I did not know of this. Creepy, I think.

It occurs to me that at least in the case of Abraham and Jacob, they were not so much choosing to be polygamous as having polygamy forced upon them by circumstances. In Abraham’s case from Sarah’s desire to provide an heir even if by way of her maidservant, and in Jacob’s case by being hoodwinked by his father-in-law. They certainly were not following the model of polygamy as presented above, in which a man essentially accumulates wives as a way of aggrandizing his standing in a community (or even in his own eyes). That is one reason why I would not dismiss the argument that at least one reason to object to polygamy is that it institutionalizes the dominance of the husband as opposed to the model of mutuality described in the NT.

Plus, polygamy is a lousy way to organize a society. It puts men into competition with each other for a “resource” rendered intentionally scarce. Thus the effect in fundamentalist Mormon communities of teenage boys being exiled from the community on the slightest of pretexts so as to eliminate them from the competition, since there are not enough women to go around.

And that can only happen between one man and one woman–no other way.

So the natural constitution of human sexuality also reveals the New Testament picture of marriage. Despite what was or wasn’t permitted in the Old Testament, the natural law and the New Testament revelation contravene polygamy.

It might be said that this is not a biblical argument against polygamy. But I would argue that first of all, the biblical argument isn’t necessary because the natural argument applies to all, and secondly, the natural argument lies behind the biblical argument and is occasionally mentioned in the Bible itself.

Thanks for a very intelligent question. Here at least is the Catholic response to that question, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1610:

“Moral conscience concerning the unity and indissolubility of marriage developed under the pedagogy of the old law. In the Old Testament the polygamy of patriarchs and kings is not yet explicitly rejected. Nevertheless, the law given to Moses aims at protecting the wife from arbitrary domination by the husband, even though according to the Lord’s words it still carries traces of man’s “hardness of heart” which was the reason Moses permitted men to divorce their wives. [see Matt 19:8 and Deut 24:1]

1611 Seeing God’s covenant with Israel in the image of exclusive and faithful married love, the prophets prepared the Chosen People’s conscience for a deepened understanding of the unity and indissolubility of marriage. The books of Ruth and Tobit bear moving witness to an elevated sense of marriage…”

There were practices which we believe God directed Moses to allow for a time, but with boundaries in order to bring some semblance of order to them – and when Christ came he permamanetly raised the bar back to its original intent.

It’s the same with homosexual “marriage.” Any time there’s news about it, like when Prop 8 was overturned, the front pages of many papers will show pictures of two somewhat attractive lesbians rather than a more representative photo that no one would want to look at.

You have to admit, sit-coms about the generational differences between a man and his fifteen year old girlfriend, or about a transgender trying to make it on its own in The Big City, would be rife with comic potential and dramatic pathos.