Can a Christian have a concubine?
In today’s Christianity, many of us have been made to believe that polygamy and concubinage amount to adultery. But a careful and insightful study of the Bible has shown that polygamy and concubinage are not sins.
A concubine is a woman who lives with a man but has a lower status than that of a wife. She is not a prostitute. She maintains a continuing sexual relationship with her master/husband and the children she bears for him are legitimate heirs to the properties of the man; they are joint heirs with the children of the man’s wife or wives. Her lower status lies in the manner in which she was acquired, usually a maidservant or a captive of war who is converted to a wife. But once a slave is taken by a man to be his wife, her status is automatically changed from that of a slave to that of a wife. It is, therefore, wrong for our modern Bible teachers to call a concubine a sex slave. She is a wife (Deut. 21:10-14). As a wife, she must not have any intimate relationship with any other man than her master/husband. The law that binds a wife to one sexual partner also binds her to her master/husband as her sole sexual partner. If a concubine sleeps with another man while her master/husband is alive, she will be guilty of committing adultery (Rom. 7:2-3), and she will be punished according to the law.
Concubinage gave room for wealthy men to alleviate the poverty and enhance the socio-economic status of the women they took as concubines. It is reasonable to assume that it was poverty that would make men sell their daughters to wealthy men as slaves or servants (Exod. 21:7). By making the servant his wife, the man would have dramatically improved the socio-economic status of the slave. Once made a concubine by her master, a woman ceases to be a slave or servant. She becomes his wife. Here are some privileges the slave would begin to enjoy. She would be brought into the nan’s house as the wife of a noble man. She begins to enjoy the privileges a wife enjoys in her marriage – food, clothing, and sexual intimacy. If the rich man gave her to his son as a wife, he would begin to treat her as if she were his own daughter. If she were a war captive, her slave uniform would be taken off her and be cleaned up. She would be brought into the man’s house and be given the privileges a wife is entitled to (Exod. 21:7-11; Deut. 21:10-13). A slave or servant would not have been entitled to the high status the converted slave now enjoys as the man’s wife. Concubinage, therefore, was for the good of slaves or servants who were taken by wealthy men to be their wives. It stands to reason that God did not frown at concubinage because it was consistent with His nature of love, compassion, and mercy. It is unfortunate that many people have been so engrossed with their manmade traditions that they are now finding faults with things that God has approved, things that ought to be accepted with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth (1 Tim. 4:3).
How some women became concubines
The Bible gives at least four circumstances in which women became concubines:
- A man’s wife giving her housemaid to her husband as a secondary wife to bear children for her husband. We see this in the case of Sarah and her servant, Hagar, whom she gave to Abraham (Gen. 16:1-4). Jacob’s wives, Rachel and Leah did the same thing by giving their servants, Bilhah and Zilpah, to Jacob to bear him children on their behalf. Each of the servants had two sons for Jacob (Gen. 30:3-13; Exod. 1:4).
- A woman sold as a slave to a man by her father but converted to a wife by the man is a concubine.
“[7] ‘If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as male servants do. [8] If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners because he has broken faith with her.
[10] If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing, and marital rights. [11] If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money. (Exodus 21:7-8, 10-11 NIVUK).
- A war captive who is taken by a man as his wife is a concubine.
“[10] When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives, [11] if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. [12] Bring her into your home and make her shave her head, trim her nails [13], and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. [14] If you are not pleased with her, let her go wherever she wishes. You must not sell her or treat her as a slave since you have dishonoured her.” (Deut. 21:10-14 NIVUK).
- A king inheriting the wives of a former king after the death of the former king. This was the case of David who, despite the fact that he had many wives (the Bible mentioned eight) and concubines, inherited the wives of King Saul after Saul’s death. The wives became his concubines, apart from the ones he had before Saul’s death (2 Sam. 5:13; 15:16).
Notable heroes of faith and nobles who had concubines
What the Hebrew Bible has shown is that wealthy men who had the physical, mental, and financial capability to maintain more than one wife were the ones who had concubines. They included:
- Abraham. Two of his concubines were mentioned: Hagar (Gen. 16:1-4) and Keturah. In Gen. 25:1, Keturah is called his wife, but in 1 Chron. 1:32, she is called his concubine. This means, as far as the Bible is concerned, that a concubine is a wife.
- We have seen the records of Jacob and David having concubines.
