Questions tagged [marriage]

Use this tag for questions about attitudes and doctrines regarding marriage. For questions relating specifically to same-sex marriage and polygamy, use the appropriate tags.

The marriage tag has been through several revisions in an effort to be the most useful and the least polarizing. There are two specific meta posts that should be reviewed and considered first before making suggested edits:


Tag Wiki

Marriage is defined differently by various Christian faiths:

  • The Church teaches that Marriage is the lifelong union between a man and woman with openness to children
  • The Church teaching is similar to the Catholic Church makes provisions for divorce over and above the process
  • Most Mainline Denominations and Evangelical Churches teach that marriage is a covenant between a man and a women, but allow for divorce and, in some cases, remarriage as well as limiting family size (but still believe that marriage is the foundation of the family unit)
  • The Church recognizes marriage between a man and a woman. The LDS Church also believes in the covenant of eternal marriage, called a sealing, between a man, a woman, and God.
  • Still other Christians have other practices and beliefs concerning what they consider to be marriage which may be discussed here.

Some questions on this site explore the boundaries of the term "marriage":

According to Genesis:

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones  
    and flesh of my flesh;  
she shall be called Woman,  
    because she was taken out of Man.”  

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

(Genesis 2:18-25 ESV)

Paul, in the New Testament, often compares the relationship between the Church and Christ to the marriage covenant:

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

(Ephesians 5:25-33 ESV)

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What are the differences between the roles of husband and wife in a Christian marriage?

Current culture has a lot to say about the similarities of the roles of husband and wife in marriage. What does the Bible have to say about roles in a Christian marriage?
Steve Moser
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Is there anything unique to a christian marriage that non-christian marriages are deprived of?

Are there any teachings that state that there is anything unique to a Christian marriage that non-Christian marriages are deprived of? A slightly different question but similar enough: Does a couple that "goes to city hall" and enters into (what…
user3353
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Scriptural Basis for different kinds of marriage

Consider two types of marriages: a marriage ceremony in a church with a certified priest/pastor (but without any government recognition) and a courthouse marriage. What scriptures would imply that one or the other is preferable, assuming for some…
carrizal
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Issues with legal documents and marriage

My fiance and I are planning our wedding and are having some trouble because we are from different countries. We are both Christians and would like to have a wedding that is honorable to God biblically. We plan to be wed in Japan and it is…
Ci3
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Can a Catholic marriage be annulled because one doesn't believe to Sacred Trinity anymore?

The Roman Rota is the highest appellate tribunal of the Roman Catholic Church, with respect to both Latin-rite members and the eastern-rite members and is, with respect to judicial trials conducted in the Catholic Church, the highest ecclesiastical…
Elberich Schneider
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Where does the Bible talk about marriage to non-Christians?

Possible Duplicate: Are inter-faith marriages prohibited by the Bible? 1st & 2nd Corinthians speak of how Christians should not be "unequally yolked" in marriage to non-Christians. Where else does the Bible talk about marriage to non-Christians?
TheMonkeyMan
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Can ministers of other denominations marry people in a Catholic church?

Can ministers from other Christian denominations, for example a United Church Reverend, perform the marriage sacrament in a Catholic Church?
user13784
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Can I be in a relationship with my Godfather’s daughter?

I’m a male that is part of a Catholic family and I’m wondering if I can be in a relationship with my Godfather’s daughter. Me and my Godfather or anyone of his side of his side of his family are not blood-related to me nor my father or mother’s…
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Is second marriage forgiven

If you were in the world and got married before you were saved, but you divorced because it just wasn’t a healthy relationship, and you divorced your partner without him knowing until later when you told him, and you marry again, will you be…
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Justification for Marriage without State

This is the opposite of https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/34496/justification-for-involvement-of-state-in-marriage On what biblical basis can one argue that: "marriage is a covenant before God between a man and a woman -- and has…
user10620
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Children of Adam and Eve

What is the differentiation between " sons of God" and "daughters of men" referred to in Genesis 6:1-2. Is it that there were extra-terrestrial human-like beings at the beginning of creation on earth ?
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Want blessing of civil marriage

I was married 14 May 2019 to another catholic. He was divorced 19 yrs ago and was not married in the church. I am a widow who was divorced previously, never married in a Catholic Church.
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God's commandment to marry an unbeliever?

There are two parts to this question: I seem to remember an account in the scriptures where YHWH gives one of his own to marriage with a nonbeliever. Is there such an account? Secondly, what is the biblical defence for marriage to be between two…
David
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