Would be interested to know how you explain 1 Timothy 3:2 and 1 Timothy 3:12.
v 2 - ESV - Therefore an overseer[a] must be above reproach, the husband of one wife,[b] sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
v 12 - ESV - Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.
There are clear marriage (polygamy) instructions for overseers (Elders) and deacons given by Paul, but none for those who are not in either of those positions. The NT references in the posted article refer to divorce and remarriage, not multiple wives.
I find that one wife is sufficient for me, but I question why the message of Scripture is “changed” to fit someone’s belief, such as the limitation to only having one wife.
The article references Abraham as a man with multiple wives (at the same time). That is incorrect. Abraham had one wife, Sarah, and a concubine, Hagar. Minor point, but a wife and a concubine are different. After Abraham’s death he did take another wife, Ketura (Gen 25:1).
There is nothing in scripture stating that polygamy was only given for a certain time.
I have to agree. God made rules for us to live by. Like any good attorney would do today, he made his rules as unequivocal as possible, so that we would not have to “interpret” any meaning we wanted.
The original post does not and cannot quote any Biblical text that expressly condemns or permits a man to have more than one wife at a time. But just as we now twist and squeeze the plain language of our Constitution to obtain a meaning we like, so too did the very humans who debated, wrote and published the results of the Council of Trent.
I am Catholic and while I respect teachings and edicts from learned theologians of the past, I know perfectly well that they too - just like everyone else - had their own ideas on how people should live their lives. The results of the Council of Trent had to reflect those ideas in some way. However well-intentioned those theologians might have been, I cannot give their words equal weight with those of God.
But if others can extrapolate God’s intentions from words He did not say then I can extrapolate His intent from facts of life: Wars kill more men than women. After a war with a neighboring country an army frequently returns home to an overabundance of women. Without polygamy or relaxation of normal societal standards many of those women can never marry or have children, thus causing problems for two or more generations. As an example, after WWII, in an effort to replenish the male population, Russia found ways to reward unmarried women who bore children. Here in the U.S. we just pumped more money into welfare programs for a similar result.
As the original post says, polygamy is not forbidden by God but by men who undertook to “interpret” His intent from words he did not say.