224. Scholium. 1. Polygamy
in the O.T. Christ the Lord in order to restore the dignity of marriage
appeals to the divine decree given to Adam: Have you not read that he who
made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said: For this
reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and
the two shall become one (Matt. 19:4f.). There it is to be noted that
Christ places in the mouth of God what Gen. 2:24 places in the mouth of Adam,
and therefore that the unity of marriage is a matter of positive divine precept
from the beginning. Thus the holy Fathers and exegetes generally admit
that monogamy flourished up until the time of the flood. This is clear from the
rebuke of Lamech: “Lamech, a bloody murderer, was the first to divide the one
flesh into two: the same punishment of the flood destroyed fratricide and
digamy.”
But it is admitted that even
after the flood polygamy was practiced. This could take place either from the
positive permission of God, or from the necessity of increasing the human race,
at the time so small and almost extinct; because of this, men could think that
polygamy was permitted (as, for example, the daughters of Lot who committed a
major crime from their good intention, thinking that besides themselves and
their father there were now no more human beings after the destruction of
Sodom). But afterwards, by reason of custom, it became a law.
Some exegetes (See V. Heylen,
Tractatus de Matrimonio (1945) 307-308) see at least a hint for the permission
of polygamy in Gen. 21:12, when God said to Abraham: Whatever Sarah says to
you, do as she tells you. However, in this place Sarah is urging Abraham to
send Ishmael away from home. But perhaps it could be supposed that God said
something similar to Abraham when Sarah spoke to him about a marriage with
Hagar: Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to
my maid; it may be that I shall obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to
the voice of Sarah... and she took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her
to Abram her husband as a wife (Gen. 16:2-3). Actually, from the narration
it seems that Abraham either had permission from God and then acquiesced to
the pleas of Sarah, or polygamy was so frequent that it was not thought in any
way to be evil. And if we look at Abraham’s ancestors, even after the flood, it
is not certain that they were polygamous; he is presented as the first one to
engage in polygamy. Since, therefore, he seems so diligent and upright in what
pertains to his sons (as is clear from Gen. 21:12, where he does not want to
give in to Sarah urging him to send Ishmael away; and he does not do it except
when God commands him to do what Sarah says); it is very probable that Abraham
would not have accepted a wife before Hagar unless he had obtained permission
from God to do it. But if this dispensation of God in this place cannot be
proved, certainly the silence of God in this case, especially given the promise
already made to
Abraham, about a son of Abraham
from Sarah (Gen. 15:4-6), is a sign of the divine permission concerning
Abraham’s polygamy.
225. Whatever may be the
case concerning the time or age in which God permitted polygamy in the
Israelite people, this fact is certain from the words of Christ: For your
hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives (Matt. 19:8). But
this dispensation because of the hardness of heart shows sufficiently
that God tolerated something as a lesser evil which de facto was not opposed to
the primary end of marriage, lest the Israelites, when they saw a heavy burden
placed on them, abandon the true God and so embrace false gods. For this reason
God allowed them to retain the customs of other peoples, which primarily and
per se are not opposed to the divine and natural law or to religion. However he
wanted to counsel the primary end of marriage, and, so that it might be
integral, also the secondary ends; for this reason Moses laid down many laws
concerning marriage and polygamy. But that the words of Christ concern directly
the indissolubility of marriage does not prevent them from also being applied
to its unity; for, the quoted words of God certainly apply to both of them. (Francis
A. P. Sola, “On Holy Orders and Matrimony,” in Sacrae Theologiae Summa, 4
vols. [3d ed.; trans. Kenneth Baker; Keep the Faith, Inc., 2016], 4B:207-8)
