Marriage in the

New Testament
 RECAP

3 SIGNIFICANT LEARNINGS
2 IMPORTANT REALIZATIONS
1 TOPIC/ SUBJECT YOU WANT
TO CLARIFY
OBJECTIVES
• Explore the
Christian origins of
Marriage in the Old
Testament and the
teachings of Jesus
on Marriage in the
New Testament
Learning Targets

✓ • Explore the Christian origins

of Marriage in the Old
Testament and the teachings of
Jesus on Marriage in the New
Testament
✓ • Discover the marriage
practices in the Old Testament
as well as the teachings of
Saint Paul and their influence
in present day practice of
marriage.
 TOPICS
✓Marriage in the Gospels
✓ Marriage in St. Paul’s
Teaching
God himself, through
Jesus, is established his
kingdom of:
•A) Justice
•B) Peace
•C) Love
•D) Redemption
•E) Salvation
•F) Intimate
Friendship
The New Testament is concerned
above all with showing:

➢ how marriage, sexuality, and

indeed everything human, have
been transformed and deepened
by the new life brought to us by
Jesus,
➢ and this is revealed dramatically in
the eschatological witness of
consecrated virginity.
 Marriage in the Gospels
Like the Old Testament wherein marriage is typically used to
illustrate the relationship of Yahweh to His people,

so does the New Testament illustrate the union of Christ and the
Church, finally elevating marriage to its eternal state while still fully
defending its original intent.
John the Baptist compared his role:

1) The best man to the bridegroom

[Jesus] in his ministry.

2) John is the link of the Old Testament

prophetic era to the New Testament‘s arrival
of the Messiah.

3) The OT where Israel is depicted as the

bride of Yahweh,‘ the Baptist is suggesting that Jesus
is
Israel‘s awaited king and Messiah.
Jesus used the metaphor of marriage in the parable of the bridesmaids wherein
the wise bridesmaids brought extra oils for their lamps to help them wait for the
coming of the bridegroom. In another instance, Jesus insinuates that He is the
bridegroom.
 The Significance of Sexuality in the Gospel
•Jesus teachings on DIVORCE:

•On the Importance of PURITY of THOUGHT and

INTENTION
•On the Sins which proceed from Evil Intention and
Make the person Unclean are perhaps the most
important Gospel passages dealing specifically with sexual
morality.
 Jesus’ Teaching
On Divorce
(Matthew 19:3-9; Mark 10:2-12)
“Anyone who divorces his wife
and marries another commits
adultery, and whoever marries a
woman divorced from her husband
commits adultery. (Luke 16;18)

Jesus Teaching on Divorce

REVIEW ON
LESSON 2
 Genesis 2:18; 20-25
―The Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone. I will
make him a suitable partner… The man gave names to all
the cattle, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals;
but none proved to be the suitable partner for man.

A. BIBLICALPERSPECTIVE
B. OLD TESTAMENT
C. NEW TESTAMENT

BIBLICAL
PERSPECTIVE
 “Anyone who divorces his wife and
marries another commits adultery, and
whoever marries a woman divorced from
her husband commits adultery. (Luke 16;18)

A. BIBLICALPERSPECTIVE
B. OLD TESTAMENT
C. NEW TESTAMENT

NEW TESTAMENT
 [1] a contract or betrothal stage, in which
the terms of responsibility and payment were
determined

A. BIBLICALPERSPECTIVE
B. OLD TESTAMENT
C. NEW TESTAMENT

OLD TESTAMENT
 The aloneness‘ of man
necessitated the creation of the
woman

A. BIBLICALPERSPECTIVE
B. OLD TESTAMENT
C. NEW TESTAMENT

BIBLICAL
PERSPECTIVE
God himself, through Jesus, is
established his kingdom of Justice,
PEACE etc.

A. BIBLICALPERSPECTIVE
B. OLD TESTAMENT
C. NEW TESTAMENT

NEW TESTAMENT
 In choosing an ideal woman,
the book of Proverbs presents
an image of an ideal woman..

A. BIBLICALPERSPECTIVE
B. OLD TESTAMENT
C. NEW TESTAMENT

OLD TESTAMENT
 The aloneness‘ of man necessitated the
creation of the woman… This creation of
man and woman provides the source of
equality for both, forming an indivisible
union with each other.

A. BIBLICALPERSPECTIVE
B. OLD TESTAMENT
C. NEW TESTAMENT

BIBLICAL
PERSPECTIVE
 Jesus used the metaphor of marriage in the
parable of the bridesmaids wherein the wise
bridesmaids brought extra oils for their lamps
to help them wait for the coming of the
bridegroom.

A. BIBLICALPERSPECTIVE
B. OLD TESTAMENT
C. NEW TESTAMENT
NEW TESTAMENT
 The father and mother are still
mentioned together and given the
same manner of respect by the
children.

A. BIBLICALPERSPECTIVE
B. OLD TESTAMENT
C. NEW TESTAMENT
OLD TESTAMENT
 God‘s existence is eternal
kinship.

A. BIBLICALPERSPECTIVE
B. OLD TESTAMENT
C. NEW TESTAMENT

BIBLICAL
PERSPECTIVE
 Trinity and Family are
divine synonyms.

