Today’s post looks at a most
curious form of marriage to many - polygyny. Though the graphic appears to
misspell polygamy (the word most people associate with the practice), it may be
somewhat accurate in that it was trying to spell polygyny. What is the
difference? Polygyny is specificially the practice of keeping multiple wives.
Polygamy does not specify a certain sex of the
partner, and is a term that can be used of a wife with multiple husbands.
It is no doubt that polygyny is
present in the Bible. The question we are investigating today is “Why?” Did it serve a practical purpose? If we
remind ourselves, as I’ve pointed out in this series, that marriage was not
personal in the ancient world and sex was not a mystical act for mutual
pleasure, then polygyny seems far less boring and less objectionable. But why was it practiced to begin with? To answer this, we need to look at 2 things.
Can any insights we’ve discovered about ancient marriage so far help us? And
who practiced polygyny, anyway?
We’ll answer the 2nd
question first, as it will make our answer to the 1st question
clearer. To do this, let’s take a brief look at the names actually mentioned in
the graphic, and see just who they were.
● Lamech
(Genesis 4:19-24) –descendant of Cain. Father of Jabal, Jubal and
Tubal-Cain, themselves fathers and representatives of the major trades and
skills in ancient civilizations (farmers, musicians and blacksmiths).
● Esau
(Genesis 26:34–35) – founder of the nation of Edom, a neighbor to
and source of trouble for Israel for centuries. Note that Isaac and Rebekah
were not pleased with his marriages.
● Jacob
(Genesis 29:14-30) – father of 12 sons, patron and progenitor of
the entire tribe of Israel. Anyone who has actually read the
story knows he did not WANT 2 wives. He was promised 1 and tricked into
marrying another because it was customary. So he continued working to earn the
wife he originally desired. Is that a bad example of love, even by modern
romantic standards?
● Ashhur
(1 Chronicles 4:5) –descendant of Hur, father of Tekoa.
● Gideon
(Judges 6-8) – noteworthy and brilliant military leader. He destroyed
pagan places of worship in Israel and rescued them from the Midianites –
establishing 40 years of peace (Judges 8:28).
● Elkanah
(1 Samuel 1:1-2) – father of Samuel (an important prophet). Before
Samuel’s birth, the text mentions Hannah had not given him any children. Keep in mind how important we’ve noted childbearing
was throughout this series - a second wife would not be unthinkable (though we
are not told this is the reason for the arrangement).
● David
– 2nd king of Israel and king of greatest reputation in
Jewish history.
● Solomon
– 3rd king of Israel, wisest man in history and also highly
reputable in Jewish history.
● Rehoboam
– 4th king of Israel and son of Solomon. Eventually became 1st
king of Judah when the kingdom split.
● Abijah
(2 Chronicles 13) – 2nd king of Judah. He warred with
Jeroboam and gained many wives as he “grew in strength”.
● Jehoram
(2 Chronicles 21:16-17)– king of Judah. Mostly notable for the bowel
disease he was infected with after forsaking God and embarrassing Judah with
his attempt to conquer Edom.
● Joash
(2 Chronicles 24:3) 8th king of Judah. Collected large sums
of money to help rebuild the temple, though later led Israel into idol worship.
Note the wives were chosen for him by the high priest, Jehoiada.
● Ahab
(1 Kings 16:29-34) – king of Israel during the time of Elijah. I am not
aware of him having more than one wife. He is notable for the one wife he did
have - Jezebel, the daughter of the Ethbaal (king of Tyre). Jezebel converted
Ahab to Baal worship and slaughtered countless prophets of Israel. Even if he
had wanted more wives, this was not a woman who would have likely shared them.
● Jehoiachin
(2 Kings 24:15) – king of Judah when Israel was taken into captivity by
Babylon.
● Belshazzar
(Daniel 5:2) –king of Babylon, the largest kingdom of the day. Also the
last king before the nation was conquered by the Medes.
On closer look, do you see what
most of these individuals have in common? They are not ordinary characters.
These are people of high honor and status – rare individuals of extreme
importance. At least 8 of the 15 mentioned in the list are kings! Of those who
were not kings, we have descendants of important people, and some of the
patriarchs who founded entire nations in the Middle East. These were far from everyday people. This
means the practice of polygyny was clearly not common, or for common people.
In the case of Lamech, we have an
even more interesting reason to understand his possession of multiple wives. A
close look at the story shows it serves the purpose of explaining the source of
stereotypes related to skills and trades practiced most common in the ancient
world. The names of each of his wives translate to “dawn” and “shadow”,
respectively. So “dawn” gives birth to herdsmen and musicians (skills practiced
by day). Similarly, “shadow” gives birth to blacksmiths, whose sister was
Naamah (pleasure) – things practiced by night. [1] In short, Lamech’s two wives
are not objects of desire, but explanations for why this duality exists.
So, now that you’ve seen what
types of individuals practiced polygyny, that still leaves one question left –
why was it practiced? What purpose could it have served? As we mentioned early
in the series, marriage was the fusing of 2 families and their reputations, not
just joining 2 individuals. A marriage in those days, then, could serve
multiple purposes.
One of the more positive outcomes
of marriage is that it would smooth over any instability in the relationships
between the families. And just who are the types of individuals most likely to
have many unstable and tricky social relationships? No less than political
leaders – kings and people of high reputation. That’s why these are mostly the
people you see in the list above (and in the Bible, and in all of ancient
culture). Whether kings or patriarchs, their reputation was important to
maintain. And one sure way to do that with potential rivals is to form an
alliance through securing marriage.
To see how practical or important
this actually would be, you have to realize how unstable politics could be in
those days (if it’s not clear enough from reading 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2
Chronicles). Pilch and Malina note in their Handbook of Biblical Social
Values that within the Roman Empire alone, 31 of the 79 emporers were
murdered (assassinated). [2] They go on
to note of the remaining 48 that 6 committed suicide and 4 were forced out of
power. [3] That leaves about half of the emperors able to reign without serious
threat to their power. Looking at the history of the U.S’s now 44 presidents
(with Barack Obam), one will find 3 presidential assassinations and 3 attempts
at impeachments. This makes up not even 14% of our leaders, leaving the
remaining 86% serving without serious threat to power.
When it comes down to it,
polygyny did make sense in culture of the ancient world, but was still fairly
rare. We have no need for it in our day, since we have more stable politics. And what troubles we do have are much easier to smooth over through diplomacy.
It is absurd for us to assume something was wrong with this standard, though,
simply because it seems odd to us. Despite the best efforts of Christians who have
struggled to explain polygyny, we don’t have to assume God was working through
sinful people. We don’t even need to assume that such things were sinful to
start with. We just have to recognize them for what they are – political gains
that helped to keep peace during chaotic and unstable times. And isn’t that
something we all would hope our leaders would strive for?
[1] "Lamech." Wikipedia, the Free
Encyclopedia. Web. 2 Mar. 2012.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamech>.
[2] Pilch, John J., and Bruce J.
Malina. Handbook of Biblical Social Values. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson,
1998. 7. Print.
[3] ibid
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