After the Exile the custom of the earlier period seems to have continued, although with certain modifications. The payment to the liride's father on the part of the prospective groom had been increasingly regarded as the property, at least in part, of the bride. Sndi ;i, ].ayMient during this period was often suppli'inpnlr,! 'by :i <lowry in the true sense (To 8'-', Sir 2r>- -). No (■.'.iisout of'tlie girl was demanded, nor do wo know of the recog- nition of any legal age of consent, unless, as in somewhat later times, it was not expected tli.ii boys would marry before the age of eighteen w girls before twelve (Ahoth v. 21). Althou[;li families undoubtedljr reached some sort of early arrangement, there is no clear reference to the betrothal of children.
2. In Talmudic times proper there was a distinct tendency to comlune betrothal with the wedding. At present the wedding ceremony among orthodox Jews combines the two elements of the two older ceremonies. Possibly because of Western in- fluences the Rabbis became more insistent upon the right of the girl (at least if she had reached her majority, whenever that may have been, l^idduskin, 41re) to give consent, Rab especially nrgingit. As the two ceremonies were united, in addition to the former betrothal there grew up & much less permanent form of engagement similar to that which obtains among \Vestern peoples to-day. In Jerusalem, at least, there scoiii to have been certain opportunities (15 of Ab and Kippurim) for young people to become acquainted before the union was determined upon. All men were supposed to marry before the age of 20, and the age of women was a few j'ears less. (Jther tendencies in Talnuulic times wcro the fixing of the amount of the dowry at not k-ss than 50 ziiz, that of the mChar at 200 zd:, and the use of a peculiarly shaped ring. It is interesting to note that the conventionalizing of tlie mohiir is evi- denced in the words which are now nsod for the ceremony of betrothal: \"c-\^p ' i-oMsi'cr.ition,' fciTN 'betrothal,' I'm^i 'compact,' c.vin 'conditions.'
3. Thus the ceremony of betrothal in NT times
probably involved the following acts: (1) A con- tract drawn up by the parents or by the ' friend of the bridegroom.' (2) The meeting of the two families concerned, with other witnesses, at which time the groom gave the bride a ring and declared his intention to observe the terms of the contract already arranged. (3) The payment of the mohar. The act of betrothal gained in importance, and the two parties seem to linvi^ brrn seated under a canopy during the proccclnn'. and lln' ronijiany to have joined in an inriiii^in^ly jn\i,il . ('lil)ration. Strictly speaking, tliero was no icIiL^ious cciemony connected with the act, but il a priest were present he doubtless pronounced some benediction which was subsequently elaborated into that used by later orthodox Judaism'. The status of the man and woman was now, as in Hebrew times, prac- tically the same as that of married jiersons, al- though it was now generally customary for the wedding ceremony proper to be celebrated at the expiration of a year in the ease of a virgin, and in thirty days in the case of a widow. As in the older times, separation of betrothed persons de- manded a divorce, and there seems to have been no reason why they should not live together as man and wife without a subsequent wedding ceremony. The children of such a union would be regarded as legitimate.
So far as the relations of Maiy and Joseph are concerned, it would appear from the narrative in both Matthew and Luke that in their case the custom of the Jews was followed. The description of the betrothal in the Gospel of Marxj is clearly unhistorical and born of pious imagination ; but we are justified in believing that Joseph drew up the customary contract, paid a mohar of apju-oxi- mately 200 ziiz, and gave Mary a ring. After the formal betrothal {//.PTjaTeiieii', Alt 1", Lk 1=' 2^) they are reported to have lived together without a second, or wedding, ceremony. As has already appeared, there would be no question as to the legitimacy of children born of such a union.
T.urr ■T-i-r rniniilplf. ,-lrtnil^ a^ (n tlir- Talnnldio require- ""'!^ !■ ■! '- L' l-.'ir..lli;il :in- L'lM-'i in A':. /-'".^//oi. ; see also the
' \ ' r.' • I .i;,i'j,i 111,. ,/r/r(.^7/ / Mr//,'',;; ' r/n/, and Mielziner, ' '/,,/,,',,;, ,/,,,//',,,,,,,. r,,i' III,- ancient Hebrew I- n, III, I, s,'r I;,'ii7.iii--cr. y/, /,. .1,,//, ],- i:;.iir. ; and Nowack, Jleh. Ai-eh. i. ISilf. Brief ncoouiits are al.so to be found in Edersheini, Sketches of Jewish Sucial LiJ'e, and j;ood articles in Hamburger, Herzog, Hastings' DB, and in the Encyc. Biblica,
Shailer Mathews.
BIER The Gr. word cropis (Heb. n?,?, 2 S 3»'),
' bier,' more strictly means ' a coffin.' Lk 7" is the only place where the word appears in tlie NT. The bier was an open coffin, or simply a flat wooden frame on which the body of the dead was carried to the grave. Closed colli ns were not used in the time of our Lord. According to theLevitical Law, contact with a dead liody was forbidden as a source of defilement (Nu 19"""). In raising to life the widow's son at Nain, Jesus, by touching the bier only, avoided any infringement of the letter of the Law. But the miracle, prompted by that same in- tense sympathy with human sorrow which He so strikingly manifested on another occasion (,In IP'), pointeil to a higher and more authoritative law —that Divine eternal law of compassion which received its freest and fullest expression for the first time in His own life, and which forms one of the most distinctive features of His Gospel.