What is a Marriage?

Originally posted on January 09, 2008 – by Andre Piet

What does the Bible mean by ‘a marriage’? Nowhere in the Bible do we find the practice of entering into a union at city hall or in a church. Does this mean that every serious romantic relationship can be considered a marriage? Or, as others claim, that a marriage is sealed in bed? In the Bible, a marriage is the relationship between a man and a woman beginning from the day of betrothal. The following Biblical reasons make this clear.

Reason #1. “From the beginning” the repeatedly stated Biblical word has been:

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and will cling to HIS WIFE, and THEY two (= a man and his wife) shall be one flesh.
See Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:5; 1 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 5:31

To be “one flesh” (= sexual union) is something God has reserved for a man and “his wife” (not: his girlfriend).

Reason #2. The word for ‘marriage’ in the language of the Bible is the same as the word for ‘wedding’. When Hebrews 13:4 says, “… let marriage be honorable…”, it uses exactly the same word as in John 2:1, “… and on the third day a wedding occurred…”.
A marriage is a wedding celebration.

Reason #3. In Romans 7:2 Paul writes:

“…the woman under a husband is bound by law to the living husband…”

Marriage is therefore a legal matter. Regardless of how the law arranges this (as that is strongly determined by culture).

Reason #4. Paul writes to the unmarried in 1 Corinthians 7:9:

“Yet if they are not controlling themselves, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn.”

For Paul, entering into a sexual relationship is something different from getting married. If someone struggles to contain themselves (sexually) within his or her relationship—no problem, his advice is: marry quickly.
The word used here for ‘to marry’ (gameō) is directly related to the word gamos, which means wedding or marriage celebration (compare our word ‘monogamous’).

Delen: