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Is There Any Bible Passage That Stops a Man from Having Two Wives?

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Answered by True Bible Teachings AI on 5/9/2026

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.

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.

SermonRelevance 59Broader match

Has the Lord spoken only to Moses?

Monday, the 30th of November 1953

53-1130 §22

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Church Age BookRelevance 59

An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages

Chapter 5: The Pergamean Church Age

CAB 5:E-121

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SermonRelevance 59

From that time

Friday, the 13th of July 1962

62-0713 §91

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SermonRelevance 59

And then Jesus came

Saturday, the 2nd of March 1957

57-0302 §5

And she referred to this Scripture, Saint John 11. She believed that He was only a prophet, and just an ordinary man, a good man, a prophet. Now, if Jesus was only a prophet, then we're all lost and in error. He was nothing short of Jehovah God, being manifested in the flesh. He was divine. So she based her thoughts on this: She said, "Then if I can prove to you that He was just merely a man, will you then accept it, if I prove it by the Bible?" I said, "Yes, ma'am. But I don't believe it can be done." She said, "O...

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Church Age BookRelevance 59

An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages

Chapter 3: The Ephesian Church Age

CAB 3:E-97

Here is where we receive the true revelation of the 'Serpent's seed.' Here is what really happened in the Garden of Eden. The Word says that Eve was beguiled by the serpent. She was actually seduced by the serpent. It says in Genesis 3:1, "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." This beast was so close to a human being (and yet was pure animal) that he could reason and talk. He was an upright creature and was somewhat in between a chimpanzee and a man, but closer to...

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