Is There Any Bible Passage That Stops a Man from Having Two Wives?
1) Direct answer
Yes. The New Testament sets one man with one woman as God’s order, and it closes the door on adding another wife while the first is living.
2) Scriptural explanation
- From the beginning: “They two shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24; repeated by Jesus in Matthew 19:4–6; Mark 10:6–9). Notice, it’s two—one man and one woman—becoming one flesh.
- Church order and example: “Husband of one wife” is required for overseers and deacons (1 Timothy 3:2, 12; Titus 1:6). The same standard appears for widows: “wife of one man” (1 Timothy 5:9). God sets the pattern plainly.
- Purity in marriage: “To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband” (1 Corinthians 7:2). Singular on both sides.
- Bound by the first covenant: Jesus said that marrying another while bound is adultery (Mark 10:11–12; Luke 16:18). If even a legal “putting away” doesn’t free a man to take another without guilt, taking an additional wife beside the first certainly doesn’t make it right.
- Warning against multiplying wives: God forbade kings to multiply wives (Deuteronomy 17:17), showing His displeasure with the practice.
-God allowed polygamy in the old testament because of the fall but restored back the original order in the new testament. However, those who came to Christ already married to many wives or part of a harem of wives were not forbidden from worshipping God, only they were not allowed to hold any leadership office in the church.
3) Simple clarifying logic
- God joined two to be one flesh. The Bible never says “three (or more) shall be one flesh.” You can’t be “one flesh” with several at the same time.
- If God requires leaders—the examples to the flock—to have one wife, that reveals the divine pattern for all believers.
- Jesus restored marriage to God’s original intent. Where men once tolerated arrangements, the Lord pointed back to the beginning and fixed it: one man, one woman, for life.
4) Reinforcing statement
So yes—the Scripture sets a clear stop: a believer is to have one living wife. That’s the Bible way.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §81
Now, in the sex act... See, the school's got those two things mixed up. Therefore you can't do it. You've got to bring it back to the truth of it, in the beginning. And at the end there will be one Lord Jesus and His bride many---singular. You get it? There was one David on one throne, one king after God's own heart, with five hundred wives! Jesus, sitting on His throne (Hallelujah!) in the Millennium, with a wife like it was at the beginning, created out of the earth by the hand of Almighty God in the resurrection...
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §71
David, the king which represented Christ... (Hold that in your mind.) David represented Christ. Do you believe that? Christ is going to sit on his throne. And this David, a man after God's own heart, had five hundred wives. See what I mean? David with his five hundred wives, Solomon with his thousand; and Solomon is the son of David in the natural, which represents Jesus Christ, the Son of David in the spiritual. But that's natural sex life; this is going to be spiritual created life, created. That's the way it was...
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §82
But to get this marriage and divorce straightened out so that you would know which was right and which was wrong. Now, He plainly shows here in these types there is one Christ and many members of that wife. Notice, He can put us away for spiritual fornications and false doctrine anytime He wants to, but how dare you try to put Him away and make it! A man can put away his wife and marry another, but not the woman put away her husband and marry another. See all the shadows and types there perfectly balanced out? See?...
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §94
Look at Jacob, out of whom came the patriarchs. He had at least a dozen wives. He married two sisters and had concubine wives besides that (common law women that he lived with), and those patriarchs was born right out of those concubine women. Is that right? See you have to make the Word run smooth. Oh, I got pages on them. If a clergyman ever questions me on it and if we could get together, we can talk it; but surely if he's got any spirituality at all, he could see right here it's the truth. There's no question t...
The Seed is not heir with the shuck
65-0218 §33
The stalk, Hagar... Two wives doubted the promise, but watch what that brought forth. When Hagar, the second wife of Abraham, which was just absolutely a concubine wife... But she brought forth a man. But what kind of a man was he? The Bible said he was a wild man. He lived by his bow and no man would conquer him. He was untamable, unconvertible, unregenerated. He could not be tamed. He was a wild man, because he was of the contrary to God's Word. And anything that's contrary, any preacher, any lay member, any chur...