Some conservative christians are angry about the recent consultation into marriage equality. I recently received an email from the British Christianist pressure group, Christian Voice. They urged me to give them money so that they could stand up to “fatally undermine marriage as biblically defined by Jesus himself”
This gives an sort of impression of marriage as an institution which has been defined once and for all by the Christian new-testament. Christian concern might accuse the government of redefining marriage, but who defined it in the first place?
I had a chance to speak with new-testament scholar, fellow of the center for inquiry and host of the podcast the Human Bible, Robert M Price. I began by asking him whether a citizen of 1st Century Judea have recognized our modern institution of “traditional marriage”?
- I'm thinking not just of the ceremony but the whole shebang, e.g. dating, engagement, white-weddings and the role of government in this whole process.
- Is a "Traditional" marrage anthing remotely like the tradition that the early Christians would have recognized.
Today many people take it for granted that marriage is something which we sanctify with ceremony and religious ritual. What role would the temple have played in for pre-Christians and early Christians?
- I'm trying to get an impression of what a 1st C marriage ceremony might have involved.
- Whas this codified in the way we take for granted today?
I've attended enough Christian weddings to have observed that most preachers regard marriage as a spesifically Christian sacrament, however there's very little in the Bible about the subject - does the bible actually give formula or definition of marriage as we know it?
- Where does the religious part of our marriage tradition actually come from?
Evangelical Christians often cite Matthew 19:1-6 as Jesus "defining" marriage in a way that's incompatible with some modern notions of marriage equality, this seems to do some injustice to the word define. What do you think is really going on here?
- I'm assuming that you'd read this more or less on face-value to mean a prohibition on divorce
- But why is this even here? Was divorce such a problem for the early church?
- Could this have been another example of ascetic preachers forcing their discomfort onto the population as a whole?
When I read this section it seems to be a very strong prohibition of divorce, for much of British and American history divorce was a profoundly shameful thing - that shame seems to have almost entirely evaporated. It does not seem to cause a problem for conservative Christian voters and politicians. We have Newt Gingrich who campains on a vaguely Christianist platorm - having been divorced twice does no seem to have harmed him at all. How is it that divorce seems to be no longer a problem whereas extending marriage rights to gay-couples has become an obsession?
- Here I'm after your impression as to how (and why) values seem to have changed.
- I'm curious if you agree with my impression that the divorce taboo is all but gone from American mainstream Christianity.
Finally, you’ve just launched a new podcast in association with the Center for Inquiry, the show’s called the Human Bible - can you explain to our listeners what the show is about?
- Just after 30s about the show. We will provide the relevant links on our web-page.
