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Polygamy was not unheard of in ancient times and allowed in the Bible. Still, how many men mentioned in the Bible had more than one wife?
Question
#76174. Asked by Arpeggionist. (Feb 21 07 12:19 PM)
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lanfranco
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According to this site, there are 40 men listed in the Old Testament who had more than one wife. Scroll down to "Judaism."
However, the figure is taken from an external site to which a link is provided. That site, which seems to be advocating polygamy, includes asterisks by the names of some figures, since their multiple wives can only be inferred -- for example, from the large number of children they are said to have had. Concubines and slaves could have been responsible for some of these children.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polygamy
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Arpeggionist
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Yes, that site is very much inaccurate. For instance, it states that Moses was a polygamist (when in fact only the name of one wife of his is ever mentioned and the text also says he divorced her). I'm talking about men about whom the text of the Bible literally states multiple marriages (and concubines and other such mistresses count).
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lanfranco
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Well, we can certainly start the ball rolling with Jacob, who had children by his wives, Rachel and Leah, and his handmaids, Bilhah and Zilpah.
Then there are the kings David, Solomon, and Rehoboam, who are said to have had many wives each. Wasn't it Solomon who supposedly had 700 wives and 300 concubines? Rohoboam, with 18 wives and 60 concubines, was utterly lacking in virility by comparison.
I'm sure other players can come up with other examples.
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star_gazer
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Abraham had at least two wives: Sarah the mother of Issac from who came the Jews, and Hagar the mother of Ishmael from who came the Muslims.
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queproblema
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Abraham only had one wife at a time. His first wife was Sarah, and after she died he married Keturah. Hagar was Sarah's maid, and they were following the custom of the day whereby a maid might bear a child in the name of her mistress. It didn't work out too well in that case, though.
Oddly enough, Keturah is also called his concubine, and he fathered children with her long after he was supposedly too old to do so with Sarah.
Jacob had two wives at the same time, Leah and Rachel, sisters. Then he had as concubines their maids, Zilpah and Billah.
Gen. 16; 25:1; 35:23-26; I Chr. 1:32
Out of time for a thorough count, see you later.
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queproblema
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Lamech, Nahor, Abraham, Esau, Jacob, Eliphaz (Esau’s son, not Job’s comforter), Gideon, Elkanah, Saul, David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Ahab, Ashur (not Asher), Jerahmeel, Caleb (not Joshua’s buddy), possibly one Manasseh and his son Machir, Abijah, Jehoida, Belshazzar, Ahasuerus
That makes 22, and I could have missed some. Including concubines makes it trickier. I left out the Levite from Judges 19 because although she is called his concubine there is no mention of another wife, and he is called her husband and the son-in-law of her father.
Moses did try to divorce his wife, but it wasn't granted.
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Arpeggionist
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That's a more accurate count. There were also a few minor judges who had more than one wife each, but other than their polygamous ways little else is mentioned of them. You get the prize for that one.
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queproblema
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Four minor judges are recorded as having 30 sons ore more; one as 30 sons and 30 daughters, but although one can infer multiple wives, the Protestant Bible doesn't actually say so.
If we go by inference, we would have to include virtually all of the other 37 kings of Israel and Judah as well as presumably all the foreign kings named. That would put the number at over 65. And there's no way of knowing how many successful Israelites, named in the Bible with few details, added trophy wives to their households.
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Baloo55th
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If SOTHC was present, he would undoubtedly make a reference to martyrdom at this point.....
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lanfranco
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Judging by what SOTHC regularly says about Mrs. SOTHC, I suspect that she should win the prize for "martyrdom," if we've got one going.
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SOTHC
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I will have you know that Mrs SOTHC is a treasure unfortunately the police are coming close to finding where I buried her.
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jrothlander
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This is a trick question. The Bible simple does not give us all of the information. We have no idea how many wives most of the men mentioned in the Bible actually had, as it does not say. You can only count the ones that it mentions has having more than one. However, that does not exclude a second wife. If you had two wives and mentioned one of them, that does not exclude another. Also, not mentioning a wife does not exclude them from having one. This is why people debate if the apostles had wives. The reality is that we do not know.
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