Marriage

Genesis tells of man and woman made in God’s image, the blessing on them, and the words that a man shall cleave to his wife and they shall be two in one flesh. Christ returns to these words in the Gospel as the original plan. It bears on the teaching that marriage is instituted by God, the union of two in one flesh.

And God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.

And the Lord God said: It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself.

And Adam said: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh.

In Tobias, the younger Tobias prays at his wedding, recalling Adam and Eve, and says he takes his wife for the love of posterity and not for fleshly lust. The prayer sets marriage within God’s creation and blessing. It bears on the teaching that marriage is holy before God and ordered to the good of children.

And Tobias said: Lord God of our fathers, may the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains, and the rivers, and all thy creatures that are in them, bless thee. Thou madest Adam of the slime of the earth, and gavest him Eve for a helper. And now, Lord, thou knowest, that not for fleshly lust do I take my sister to wife, but only for the love of posterity, in which thy name may be blessed for ever and ever.

In 1 Corinthians Paul says that to the married “not I, but the Lord, commandeth” that the wife depart not from her husband, and that the husband put not away his wife. He distinguishes the Lord’s command from his own counsel. It bears on the teaching that the apostolic Church received the bond as the teaching of Christ.

But to them that are married, not I, but the Lord, commandeth that the wife depart not from her husband. And if she depart, that she remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And let not the husband put away his wife.

In Ephesians Paul sets the love of husbands for their wives beside Christ’s love for the Church and calls the one flesh “a great sacrament… in Christ and in the church.” It is the chief scriptural ground for the sacramentality of marriage. It bears on the teaching that marriage signifies the union of Christ and the Church.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church and delivered himself up for it:

So also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the church: Because we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother: and shall cleave to his wife. And they shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament: but I speak in Christ and in the church.

The account in Mark gives the same answer, adds that Moses wrote the precept because of the hardness of heart, and applies the saying about adultery to the husband and to the wife alike. It bears on the teaching that the bond is lasting and binds both spouses.

To whom Jesus answering, said: Because of the hardness of your heart, he wrote you that precept. But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause, a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife. And they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

And he saith to them: Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another committeth adultery against her. And if the wife shall put away her husband and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

In Matthew, Jesus answers the Pharisees’ question on putting away a wife by returning to the beginning: God made them male and female, they are two in one flesh, and what God has joined let no man put asunder. It bears on the teaching that God joins the spouses and that the bond is not to be broken.

And there came to him the Pharisees tempting him, saying: Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? Who answering, said to them: Have ye not read, that he who made man from the beginning, made them male and female? And he said: For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

Richard Challoner, bishop and editor of the Douay-Rheims Bible, annotates Christ’s words on fornication: where the wife is put away for adultery, the husband cannot marry another while she lives. His annotations long served English-speaking Catholics. It bears on the teaching that the bond endures after separation.

In the case of fornication, that is, of adultery, the wife may be put away: but even then the husband cannot marry another as long as the wife is living.