Marriage in the Bible is the joining of one man to one women in a binding promise made before God. We are encouraged to careful in forming relationships and to seek those who share our faith (cf. 2 Cor 6:14). Race is not a consideration – we are all one in Christ (Gal 3:28). The [...]
Answers about marriage
When you speak of a married man being in the company of other women, I am assuming you mean romantic interest is involved. The Bible is very explicit — extra marital interest is totally unacceptable to God. A small selection of passages from the Old and New Testament addressing these issues: Proverbs 2:16-19: So you will [...]
The first marriage was between Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, before there were any marriage laws. This became a pattern for all future marriages (Genesis 2:24). We do not know when the first human laws about marriage were introduced, but they pre-date reliable recorded history. See the Wikipedia article on marriage for [...]
No, Jesus was never married. Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus’ disciples (Luke 8:1-3), and was the first person Jesus appeared to after his resurrection (John 20:10-18). The idea that they were married is suggested in the fictional novel The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown. However, it has no biblical basis. See “Is there [...]
None at all. Whenever the Bible refers to Jesus’ relatives, it speaks only of his step-father, mother and siblings, but never of a wife. Furthermore, he encourages singleness in Matthew 19:12. For an extensive discussion of the issue, see “Was Jesus married? A careful look at the real evidence” by Mark Roberts.
Although it is wise to ensure we have Christian friends, who think as we do and who can understand us better, it is not wise to exclude others from our friendship. Having only Christian friends could lead to us being narrow minded and insular; it is useful to have friends with different perspectives, or who [...]
No. There is nothing in the Bible about the age of one’s spouse. However, it can take a lot of love, patience, wisdom and understanding to make such a relationship work, especially when one partner has declining health and the other is still very fit and active.
The information that we have in the Bible says that Paul wasn’t married when he wrote 1 Corinthians: To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am. [1Cor. 7:8] However, we don’t know with absolute certainty if Paul was married before or after this — [...]
It doesn’t say so directly. However, the Bible does say that a man who has found a wife obtains favour from the Lord (Proverbs 18:22) and it also encourages satisfying sexual activity within marriage (Proverbs 5:18-19; Hebrews 13:4) and the producing of children (Malachi 2:15; Psalm 127:3-5). Paul advises against depriving your spouse of sexual [...]
I think Matt 19:1-9, though primarily about divorce and remarriage, is helpful. Under the Law of Moses, men were permitted to have more than one wife but this, like divorce, was because of “the hardness of your hearts” (v8); this was not how it was intended in the beginning. In the beginning God created male [...]
