“They must not marry women defiled by prostitution or divorced from
their husbands, because priests are holy to their God. Regard them as holy, because they offer up
the food of your God. Consider them holy, because I the Lord am holy—I who make you holy.” Leviticus 21:7-8
“The woman he marries must be a virgin. He must not marry a widow, a divorced woman, or a woman defiled by
prostitution, but only a virgin from his own people, so
that he will not defile his offspring
among his people. I am the Lord, who
makes him holy.” Leviticus 21:13-15
The
only indication of a priest’s marital status was that he marry a woman who
wasn’t a prostitute, widow or divorced.
The woman needed to be a virgin. God wanted a priest to marry a holy
woman in the Old Testament
In
the New Testament, the role of an overseer (or pastor) in 1 Timothy 3 contains
a number of stipulations for the individual.
One of them is that he must be the husband of one wife. Many debate if that means he has only married
one person or that he is not a polygamist.
Today
individual churches look at the character of the priest/pastor and make their
own determination within these biblical principles.