Biblically Based Marriage
Our fundamentalist fellow citizens are quick to remind us that the first sanctioned coupling was between Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. I don’t remember any description in Genesis of Adam’s marriage to Eve…but I’ll let that pass. I do recall that Eve and Adam were not made one flesh ceremonially, but rather made of one flesh. This was a tricky piece of genetic engineering involving Adam’s rib.
Today that sort of thing would be frowned upon by the White House
Once there were enough people around to perform marriage ceremonies it‘s pretty clear that marriage was a man-woman thing. Or, more precisely, a man-women thing, since such biblical notables as Jacob had more than one wife. In Jacob’s case Rachel and Leah.
It’s also clear that in addition to your wife, or wives, you were entitled to take on a concubine or two without either the biblical equivalent of the White House, or the Lord, making a fuss about it. Solomon, for instance, is reported to have had 300 concubines.
Good girls had better be good girls when they’re married. If the bridegroom accuses his sweetie of not being…er…intact and the girl’s family can’t prove they delivered a virgin (something I gather that has to do with the examination of sheets) she will be taken to the door of her father’s house and stoned to death.
It’s in the Book! Deuteronomy 22:21 Let’s hear it for Fundamentalism!
