Does Genesis 2:24 prescribe monogamy as the only form of marriage union approved by God?
It is commonly taught that, although God permitted or condoned polygamy in ancient times, polygamy was against His will as a marriage union for mankind. Genesis 2:24 is often used as a proof text that supports this teaching. The verse says:
“Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24 NKJV).
“That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24 NIVUK).
Using a strict literal interpretation of the verse, Bible teachers say the words “a man” and “wife” serve as proof that monogamy was what God intended as the only marriage union for mankind. To further support this teaching, it has been said that was why God created only one woman for Adam and that our Lord Jesus Christ taught monogamy in Mark 10:6-8 (Matt. 19:4-5).
Biblically, this teaching, which has become orthodox in almost the entire Christendom for many centuries, is arrantly eisegetical. The teachers have been reading their own minds into the texts in order to make them conform with what they’ve been made to believe about marriage. If God really intended monogamy to be the only form of marriage union for mankind, His word and action would not contradict what is written in Gen. 2:24. The following verses of the Bible should be noted:
- What God said subsequent to Gen. 2:24
“If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights.” (Exod. 21:10 NIVUK).
“If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love, [16] when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love. [17] He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.” (Deut. 21:15-17 NIVUK).
The word “if” in these verses proves that neither monogamy nor polygamy is prescriptive. The choice is left for each man to make. But if a man decides to marry more than one wife, he must not deprive any of them of their food, clothing, and marital rights. Neither should a man practice favouritism in dealing with his wives and children. If, therefore, a man loves one wife more than the other, he must not take away the birthright that belongs to his first son from the son of the less-loved wife if her son is actually the first son.
“Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: “I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. [8] 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. 12:7-9 NIVUK, bold emphasis added by me).
This was what God told David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and killed her husband. God told him that He was the one that gave him Saul’s wives. It stands to reason that the Almighty God whose eyes are too pure to look on evil and who does not tolerate wrongdoing (Habak. 1:13) will never take part in anything which is against His holy nature. The fact that God Himself was the one who gave more wives to David is an unimpeachable proof that monogamy is not the only form of marriage union designed by God.
- God’s action has proved wrong the “one man, one wife” interpretation of Genesis 2:24
God’s action subsequent to Gen. 2:24 is another way of knowing the truth expressed in that verse of the Bible. The following actions of God should be noted:
- God never at any time condemned anyone for marring a second or more wives.
- When Hagar was fleeing from Abraham’s house due to her insubordination, God sent an angel to meet her on the way, to order her to go back and be submissive to Sarah, her mistress (Gen. 16:9).
- As we have seen earlier in this article, God Himself gave more wives to David in addition to the ones he already had. God even told David that He, God, would have given him more of what He had given him if the ones he already had were not enough for him (2 Sam. 12:8-9).
God, who is perfect in knowledge, would not have taken all these actions if monogamy was the only form of marriage He intended for mankind. The interpretation of “one man, one wife” given to Gen. 2:24, without reference to other Bible passages is, undoubtedly, an exercise in eisegesis. People simply read their own preference into Gen. 2:24 and other related passages.
Genesis 2:24 does not exclude polygamy
Although Genesis 2:24 appears to prescribe monogamy as the only form of marriage union, it does not exclude polygamy. If a man has two or more wives, the man and each of the wives makes one flesh. Each of the wives becomes united with the man in spirit, purpose, and the desire to love and please one another. The marriage union the man has with each of the wives is unique. The relationship each of the wives have with one another is that of loving our neighbours as ourselves. The wives did not enter into any collective bargain with the man. Therefore, the phrase “a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” is still applicable whether a marriage union is monogamous or polygamous.
The origin of the erroneous interpretation of Genesis 2:24
The orthodox interpretation given to Gen. 2:24, is not based on the Bible; it is made to force that verse and its related passages to conform with the monogamous culture of the Romans when Christianity was made the official religion of the Ronan Empire by Emperor Constantine I in the fourth century AD. As at that time, there was also a strong anti-Semitic sentiment in the churches of the Roman Empire. They tried to move away from almost everything Jewish. This included the adoption of the Roman culture of monogamy as the marriage standard for the churches. With time, this monogamous lifestyle became the marital standard for the churches worldwide.
Let it be known to my fellow Christians that the practice of monogamy is not based on any exegetical interpretation of the Bible; it was inherited from the culture of the Romans who, though had monogamous homes, yet had sexual relationships with many mistresses outside their marriages. By copying the lifestyle of the Romans, the churches have made themselves vulnerable to the same hypocritical lives of the Romans. Only an infinitesimal number of Christians have been able to maintain monogamous relationships with their wives without having extra-marital relationships outside their homes.
Answering the “one wife created for Adam” argument
Many teachers have argued that God created only one woman for Adam because monogamy was His intention for mankind. This argument is weak because God’s words and actions subsequent to the creation of all things do not support this argument. We have seen God making monogamy and polygamy a decision for humans to make on their own (Exod. 21:10; Deut. 21:15-17). We have also seen Him giving more wives to David, a man He so much loved. If polygamy were a sin, God would not have done so. God keeps those He loves from sinning against Him (Gen. 20:6). It should never be expected that God will put His hand into anything that is against His holy nature.
