Paul's teachings on marriage in Ephesians 5:31-33

The Monogamy-Only Objection

Paul quote Gen 2:24 and says "wife" not "wives" and says that the two become one flesh. Therefore, a man can only have one wife.

1. In Ephesians 5:31-33, Paul writes:

The Answer

1. Paul is quoting Gen 2:24 and we have addressed that already here.
2. The word "wife" being singular does not mean anything more than "neighbor" being singular in "love your neighbor as yourself" limits a man to loving one neighbor.
3. Paul is using Gen 2:24 to describe the mystery of Christ and the Church, in the same way that he uses the word "one flesh" which is a reference to the one spirit that unites Christ and the Church in 1 Cor 6:

4. There is only ever one woman in "a marriage" and all instructions for marriage will be to the "wife" and can be applied to each wife a man has.

Conclusion

• Paul's use of Genesis 2:24 is to illustrate how a husband should love his wife, or wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.
• The use of singular terms is not any more limiting than the word "neighbor" in "love your neighbor as yourself".
• We do not make biblical law from singular or plural terms, we have laws that tell us what is forbidden, a man is not forbidden from taking more than one wife to himself based on God's laws.
• Paul has no authority to change the laws of God, only to teach us what God has done and what we are to do.

This objection argues that Paul, a key figure in early Christianity, upholds monogamy-only as the model ordained by God for family, and uses it as a metaphor for Christ and the Church as a singular "wife" to Christ. There is no place in scripture that says that Christ has "only one bride", if you hear that, it's being inferred and read into the text. I challenge you to find it if you believe it exists.

This objection argues that monogamy-only is the intended form of marriage in Christian teaching, however given that Christ is the singular head to a great number of members that make up His one unified body, assembly ekklesia, or "church", there is nothing about a man with multiple women in subjection to him as their singular head that violates the model of marriage in Genesis, or anywhere in scripture or the picture of Christ and His assembly.

On the contrary, a man such as Jacob, and his 4 women, are a visual representation of Christ's relationship to the church, assembly, or ekklesia. One man, with multiple members of his body in subjection to him. His family can be seen as a typology of the "church" or singular bride/body, but so too can each member of his body be seen as "bride" to the man, the same as the church as a whole is the body of Christ but we each have an invidual "one spirit" union as members of that Body.

The Bible utilizes both monogamous and non-monogamous allegory when illustrating the relationship between Christ and His people when using marriage terms. Paul himself utilizes non-monogamous allegory in (2 Cor 11) when he says he is jealous because he has betrothed each of them to one Husband in Christ as a pure virgin. Christ speaks this way in the parable of the ten virgins comparing Himself to a polygynyous bridegroom who ultimately marries five of the ten virgins who were waiting for him (Matt 25:1-13).