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Default The Forbidden Practice of Polyandry - 01-27-2008, 01:48 AM

What does the Bible say to women who want more than one husband?

This is a key question in the modern era with the advent of feminism and changing roles of women in society. Is there any clear guidance as to whether polyandry is acceptable within Christianity, and is there an explanation for the approach taken in the Bible?

Unlike the situation with polygamy there are clear scriptural proscriptions on polyandry and clear reasons which lie behind them.

See below for the Bible references and the arguments.

Material elsewhere on this site shows that the Bible allows men to have more than one wife. It does not allow a woman to have more than one husband at the same time. This is seen in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.--Leviticus 20:10

If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.--Deuteronomy 22:22

So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.--Romans Chapter 7:3

These verses stop women from having more than one husband living at any one time. They do not stop men from having more than one wife because firstly, they quite simply don't say it, and secondly, it is clearly not a general principle which applies regardless of sex. That can be seen in the way the Old Testament repeats and rewrites laws that apply to men where they apply to women, and in the immediate context of the passage in Romans. The reason the Bible gives is that a woman is under the law of her husband until he dies. While the Bible does talk of marriage partners having authority over each other's bodies, it never talks of a man being under the law of his wife. In fact, it numerous places the Bible indicates that that would be intolerable, such as 1 Timothy 2:12 "But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence".

In fact, Romans 7 makes this clear. The passage is comparing the woman to the individual believer, being dead to the law of Moses so that they can be married to Christ and be under his law. It would be inappropriate to say that Christ was under the law of the believer, and in the same way it is inappropriate to say that a husband is under the law of his wife. And because of that it is clear that the restriction in Romans 7 of a woman to one husband cannot be transformed into a restriction of a man to only one wife.

This highlights another principle which rules out polyandry through God's system of leadership. 1 Corinthians 11 shows that this is:-

God is the head of Christ
Christ is the head of man
Man is the head of woman.

This would be defined by our society as sexist, but the Bible clearly treats men and women differently - so does God - otherwise men would be able to have babies too! The order does not signify inequality. The Bible teaches that Christ is God just as much as the Father. They have different roles. Obviously, man is not equal to Christ - so the passage does allow for inequality. When we return to man and woman we can see that they can be equal, perhaps in the same way that the Father and Christ are equal, but equality does not mean they are exactly the same or have the same rights and responsibilities.

Hence the man is the head of woman - he takes the lead. The Scriptures show that the man must love his wives and obviously this will affect his decisions.

In case you think we are now considering a different subject, here is the punchline - "no man can serve two masters".

Christian teaching is that you cannot follow different leaders - you will hate one and love another. So it is in marriage. A woman cannot have two husbands because she cannot follow two leaders. A man can have two wives because it is perfectly possible to lead more than one person.

This can be seen in the phrase in 1 Corinthians 7:2 which is sometimes quoted out of context in an attempt to suggest the Bible limits polygamy- "Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband."

The words for "his own" and "her own" in this verse are different, and it is not simply a gender difference. This is what we would expect if the way in which they belong to the other differs according to gender. If you check the word for "her own" and look up Romans 14, you will see it is the same word used there of a servant and "his own master".

This shows that, if he had believed in monogamy, Paul could have used the same word for both sexes in 1 Corinthians 7. But he didn't.

It also means that a woman has her own husband in the same way that a servant has his own master. Just as a master can have more than one servant, so a husband can have more than one wife, and in the same way as a servant can only have one master, so a wife can only have one husband.

Any discussion of Christian doctrine beyond what the Bible teaches is speculation. You can read on and consider this speculation if you wish, but it is still speculation. Christian acceptance of polygymy and rejection of polyandry is based on the belief in the infallibility of the Bible - and Christians should base their beliefs on the Bible and not on speculation.

So, here goes...
  1. The first thing to note is that polyandry is very rare - to the extent of being a freak of nature - the vast majority of societies which allow polygamy allow it for men and not for women. The two systems do not run together - it has the potential to get horrendously confusing if it does. It is likely to be more than just chance which makes this the case.
  2. A woman always knows whether a baby is her baby. A man doesn't - unless he knows that the woman was only sleeping with him. To preserve the bond between parents and children, women cannot have more than one partner of the opposite sex. Men can. If a man suspects he is paying for a child who is not his he may want to leave. If a man wants to leave, in a polyandrous situation he can always deny responsibility for the children in the relationship. This leaves the family at risk. Practically speaking we know that men tend towards providing for the family - polyandry greatly increases the risk that the family will break apart and everyone will be poorer.
  3. There are more women of marriageable age in the world than there are men. This means that many women who want to marry cannot, because of the sheer weight of numbers. For more detail on this see the "Vital Statistics" part of this site. Polyandry makes this problem worse. Polygamy can remove the problem all together.
  4. According to leading economists, the problem should be thought if in terms of demand and supply. When men are allowed more than one wife, there is suddenly an increase in demand for women (as married men can be legitimate prospects as well as single men). This means that their "price" (what a man is willing to do for them to get and keep them) goes up. Similarly there is a decrease in demand for men (as women who may have married them now have a far wider choice). This means that their "price" (what a woman is willing to do for them to get and keep them) goes down. So - according to leading economists, if a man is allowed more than one wife the situation for all women is improved - they have more done for them, and don't have to do as much, but if women were allowed more than one husband their situation would be much worse - they would have to do a great deal to get a man, and he would have to do even less than he does now. Put simply, economics teaches that when men have more wives it is better for women, and that when women have more husbands it is worse for women. This combines with the imbalance in numbers of men and women to mean that polyandry and compulory monogamy are both bad for women.
  5. It has been suggested by some that women are naturally monogamous and that men are naturally polygamous. From the viewpoint of natural selection, men have more to gain from multiple partners because they can have more children and propogate their genes, but women can at the most only be pregnant once every nine months, and the number of partners they have does nothing to change this. The natural order seems to uphold the idea of women having one partner.
  6. Many who do not accept Christianity would still accept the basic point that leadership tends to be male. This means they can accept the basic logic of the Christian leadership argument - that a family needs only one leader and that two leaders is not viable.


Who Will Jesus Damn?

Here is a partial list from just a few scripture verses:

Hypocrites (Matthew 24:51), The Unforgiving (Mark 11:26), Homosexuals (Romans 1:26, 27), Fornicators (Romans 1:29), The Wicked (Romans 1:29), The Covetous (Romans 1:29), The Malicious (Romans 1:29), The Envious (Romans 1:29), Murderers (Romans 1:29), The Deceitful (Romans 1:29), Backbiters (Romans 1:30), Haters of God (Romans 1:30), The Despiteful (Romans 1:30), The Proud (Romans 1:30), Boasters (Romans 1:30), Inventors of evil (Romans 1:30), Disobedient to parents (Romans 1:30), Covenant breakers (Romans 1:31), The Unmerciful (Romans 1:31), The Implacable (Romans 1:31), The Unrighteous (1Corinthians 6:9), Idolaters (1Corinthians 6:9), Adulterers (1Corinthians 6:9), The Effeminate (1Corinthians 6:9), Thieves (1Corinthians 6:10), Drunkards (1Corinthians 6:10), Reviler (1Corinthians 6:10), Extortioners (1Corinthians 6:10), The Fearful (Revelation 21:8), The Unbelieving (Revelation 21:8), The Abominable (Revelation 21:8), Whoremongers (Revelation 21:8), Sorcerers (Revelation 21:8), All Liars (Revelation 21:8)

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1 corinthians, deuteronomy, fem nazi, leviticus, polygamy: sex addicted pedos, romans, slutpocalypse, t timothy

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