Secondly, it is clearly written in the Bible that God created only one woman for Adam because He wanted the entire human race to have one parental line (Acts 17:26). Moreover, other creations of God, which He crested before He made Adam, are typical of the fact that He was pleased to have them in both monogamous and polygamous unions. It should be noted that about 5% of the animals He created are monogamous while most of them are polygamous. The monogamous ones include turtle doves, swans, albatrosses, dik-diks, bald eagles, beavers, wolves, gibbons, and termites. All these are animals of instinct. For human beings whom He has given the power to reason, it is each individual who decides whether he wants one or more wives. But the privilege of marrying more wives has some responsibility attached to it. The man must be able to provide for each of the wives food, clothing, and conjugal rights (Exod. 21:10).
In a nutshell, the fact that only one woman was created as a helper for Adam does not amount to a prescription of monogamy for the human race. Adam and Eve, together, was the seed of the human race, so to speak, planted on the planet Earth by God. The fact that the woman made for him was one does not necessarily mean that all men must have only one wife.
Did Jesus teach “one man, one wife” as the only form of marriage union?
Our Lord Jesus Christ made reference to Gen. 2:24 when he was confronted by the Pharisees on the subject of divorce (Mark 10:1-12; Matt. 19:1-9). Our Lord Jesus Christ was answering questions posed to him by the Pharisees on the subject of divorce. In that discourse, he made it clear to the Pharisees that divorce was not in God’s original plan for marriage. There is nothing in the passage that can rightly be understood as a prescription of monogamy as the only form of marriage union for humans. Jesus did not insinuate in the discourse that monogamy is the only form of marriage union approved by God for mankind.
The cause of faulty interpretations of the Bible
One major cause of faulty or erroneous interpretation of Scripture is that men lift a verse out of the Bible and roll out a doctrine out of it without considering what other passages of the Bible say on the same subject. This is one reason why Gen. 2:24 has been misinterpreted as a prescription of monogamy as God’s standard for every marriage. But if teachers of the Bible had considered what the law says and God’s action subsequent to the creation account, they would have known that God is indifferent to monogamy and polygamy. The creation account should not be taken out of the broader context of the Bible and be interpreted in a way that makes it discordant with other parts of Scripture. Failure to follow the rules of hermeneutics in a consistent manner often lead Bible teachers to arrive at erroneous or false interpretations. This is why there have been unending debates on many subjects of the Bible, which includes the erroneous interpretation of Gen. 2:24 and its related passages in the Bible.
Two Important Considerations
There are, at least, two important facts that can be brought against the now orthodox teaching that God prescribed monogamy as the only form of marriage union for mankind.
Firstly, the Mosaic law has shown that neither monogamy nor polygamy has been prescribed by God. We have the proof of this fact in Exod. 21:7-11 and Deut. 21:15-17. The word “if” (Hebrew: אִם־ ’im-) used in the the two passages clearly means that a man Is given the right to exercise discretion as to whether he wants to have a monogamous or a polygamous family. It means that a man who has the means to take care of a large family is not restricted by God to have only one wife. Neither is he compelled to marry more than one wife. What God wants from all humans is the practice of righteousness in all our interpersonal relationships. We are expected by God to love others just as we love our own selves.
Secondly, God’s action in all the cases where men took a second, third, or more wives have been that of acquiescence. Beginning with Lamech (Gen. 4:19), there is no single instance, found in the Bible, where God was angry about a man’s marriage to more than one wife. Even Solomon who is recorded as having 700 wives and 300 concubines did not incur the anger of God on account of the number of wives he married. The Bible clearly states that God was angry with him for marrying the daughters of the kings of foreign nations who were idol worshippers (1 Kings 11:1-11). Verse 2 specifically states that Solomon’s love and marriage of foreign women was against the command God had given to His people that they and the idol worshipping nations should never intermarry. God told them that such intermarriage would lead them into the sin of idol worship (Exod. 34:16; Deut. 7:3-4). Solomon wantonly disobeyed this command of God. So, when he became old, these foreign women made him fall into idol worship.
(This experience of Solomon with his foreign, idol-worshipping wives gives us a perfect meaning of the multiplication of wives mentioned in Deut. 17:17. The multiplication is not in the number of wives, but in the mix of wives of different cultures. This mix often makes a man’s heart not to be steady in obeying and worshipping the only true God. If it were in the number of wives, men like David, Rehoboam, and Gideon would have been guilty of breaching this law.)
Two things God did after the creation are cited here as examples to prove the error in the teaching that monogamy is the only form of marriage union approved by God for mankind:
The first one happened in the home of Abraham, the father of faith. On seeing that she had been unable to have a child for Abraham, Sarah gave her maid, Hagar, to her husband as second wife. When Hagar saw that she was pregnant, she began to treat her mistress with contempt. Her insolence made Sarah treat her so harshly that she ran away. In her flight, God sent an angel to her on the way. The angel told her to return and submit herself to Sarah’s authority. See Gen. 16:1-9. This is one incident that shows that God is not opposed to polygamy.
