A wedding marked a major change for both bride and groom. They were becoming husband and wife and beginning a new stage of family life. Their marriage also joined two families and brought new responsibilities.
The bride and groom stood at the center of the wedding celebration. Their marriage, however, involved more than the two of them.
Families had often participated in arranging the marriage. They also had an important place in the celebration.
After the wedding, the couple would begin the practical work of married life.
Jewish marriage belonged to a larger ancient world in which family relationships mattered greatly. Marriage could affect property and economic security.
The bride and groom also entered new social roles. The husband assumed responsibilities toward his wife. The wife became part of a new household setting.
The experience differed according to family circumstances and local custom.
The wedding was a joyful event, but married life involved ordinary responsibilities afterward.
The couple needed a place to live. The household needed food and other resources.
Children would often become an important part of their future together.
Archaeology tells us much more about the homes in which couples lived than about individual brides and grooms.
Marriage documents and written sources provide stronger evidence for the responsibilities that came with marriage.
Ancient Jewish writings describe brides and grooms as the focus of public celebration. Other texts discuss the obligations created by marriage.
The surviving evidence comes from different periods and communities, so not every custom should be treated as universal.
Bride and bridegroom imagery appears throughout Scripture. Marriage could represent joy and blessing.
The prophets also used marriage imagery to describe the relationship between God and His people.
Jesus spoke about brides and bridegrooms in ways His listeners readily understood. In Matthew 9:15, He compared His presence with His disciples to the presence of a bridegroom at a wedding.
John the Baptist also used the image of the bridegroom in John 3:29.
The bride and groom were the central figures in a public family celebration. Marriage also brought practical and economic responsibilities.
Their new relationship existed within a wider network of family ties.
We cannot reconstruct the personal experience of every bride and groom. Wealth and family circumstances could make one marriage quite different from another.
We should also avoid assuming that every later Jewish wedding custom was already practiced in exactly the same way in the first century.
The Gospels use bride and bridegroom imagery because weddings were familiar occasions of joy.
Understanding the importance of the couple helps us hear the warmth and celebration behind those Gospel images.