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The Bible has a lot to say about marriage by way of stories from ancient Israel. Marriage in the Bible is just assumed to be the way things are done. There is no directive from God printed there as to the how and why of matrimony. Adam and Eve lived a married life by cohabiting and raising children.
The first marriages in Genesis involve a union between close relatives. The chosen people were careful to maintain a pure bloodline and selected wives from their own families'. Abraham and Sarah, as it turns out, were actually cousins as revealed in Genesis 20:12. Abraham had once lied to the Egyptians and claimed that Sarah was his sister. He did this to protect himself, fearing that the Pharaoh would kill him in order to steal Sarah. In Genesis 20 he tells the same lie to Abimelech for the same reason. When Abraham is found out, he claims: "But indeed she is truly my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife."
When Abraham was old, he sent a servant to his own family to take a wife for Isaac. (Gen. 24:3,4) The servant found Rebekah, from Abraham's brother's family. As for the wedding ceremony: "Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent; and he took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her." (Gen. 24:67)
Isaac and Rebekah had two sons: Esau and Jacob. When Isaac was looking for a wife for Jacob, he instructed Jacob not to marry a Canaanite but to go to the house of Rebekah's father and choose a wife from among the daughters of Rebekah's brother, Laban. (Gen. 28:1-2) Through some trickery on the part of Laban, Jacob ends up marrying both of Laban's daughters: Leah and Rachel. (Gen. 29:15-30) Each wife has a servant girl and Jacob ends up fathering children with all four of them.
In the Jewish Scriptures, the parents were responsible to arrange the weddings of their offspring. Laban had made sure that he got both of his daughters married. Samson asked his parents to get him a wife. Samson knew whom he wanted: Delilah, but he needed his parents to go and make the arrangements. His parents were disappointed that he chose a Philistine woman, not a Jewish one, but they arranged the pairing anyway.
It was customary for the male suitor or his parents to give gifts to the parents of the young woman in order to smooth out the transaction. The "bride price" was paid to the bride's father. If it was discovered that the couple had slept together before getting married, the girl's father could demand payment even if he refused to let his daughter go! (Exodus 22:17) A man usually had to purchase his wife. Jacob had to work seven years to buy a wife, then seven more years to buy another. (Gen. 29:20) Boaz had to work out a land deal to get Ruth (Ruth 4). Hosea bought the adulteress "for fifteen shekels of silver and one and one-half homers of barley." (Hosea 3:2) The children of Benjamin got wives by kidnapping them from Shiloh. (Judges 21:21-23) David gave one hundred Philistine foreskins for a wife. (2 Sam. 3:14)
The bride and the groom prepared themselves for a lavish ceremony:
"As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." (Isaiah 61:10) A Marriage feast is the forerunner of the modern reception and there are quite a few of them in the Bible. Laban gathered all of the men together and made a feast for Jacob and Leah (Gen. 29:22); Samson gave a feast to celebrate his union with Delilah (Judges 14:12); King Ahasuerus proclaimed the Feast of Esther and a holiday to celebrate his happiness (Esther 2:18). He even made her the new Queen! Jesus used a wedding banquet as the setting for one of his parables (Matthew 22:11,12) and his first miracle was performed at a wedding in Cana, turning water into wine. (John 2:1-10)
As far as the use of witnesses, I can't find anything in the Bible that requires it. The Book of Ruth shows Boaz arranging to marry Ruth with ten elders of the city as witnesses. But Boaz was also negotiating title to some land, which would also entitle him to marry Ruth. (Ruth 4:1-11)
Daughters were given by Kings, as in 1 Samuel 17:25. King Saul offered his older daughter Merab to David (1 Sam.18: 17,21) then his other daughter Michal when Merab was promised to someone else. Daughters were also given as rewards for bravery (Judges 1:12; 1 Sam. 17:25) King Ahasuerus sent out for many virgins to be collected so that he could choose one for a wife. (Esther 2:2-4,8-14)
One of the most interesting customs of ancient Israel shows up in Deuteronomy 24:5. Here, the new husband is exempt from serving in the military and from taking a job for the first year of marriage! "…He shall be free at home one year, and bring happiness to his wife whom he has taken."
Israelite wives were required to be Israelites. It was feared that alien women, worshiping alien gods, would influence the men to worship those gods. (Exodus 34:16, Deut. 7:3,4) In Ezra, chapter 9 we read: "For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, so that the holy seed is mixed with the peoples of those lands. (v.2) And then in verse 12: "Now therefore, do not give your daughters as wives for their sons, nor take their daughters to your sons…" This assured that Gentiles would never inherit their land.
As for divorce, the Jewish Bible neither condones nor forbids it; it merely sets out the procedures. Only the husband can divorce the wife. The wife had no choice but to accept her lot, good or bad. (See Exodus 21:7-11 and Deuteronomy 21:10-14). Malachi, the prophet, tells us that God hates divorce (Mal. 2:14-16) and Jesus carried it a step further by stating that if a man marries a divorced woman, he commits adultery. (Matt. 5:31-32; 19:3-12) He also said that in marriage, the man and woman become one.
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