The purpose of this page is to show a brief view of the history of marriage in the bible. It is important to note that many Old Testament laws and practices were altered by Christ in the New Testament and do not apply today, whilst many of the fundamentals of marriage still apply.
Over and over, we see that God was dealing with human sin and its consequences. Rarely do we see God intervene or initiate a law based on humankinds outstanding performance.
The First Gender Attack on Marriage
- Leviticus 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Approximately 1800 years after creation we are told that in many lands like Egypt, they have defiled themselves with acts of abomination. God then tells us he will directly visit iniquity upon these lands because of their sin. One only must-read chapter 18 of Leviticus to clearly see that God indeed hates the sin of homosexuality. The language is strong, and the consequences are clear. God’s commandment to Moses gives us an unwavering rule, Marriage was made in the beginning between and man and woman, that is not to change.
Changes Rules for Changing Times
Throughout the first 5 books of the bible, we see several different changes occur with respect to marriage. At early times people are encouraged to seek wives from women outside of their people, in Deuteronomy we see concepts introduced that people are to seek wives from only people within their tribes. Deuteronomy texts started around year 1787 and it becomes obvious that the expanding population of the world is giving Gods people new possibilities, and new challenges.
There are, if one desires to go deep numerous rules and rituals that occur in these early years that seem utterly absurd by today’s standards. An example would be Numbers chapter 5. Here we see a process where a woman charged with adultery is given some form of poison. If she is guilty the poison will make her barren, if she is innocent, she will be able to bare children ensuring these children are to her husband. One needs to place themselves in this time to understand why God dealt with these situations in these ways, however this is another topic for another time.
Divorce for Any Cause
Unfortunately, the Hebrews throughout the Old Testament caused God to continually refine the laws based on their sin. We see a continual modification of Marriage laws, and divorce laws to deal with this ever-changing situation.
- Deuteronomy 24:1 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
Uncleanness found in this verse is word “H6172” or in Hebrew עֶרְוָה and can mean one of the following,
nakedness, nudity, shame, pudenda
pudenda (implying shameful exposure)
nakedness of a thing, indecency, improper behavior
exposed, undefended
Indeed, the Old Testament allowed a man to divorce a woman for multiple reasons, including him simply finding no favor in her. Further the man was the one to initiate the divorce, as the woman had far less rights than the women of today, however,
- Matthew 19:7 They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?
- Matthew 19:8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.
Jesus refers to the Old Testament in Matthew and confirms that this was not how God intended it to be. Marriage was designed to be permanent, and only through mans sin did God allow divorce for any cause in the Old Testament, something that Christ fixed during his time on earth.
Conclusion
We must be cautious about obtaining any doctrine from the Old Testament. Yes, there are foundations and rules that apply today, but there are also many rules that were introduced for a time, and for that time only. We also must draw a connecting line between the Old Testament law and sin. God was constantly dealing with his people rejecting him and his law. God’s creation of marriage was perfect, his peoples actions were not.