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.
Divine Love
56-0826 §28
I never said one word. I just looked up at him, and all at once the Holy Spirit, something another... What would you think if a man spit in your face? Why, if there's any temper about you, it'd rise. Sure it would. And here come two cops out (them two cops I'd led...) with the things in their hands to beat the man down to take him off, but I couldn't let them do it. God had brought love in my heart for that mortal being. I thought, "It's not the man. It's the devil that's got him in that condition. That man would b...
Marriage and Divorce
65-0221M §84
And you, some of the women put on these nasty clothes, eat out here to ... throw yourself before men. Jesus said, "Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart." Then who's guilty, the man or you? He's a male, made so he could take this act. See? And you're the female that ought to refuse. Now, why do you put yourself out like that? It ain't for comfort. You know it can't be, when you're half froze to death with them shorts on. Can't be for comfort. Then what...
Thirsting for Life
57-0630 §28
Love Him. You don't go and throw your arms around some other man; have a little clean fun, have a little date on the side; a little afternoon kiss at the back gate to satisfy that thirst, that God put in you to thirst after Him. And you don't take another man's wife and run off with her, and live in a hotel with her, and carry on like that. I don't say you do it, you may be here. If you are, God burn that in your soul. That's right. Thinking you're having a little clean fun. There's an all-seeing eye watching you....
We would see Jesus
62-0727 §64
Notice. And here He stood doing exactly the Messiahic sign, and just one now and then of the Jews would believe Him. Now there were those there who would not believe Him, and you couldn't say they wasn't good men. No, sir. They were good men. They had to live good. You couldn't say they wasn't honest, and upright, and wouldn't cheat, or steal. No, sir. But them things don't save you. It's not by good works are we saved. If good works would've done it, Christ wouldn't have had to die. You see, it's a birth. You've g...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 1:E-67
No man knows the things of God save the Spirit of God and he to whom the Spirit of God reveals them. We need to call on God for revelation more than anything else in the world. We have accepted the Bible, we have accepted the great truths of it, but it still is not real to most people because the revelation by the Spirit is not there. The Word has not been quickened. The Bible says in II Corinthians 5:21 that we have become the righteousness of God by our union with Jesus Christ. Did you get it? It says that WE ARE...