Lamech, First Man with Two Wives in the Bible

When people try to argue from a biblical perspective that polygamy is sin, they run into problems. First, marriage in the bible is always marriage, no matter how many wives are involved, since the bible doesn't provide a special definition of polygamy. So whatever is said in the bible about marriage applies to the concept of one man and his wife or wives, even if this perspective is unfamiliar to a lot of Christians nowadays. So calling polygamy "sin" means calling biblical marriage "sin", for the bible offers no distinction between the two "forms" of marriage.

And once people have realized that Jesus doesn't address marriage at all in Matthew 19, but divorce, thus rather than condemning polygamy confirming the fact that divorce is not an option for a believer (unless the wife commits adultery), and if someone takes another wife, the rights of the first wife he is not to diminish (Exo 21:10), they often argue that nevertheless, polygamy is bad because the first polygamist mentioned in the bible, Lamech of the line of Cain, was a bad man, a sinner, therefore polygamy is a bad thing, a sin.

Let us give the argument the benefit of the doubt that Lamech's house is indeed the first polygamous family mentioned in the bible - scholars can never decide which of the books of the bible is indeed the historically oldest document, while they seem to have come to an understanding concerning the chronology of the biblical books by now -, and let us also lay aside for the moment the comment of Mr. Everett Fox, who, when translating the Five Books of Moses, stated in his commentary that the "saying" of Lamech (Gen 4:23-24) seemed "hopelessly obscure".

But let us instead follow the logic of the argument as such:

• Lamech = first polygamist
• Lamech = murderer (=bad)
• polygamy = bad
• polygamy = sin

If we follow this argument for the first marriage in the bible, the equation would teach us this:

• Adam and Eve = first married couple
  
• Adam and Eve = wife deceived, husband participates, thus causing the Fall (=bad)
  
• marriage = bad
  
• marriage = sin
  

If we follow this argument for the first pair of brothers in the bible, the equation would be as follows:

• Abel and Cain = first two brothers
• Able and Cain = first murder case in the bible (=bad)
• having two sons = bad
• having two sons = sin

So the logic of the Lamech argument dictates that not only polygamy, but also having two sons, and in fact, marrying at all are sinful and therefore to be avoided, just like the first argument against polygamy somehow ended in people having to call marriage as such a sin in order to remain consistent in their logic.

Oh well.


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