"Are you a monogamist or a polygamist?" someone once asked me. I was very tempted to answer "polygamist" but changed my mind. "Neither", I replied. My friend, who knew that I was married, and had heard that I had more than one wife was puzzled. "Are you single?" he asked. "No," I replied as I watched his face wrinkle in disbelief, "I am married."
And that's the truth. I am married to three wives but I am neither a monogamist, a polygamist, nor a single man. Now, it is true, that as far as the English language is concerned, I am a polygamist - or to be more accurate, a polygynist, but as far as the Bible is concerned, I am simply 'married'. My government may not accept that I am married, and my neighbour may not accept that I am married either, but the God of the Bible - Yahweh-Elohim - most certainly does.
The words 'monogamy' and 'polygamy' do not exist in the Bible, and have been borrowed from the Greek language. You will search in vain for them. In the Scriptures you are either 'married' or 'unmarried'. Though the Bible nowhere gives a definition of marriage, when you assemble all the scriptures on marriage together, you are left with only one possible definition, which is this:
"Biblical marriage is a vow, covenant or agreement, made between one man and one or more women of the Covenant, of their own free will, in the presence of two or three witnesses, in which they promise to be faithful to each other for the rest of their lives."
We are not told how many women a man may marry, only that he should not marry too many. He should, in fact, only marry as many as Yahweh gives to him, which will be as many as he is able to properly love and take care of. Kings who have the wealth for large families are warned not to multiply wives because of the very temptations that were to ruin Solomon:
"Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself" (Deut.17:17, NKJV).
