There are examples of polygamy in the [[New Testament]] and it is stated that a deacon is to be the husband of one wife. That the church leaders saw fit to suspend the practice for such a small group, but allow it for everyone else speaks volumes.<ref>[http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/popup.pl?book=1Ti&chapter=3&verse=2&version=kjv#2 I Timothy 3:2]</ref><ref>[http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/Tts/Tts001.html#6 Titus 1:6]</ref> (in some Christian denominations today, that has been taken to mean that divorced men and in some cases even widowed men can not be deacons if they remarry.)
[[Ashkenazi]] Jews banned polygyny around A.D. 1000. [[Sephardi]] Jews continued to practice it in [[Islam]]ic lands for some time after that. [[Yemen]]i and [[Ethiopia]]n Jews practice it to this day. [[Israel]] forbids polygyny, with the exception that a man with multiple wives who moves to Israel may remain married to his existing wives but not marry additional ones.<ref>[http://www.jewfaq.org/marriage.htm#Relationship Judaism 101: Marriage]</ref> However, this is due at least in part to an Israeli Supreme Court ruling that requires recognition of all marriages performed abroad, whether they would be legal in Israel or not. (This also applies to [[same-sex "marriage]]").
The [[Qur'an]] permitted polygyny.<ref>[http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/004.qmt.html#004.003 "... Marry women of your choice, Two or three or four ..." Koran 4:3-4]</ref> The practice was also known among European tribes in pre-Christian Europe and in both China and Japan