Tag: marriage

The Bible in a Year – 6 September

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

Please excuse the delay in publishing the notes for the end of Daniel and all of Ezra, with only brief comments, as I was on holiday for a week and only making short notes to be typed up later.

6 September . Ezra chapters 8-10

In the last couple of chapters of this book, the issue of intermarriage comes into focus.  It was seen as such a terrible thing that it was acceptable for men to put away their wives and children when challenged, leaving them with little or no means of support.  What is so bad about mixed marriage that it can justify this breaking apart of families?  Most of us will know couples of different religions, or where only one is religious at all, who seem perfectly happy.   But religious leaders are always worried that having a non-believing spouse will tempt people to fall away from practice of their own religion, cease to attend public worship, start seeing things from a secular or pagan perspective.

But note that it is only men who were seen as guilty’ here – presumably Jewish women also married gentile men, but did not come in for the same criticism.  Perhaps it is that they were not permitted to initiate divorce proceedings, or perhaps because Jewish identity traditionally passes through the female line, it mattered less if the father of the household was not a circumcised Jew.

The book seems to end strangely with this issue of intermarriage, rather than with something to do with the Temple that has been the subject of most of the book.  Maybe there was more, which has been lost.

The Bible in a Year – 19 August

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

19 August. Ruth 1 to 4 (entire book)

The short book of Ruth contrasts with yesterday’s reading (the Song of Songs).  They are both stories written down (and maybe even composed) centuries after the time in which they were set.  Both tell of relationships between men and women: the Song of Songs was about passionate but unrequited love, whereas this is a tale of family relationships, bereavements and an arranged marriage.  Ruth may or may not have been a real person (we have no way of telling) but like any Biblical story, indeed any good story, it is intended to make a point.

The story starts with Ebimelech emigrating from Bethlehem to Moab (at that time very much enemy country) due to a famine.  No doubt many others did the same.  In those days there would have been no refugee camps or international aid, and immigrants from Judah would not have been welcomed.  So it is perhaps surprising for a start that Ebimelech’s sons married local girls – that would have made them unclean under Jewish law, although the story does not make that point.  But in fact the marriages are successful, so much so that when father and sons have all died, Naomi and Ruth return together to Bethlehem.

Now the boot (or sandal – see chapter 4 verse 7) is on the other foot.  Although Naomi has been welcomed back by her relatives in Bethlehem, Ruth as an immigrant from an enemy country has to establish herself as one of the community.  Gleaning left-over ears of barley after the harvest is the only way for her to gather food to eat or sell.  By a series of coincidences (or God-incidences as many people prefer to say) she meets her late father-in-law’s relative who owns the field, and with careful negotiation by Naomi, what starts as a master-servant relationship quickly becomes a marriage.  Boaz has no hesitation in taking this non-Jewish widow as his wife, and it seems that unlike some arranged marriages, this one was a love match a well.

The lesson here seems to be that welcoming, and even marrying, people from another country, whether they come as refugees from famine or as part of an existing multi-ethnic family, is quite compatible with God’s plans (despite earlier religious laws against such intermarriages). Indeed, little did the characters in this story know that, as we are told in an epilogue, Ruth is said to have become the ancestor of the great king David. Today’s asylum-seeker may herself, or through her descendants, become a great leader of our people. This book therefore makes a welcome change from the black-and-white laws of other parts of the Old Testament, reminding us that there is no place for racism in the Kingdom of God.

The Bible in a Year – 31 March

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

31 March. 1 Samuel chapters 18-20

Today’s reading explores the complicated relationship between David, his patron King Saul, Saul’s daughter Michal who was given to David in marriage, and Saul’s son Jonathan who fell in love with David.  It could be the plot of a soap opera – the father-in-law with a mental illness and murderous intent, the (probably gay) brother-in-law, and the wife torn between loyalties to her biological family and her husband.  If God could be in this messiest of dysfunctional families, he can be with all our families, whatever their problems.

 

The person at the centre of all these relationships was David, and he seemed to be able to cope with all of them.    When Saul sent him into the heat of battle hoping that he would be killed (as David would later do with Uriah), David returned triumphant.  When Saul demanded as a dowry the foreskins of a hundred Philistine soldiers, David obliged. When he found himself loved by both Michal and her brother Jonathan, he took it in his stride (though his intimacy with Jonathan seems to have been restricted to embracing).

Finally, Saul’s threats become too much and Jonathan helps David to escape from a dangerous situation.  But this is not the last we will hear of these characters.

The Bible in a Year – 23 February

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

23 February. Numbers chapters 28-30

Taking this further detailed account of the requirements for worship (chapters 28-29), if we omit  all the details of animal, grain and wine sacrifices (as no longer being part of Jewish or Christian worship) then we are left with the principle of the church leaders and servants offering prayer to God every morning and evening, plus twice on the Sabbath, and “holy convocations” (larger gatherings of people) on festivals through the year.

 

The pattern continues with Catholic and Anglican clergy being expected to say the ‘daily office’ of morning and evening prayer, whether in church or alone, and holding public services on Sundays, while putting extra effort into special occasions.  Those special occasions should stand out either as joyful (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost) or more reflective and penitential (Holy Week, and Advent).

 

Chapter 30 is a totally different theme, and again reflects the patriarchal culture: a single adult woman or widow was expected to honour her word as much as a man, but an unmarried woman still under her father’s authority, or a married woman, was only bound by her own word if her father/husband did not contradict it.  The reason given was to ‘protect’ such women from making foolish vows, but to us it seems like unnecessary control.  However there is still value in married people – husbands as well as wives – checking out their plans with their spouse before making any commitments, to ensure harmony in the marriage.