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.
The mark of the beast
56-0715 §46
The other day some crazy woman driver, drove right in front of me. Come pretty near killing two of my children. I said, "Lady." She said, "Now you shut your mouth; I'm the one that's driving." And before I got back, twenty-six women drivers almost caused us to be killed. We kept count of it. They made a mistake when they give her a driver's license. They put her out here to voting. They put her out to these public works. And during the time of the war, right in New York City ... more illegitimate children was born...
Revelation, Chapter 4c Throne of mercy and judgement
61-0108 §73
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord ^^ (because he is your lord)^^. How many knows that, you women? That's exactly right. The Bible said so at the beginning. It's still the same way. Wives, submit ^^yourself ^^unto your own ^^husband^^, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. So is the husband---you ought to know that, you married people and adults, or children that's old enough to know the...
From the beginning it wasn't so
59-1125 §17
Man perverts things. That's what man is. A man is a ... in his fallen estate is worse than animal. Do you believe that? It proves it. Men will do things that an animal won't do. There is man. Now man is not muscles. Say, "Oh, he is a man." I've seen men that weighed two hundred pounds didn't have an ounce of man about him. Man is not measured by his muscles; that's beast. Man is measured by character. A man is a man by character. That's the reason Jesus was the greatest man that ever lived. There was nothing could...
Lamb and Dove
60-0805 §38
When God made a man first, he made him both male and female in spirit. He made him in His own image, and God is a spirit. When He separated him, and put him in flesh, he put the masculine spirit in a man, and the feminish spirit in a woman. And if anything's contrary to that, there's a bit of perversion there. Exactly. You see a woman trying to act like a man, there's a little something wrong there. The cell's crossed up somewhere. That's right. You see a man so sissified that he won't preach against sin or nothing...
Hebrews, Chapter 7, part 2
57-0922 §57
How we went through it! I said, "If I said about my wife, 'Oh, well, I'd like to have two wives. I'd like to run around with this one, and do this and that. But if I do, my wife will divorce me and my kids will be in ... my ministry would be lost,'" You dirty, rotten hypocrite! That's right. You don't love her right, in the first place. That's exactly right. If you loved her, there'd be no law about it; you love her, anyhow, and you stick with her. That's exactly right. And you women will do the same thing to your...