CPCC Bible Study: ".... how many wives?"

      The question arose one summer's day..... "when, and where, did the practice of a man having only one wife originate?"

"Well a man shall leave his mother
and a woman leave her home
They shall travel on to where the two shall be as one....."

      FOR THIS STUDY, we're going to define Marriage as the legally, socially, and religiously, recognized relationship between a man and a woman (or multiple women in certain cases). If anybody wants to get all bent over some more modern definition that is blowing in the political winds, we'll simply remind them that this is an historical study and our first reference below is from the Book of Genesis, and later in the essay we're quoting Caesar Augustus, famous for his Moral Code.
      Now as far as the plural aspect of it, we'll look at bigamy and polygamy, and draw those circles on the board.
      Bigamy is the easy one, and for it we'll simply cite the good folks over at the Cornell Law School who arranged to have a straightforward definition in clear English:

"Bigamy is a marriage in which one of the parties is already legally married. Bigamy is the practice which involves having two spouses at the same time. The second marriage to someone who is already legally married is void and may be annulled, while there is no effect on the first marriage."
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/bigamy (link below)

      We see in Genesis 4 where Lamech had two wives, who are the only women named in that chapter, see verse 23, although 'male and female' are mentioned in relation to Creation. The only other reason Lamech is interesting is because of who one of his sons was, which we look at in the study.
      As for Adam, speaking of the beginning, unless the legend of Lilith is true (see link to an examination of that topic below) he most likely stuck with one wife, although neither Genesis nor Jubilees mentions Eve dying.

      Moving on in the Old Testament we come across Jacob, later known as Israel, who had two official wives, and at least a couple of concubines, but as we are discussing marriage, we'll stick to the figures with multiple known 'official' wives.
      And then in Exodus, Jewish men are told they cannot decrease the food and clothing and 'rights' of a second, or even a third, wife. See Exodus 21 beginning in verse 10.
      Later, King David, whose throne the Messiah would claim, and who was a "man after God's own heart", had at least five wives according to 2 Samuel 3, and then there were others including Michal, the daughter of King Saul, see 2 Samuel 6: 16, as well as Bathsheba of song and story.
      And then his son Solomon outdid him by a huge factor according to 1 Kings 11. But only one of his wives is named, see 1 Kings 9 : 15. There is no direct evidence that the legendary Queen of Sheba was actually Solomon's wife from 1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9. The same story is relayed in Josephus's Antiquity, linked below, Book 8 "From The Death Of David To The Death Of Ahab", chapter 6, beginning with section 5, see free PDF linked below.
      And so on as far as you want to go, including a look at the "cows of Bashan" in Amos 4.

      When you look at the Apocrypha, things get interesting in a hurry, but not in the way you would expect. Especially when you get into the "Book of Jubilees", such as in chapter 25 we see Rebecca telling Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman, and then in chapter 30, it grows into a prohibition that warrants the death penalty for both the father that gives his daughter to a gentile, and for the woman herself, see link below to Jubilees 30.
      But then the question comes up, does "Little Genesis", as Jubilees is sometimes called, contain any information on how many wives a man should have? The short answer appears to be 'not directly', although there are several passages that favor one. Such as the passage in chapter 34 : 20-21 that names the wives of the sons of Jacob.... .... all except Simeon who took a second wife.

      Pardon us while we catch a flight to The Eternal City and check in with Augustus (63 BC - 14 AD), the famous First Citizen, who was later proclaimed the first Emperor. In various acts he pushed through laws that enforced one official marriage for Roman Citizens, mostly to ensure a legitimate heir and the lawful transfer of property. His "Morality Laws", such as the famous lex Papia Poppaea became the ongoing standard for Europe. Which is why England's King Henry VIII (1491 - 1547) had 'one wife at a time', and the same idea can even be seen today in the statutes of the USA. Of course, in areas such as the Middle East and parts of Africa, that isn't the case.

      However, Augustus didn't originate the idea. In ancient Egypt, even pharaohs like Ramses the Great had ONE official queen, and, of course, a whole slew of concubines and "lesser wives", but the heir to the throne was produced by Queen Nefertari, who was his Principal Wife.
      This was evidently similar to the story relayed in the Book of Esther about King Achashverosh (thought to be Xerxes I of the Achaemenid / Persian Empire, about 520 - 460 BC) and how Queen Vashti refused to be a sideshow and ended up losing her job to Esther.
      And we should mention that great man from the Land of Uz who lived during the Patriarchal period, probably not long after the flood, see 22 : 15 - 18... Job, who had seven sons and three daughters and thousands and thousands of head of livestock, and one wife that is recorded in the book. The words used in Hebrew in verses nine and ten of chapter two to describe her are singular.

