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==Endnotes== | ==Endnotes== | ||
− | #{{note|barney1}} The Greek of the New Testament can "be read as excluding (a) the single, (b) the polygamous, (c) the divorced, [or] (d) those remarried after being widowed. The words can also convey the connotation 'devoted solely to his wife.'" See: {{ | + | #{{note|barney1}} The Greek of the New Testament can "be read as excluding (a) the single, (b) the polygamous, (c) the divorced, [or] (d) those remarried after being widowed. The words can also convey the connotation 'devoted solely to his wife.'" See: {{NTBarney2_1|start=240a}} |
#{{note|fn1}} {{Anf| author=Tertullian|article=Exhortation to Chastity|citation=6|vol=6|start=53|end=54}} | #{{note|fn1}} {{Anf| author=Tertullian|article=Exhortation to Chastity|citation=6|vol=6|start=53|end=54}} | ||
#{{note|justin1}} {{Anf1| author=Justin Martyr|article=Dialogue With Trypho|citation=141|vol=1|start=270}} | #{{note|justin1}} {{Anf1| author=Justin Martyr|article=Dialogue With Trypho|citation=141|vol=1|start=270}} |
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Plural marriage |
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Joseph Smith era:
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Post-Manifesto–present |
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Critics point to New Testament scriptures such as 1 Timothy 3꞉2; 1 Timothy 3꞉12; Titus 1꞉6 to argue that the early Christian Church was opposed to any plural marriages.
The listed scriptures do indeed include Paul's instructions to some leaders to be both married and potentially monogamous.[1] Latter-day Saints agree that the 'standard' instruction to all believers is monogamy—exceptions can only be commanded by God through His prophet (see Jacob 2꞉30).
However, critics go too far when they conclude that early Christians believed in an absolute prohibition on plural marriages.
Tertullian's perspective is strikingly similar to Jacob 2꞉30, in which monogamy is the norm, but God may command exceptions to "raise up seed."
Justin Martry argued that David's sin was only in the matter of Uriah's wife, and echoed a common early Christian idea that marriage was a "mystery," or sacred rite of the type which Latter-day Saints associate with temple worship:
Justin saw the patriarchs' marriages not as corruptions or something which God 'winked at,' but acts with significant ritual and religious power.
Even Augustine, a towering figure in Christian theology, held that polygamy was not something that was a crime before God, but rather a matter that depended more upon cultural biases:
The Latter-day Saints do not take their doctrine from ancient Christian writers, but from canonized scriptures and the living prophets. However, the perspectives of early Christians demonstrates the plural marriage was not the absolutely forbidden idea that some modern sectarians might wish it to be.
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