Cleave to Become One

First, lets take a look at the Judeo-Christian source of marriage. Any honest Christian scholar will admit the utmost importance of these verses in the establishment of the modern day marriage institution. Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 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.20 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. 21 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. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 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.” 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Tearing apart the supposition that any time or place outside of heaven has the absolute corner on God's truth. Times are changing, and the broad and majority non-Christian culture is responding to what was established as a Christian culture. If you analyze all of world history, you will find many "kingdom" cultures, whether it be the Romans after Constantine or the Jews under the reign of David, you will also find mostly secular cultures, that have predominately existed in a worldview different than Christianity. Within "biblical" societies, I would ask the reader to juxtapose those two societies and answer: biblically speaking, which society most likely represented biblical values and followed the true God, that is Yahweh? We at least have testimony in scripture that the old Israelite kingdoms had ages where they were indeed walking with God, socially speaking. Unfortunately, we cannot so easily make the same conclusion about any society not specifically mentioned in scripture. I love America, and I happen to think that God also cares deeply about what happens with our country, but we must not assume an unequivocal and exclusive favor of God, or that we are not erroneous in any of our suppositions or traditions. As Ecclesiastes says, to everything under the sun there is a season. With that understood, and the worship of any cultural norms brought to proper subjection under the word of God (which is above Kingdoms and Kings and authorities), let us continue. First, the word marriage doesn't really exist in the bible. It is a concept that is derived from the bible, and that concept has conditions. It finds its roots in Genesis 2 verses quoted above, where we are told about the creation of woman from Adam's side. So, lets look at the two conditions that a literally present in the foundational verse of marriage in all of scripture. We will start with a broader context, and then move towards breaking it down into understandable parts. Here are the two conditions as I see them: 1) Cleave To His Wife (dawbak nashiym ishah) - The first condition is that the Man (Yeesh) would cleave to his wife. The word cleave has a strong bond connotation. 2) Two Become One Flesh (hayah echad basar) - The second condition, differentiated from the first and therefore another unique component, is the becoming of one flesh. I think it was the creation and allowance of a third condition arise, that is the necessity of some type of certification or communal recognition for marriage, that ultimately laid the foundation for the contentions we deal with now. I am not saying there is not a practical usage to such a certification, indeed there are many practical usages to declaring under law ones "commitment to cleave and become one", but the practical usage needs to be separated from the core components of becoming one in the eyes of God. If you study the history of the marriage certificate, you will discover that historically speaking, marriage has primarily been a private matter between families and individuals. Visit the Wikipedia article on marriage certificates to learn more. This is inline with what the bible teaches and really helps simplify the understanding of marriage. v 1.1