- Solomon is said to have 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3). His son, Rehoboam, who succeeded him, had eighteen wives and sixty concubines (2 Chron. 11:21).
- Mannasseh became the grandfather of Gilead through his Aramean concubine (1 Chron. 7:14).
Did God stop the practice of concubinage?
For about 2500 years from the time of creation, God allowed mankind to marry their siblings or close relatives. The sons born by Adam and Eve couldn’t have got wives to marry if they were not the daughters of their parents. It is written in the Bible that Abraham married his own sister (Gen. 20:12). Both Esau and Jacob married their first cousins (Gen. 28:9; 29;9-10). Moses’s father, Amram, was a nephew to Moses’s mother (Exod. 6:20). All these marriages were not considered incestuous because God had not given any law forbidding such marriages. But about 2500 years after creation, God gave the law forbidding marriages between close relatives (Lev. 18:6-18). From that time, it became sinful for any of God’s people to marry their siblings or close relatives.
With regards to concubinage, there is ample biblical evidence that God allowed it. It was a common practice of the wealthy men in ancient times. Abraham, Jacob (Israel), David, Nahor (Abraham’s brother), Caleb, are among the few nobles who had concubines. There is nowhere God condemned anyone for having concubines. God Himself even gave Saul’s wives to David (2 Sam. 12:7-9). They became his concubines in addition to the ones he acquired by himself (2 Sam. 5:13). But when David committed adultery by sleeping with another man’s wife, God rose up in anger against him. God even killed the child that was the product of that act of adultery. It is a distortion of God’s word when men teach that it is a sin for a Christian to have more than one wife or keep a concubine(s).
God does not leave anything sinful to be subject to human opinions. He has always given clear and unambiguous pronouncements on anything sinful. If polygamy and concubinage were sinful, God would have given definite commands about them. There is nowhere, either in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) or in the New Testament, God made any new law against the practice of concubinage and polygamy. According to 1 John 3:4, sin is committed by breaking God’s law. It follows, therefore, that no one can be charged with a particular sin when there is no law against that thing (Rom.5:13). “Where there is no law, there is no transgression” (Rom. 4:15).
We know there are countries that have laws forbidding the practice of polygamy. These are laws of men, not God’s law. These are laws made by men who did not understand the Bible. Though the citizens of such countries are bound to obey the laws of their countries, such laws remain manmade commandments. They are not different from the imposition of celibacy on the reverend fathers and reverend sisters of the Roman Catholic Church. They are not God’s commandment. Apostle Paul said such laws were influenced by demons and were taught by hypocrites and liars (1 Tim. 4:1-3). This is the same thing with the false teaching that the practice of polygamy and concubinage are acts of adultery. But the truth remains that polygamy and concubinage are not sinful in God’s sight.
The teachings of our theologians that God permitted concubinage and polygamy only during the time of the patriarchs amount to nothing more than human tradition. There is nowhere, in the Bible, God said He permitted concubinage and polygamy for a time. This is one of the many areas men pretend to be holier than God. But by failing to subject themselves to the laws of God, they make themselves dirtier than stinking rubbish dumps. For centuries, they’ve been teaching monogamy, but they wallow in extra-marital relationships. Hardly do we see men, even among the clergy, who are able to remain faithful to the keeping of one wife. They teach their manmade doctrine of “one man, one wife,” but they have one or more “side chicks” outside their so-called monogamous marriages. Many, especially in the Western world, indulge in serial divorces just to make sure they don’t run foul of their manmade laws. But what they do go against the holy law of God which says that a man who divorces his wife, for no just cause, in order to marry another woman, is guilty of committing adultery against his divorced wife (Mark 10:11). The adultery here is not in marrying another wife in addition to the one a man already has. It is in a man pushing his wife away , through a frivolous divorce, into having sexual relationship with another man while he is still alive. So, we see humans fool one another with their self-righteous traditions. Our Lord Jesus Christ told the religious hypocrites of his day:
[6] … “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘ “These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. [7] They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” [8] You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.’ [9] … ‘You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! [10] For Moses said, “Honour your father and mother,” and, “Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.” [11] But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God) – [12] then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. [13] Thus, you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.’ (Mark 7:6-13 NIVUK, bold emphases added by me).
