Established 1970

The Law of Moses accepts polygamy (Deuteronomy 21:15-17) and the Old Testament records plural marriages among the patriarchs (Genesis 25:1, and chapters 29 to 30), and notable Israelites. (1 Samuel 1:1-2, 25:42-43, 2 Samuel 12:7-8, 1 Kings 11:3, 20:5, 1 Chronicles 4:5, 8:8, 2 Chronicles 11:18-21, 24:1-3). One of them was Jehoiada, a priest and King's counsellor who was held in high regard. (2 Kings 12:2, 2 Chronicles 24:4-16).

In the New Testament, Paul says that elders or bishops, and deacons in the church, should be the husband of one wife (1 Timothy 3:2, 12, Titus 1:5-7), a requirement which could mean "married only once" (See footnotes in the New English Bible and the Good News Bible), but there is no evidence that this rule also applies to lay people. Therefore it is not surprising that there have been conflicts over polygamy in Africa, and also with the Mormons.

The Bible says nothing directly on masturbation or birth control. It used to be thought that the case of Onan covered both, but Onan's action was to avoid raising children to his dead brother by impregnating his dead brother's wife. (Genesis 38:7-10). This is about the levirate rule, not masturbation or birth control.

And the levirate is quite a different can of worms. The Law of Moses forbids a man to have sex with his brother's wife (Leviticus 18:16) or his son's wife (Leviticus 18:15), and adds that if a man takes his brother's wife, they shall be childless. (Leviticus 20:21). However, the levirate, also prescribed by the Law of Moses, imposed a duty on a man to raise up seed to a brother who died childless. (Deuteronomy 25:5-10, see also Ruth). The levirate rule is also the point of the story of Tamar. (Genesis 38:6-26). When Judah, her father-in-law was slow in giving her in marriage to her young brother-in-law, Tamar went and tricked Judah into impregnating her.

Three of the gospels allude to the levirate rule (Matthew 22:24, Mark 12:19, Luke 20:28) but the churches have shown no inclination to adopt this practice for Christians.

Of all forms of incest, the most common is the molestation of a woman or girl by her own father. It is therefore notable that while Leviticus specifically forbids a man to have sex with his mother, father's wife, sister, half-sister, granddaughter, aunt, uncle's wife, daughter-in-law and sister-in-law (Leviticus 18:6-16), there is no specific reference to a father and his own daughter. Leviticus 18:17 forbids a man to have sex with a woman and her daughter and/or granddaughter, but grandfather-granddaughter incest is covered in the specific prohibitions (Leviticus 18:10), and father-in-daughter incest is not.

Elsewhere in the Old Testament, the incest taboos appeared to be open to negotiation (see 2 Samuel 13, especially verse 13).