The second example is found in 2 Sam. 12:1-12. Here, we have an account of how God sent Nathan to David to register His anger for what David had done. David had slept with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. Before this time, David had married seven wives and acquired an unspecified number of concubines (2 Sam. 5:13). But the moment David slept with another man’s wife, God rose up in anger against him. This event brings out the difference between polygamy and adultery. While adultery is a sin, polygamy is not. Having more than one wife does not amount to committingadultery. What God told David brings out another proof that God does not forbid polygamy. A part of the passage reads:
[7] Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: “I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. [8] 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. [10] Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.” [11] ‘This is what the LORD says: “Out of your own household, I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes, I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. [12] You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.” (2 Sam. 12:7-12 NIVUK).
God gave Saul’s wives to David in addition to the many wives he already had. God told David that He would have given him more legitimately if the ones he already had were not enough for him. The fact that God Himself further increased the number of David’s wives rules out any argument that polygamy is a sin. Every believer in God ought to know that God will never put His holy hand in anything that is sinful. Habakkuk says, “You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, And cannot look on wickedness..” (Hab. 1:13a NKJV). What Habakkuk said here is that God does not tolerate sin. So, if having more than one wife is sinful, God would never have given more wives to David. We see that monogamous marriages serve to fulfil God’s purpose for humans on the Earth, which is, “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” (Gen. 1:28 NIVUK). Polygamous marriages serve to fulfil this purpose more speedily.
Conclusion
The verses of the Bible which men use to teach the “one man, one wife” doctrine have been falsely interpreted to suit their biases. No single verse of the Bible teach this manmade doctrine.
In all the places where men married a second, third, or more wives, God never showed any disapproval.
The Mosaic law put the decision to have more than one wife at the discretion of man. No man is commanded to marry only one wife. Neither is any man commanded to marry more than one wife. See Exod. 21:7-11 and Deut. 21:15-17. The word “if” (Hebrew: אִם־ ’im-) used in the two passages clearly means that a man is given the right to exercise discretion as to whether he wants to have a monogamous or a polygamous family.
God Himself has shown by His own direct action that He is not opposed to polygamy. He sent Hagar, Abraham’s second wife, back to her marriage and be submissive to Sarah, her mistress and first wife of Abraham (Gen. 16:1-9). God also added more wives to the eight wives David took for himself (2 Sam. 12:7-8).
The rebuke David got after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba has shown clearly that polygamy and adultery are not the same thing. A married woman commits adultery when she sleeps with another man while she remains married to her husband. On the part of a man, he is guilty of the sin of adultery when he sleeps with another man’s wife while the husband is still alive and maintains marital relationship with his wife.
The statement, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery” (Luke 16:18) is misleading. Mark renders it as “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. (Mark 10:11). What these passages are saying is that a man is guilty of making his wife commit adultery if he divorces her for any reason other than her own infidelity (Matt. 5:32; 19:9). These passages are talking about a situation where a man unjustly divorces his wife in order to bring in another woman. An example is King Henry VIII of England who divorced his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, in 1533, in order to marry his mistress, Anne Boleyn, who insisted on being his wife and queen. Another example is a religious hypocrite who already has four wives, which is the maximum allowed by his religion. But on seeing another woman outside, he divorces one of his four wives for no just cause and marries the new woman. Thus, by divorcing one of his wives, he is not caught having more than the maximum of four wives. The Bible verses are not talking of marrying another woman in addition to the one already in the marriage. See Exod. 21:10; Deut. 21:15.
The Hebrew Bible, loosely called the Old Testament by Christians, is the root of the New Testament. It is the one the New Testament refers to as the inspired scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16). The New Testament did not set aside the Hebrew Bible. The thrust of the New Testament is the revelation of Jesus Christ as the Messiah promised in the Hebrew Bible. Therefore, anyone who attempts to make a doctrine out of the New Testament without having a recourse to the Hebrew Bible will, most likely, end up with a faulty or false doctrine.
The New Testament did not prohibit the practice of polygamy and concubinage. Men have long been known to set the true and pure words of God aside in order to uphold their own traditions and dogmas (Matt. 15:7-9; Mark 7:7-8; 2 Pet. 3:15-16).
Historically, the “one man, one wife” standard which churches teach today was borrowed from the Romans who, while having one wife in their homes, maintained sexual relationships with their slaves and other women outside their marriages.
Like the Romans, the church has largely been unable to practice true monogamy. The vast majority of men who have only one wife at home maintain secret relationships with women outside their marriages. The Western world, which imposed this tradition upon the Christian church, have been known to practice serial divorces in order to hypocritically obey their laws which make polygamy a criminal offence. They allow their men and women to divorce their spouses for every reason, which God hates, but hypocritically hate polygamy, which God does not hate.
Author: Pius O. Odjegba