This is exactly what Christian theologians have been doing by teaching that polygamy and concubinage are forbidden for Christians because, according to them, they amount to adultery. One author even called God a libertine for ever allowing the patriarchs to practice polygamy and concubinage. It is surprising that these teachers have made themselves holier than the most holy and perfect God. They have made themselves judges who put the Most High God on trial. But they need to be reminded of what God said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, … As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9 NIVUK). They need to bear in mind what Apostle Paul told the Corinthian believers: “no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 2:11b NIVUK) AND “Do not go beyond what is written [in the Scriptures]” (1 Cor. 4:6 NIVUK, words in square brackets added by me). These men would rather make themselves the readers of the mind of God than to consider the fact that what God told David, the man after His own heart, in 2 Sam. 12:8 is an enough proof that polygamy and concubinage are not sins in His sight. God’s eyes are too pure to look on evil; He cannot tolerate wrongdoing (Habak. 1:13). God will never support or put His holy hand into anything that is contrary to His holy nature. Therefore, by telling David that He would have given David more [wives and concubines] if David had wanted more, amounts to an irrefutable proof that the practice of polygamy and concubinage are not sins. The sin of adultery is committed when a man sleeps with another man’s wife or a woman already betrothed to another man. Even a neophyte in faith knows that God cannot put His holy hand into anything sinful.
See what God told David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and killed her husband in order to conceal his sin:
“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. (2 Sam. 12:8-9 NIVUK, bold emphases added by me).
God Himself is the one who gave Saul’s wives to David in addition to the seven wives he already had before this time. (Bathsheba became the eighth wife.) We don’t know the number of concubines he had acquired. All we know is that he had concubines (2 Sam. 5:13) and as at the time his son, Absalom, ran him out of Jerusalem, he left ten concubines behind to keep the palace (2 Sam. 15:16).
Is it not ridiculous for sinful men to call something the most holy and perfect God took part in a sin? Can man be holier than God? Is man who is conceived and born in sin (Psa. 51:5) qualified to teach God about morality? The answer is a definite NO. But human beings have the proclivity to set aside the word of God in order to establish their own traditions. The theology of modern men that concubinage was permitted by God only for the patriarchs is one of such. See Matt. 15:1-6; Rom. 10:1-3; 2 Pet. 3:15-16. There is no single verse of the Bible that says God later forbade or prohibited concubinage and polygamy for His people. The choice of having one or more wives is left for a man to make, just the same way a couple decides the number of children they want to have, depending on their resources. If a man has the financial, physical, and mental capability to maintain a polygamous family, which includes having concubines, no law of God forbids him from doing so.
Many of the teachers of falsehood say that monogamy is the only form of marriage union God intended for humankind. They say that was why He created only one woman for Adam. But they accept the fact that a farmer who sowed one grain of corn in the ground was not expecting to harvest just one grain. The fact that God made only one woman for Adam does not necessarily mean that He intended monogamy to be the only form of marriage union for humankind. God made only one woman for Adam because He wanted the entire human race to have one ancestry, that is, one father and one mother (Acts 17:26). It is men, not God, who made monogamy the only form of marriage that should be practised by humans.
In fact, history has revealed that monogamy was a Roman culture, which had been practised before the Christian church started. Although the Romans had only one official wife in their homes, it was normative for them to sleep with their slaves and other women outside their marriages. In the fourth century AD, Emperor Constantine I made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. It was from that time that the church gradually moved away from the Jewish culture of monogamy and polygamy being practised by the people of God and imbibed the Roman culture of “one man, one wife.” The rule that a Christian must be the husband of one wife was based on the culture of the Romans; it was not based on the Bible.
Some say that the problems that are in polygamy serve as evidence that God hates it. But the truth is that there are problems in monogamous relationships as well. Mankind fell into sin and was driven away from paradise in a monogamy. There is no marital problem that’s greater than this. Ahab practised monogamy, but his wife, Jezebel, influenced him to do much wickedness in God’s sight (2 Kings 21:25). Job’s only wife urged him to curse God. Were it not for his faithfulness, his only wife would have pushed him against God. Ananias and Sapphira were in a monogamous marriage. God killed them for their conspiracy to lie to God. These are just a few examples of the fact that monogamies are not insulated from marital problems. In our contemporary world, many monogamous marriages are having serious marital problems, some leading to homicides. There is no statistical evidence that the polygamies that our parents practised in Africa had greater marital problems than those being experienced by modern men in their monogamous marriages. Worse is the fact that the vast majority of modern men who have one wife do practise illicit sexual relationships with women outside their marriages. This makes us know that humans often put themselves in cages they created for themselves by their theological conjecture. Very often, they ignore the righteousness of God in order to create their own righteousness, which are nothing more than filthy rags in God’s sight (Rom. 10:3; Isa. 64:6). We should stop fooling ourselves; human beings who are naturally sinful cannot be holier than God. We must learn to accept that what God has not condemned, let no one call it a sin. Moreover, there is no verse of the Bible that says God later prohibited polygamy and concubinage. And we must reiterate the fact that polygamy and concubinage have nothing in common with adultery.