      On the other side of the coin are kings like David and Solomon, who we just checked on, and other Middle Eastern kings where the size of their Harem was a sign of their wealth and power, and a not so subtle statement on their virility as a man. We'll stop for a minute and look at other reasons for it in a moment.
      Of course there were others in history who had several wives at one time, including, in the US, the original leaders of the Church of Latter Day Saints, Joseph Smith (1805 - 1844), and most famously, Brigham Young (1801 - 1877) who is known to have married somewhere between two dozen and up to fifty-six different women. See an encyclopedia article linked below about Young. And yes, there are some serious questions about how many wives Young, and Smith himself, really had.
      Which was by any account: Polygamy, as all parties involved knew he had multiple wives, even if nobody was sure exactly how many there were!
      And it was through the efforts of various ones who had an issue with the Mormons that the US Federal Government, mostly through the efforts of Senator George Edmunds (1828 - 1919), made Polygamy a felony in 1882. Which brings us full circle that way.

      As for why in ancient times it was permitted, or perhaps even necessary, for a man to have as many wives as he could maintain is something we may never satisfactorily answer.
      Some have theorized it was likely because a lot of women died in childbirth, and you didn't want to be stuck with a baby, if the infant survived, and no woman to tend to it. There may have also been a shortage of males around because of issues like childhood illnessess, injuries sustained from occupation, and of course, warfare.
      But most likely it was as we stated earlier, a sign of prestige.

      So, let's stand here and look around for something that can pass for a conclusion as an answer to our opening question.

      When did it become common for an adult man to have multiple wives, and when did it become the standard, at least in Western Civilizations, for him to only have one?
      Well, as the first recorded incident involves Noah's father, it's been around for a LONG time.
      As for the other, we'll go with the rules laid down in the "lex Papia Poppaea" by Emperor Augustus, around 9 AD. and say the same thing... it's been a REALLY long time for that as well.

      As for why, other than the First Citizen's goal of ensuring legitimate heirs for inheritance of everything from a farm or business all the way up to the Throne of the Empire....
      By the time of the Apostle Paul and the writing of the New Testament, most of the Roman Empire observed those laws, and it became the standard upon which those in the West, like King Henry, lived under whether they liked them or not.

      But now let's talk about one of the most beautiful, and most popular, wedding songs ever recorded. And for our purposes here, the song is reasonably Scriptural.
      Reasonably.
      But there is one problem with the lyrics if you are basing them on the passage in Genesis 2.

"That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh."
Genesis 2 : 24 (NIV)

      When the Apostle Paul quotes the phrase in Ephesians 5 : 31 the "two" is suddenly there, and it is not in the Hebrew of the passage in Genesis, which you can check out in the Hebrew / English Interlinear linked below.

"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." (NIV)

      ..... and the "two" reappears in the song we opened with:

The lyrics to The Wedding Song (There Is Love), by Noel Paul Stookey, single as recorded 1971 https://noelpaulstookey.com/music/lyrics/wedding-song-there-is-love/
He released it to the public domain, complete with guitar chord charts!

A good video of the song as performed at the
25th Anniversary Concert https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrTfNTzAvYY

And now the rest of the Resources and Links:

Biblehub: Genesis 2 with Hebrew and translation. https://biblehub.com/interlinear/genesis/2.htm

Cornell Law School - Legal Information Institute: Bigamy https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/bigamy

A 'quick' look and a longer explanation of: Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882 https://www.lsd.law/define/edmunds-anti-polygamy-act-of-1882

What to Know About the World of Group Relationships https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-polyamorists-next-door/202305/polygamy-group-marriage-polyamory-relationship-anarchy

"Mating in Rome was polygynous; marriage was monogamous. In the years 18 BC and AD 9 the first Roman emperor, Augustus, backed the lex Julia and the lex Papia Poppaea, his 'moral' legislation." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/016230959290009S

Josephus: Antiquities of the Jews: "Solomon and the Queen from Egypt and Ethiopia" https://dn790004.ca.archive.org/0/items/theAntiquitiesOfTheJews_507/TheAntiquitiesOfTheJews-flaviusJosephus.pdf

Jubilees:

"And if there is any man who wishes in Israel to give his daughter or his sister to any man who is of the seed of the Gentiles he shall surely die, and they shall stone him with stones; for he hath wrought shame in Israel; and they shall burn the woman with fire, because she has dishonoured the name of the house of her father, and she shall be rooted out of Israel.
http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/jubilees/30.htm

-and-

There is discussion about the First Couple in the Zohar, including:
"Male And Female Created He Them" https://sacred-texts.com/jud/zdm/zdm043.htm
it is more in there, good luck finding it.

The Oxford Classical Dictionary https://oxfordre.com/classics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-8270?d=%2F10.1093%2Facrefore%2F9780199381135.001.0001%2Facrefore-9780199381135-e-8270&p=emailAMJEnJLvooRpI#:~:text=The%20law%20of%20Augustus%20concerning,the%20purpose%20of%20producing%20legitimate
yeah, that was the entire URL on the link!

Encyclopedia article about https://www.britannica.com/biography/Brigham-Young

A look at the legend of Lilith by the Desk: http://themediadesk.com/files8/lilith.htm

Genesis Study Index Page

NOTE: The Bible Study Lesson presented above is posted as a reference document to begin a conversation of the topic. And that's it. Please accept it at such.

http://centralparkchurchofchrist.org