A. BIBLICALPERSPECTIVE
B. OLD TESTAMENT
C. NEW TESTAMENT

BIBLICAL
PERSPECTIVE
―This is now bone of my bones and
flesh of my flesh! With the
declaration that they are forever
bound, man forms a covenant with
woman
A. BIBLICALPERSPECTIVE
B. OLD TESTAMENT
C. NEW TESTAMENT

BIBLICAL
PERSPECTIVE
 It’sclear: no divorce and no remarriage if you
do divorce, unless you want to live in adultery!
 There is nothing here about communion,
annulments, the Petrine privilege or the
Pauline privilege.
 But as always with Scripture, it is fair to ask
for the context of the teaching, which means
at a minimum we should look at Jesus’ other
teachings on marriage, divorce and celibacy,
but also include the historical and theological
contexts for Jesus’ teachings.
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2015/11/06/scriptural-look-jesus-teachings-marriage-and-divorce
 Two Features of Jesus’ Teaching on Divorce

•First, He unequivocally condemns both divorce

and remarriage; any “remarriage” after
divorce is not a marriage at all but adultery.
•Second, He clarified and developed the Old
Testament teaching on the fundamental Equality
of Woman; He stated that one who divorced his
wife and married another committed adultery
against his wife.
Thus, any double standard of the sort tolerated the Old
Testament was firmly excluded; Adultery was a very serious
evil, and since remarriage after divorce was adultery, it was
obviously a serious violation of God’s will.
Jesus gracious dealings with women further illustrate his
concern for their human dignity and fundamental equality
with men.
A) The Samaritan Woman
B) The Adulterous Woman
Sexual Morality is not merely a matter of external behavior but
of the person’s internal disposition and will.

The focus and the characteristic of Jesus moral teaching is on

the person’s heart.
The Catholic Church distinguishes between legal
marriage and the Sacrament of Matrimony

Being married civilly doesn’t necessarily mean that the

two people participated in the sacrament of Matrimony.
A Catholic marriage involves two baptized people, one or
both of whom are Catholic.
 Annulment
Like Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders, Matrimony only takes
place once between the same two people.
 Annulment
Church annulments are not a form of divorce and have no affect
whatsoever on the legitimacy of children because that’s a purely
legal matter.

Annulments don’t make children born

of that union illegitimate.
Annulments declare that a marriage
was never a valid sacrament in the
first place even if both parties
entered into it with good faith
intentions.
 St. Paul’s
Teaching on
Marriage
❖ The apostle Paul
portrays marriage in the
same light as the Gospels
where he presents Jesus
as the bridegroom and
humanity the bride.

❖ He teaches that like

Christ, husbands have to
share the same love and
affection to their wives:
“Husbands, love your wives, just as
Christ loved the church and gave
himself up for her to make her holy,
cleansing her by the washing with
water through the word, and to
present her to himself as a radiant
church, without stain or wrinkle or
any other blemish, but holy and
blameless.”

-Ephesians 5
 Now concerning the matters about which
you wrote: “It is well for a man not to touch
a woman. But because of cases of sexual
immorality, each man should have his own
wife and each woman her own husband.
The husband should give to her wife her
conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her
husband. For the wife does not have
authority over her own body, but the
husband does; likewise the husband does
not have authority over his won body, but
the wife does.”
1Corinthians 7:1-4
 St.Paul’s Teaching on Marriage 1 Corinthian 7: 1-4

•St.Paul’s reaffirms the goodness of marriage

and of sexual union within marriage.
•His primary aim is to convey a proper
Christian attitude on Marriage to his new
converts at Corinth.
 St.Paul’s Teaching on Marriage 1 Corinthian 7: 1-4
•This concern was necessary because Corinth was a center both of Sexual
Licentiousness and of an Anti-Sexual Gnosticism.

•The fundamental point Paul seeks to communicate is that for those who have
received new life through Jesus Christ, everything is to be experienced “in the
Lord,” including their sexuality and married lives.
 “Or do you not know that your body is a
temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
which you have from God, and that you
are not you own? For you were bought
with a price; therefore glorify God in
your body.
1Corinthians 6:19

Through Baptism, the human person becomes one body

with Christ; the human body - that is, the whole human self
becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Since sexual immorality affects the human person in such an intimate,
bodily way, it is abominable - a sacrilegious desecration of the body of
Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Other sins are outside the body, but sexual sins are especially
perverse because they are within.
 Ephesians 5: 21-32
“Be subject to one another out of reverence for
Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands as you
are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the
wife just as Christ is the head of the Church, the
body of which he is the Savior. Just as the Church
is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in
everything, to their husbands. Husbands, love your
wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave
himself up for her, in order to make her holy by
cleansing her with the washing of water by the word,
so as to present the church to himself in splendour,
without blemish.”
 Ephesians 5:21-32
“In the same way, husbands should love their
wives as they do their own bodies. He who
loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates
his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly
cares for it, just as Christ does for the Church,
because we are members of his body. For this
reason a man will leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife, and the two will
become one flesh. This is the great mystery,
and I am applying it to Christ and the Church.”
 Ephesians 5: 21-32

•According to Paul, marital relationship is likened

to the relationship between Christ and his
Church.
•This is to provide a reason for the Special Love
and Concern which should exist between
spouses.
•This important teaching is an aspect of the
transfiguration of marriage by the new life made
possible through Jesus.
 Summary:
•Marriage is presented as a lifelong union of shared love
open to the blessing of children.
•Marriage thus understood, is a great and wonderful reality
which images and participates in the love of Christ for his
Church.
•The new life with Christ is defiled and human persons are
desecrated when sexual satisfaction is sought outside
marriage.
 Summary:
•The New Testament teaches that chastity is a virtue
required of every Christian, male or female, married or
unmarried.
•Because sexuality is a good gift from God, God shows us
in the fullness of his revelation in Jesus that its proper use
is to be highly prized and its abuse severely condemned.
•The Letter to the Hebrews: “Marriage is to be held in
honour by all; all marriage bed is to be undefiled; adulterers
and fornicators will be judged by God.” (Hebrews 13:4)
Source:
CATHOLIC Sexual Ethics, A
Summary, Explanation and Defense
Updated, Rev. Ronald Lawler,
O.F.M. Cap.,Joseph Boyle, Jr.,and
William E. May