Are children of concubines inferior to the children of wives?
Jacob (Israel) had twelve sons from four women. Six of them were born by Leah, two by Rachel and two each by his two concubines. The children born to him by the concubines were Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. They became four of the twelve tribes of Israel (Exod. 1:1-5; Ezek. 48:30-35; Rev. 7:4-8). There’s no known record that these four children/tribes were considered as inferior to the others.
What God told Abraham concerning Hagar’s son, Ishmael, is a proof of the fact that the children of concubines are not inferior to the children of wives:
“And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.” (Gen. 17:20 NIVUK).
“I will make the son of the slave [Hagar] into a nation also because he is your offspring.” (Gen. 21:13 NIVUK, word in square bracket and bold emphasis added by me).
We see from this example that a man’s child, whether born by a wife or a concubine, is his legitimate child. If the man is a worshipper of God, all his children are considered as holy, that is, set aside for God’s worship. The word “holy” in this place does not mean sinlessness.
Why did Abraham send away his concubines’ children?
Some people may argue that if the children of concubines are not inferior to the children of wives, why did Abraham send away his concubines’ children? I surmise that Abraham’s action might have been influenced by his experience with Hagar and Ishmael. As soon as Hagar found that she was pregnant for Abraham, she became contemptuous towards her mistress, Sarah. That made Sarah tell Abraham to send her away. But God sent her hack through an angel who told her to be submissive to her mistress (Gen. 16:1-9). Later on, Sarah conceived and gave birth to Isaac, the promised child. But on the day Isaac was weaned, Sarah saw Ishmael making a mockery of Isaac (Gen. 21:8-9). At this time, Sarah has had enough of the insolence of Hagar and her son, Ishmael. This led to both mother and son being sent away (Gen. 21:10-14).
After the death of Sarah, Abraham got himself another wife, actually a concubine, named Keturah who gave birth to six children for him (Gen. 25:1-2; 1 Chron. 1:32).
In Gen. 25:6, we read, “But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines [Hebrew: הַפִּֽילַגְשִׁים֙ hapilageshim, article + plural feminine noun, literally, of the concubines] and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.” (Gen. 25:6, NIVUK, words in square brackets added by me).
The Hebrew word הַפִּֽילַגְשִׁים֙ (hapilageshim) literally means “of the concubines.” It is not known if Abraham had other concubines other than Hagar (who was given him by his wife, Sarah) and Keturah whom he got by himself. It is also not known if the word “sons” (Hebrew: bnei) used in the verse includes Ishmael, who had been sent away empty-handed prior to this time. What is certain is that Abraham gave the sons of his concubines gifts of gold, silver, livestock, while he was still alive, and sent them away to the land of the east, so that Isaac would be saved from being troubled by his brothers over inheritance after the death of Abraham. Abraham did it, having known that Isaac was a promised son from God (Gen. 18:14; 21:12). Abraham’s action should not be interpreted to mean that the sons of the concubines were no longer his legitimate sons.
Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, had twelve sons. Four of them were born by Jacob’s two concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah. The four sons are Dan and Naphtali (born by Bilhah, Rachel’s servant), and Gad and Asher (born by Zilpah, Leah’s servant). In the historical account of Israel, there is no known record that the four sons, who later became four of the twelve tribes, were inferior to the other eight tribes. Please, see Ezek. 48:1-35 and Rev. 7:1-8.
Did God later abolish concubinage?
In the entire Bible, there is no single record found that God later abolished the keeping of concubines by men who are wealthy enough to have and maintain them. What we have seen is that men who lacked insight into the Bible have taught many things that are different from what the Bible actually teaches.
According to the Bible, a man commits sin when he breaks God’s law (1 John 3:4). But where there is no law against something, no sin is committed when one does it (Rom. 4:15). Since there is no law against polygamy, which includes the keeping of concubine(s), it is not a sin for a man to have more than one wife, which may include the keeping of concubine(s). Those who have more than one wife are required by God to practice equity in their relationship with their wives. The biblical law regulating the practice of polygamy, including concubinage is found in the Mosaic law. Two of them have been cited earlier in this article.
