In Luke 12:35-40 Jesus spoke of his coming, and this coming was in the context of a wedding or the marriage supper. I think we might be able to understand what Jesus was saying to his disciples better, if we knew more about what a wedding looked like in the first century AD. First of all, unlike most marriages today, the wedding was usually arranged by the heads of two families, and falling in love had little, if anything, to do with such an arranged marriage. Love would come later. In fact, in most cases the couple hadn’t met prior to the arrangement ceremony. Indeed, if the case of Isaac wasn’t a singularity (Genesis 24:64-65), they may not have met until after all the arrangements had been made. Moreover, our modern wedding ceremonies, including Jewish ones, are very unlike that of the ancients, so to truly understand the metaphors hidden in them we must acquaint ourselves with how those things were done in the Bible.
There seems to be about five common customs involved in every ancient Jewish marriage. They were: 1) the arrangement of marriage; 2). the betrothal; 3) the undefined time between the betrothal and the wedding; 4) the marriage ceremony; and, finally, 5) the marriage feast. Some may put other customs among these five, but these are common to all studies I’ve found.
First the marriage was arranged (Genesis 24:3-4, 53) between the heads of both families. Nevertheless, although the marriage was arranged between the heads of both families, the bride-to-be seems to have had the right of rejection, if the arrangement wasn’t to her liking (cf. Genesis 24:5). According the Jeremiah 31:32, the Mosaic Covenant was a marriage contract, and idolatry was considered playing the harlot (Jeremiah 3:1). Therefore, the agreement made in Exodus 19:3-8 was that of a marriage covenant, which was broken later through the worship of idols (Jeremiah 3:1). In the New Testament Jesus made a new arrangement with his disciples who trusted him (Luke 22:14-19).
The second custom observed was the betrothal itself. Some might refer to this as an engagement, but it was more than that. The betrothal was a legal marriage, although the couple lived apart. In order to annul a betrothal, one needed to submit a bill of divorce to the other party. The betrothal was ratified with the giving of gifts to the bride and to her father’s house (cf. Genesis 24:50-53). The parable of the lost coin in Luke 15:8-10 represented the ten coins the bride would wear as a crown on her forehead during the wedding ceremony, so one is able to see the concern over the lost coin. After Shechem defiled Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, he sought his father to arrange their marriage with Jacob her father. Shechem told Jacob to ask whatever dowry (H4119 – mohar) and gift and he would pay it (Genesis 24:12). The ‘dowry’ or mohar was the bride price paid to the bride’s father, but the gift was for the bride. Saul told David he wanted to marry his daughter to David, but the ‘dowry’ (mohar) was to be 100 Philistine foreskins (1Samuel 18:22-25).
In the New Testament Paul says that he has betrothed us to the Lord (2Corinthians 11:2), and we have been bought with a price (1Corinthians 6:20; 7:23), that is, not the price of a slave, but the price of the bride! In the case of Jesus, the bride price was his own life (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20). That is, Jesus paid the price of everyone’s sins (Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24) in order to pay the price for the bride, herself (Luke 22:20). This was the ‘dowry’ or mohar, and the gifts for the bride were given with the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost (Ephesians 1:13-14; Acts 2:1-4; 1Corinthians 12:4-11).
The third custom observed in the ancient Jewish wedding was that of the preparation period, during which the bride and groom (though legally married) lived apart. It was a time when the bride prepared herself for the coming of the groom (Revelation 19:7), and the groom prepared a place for his bride (John 14:1-4). The period of time was at least a year to prove the bride was a virgin, but the exact length of the period was known only to the groom’s father, which is exactly what Jesus claimed concerning his coming (Mark 13:32).
The fourth custom in an ancient Jewish wedding was the wedding itself, that is, the day the vows were finalized. The marriage supper or feast was the celebration afterward, but there was no ceremony like we have today where the two would exchange vows in a church or a synagogue. Rather, the groom simply took his bride into his tent and consummated the marriage (cf. Genesis 29:15-21). Once the bride price was paid the father of the bride was obligated to release his daughter and she and the groom would consummate the marriage. The evidence of both the consummation of the marriage and the bride’s virginity was the blood she shed upon the cloth spread out on the marriage bed (cf. Deuteronomy 22:13-21).
In the New Testament, there are recorded three specific persecutions that drew blood. The first was that of Stephen, representing the more liberal Jewish Hellenist believers (Acts 7). The second is recorded in Acts 12, where James, the brother of John and one of the 12 was beheaded. This represented the beginning of the persecution of the more moderate Jewish believers. A third persecution was begun in Jerusalem about 62 AD in Josephus when James, the Lord’s brother, was stoned with a number of other conservative Jewish believers (Antiquities of the Jews 20.9.1). This final persecution spread even to Rome, as recorded by the Roman historian Tacitus (Annals 15.44). Under Nero, Christians, both Jew and gentile were crucified, and were set on fire to light up the night. Thus, we have evidence of both the consummation of the marriage and the proof of the virginity of Christ’s bride.
The fifth and final custom in the ancient Jewish marriage was the marriage supper or feast. It was a celebratory occasion, but it’s application in the New Testament may be surprising. After Christ’s return and his bride had made herself ready (Revelation 19:7), the marriage supper took place (Revelation 19:11-21). It is quite unlike any other festival mentioned in the Bible. Here the kings of the earth, and their captains and mighty men are defeated in battle and their flesh and the flesh of their horses are eaten by fowls. This is the marriage supper of the Lamb! How unappetizing! Where is the rejoicing in this?
Therefore, there must be a spiritual significance to this rather than a literal truth. With the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD, the responsibility of telling the world about the God of the Bible fell totally upon the shoulders of the Church. The Jews had to redefine their faith in light of their universal exile. With the Temple gone, relevancy of their faith in the Roman world and beyond had to be determined anew. Nevertheless, the vineyard of the Lord was let out to a **nation** that would bring forth the fruits (Matthew 21:43)—a **nation** that wasn’t called the people of God up to that point (Deuteronomy 32:21). For the first time the priests of God reached out in earnest to the world as ambassadors of God, commanding them “be reconciled to God” (2Corinthians 5:20). The Battle of the Great Day of God Almighty had begun (Revelation 16:14), and kings, and captains and mighty men would die (Revelation 19:11-21), in the sense that they would die to self and the things of this world and come to Christ.
Smoodock's Blog 