygamy?www.chabad.org
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In Judaism, there's no mention ofpolygamy in the rabbinic period(~2000 years ago), so it seems to havebeen a permitted but very uncommonpractice. But 1000 years ago, the headof the Ashkenazi (Northern European)Jewish community, RabbeinuGershom, put out a new decree.Among other things (like forbiddingreading other people's mail), RabbeinuGershom outlawed polygamy.
This learning suggests 5 different reasons for Rabbeinu Gershom's decree,most of them to do with ensuring greater happiness within the home, eitherbecause of infighting between the wives or a husband not being nice to all hiswives or just because of the financial strain.
However, this decree did not apply to the Sephardic Jewish communities inSpain and later on North Africa and the Middle East.
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09 Jewish Polygamywww.jewishencyclopedia.com
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This 1906 entry from the JewishEncyclopedia gives a verythorough look at polygamy inJudaism, from a close reading ofthe Bible (When did polygamystart? What was the ideal, asrepresented by Adam and Eve?Why did the Judges take multiplewives? Why did the Prophets notdo so?) through the rabbinicperiod and into the last millenia.Polygamy in the Sephardic worldwas certainly rare, but it remaineda possibility until recent years,when there were basically almostno Jews left living in countries thatpermitted polygamy.
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10 Why Polygamy Is Allowed in Islamwww.patheos.com
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This blog post written by a Muslimwoman attempts to explain theunderlying reason behind Islam'sallowing a man to take up to fourwives. In addition, she offerssuggestions to the women for how tomake it work.
In Islam, explicit in the Quran andHadith (oral teachings of the ProphetMuhammad), a man is allowed to marryup to 4 women. It's neitherencouraged nor discouraged, just
allowed. The author argues, based on the context in the Quran of theseteachings, that after a time of war, with so many fallen men, polygamy is ameans of caring for the widows and orphans.
Islam requires the husband to treat all his wives equally - to divide his time andfinancial resources evenly and provide similar housing for each.
Towards the end of this learning, the author provides an interesting collectionof tips and advice for women considering marrying someone who is alreadymarried.
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11 Polygyny in Islam - the Historical Contexten.wikipedia.org
Polygyny in Islam
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This page has some issues
Under Islamic marital jurisprudence, Muslim men are allowed to practice polygyny under
Islam, that is, they can have more than one wife at the same time, up to a total of four.
Polyandry, the practice of a woman having more than one husband, by contrast, is not
permitted.
The New Oxford American Dictionary defines polygyny as “polygamy in which a man has more
than one wife.” Since Islamic law does not allow women to have more than one husband at the
same time, this article will use the word polygyny (as polygamy is the practice or custom of
having more than one wife or husband at the same time) unless it is within a quote of an
original source. Numerous sources use the terms interchangeably.
Polygyny for Muslims, in practice and in law, differs greatly throughout the Islamic world,
where polygamous marriages constitute 1–3% of all marriages. In some Muslim countries,
polygyny is relatively common, while in others, it is rare or non-existent. Azerbaijan, Bosnia
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Among many interesting pieces in this Wikipedia article, two in particular jumpout as worth paying attention to:
1) The historical context. In the Arabian peninsula in the time of the ProphetMuhammad, there were no limits on the number of wives a man could take.There was also in general a good deal of variety of the kinds of marriagesallowed by different societies in the region. It was most definitely not aChristian-ruled area with monogamy as the norm. It's quite possible that Islamactually greatly limited polygamy and added protections for that time period.
2) A current list of Muslim countries with some restrictions on polygamy andwhat those restrictions are.
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