Marriage is a remedy against fornication, and this is the subject of the chapter. This is the opinion of Clark, Henry, Whitby, Langley and others. One great evil prevailed at Corinth—a community of wives, which the apostle here calls fornication. St. Paul strikes at the very root of the evil and commands that every man have his own wife and that every woman have her own husband: that is, let every man have his own peculiar, proper and appropriate wife, and the wife her own proper, peculiar and appropriate husband. In this there is mutual appropriation and exclusiveness of right; and this command of Paul agrees with the law of Moses in Leviticus xviii, 18: "Neither shalt thou take one wife unto another," and the two are one statute, clear and unquestionable for monogamy and against polygamy. The apostle teaches the reciprocal duties of husband and wife, and the exclusive right of each. In verse four it is distinctly affirmed that the husband has exclusive power over the body of his wife, as the wife has exclusive power over the body of her husband. It is universally admitted that this passage proves the exclusive right of the husband to the wife, and by parity it also proves the exclusive right of the wife to the husband. These relations are mutual, and if the husband can claim a whole wife, the wife can claim a whole husband. She has just as good a right to a whole husband as he has a right to a whole wife. First Corinthians, 6th chapter, 15th, 16th and 17th verses says:
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
What! know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two (saith he) shall be one flesh.
But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
This passage is brought against the idea, but what are the facts? It is objected that if one flesh is conclusively expressive of wedlock, that St. Paul affirms that sexual commerce with a harlot is marriage. For argument's sake I accept the assertion. The passage in question is: "What! know ye not that he which is joined to a harlot is one body?" "For two," says he, "shall be one flesh, but he which is joined to the Lord is one spirit." Now look at the facts of the position, showing the true relation of the believer to Christ. It is illustrated under the figure of marriage. The design of this figure is to show that the believer becomes one with Christ; and the apostle further explains, in reproof of the Corinthians mingling with idolaters and adulterers, that by this mingling they become assimilated and identical. He brings up an illustration that if a man is married to a harlot, not simply joined, but cohabit with or married to a harlot, he becomes identical with her; in other words, one flesh.
There is a passage which declares that "a bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife." It is asserted that he must have one wife anyhow and as many more as he pleases. It is supposed that this very caution indicates the prevalence of polygamy in that day; but no proof can be brought to bear that polygamy prevailed extensively at that time; on the contrary I am prepared to prove that polygamists were not admitted into the Christian Church, for Paul lays down the positive command: "Let every man have his own wife and every woman have her own husband;" so that if you say the former applies to the priest, and the latter, applies to the layman, what is good for the priest is good for the layman, and vice versa.
How often is it asserted here that monogamy has come from the Greeks and Romans. But look at the palpable contradiction in the assertion. It is asserted that monogamy came from those nations; it is also asserted that polygamy was universal at the time of Christ and his apostles. If monogamy came from the Greeks and Romans, then polygamy could not have been universally prevalent, for it is admitted that at that time the Romans held universal sway, and wherever they held sway their laws prevailed, hence the two statements cannot be reconciled.
Now we come to the words of the Savior, Matthew v, 27 and 28; and xix, 8 and 9, and Mark x, and 11 and 12. At that time, when the Savior was discoursing with the Pharisees, as recorded in Matthew xix, the Jews were divided as to the interpretation of the law of Moses touching divorce: "when a man hath taken a wife and married her, and it comes to pass that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of divorcement." Upon the meaning of the word uncleanness, the Jews differed: some agreed with the school of Rabbi Hillel: that a man might dismiss his wife for the slightest offence, or for no offence at all, if he found another woman that pleased him better; but the school of Rabbi Shammai held that the term uncleanness means moral delinquency. The Pharisees came to Christ, hoping to involve him in this controversy; He declined, but took advantage of the opportunity to give them a discourse on marriage, and in doing so, he refers to the original institution, saying "have ye not read that in the beginning God made them male and female?" Thus He brings out the great law of monogamy. Grant that the allusion is incidental, nevertheless, it is all-important as falling from the lips of the Great Master.
I was challenged to show that polygamy is adultery. The gentleman challenged me, and I will now proceed to prove it. As adultery is distinguished in Scripture from whoredom and fornication, it is proper to ascertain the exact meaning of the words as used by the sacred writers. The word translated whoredom is from the Hebrew verb Zanah and the Greek pornica, and means pollution, defilement, lewdness, prostitution and, in common parlance, whoredom, the prostitution of the body for gain. The word translated fornication is from the same Hebrew verb, and in general, signifies criminal, sexual intercourse without the formalities of marriage. Adultery is from the Hebrew word Naaph and the Greek word Moicheia, and is the criminal intercourse of a married woman with another man than her husband, or of a married man with any other woman than his wife. This is indicated by the philological significance of the term adulterate, compounded of two words meaning to another, as the addition of pure and impure liquors, or of an alloy with pure metal. Adulterer is from the Hebrew Naaph and the Greek Moichos, which mean as above.
The material question to be settled is, Is the Hebrew word Naaph and the Greek word Moichos or Moicheia confined to the criminal sexual intercourse between a man, married or unmarried, with a married woman? This is the theory of the Mormon polygamists; but I join issue with them and assert that the Scriptures teach that adultery is committed by a married man who has sexual intercourse with a woman other than his wife, whether said woman is married or unmarried. It is conceded that he is an adulterer who has carnal connection with a woman married or betrothed. Thus far we agree.
Now can it be proved that the sin of adultery is committed by a married man having carnal connection with a woman neither married nor betrothed! To prove this point I argue:
First, that the Hebrew word Naaph, translated in the seventh commandment, adultery, does include all criminal sexual intercourse. It is a generic term and the whole includes the parts. It is like the word kill in the sixth commandment, which includes all those passions and emotions of the human soul which lead to murder, such as jealousy, envy, malice, hatred, revenge. So this word Naaph includes whoredom, fornication, adultery, and even salacial lust. Matthew v, 27, 29.