Marriage

Marriage is established before the fall, before the Law, and before any covenant other than the one between Yahweh and his creation. In Genesis 2, Yahweh creates the woman from the man and brings her to him, and the man’s response is the first recorded human speech: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” The narrator draws from this the foundational definition: a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and they become one flesh.

This one-flesh union is not a social arrangement or a cultural institution that varies with time and context. It is a creation ordinance: designed by Yahweh, given to mankind in the pre-fall state, and grounded in the complementary nature of the man and woman he created. Jesus appeals to Genesis 2 when answering the Pharisees’ question about divorce (Matthew 19:4-6): “what God has joined together, let no man separate.” The authority he appeals to is creation, not Mosaic law.

Paul’s treatment of marriage in Ephesians 5 reveals the deepest dimension of what marriage signifies. The husband’s relationship to his wife is modelled on Christ’s relationship to the church; the wife’s relationship to her husband reflects the church’s relationship to Christ. Marriage is not an illustration added to a pre-existing theological reality; according to Paul, it was always the mystery pointing toward Christ and the church. The articles below trace this theme through several key passages.