After the betrothal the bride was under the same restrictions as a wife. If unfaithful she ranked and was punished as an adulteress (Dt 22™-™); and on the other hand the bridegroom, if he wished to break the contract, had the same privileges, and had also to observe the same formalities as in the case of divorce. The situation is illustrated in the history of Joseph and Mary, who were on the footing of betrothal (Mt 1").
2. Nuptial Rites and Customs.—Upon the be-
* Among the Greeks the dowry had a similar origin and a
rallel Meda eee In the Homeric age it was customary or the father receive a purchase-price from his future son- in-law (71. xi. 244)—hence the expression σαρθίνος ἀλφεσιβοία, the oxen-bringing virgin; and if it was rare for a father to give his daughter gratuitously (&r@sdver), it was reckoned an act of the most signal generosity to offer presents (ieis/se), as Was done by Agamemnon (ix. 146) along with the daughter. The ancient custom graduall ar , and was referred to by Aristotle as barbarous (Pol. il. 5. 11), but Euripides voices a complaint of the women of later day that it had become the custom that women had to purchase their husbands at a t ee (Med, 282; Derenberg, Dict. des Antig. Greeg. et Rom., ‘aris, 1892, art. ‘Dot’). In Rome from an early period the wife who did not bring with her a dowry was regarded as a concubine rather than as a wife (Plaut. Trinum. iii. 2, v. 73, 5), and it was a duty of cl’ents to make up a dowry for the daughter of a poor patron (%.)
trothal followed, after a longer or shorter period, the marriage proper or wedding, the features of which may be collected partly from incidental allusions in Scripture, partly from survivals of ancient custom in Talmudic literature and in the life of the East.
The Heb. terms translated ‘marry’ are N29 ‘to take’ (Gn 1914 etc.), in late Heb. xyj (2 Ch 1321 aJ.)—both with a probable reference to ancient marriage by capture, wx nny ‘to be married’ (Hos 33 ai.), and myxd ey) py ‘to become a wife’ (Nu 863. 6. 11), Sys to ‘become master of,’ expressive of the husband’s authority (Dt 2222 etc.); later 2°v7, lit. ‘make to dwell,’ ‘give a dwelling to’ (cf. Ps 1139), Ezr 102 10. 14. 17. 18, Neh 13°3-27(a/.). ‘To form marriage alliance with’ (lit. ‘to make oneself daughter’s husband’) is 5 ΠΗ Π (Gn 349 etc.). AV ‘given to marriage’ in Ps 73 is merely a apa ject Heb. ia lit. ‘were not praised.’ In NT γαμεῖν is used of either sex (Mt 582199. 10 etc.) ; also γίνεσθαΐ τιν, (Ro 73), used of a woman, means to be married to a man (RV to be ‘joined to a man’), yaui- extcle:, to be given in marriage (Mk 12%), γαμίζεν, to give in marriage (1 Co 7%). The word translated “espousals’ (Ca 314) comes nearest to describing the subject here discussed.
It is probable that in the early period the prin- cipal if not the only ceyemonies were connected with the betrothal, and that when these were completed the consummation of the marriage might follow at the option of the parties concerned (Nowack, Arch. i. p. 162). In the case of Isaac and Rebekah the formalities were over with the be- trothal, and on the bride’s arrival at her new home she was simply conducted to her tent (Gn 24°%-*), Similarly, whenever David has fulfilled the condi- tions imposed by Saul, he receives Michal to wife (1S 18*7). That this was, however, not universal appears from Gn 29*7, The later practice was to draw a clear distinction between betrothal and marriage (Dt 207 28%), to magnify the final fune- tion, and to invest this increasingly with characters of poblictty. and pomp. And in the celebration of Hebrew marriage the most noteworthy point is the retreat of the distinctively Hebrew element. We seem to be in the atmosphere of Hellas rather than of the Holy Land. There is no evidence that, in the older peried, the proceedings were regulated from the theocratic point of view, or even that they included a religious ceremony: rather is there a tem- porary abandonment to the cult of mere happiness, with its unconsecrated ritual of feasting and song.
In the biblical references to the marriage cele- brations two functions stand out prominently—the wedding procession and the wedding feast or mar- riage supper. As regards the nature and place of the ceremony by which the woman was trans- ferred to the husband (the counterpart of our marriage service), the biblical notices leave us un- informed.
The wedding procession naturally fell into two
arts. First the bridegroom and his friends may
supposed to have marched to the home of the bride, then in a return procession the festal com- pany, reinforced by the bride’s friends, conducted the pair to their future home. Of the movement and colour of this picturesque drama graphic touches are preserved in Scripture. We catch a glimpse of the garlanded bridegroom in his lead attire (Is 6110), and of his veiled bride surrounded by the friends of her youth (Ps 451" 18); the attendant throng gives vent to its jubilant feelings in dancing and shouting, and songs are struck up (some per- haps preserved in the Song called Solomon’s) which oad the praise of wedded love and of the newly- wedded pair.