The Marriage Ceremony

[scottmaciver]

I was recently asked the question as to the Biblical basis of the marriage ceremony?

It isn't something that I have thought upon or could answer. I would appreciate any thoughts as to a response.

Thanks in advance

 

[scottmaciver]

Any takers on this one?

 

[yeutter]

Our Lord's first miracle was performed at a wedding feast. Does that imply a religious wedding ceremony?

 

[timfost]

My pastor had touched on this. The wedding feast was what we would call a wedding reception. And no, there doesn't seem to be a biblical example of a wedding ceremony. That does not in itself make it unbiblical, however. Marriage in scripture seems to relate more to the sexual consummation and the commitment than the ceremony. If this is a correct understanding, it would help to explain 1 Cor 6:16:

Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.”

Fornication and adultery makes a mockery of marriage because it denies the sanctity and design of marriage and perverts the very institution, which is, I believe, how Paul applies the Genesis institution of marriage to its perversion in prostitution.

This may open a can of worms, but I'm just relaying what my pastor had explained.

 

[Nicholas Perella]

Any takers on this one?

I PM'ed you. Not that the information that I found is necessarily private, but I do not know if you have access to the link I provided. It is a link to another forum on the PB.

 

[iainduguid]

There are certainly references to a special day for the bride and groom, which involves adornment in special clothing and jewelry (Song 3:11; Psa. 45; Isa. 49:18; 61:10; Jer 2:32; Rev. 21:2). These imply some kind of ceremony, however simple, which is the cause of the subsequent wedding feast. The extent to which it is an explicitly religious ceremony is unclear, though our modern secular/sacred division may lead us to make anachronistic divisions. Ruth 4 has to do with property as well as marriage, so it isn't a straightforward parallel, but it suggests that witnesses would likely have been present and blessings pronounced. Mal. 2:14 calls the woman "the wife of your covenant" which suggests some kind of public commitment, at least by the post-exilic era.