Conclusion
No verse of the Bible says that God permitted polygamy and concubinage only in the time of the patriarchs, but later prohibited its practice.
When Jesus Christ quoted from Gen. 2:24 that a man and his wife shall be one flesh (Matt. 19;1-11; Mark 10:1-12), he was talking about God’s intention that the marriage union should be a lifetime relationship. The subject of discussion was divorce, not monogamy versus polygamy. Neither Jesus Christ nor the Pharisees meant that monogamy was the only form of marriage union approved by God. The “one man, one wife” theology of nowadays is one of the adulterations brought into the Christian faith by men who were influenced by ancient Roman culture of having one official wife at home but maintained sexual relationship with their slaves and other women outside their marriages. The adoption of Christianity as a state religion under Emperor Constantine I was pivotal in the adoption of the “one man, one wife” practice by the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman church transferred this influence to other church denominations that broke away from it. With the passage of time, this unbiblical teaching became the orthodox belief of Christians worldwide.
When Apostle Paul gave Timothy and Titus the criteria for selecting leaders for the newly formed churches in Ephesus and Crete, one of the criteria was that the candidate must be the husband of one wife. This statement clearly suggests that some of the members had more than one wife. Did Paul say that those polygamous members were adulterers? He did not. Did he preach “one man, one wife” in his epistles to the churches in Corinth, Rome, Ephesus, Galatia, Thessalonica, etc? He did not. If polygamy, including concubinage, was sin, why did the apostle not speak about it in any of his letters? Evidently, Paul knew that adultery, which he spoke against in his letters, is sin but polygamy and concubinage are not regarded as sin by God.
If any believer wants to know God’s true intention for man’s marital relationship, this can be known from God’s words subsequent to Gen. 2:24. God’s words in Exod. 21:7-11 and Deut. 21:10-17 are pivotal. The word “if” used in the two passages is a clear evidence that neither monogamy nor polygamy is prescribed by God as the preferred form of marriage union. What God told David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba is equally noteworthy. Whereas God rebuked David for the adultery he committed, God told him that He, God, gave Saul’s wives to him, after Saul’s death. God also told him that if he wanted more wives and concubines, He, God, would have given him. These words are not ambiguous. They clearly reveal God’s mind that He does not forbid polygamy and concubinage. God’s encounter with David after his adultery with Bathsheba reveals two things: (1) polygamy and concubinage are not acts of adultery; (2) God is indifferent to monogamy and polygamy/concubinage. Any man who has the physical, financial, and mental capability to keep more than one wife is not forbidden by God from doing so.
We must emphasise the fact that polygamy and concubinage have nothing in common with adultery. The chaos in the human world today is due largely to the fact that humankind have departed from the perfect order of God and have made for themselves rules that are imperfect and dangerous to their peace and existence. Their manmade rules also prevent them from worshipping God in spirit and in truth. Hypocrisy cannot be separated from human traditions.
Many human governments have made laws prohibiting polygamy and concubinage. While I cannot tell any citizen of such countries to disobey such laws, I make bold to say that such laws are mere human rules which do not provide any help in conquering people’s sensual desires (Col. 2:18-23). Only the perfect laws of God, our maker, can give lasting solution to our problems.
The teaching that monogamy is the only form of marriage union God intended for mankind is nullified by the fact that God Himself personally gave more wives to David in addition to the eight women named as his wives.
The practice of concubinage is in tandem with God’s nature of mercy, love, and compassion. It enables men of wealth to extend their fortune to women who otherwise could not have been privileged to have a taste of such goodness in their disadvantaged state in life. It also enables the concubines to bear children for men whose wives could not bear for them the number of children they wanted, without divorcing their wives.
Finally, God never, at any time, condemned the practice of polygamy and the taking of concubines. Rather, He regulated the practice. There is also nowhere the Bible says God later prohibited polygamy and concubinage. This makes us know that the interpretation of monogamy given to Gen. 2:24 is eisegetical. The bond that is created when a man becomes intimate with his wife is what the author of the book of Genesis meant when he wrote Gen. 2:24. This bond applies in both monogamous and polygamous marriages. If a man has more than one wife, this verse applies to him and each of the wives. This means that the man and each of the wives is seen by God as one flesh.
Author: Pius O. Odjegba
