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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas

The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.

Betrothal and the wedding feast

A betrothal was a binding marriage contract made months before the couple lived together. The wedding that completed it was a week-long feast.

Jewish life and lawFamily, marriage and honor

First, in plain English

They had signed the papers and were married in the eyes of the law, but the party and the move were a year away. A Jewish betrothal was much more than an engagement. The families agreed terms, money changed hands, and the couple were called husband and wife, though they did not yet live together. Only divorce or death could end it. The wedding that followed was the biggest celebration a village knew.

What it meant then

Betrothal bound more tightly than an engagement does today. It rested on a money agreement between the families, commonly lasted about a year, and could be ended only by divorce or death. The pair were already called husband and wife. Two witnesses, mutual consent and the groom's declaration made a Jewish betrothal; in Roman betrothals consent alone was enough. Marriage had three steps: the covenant at betrothal, the ceremony, and consummation, normally on the first night of a seven-day wedding. Paying a bride price to the bride's father was the older custom. A gift of money from her father was newer but now widespread. Before the wedding the bride was washed, perfumed, anointed and dressed. Later Jewish teachers called betrothal the bride's sanctification, by which she was set apart for her husband. During a wedding feast no one could fast, mourn or do hard labor. The wedding night began toward evening. The groom and his party came to fetch the bride, often late because of last haggling over gifts. A procession with torches, music and dancing led her to his family's home, where the feast ran about seven days. A feast's size displayed the host's honor, so hosts invited as many as they could. A first invitation was followed by a summons when the food was ready, and refusing at the second call broke a promise and insulted the host. Blomberg calls the first notice a "save the date" invitation. Guests were expected to come in clean clothes at the least.

The bridge to today

An analogy: a signed contract to buy a house, with moving day a year off. The deal binds you now, backing out takes a legal process, and the housewarming when it comes is for the whole street.

What it changes in the reading

Betrothal explains how a man could be called a woman's husband before they lived together, and why ending it took a divorce, as in Matthew 1:18-19. Wedding joy suspended fasting and mourning, so the bridegroom saying in Mark 2:19 makes fasting look out of place while Jesus is present. John 2:1-11 sets a sign at a village wedding.

Where the analogy breaks

Not a deal over property. A house contract binds two parties to a sale. A betrothal joined two families, with witnesses and money, and made the couple husband and wife in name, commonly about a year before they lived together.

Where scholars disagree

The night procession in Matthew 25. Keener and the cultural backgrounds notes say the women carried torches, sticks wrapped in oil-soaked rags that burned only a short time, and waited with the bride at her parents' home. Bailey says village women always carry lamps, held before their faces for their reputation and safety, and places the young women in the street by the groom's home, waiting for the procession to return. On the wedding clothes of Matthew 22, the ESV Study Bible and Blomberg report the view that the king supplied festal garments, while Keener and the cultural backgrounds notes say only that coming in soiled clothes insulted the host.

Passages where it appears

{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-1-18-25\/","n":"Matthew 1:18-25, Joseph and the betrothal","s":"Mary is found pregnant while betrothed to Joseph. He plans a quiet divorce until an angel in a dream tells him to take her as his wife and name the child Jesus.","r":"Matthew 1:18-25"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-9-1-17\/","n":"Matthew 9:1-17, A paralyzed man, Matthew's table and the wedding guests","s":"Jesus forgives and heals a paralyzed man, calls Matthew from the tax booth and eats with tax collectors and sinners, and is asked why his disciples do not fast.","r":"Matthew 9:1-17"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-22-1-14\/","n":"Matthew 22:1-14, The king's wedding feast","s":"A king's invited guests refuse to come to his son's wedding and kill his messengers. He burns their city, fills the hall with people from the roads, and throws out a guest without wedding clothes.","r":"Matthew 22:1-14"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/matthew-25-1-13\/","n":"Matthew 25:1-13, Ten young women and the bridegroom","s":"Ten young women wait with their lights for a bridegroom who comes late at night. Five brought extra oil and go in to the feast; five go to buy oil and find the door shut.","r":"Matthew 25:1-13"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-1-26-56\/","n":"Luke 1:26-56, A village girl, a greeting and a song of reversal","s":"Gabriel greets Mary, a betrothed girl in Nazareth, with news that she will bear the son of David. She goes to Elizabeth in the hill country and sings of God bringing down rulers and lifting up the humble.","r":"Luke 1:26-56"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/luke-12-35-48\/","n":"Luke 12:35-48, Slaves waiting up for the master","s":"Jesus tells his followers to be dressed for action with lamps lit, like slaves waiting for their master to come home from a wedding, and asks what a slave left in charge will do if the master is delayed.","r":"Luke 12:35-48"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/john-2-1-12\/","n":"John 2:1-12, Water into wine at a village wedding","s":"At a wedding in Cana the wine runs out. Jesus has the servants fill six stone purification jars with water, and the master of the feast tastes the best wine of the week.","r":"John 2:1-12"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/1corinthians-7-25-40\/","n":"1 Corinthians 7:25-40, The present distress","s":"Because of the present distress and the shortness of the time, Paul advises the unmarried to stay as they are, though marrying is no sin, and tells a widow she is free to remarry, only in the Lord.","r":"1 Corinthians 7:25-40"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/2corinthians-11-1-15\/","n":"2 Corinthians 11:1-15, The betrothed virgin, the free gospel and the angel of light","s":"Jealous as a father who has promised his daughter to one husband, Paul fears the Corinthians will be led astray as Eve was; he defends preaching to them free of charge and calls his rivals false apostles disguised as Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.","r":"2 Corinthians 11:1-15"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/ephesians-5-21-33\/","n":"Ephesians 5:21-33, Wives and husbands in the household code","s":"Paul opens the household code with submitting to one another, asks wives to submit to their husbands as to the Lord, and asks husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church, washing her and presenting her radiant.","r":"Ephesians 5:21-33"}
{"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-passages\/revelation-19-1-10\/","n":"Revelation 19:1-10, the marriage supper of the Lamb","s":"A vast heavenly crowd shouts hallelujah because God has judged the great prostitute, and again because the Lamb's wedding day has arrived and his bride stands ready in fine linen. The angel declares those invited to the wedding feast blessed, and when John bows to him, tells him to worship God alone.","r":"Revelation 19:1-10"}

Sources

Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 1:18, 1:24-25, 9:15, 22:1-2, 22:3, 22:11-13, 25:1, 25:2-7 and 25:11-13
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 1:18, 1:19, 1:25, 8:14, 9:15, 22:2, 22:3, 22:11, 25:1, 25:4 and 25:10
ESV Study Bible, study notes on Matthew 1:18, 1:19, 22:11 and 25:1
CSB Study Bible, note on Matthew 1:18
Kenneth E. Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, ch. 20, The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Young Women, and ch. 24, The Parable of the Great Banquet
Craig L. Blomberg, Interpreting the Parables, 6.6 The Ten Virgins, and 7.5 The Great Supper
Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Ephesians 5:26 and 5:27
NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Ephesians 5:26

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