What constitutes marriage in the eyes of the Christian God?
My take is the vows and the law of the nation you live in. Let your yea, be yea. And your nay be nay. Giving your word means you should keep it. But a ceremony is not required.
In the bible, a couple could have been betrothed for several years before consummating their marriage (and sex with someone else during that time would have been considered adultery and worthy of stoning/death for the woman).
Marriage exists as a social contract between the two entering into it. Its not the piece of paper most countries make you sign. IMHO.
So, I agree with you that the marriage actually started with the engagement - even though that's not the way things work much nowadays. Different culture, and different laws (in non-theocratic states anyway)
__________________ "Don't tear down a fence until you know why it was put up." ~ African proverb
Well, I guess the proper name for that god would be Yahweh or Jehovah then. In the Bible his 'authorized writers' claimed his standards don't change.
If that is the case, then engagement is treated very seriously. For instance Joseph was not married to Mary, but he still would have needed a certificate of divorce to break their engagement.
If memory serves, marriage was a simple matter of publicly taking the bride home with the groom, with witnesses and well wishers present at a marriage celebration beforehand.
I'm pretty curious about the context of the question.
Well the reasons for the post I wrote also (lower down the posting)...
Ive been reading up on various aspects of Marriage and co-habitation... I was just curious what biblically was the reason the we shouldnt live together b4 getting married... even if we get engaged before... IMO the ceremony is just a ceremony... wouldnt we have made the commitment at the official engagement or is it really the ceremony? Whats in a ceremony that isnt in our hearts before?
Well the reasons for the post I wrote also (lower down the posting)...
Ive been reading up on various aspects of Marriage and co-habitation... I was just curious what biblically was the reason the we shouldnt live together b4 getting married... even if we get engaged before... IMO the ceremony is just a ceremony... wouldnt we have made the commitment at the official engagement or is it really the ceremony? Whats in a ceremony that isnt in our hearts before?
For "Gods people" (if we're going all Biblical here) marriage has always involved whatever the current legal and civil procedures were at the time. Just get married, a simple wedding costs almost nothing and really, if you can't afford a JoP, you need to concentrate on getting your life together and not on a woman.
Well the reasons for the post I wrote also (lower down the posting)...
Ive been reading up on various aspects of Marriage and co-habitation... I was just curious what biblically was the reason the we shouldnt live together b4 getting married... even if we get engaged before... IMO the ceremony is just a ceremony... wouldnt we have made the commitment at the official engagement or is it really the ceremony? Whats in a ceremony that isnt in our hearts before?
I think "Biblical" one became married when he publically moved in with in together with his betrothed. Sort of super engaged in today's world. Later churches put on requirements using Priest, Ministers, etc as God's representative to insure the couple knew the marriage was not just about them.
Think of it like when Muslims say something is not in the Koran but its in the Hadiths. For Christians the ceremony is not in the Bible but is part of the Orthodox/Catholic tradition which the nobility went through as a pre party. The "Sacred Tradition" was then encoded for all during the Council of Trent. Protestants with its roots in orthodoxy mostly held onto the officiated ceremony, to the point today many Christian communities don't consider you "validly" married unless you marry on their grounds following their rules. In effect if they taught you then you know "the fullness of truth" thus are being disobedient to God's will to choose any but the official path for your ceremony.
Is it the ceremony? Because that wasnt made popular until 500 yrs ago...
Technically wouldnt the moment of engagement mark the bond of Marriage?
Not sure, although it says in Matthew
"...a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore, what God has joined together, let man not tear apart.”
I'm not very well hearsed on wedding ceremonies from those times so you'd be better off looking elsewhere.
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