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The husband of one wife

Francine

Francine

Well-Known Member
1 Timothy 3:2 states, "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach"

Does a bishop require one wife at a minimum (i.e. does he have to be married) ? Does a bishop need to be currently married to his one wife (i.e. no divorced bishops) ? If a bishop divorces his first wife, and marries a second one, is he still disqualified? Does this disqualify a man with two or more current wives from becoming a bishop?
 
Sola'lor

Sola'lor

LDSUJC
Our previous Bishop's wife died so he was without a wife for a while but he later remarried. Or maybe his wife died before he was bishop. I don't remember exactly. I don't think I've evere seen someone become Bishop who wasn't married.
 
Smoke

Smoke

Done here.
Francine said:
1 Timothy 3:2 states, "A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach"

Does a bishop require one wife at a minimum (i.e. does he have to be married) ? Does a bishop need to be currently married to his one wife (i.e. no divorced bishops) ? If a bishop divorces his first wife, and marries a second one, is he still disqualified? Does this disqualify a man with two or more current wives from becoming a bishop?
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If I understand correctly, when married bishops were permitted the requirement was that they could only have had one wife ever. A digamist was excluded from the episcopate as surely as a bigamist was. I'm not sure how far back that rule goes, though.

Married bishops weren't prohibited in the Eastern Church till the seventh century.
 
A

angellous_evangellous

Guest
MidnightBlue said:
If I understand correctly, when married bishops were permitted the requirement was that they could only have had one wife ever. A digamist was excluded from the episcopate as surely as a bigamist was. I'm not sure how far back that rule goes, though.

Married bishops weren't prohibited in the Eastern Church till the seventh century.
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You mean in New Testament times? I don't think so.

The Greek simply says a one-woman man (mias gunaikos andra). The best interpretation is simply a man who marries one woman at a time, and being married, only has sex with his wife (and not prostitutes and slaves). In NT times, male and female slaves were both sexually available to the man of the house (and whoever he allows), as well as all children. The one-woman man of the pastorals is a man who only has sex with his wife, as is testified in funeral monuments that indicate faithful men who only had sex with their wives.
 
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athanasius

Well-Known Member
Usually how it has been interpreted in the Church is that the Bishop is to be the husband of only 1 wife meaning that multiple wives are not a option for a Christian or leader.
 
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