..when many cultures and religions before Christianity had marriages...
2007-10-30 07:35:15 · 17 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Who told you it was a Christian concept?
Whoever said that doesn't sound very bright.
I'm Christian and I know that its not a Christian concept.
Believing that would be just ridiculous.
Remember the part of the New Testament when Jesus was at the wedding party and made the water into wine?
That was a Jewish wedding.
2007-10-30 07:42:29 · answer #1 · answered by SweetPea 3 · 6⤊ 0⤋
No, it is not. Marriage was around on the Scandinavian peninsula before we even heard of these "Christians" from the far south. How could it be a Christian concept yet be practiced in Heathen lands many, many centuries before a single YHWH worshiper even set foot on our soil? It simply couldn't be. People form nuclear family groups for a variety of reasons, usually related to survival. Marriage was mostly political/economic until relatively recently as well, with concubines from powerful families also being involved in the child bearing to unite their family with other powerful families through blood. Families were kept close for a reason and that was often done through marriage or the taking of a lover or concubine, keeping and consolidating power and forming kinship bonds not likely to be broken so easily as modern, Christian marriages are broken. Also bear in mind that the modern Christian idea of marriage in that they put greater authority in the secular laws of the land than in the divine and the love between two people when it comes to marriage is also a recent concept. To this day in my faith path if two people wish to form a family unit and oath themselves to one another they are indeed married in the eyes of our concept of the divine, no court fees or paperwork necessarily involved (though the legal recognition is nice for a variety of reasons and should be pursued if possible/feasible).
2016-03-13 08:48:39 · answer #2 · answered by Diane 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, it is true other nations had marriage ceremonies but God made man in the begining not religion. It is a fact that the Babylonians and Egyptians gave their mates rings as a sign of ownership like the use of rings that bare the kings seal. This is why we have this custom of giving the rings in the marriage vows today. You are right in that marriage did not start with christainity but it started with God when he first made man and women.(Gen.2:18-24) It never states that the rings was exchanged just vowes of holy matrimony.
2007-10-30 07:55:28 · answer #3 · answered by princecurtis7 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It is not a Christian concept. It predated every culture when God married Adam to Eve. Because of that marriage became a concept in humanity and was passed down to every culture. Christianity does use the concept of marriage though because of its close relationship to Jesus' connection to us.
2007-10-30 07:45:31 · answer #4 · answered by mlcros 5 · 3⤊ 2⤋
You are right in saying that all cultures have practiced and accepted the practice of marriage. As such, it is a natural institution being necessary for the continuance of the human race by bringing forth children and raising them properly.
What is unique to Christian marriage is the fact that it has been raised to the level of a sacrament. Not only is it a natural thing, but it is also a supernatural calling where people in the family live the life of the Trinity. Just as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are united into one being through the bonds of love, so all the members of a family become one bond through love.
What is more, Christian marriage calls its members to love more deeply by loving each other with the same love that Christ had for us - sacrificial love. Again, it elevates marriage to a supernatural level.
2007-10-30 07:42:35 · answer #5 · answered by Jude & Cristen H 3 · 3⤊ 3⤋
We think God instituted marriage at the beginning when He created Adam and Eve and then married them.
Later descendants of Adam & Eve, descendants of Noah & family, dispersed throught the world, formed new cultures & religions, and continued celebrating marriages before the times of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.
2007-10-30 08:15:54 · answer #6 · answered by Darth Eugene Vader 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes they do and no, they shouldn't. In fact, of the seven sacraments, marriage was the LAST to be named, starting in the 13th century. Before the 13th century, marriage was not a Christian sacrament (at least in the West, I'm unsure of the history of the Orthodox church in the East)
2007-10-30 08:12:10 · answer #7 · answered by Nightwind 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No, marriage is a God concept long before Christianity. However, God in the book of Ephesians compares marriage with Jesus and His bride, the church.
Ephesians - Chapter 5:25-33
25. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
26. to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
27. and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
28. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-
30. for we are members of his body.
31. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
32. This is a profound mystery-but I am talking about Christ and the church.
33. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself...
2007-10-30 07:44:34 · answer #8 · answered by 4HIM- Christians love 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋
They think they invented it, but actually it was around long before Christianity ever was.
2007-10-30 09:59:02 · answer #9 · answered by Bookworm 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Marriage is not of God the Father,
you do err, there is no marrying or being given in marriage in heaven, for you are as the angels. (thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven). They were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage and knew not until the flood came and took them akk away.
All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.
For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. Matt 19:11-12
For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the creation God made them (male and female), not man and woman, but male and female, he made he him.
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, (but one flesh).
(What therefore God hath joined together), let not man put asunder.
And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter. And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery. Mark 10:5-12
Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Matt 5:33-37
A Marriage by men is the act of taking a vow or oath, a vow or oath under God the Father's laws can never be broken, it can only be completed, (fulfilled), it is a promise.
2007-10-30 07:53:15 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