Polygyny and Rich Tidwell — A Week-In-Review Roundtable

A long-form roundtable sparked by Pastor Rich Tidwell’s public disclosure that he stands in covenant with two wives — and the viral Protestia hit piece and Ben Shapiro commentary that followed. Abrie Kilian (lawyer and textualist), Pete Rambo (theologian and author), Ryan Ridgely, and Biblical Marriages take up one question: what does Scripture actually say about plural marriage? Their case is that the church inherited monogamy-only doctrine from Greco-Roman tradition, not from the text, and that forcing monogamy adds to YAH’s law.

What they discuss

• Why Tidwell’s disclosure became the number-one trending topic on X, and why Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants united to condemn it while appealing to tradition over Scripture.
• The historical chain of monogamy-only doctrine: Hammurabi’s code, Numa’s law in ancient Rome, Greco-Roman culture, Augustine and the church fathers, and the Council of Trent (1563) declaring polygyny anathema after 1,560 years.
• Suppressed voices who argued the same case — Bernardino Ochino, Martin Madan (author of Thelyphthora and the hymn “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”), John Milton, R.J. Rushdoony, and Luther’s counsel to Philip of Hesse.
• Whether polygyny is sin or whether forced monogamy is: the men argue YAH regulates plural marriage (and never regulates sin), and that a ban adds to and subtracts from the law.
• Abrie Kilian’s legal framework for defining sin — the witness-evidence rule and the legality principle (a law must be clear, unambiguous, and carry a stated penalty).
• What a covenantal polygynous household looks like in practice: strong women, shared labor, fatherhood that stays in the home, and the claim that fatherlessness — not plural marriage — drives social decay.
• Whether a pastor or elder can have more than one wife: a close reading of “husband of one wife” (the Greek mia) in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1.
• Repeated cautions that knowledge alone does not qualify a man to act — get your house in order first.

Scriptures examined

• Genesis 2:24 and Matthew 19 — the definition of marriage, and whether it is prescriptive.
• Exodus 21:10 — provision for food, clothing, and conjugal rights when a man takes another wife.
• Deuteronomy 21:15–17 — inheritance rights of the firstborn across two wives.
• Deuteronomy 25:5–10 — levirate marriage.
• Leviticus 18:17 — the law against uncovering a woman and her daughter, assuming plural arrangements.
• 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 — “husband of one wife” and the qualifications of an overseer.
• 1 Timothy 4:1–3 — forbidding marriage named a doctrine of demons.
• Matthew 5:17–19 and Matthew 15 — the law not abolished, and tradition nullifying YAH’s commands.
• Joshua 24:15, Matthew 6:33, 1 Corinthians 11:3, Isaiah 3–4, Proverbs 31, and the households of Jacob, Elkanah, Abraham, Moses, Gideon, and David.

Why it matters

The roundtable frames the Tidwell controversy not as a fringe scandal but as a test of authority: will the church stand on the text or on inherited Greco-Roman tradition? Its challenge to viewers is to be Berean — test every claim against Scripture for themselves.