Biblicaly, is polygamy wrong?Where in the bible & what about saints like David,Jacob,Abraham? Has God changed?

Answer 1

This is an excellent question. Notice the reasoning in this article:

Polygamy.
Since God’s original standard for mankind was for the husband and wife to become one flesh, polygamy was not intended, and it is prohibited in the Christian congregation. Overseers and ministerial servants, who are to set the example for the congregation, are to be men having not more than one living wife. (1Ti 3:2, 12; Tit 1:5, 6) This is in harmony with what true marriage is used to picture, namely, the relationship of Jesus Christ and his congregation, the only wife possessed by Jesus.—Eph 5:21-33.

As was the case with divorce, polygamy, while not God’s original arrangement, was tolerated until the time of the Christian congregation. Polygamy had a start not long after Adam’s deflection. The first Bible mention of it is concerning a descendant of Cain, Lamech, of whom it says: “[He] proceeded to take two wives for himself.” (Ge 4:19) Concerning some of the angels, the Bible mentions that before the Flood, “the sons of the true God . . . went taking wives for themselves, namely, all whom they chose.”—Ge 6:2.

Concubinage was practiced under patriarchal law and under the Law covenant. A concubine had a legal status; her position was not a matter of fornication or adultery. Under the Law, if a man’s firstborn son was the son of his concubine, this son would be the one to receive the firstborn’s inheritance.—De 21:15-17.

Concubinage and polygamy no doubt enabled the Israelites to increase at a much faster rate, and therefore, while God did not establish these arrangements but only allowed and regulated them, they served some purpose at the time. (Ex 1:7) Even Jacob, who was tricked into polygamy by his father-in-law, was blessed by having 12 sons and some daughters from his two wives and their handmaidens who became concubines to Jacob.—Ge 29:23-29; 46:7-25.

Answer 2

Polygamy was best applied only in the case of war, if a man were killed, then the widow according to Jewish law had a claim to be married to the brother. It's also the reason we have the story of Ruth and Boaz, by the way, even though her husband wasn't killed in a war. Polygamy (or polygyny, as another answerer noted) was a way of providing for the emotional and physical needs of a widow, who would have been devastated after a loss like that. In addition, children were so important to the Jews that it was also considered a way to help build up the people of God. David was trying to bend the rules of that widowhood law by getting Uriah sent to the front so he would die and then David would feel justified in having Bathsheba for himself. I don't think much of polygamy myself, but loneliness and poverty would probably convince many women that it was better to be a second wife or a third wife. In the Resurrection, though, I feel very strongly that there is someone for everyone, and those who died in wars without being married will have those blessings. P.S. the second thing I'd like to add is that people abused that widowhood rule and just got married to a lot of wives and concubines for other reasons, which displeased God.

Answer 3

its all wrong! adultery and fornication Rape and incest! Bah,

actually Jesus made it very clear that when a brother dies the jewish law was that his brother was to take up the wife who had no children and raise righteous seed unto his name. but what happens when all the brother die. Well it is correct to call everyone a brother that is in the faith and covenant.
When david had 3 wives, ( i forget how many he actually had) and when solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. know that in ONE BATTLE 70 thousand men died. leaving behind many widows and orphans. Each and everyone of them had to be cared for and Seed raised up to fill the wars of the future. its all about survival.
has God changed? God doesnt change! but many people teach that the old testament is done away and the gospel of jesus christ became the NEW testament. if the old testament can be replaced by the New testament then there is change in standards and laws of faith. Even so, then the New testament can be changed also. For it is written that a New and everlasting testament will be made. oh wait, there are some who claim it exists now.

Answer 4

I have had no sleep for 24 hours, but unless i am totally gone, it seems that the old testament and a lot of Jewish sects promoted not only polygamy (especially if they had married a barren wife), but also inter family marriage. Jew needed to marry Jews. When you are isolated that becomes difficult without inter marriages between cousins and such. I do not believe they called it polygamy though. what generally occurred is that when they married the better women, they would bring their "hand maidens" (slaves) with them. If the husband impregnated one of the hand maidens then that child belonged to the couple and usually was refferred to as a son or daughter of the husband. Abraham had a lot of children this way as did many others. Only those with enough resources were allowed to do this though. By law you had to support the ladies and their children for the res tof their lives. The ladies were still slaves and the children were not equal to the ones protected by marriage.
The Bible was basically the history of thre Jewish religion. And as all of us are human, the practices of any group of people doesn't actually reflect the views of all of its memebers or even of its God.
God is God, but our perception of him changes constantly, because we are changing and learning and becoming more god-like as we were asked to do by God, who made us in his image. We are not all-knowing and therefore will have to change our views of God and our religious practices as we mature and become more knowlegdable ... more like God.
God never said we should judge each other or others religions. God and Jesus represent tolerance, forgiveness, love and hope.
Basically your question just illustrates how far we have come, yet how we have always had human weaknesses, which we still have problems coming to terms with ...
Polygamy, bigamy, and other arrangements in which relationships are blurred and people start belonging to others is not good for any society. It is better when children have one pair of responsible and nurturing parents to raise them than having to compete for attention amongst a large number of siblings and spouses. People just never do to well when they give in to pure pleasures and there really is no advantage to growing kids up in large groups where independent thought is discouraged and spirits are broken.
That is why
God made Adam and Eve, not Adam, Eve, Mary, Elizabeth, and Sara. Seems the Bible clearly indicates we were to marry two into one for the glory of God and family (the children). The fact major Jewish figures found themselves straying from this is honest, if not somewhat sad.

Answer 5

1. David, Jacob and Abraham were patriarchs not saints.
2. Monogamy has its origins more in Roman law than Jewish law.
3 The God(s) is/are everchanging. Change is the immutable law of the Universe.

Answer 6

God does not change, but that doesn't mean He doesn't change the rules.

Example: I am the ruler of my house. My kids had to go to bed at 8PM when they were young. However, when they got to be teenagers, I changed that rule to 10Pm.

Did I change? No, I'm still the same as I ever was, I just changed the rules.

I think the purpose of polygamy was to populate the world. Once the world was pretty much populated, God changed the rules.

Answer 7

The Law changed when Jesus came. Polygamy is now wrong, yes. Just as incest is now wrong- who do you think Adam's children had sex with to make more offspring ? BUT at that point, the bloodline was so rich, it didn't matter.

Saints ? - Those people are listed as saved, but not as saints, that is a tradition, encouraging people to worship people other that God- like idolatry.
Here's an example of what God to some who worshipped idols, if you think it's 'not a big deal :



Numbers 25
Israel’s Harlotry in Moab
1 Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove,[a] and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. 2 They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel.
4 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the LORD, out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.”
5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor.”
6 And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 7 Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand; 8 and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel. 9 And those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.

from
http://www.biblegateway.com

Answer 8

The ones you name here are from the old testament. When Jesus was crucified the ways of the old testament ended and Christianity began, and the new teachings were to be followed. If a man is to leave his parents and take a wife, and love her as himself, I would think it would be impossible to love more than one wife equally, I think that would be lust, therefore sinful.

Answer 9

God's example was in Genesis....
God created Adam
God created Eve for Adam
and stopped there -
not Alicia,Betty,Caren,Dorothy,Ellen,
Florence,Gabrielle,Heidi,Ida,
Julie,Kathie,Lynn,Michelle,Nora,
Ophelia,Pauline,...etc

Man changed the rules

Answer 10

Christians will make up something about how Jesus' death changed all the rules of the world. The Bible is a book of myth and folklore. All religious people should be forced to take a university anthropology class.