The Bible and Polygamy: Does the Bible Sanction Polygamy?Newman, John Philip
Religion
The Bible and Polygamy: Does the Bible Sanction Polygamy?
Newman, John Philip
Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines; Polygamy -- Religious aspects
The next word in the question is, "Does the Bible sanction Polygamy?"
By which we mean, as it (the Bible) now stands. Not as it once was,
but as it now is; that is, the Bible taken as a whole. The question
is not, Did the Bible formerly sanction Polygamy? But rather, Does
it, at the present day, authorize and establish and approve it? Just
as we may say of the Constitution of the United States, not, Did it
sanction slavery? but, does it now sanction it? For it is a well known
principle of jurisprudence that if any thing have been repealed in
the supreme law of the land, which that law once authorized, then it
no longer sanctions the matter in question. It is so here, precisely;
for let us suppose for a moment that it could be proved that the
Bible once sanctioned polygamy, in the sense excepted, and that this
sanction has never been withdrawn, then we are bound to admit that the
affirmative has been sustained; but supposing, on the other hand, that
the Bible, as it is now, to-day, does not sanction polygamy, then we
have sustained the negative of the question.
There is another word, and one of importance, and that is the term
polygamy. There are three words in this connection which should be
referred to. The first is polygamy, which is from the the Greek polus,
and gamos, the former meaning "many," and the latter "marriage" and
signifies a plurality of wives or husbands at the same time. When a
man has more wives than one, or a woman more husbands than one, at
the same time, the offender is punishable for polygamy. Such is the
fact in Christian countries. Polygamy is allowed in some countries,
as in Turkey. Turn to Webster's Dictionary, page 844, and we shall
find the word "polyandry," from polus, many and aner, man, meaning the
practice of females having more husbands than one at the same time, or
a plurality of husbands. Then there is another word--polygyny, from
the Greek polus, and gune, woman or female, the practice of having
more wives than one at the same time. The word, therefore, to be used,
is not polygamy, but polygyny, for polygamy signifies a man with more
wives than one, or a woman with more husbands than one; and it seems
to me that if a man can have more wives than one a woman has the same
right to have more husbands than one. Then the true word is polygyny,
and hereafter we will scout the word polygamy, and use the true word
polygyny.
This question involves or supposes two systems of marriage: What is
commonly called polygamy and what is known as monogamy. On the one
hand a man with more than one wife; and on the other, a man with only
one wife. You observe therefore that these are two systems essentially
and radically different and distinct, the one from the other, and
especially so in this controversy. The material question to be decided
is, which is the authorized system of marriage, polygamy, or a
plurality of wives, or monogamy, or what it termed the one-wife system?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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