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 §80
Now, look. In the final analysis, look, there is one Jesus Christ. Is that right? One man, God Immanuel. Do you believe that? But the members of His wife are many, thousands times thousands of thousands. Is that right? His wife, the bride, the church. You understand now? That's why He said to Adam before sex was ever induced ... or, introduced, "Multiply to replenish the earth"---when he was yet in the beginning, when he was yet both male and female in himself! There it shows then that the bride's got to come from...
The invisible union of the Bride of Christ
65-1125 §29
The prophet Paul, here, is saying that a woman cannot remarry until her first husband is dead. She cannot remarry as long as her first husband is living. She, by no circumstances at all. She must remain single as long as her first husband is living. And if she should do such a sin, she shall be called an adulteress. I am speaking of the natural now, to type it with the spiritual. If this woman would commit such a sin, then she is marked an adulteress---if she has two living husbands at the same time. Therefore, she...
We would see Jesus
61-0208 §15
You never judge a man by how big his hands is, and how wide his shoulders is. I've heard them say, "Oh, isn't he a man!" I've seen men that weighed two hundred pounds, didn't have an ounce of man in him. That's right. You don't measure a man by his size. That's brute. You measure him by his character. There never was a greater character in man than Jesus Christ. A big body... A mule's stouter than any man, or elephant. So that would be brute. But a man's not how big a muscle he's got. I don't measure him by that, b...
Escape hither, come quickly
58-0202 §52
...en I go overseas I don't watch and get her and say, "Mrs. Branham, thou shalt not have no other husbands while I'm gone." And she don't get me by the collar and say, "Young man, no other wives." Wouldn't that be a home? No. We get down and pray. I kiss her goodbye. I say, "Sweetheart, pray for me." She say, "I will be praying every hour, Billy." There we are. I don't worry whether she's going to have any husband. She don't worry whether I'm going to have another wife. Why? We love one another. And as long as we lov...
Expectations
50-0810 §17
Now, I just love to carry my Bible. When I was a little boy... Maybe Sunday, or Sunday week, I want tell my life story, how that... They'd tell me I looked like a preacher. And I'd... on my face till I wanted to... I didn't want to look like no preacher, Bible under my arm. I thought that was a sissy. But I find out, friends, it's takes a real man. I wanted to be a man that was six foot tall and weighed a hundred and ninety pounds. I wanted to be a real man. But see, I couldn't... little. But look, you can't judge...