Mastodawn

stephencshaffer Jan 17, 2023

In our time, most of the discussion around Titus 1:6 "husband of but one wife" is focused on divorce, remarriage, and whether this automatically excludes women from office. However, if we read the early church fathers and mothers, the focus was on rejecting polygamy and whether an elder/bishop should be married at all (and/or whether you could get married after ordination or being widowed).

Same passage, very different conversations.

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stephencshaffer

#Ambrose is particularly interesting. He argues that the rule on one marriage only applies to marriage after baptism, since the sins of an unbelieving life are washed away in baptism, though the law remains. He also argues that the requirement is so that the bishop teaches monogamy/continence by their example. He says some who have been married twice or widowed are more continent than the monogamous, but the requirement is still given for a reason.