Ancient Hebrew Weddings - A Glimpse of Christ & His Bride

My husband and I read the account of Christ's entrance into our world as told in Luke Chapter 2 yesterday. Our prayer before reading, included asking God to reveal something new to us.  He granted our prayer request and I was so thrilled with it that I wanted to share it with you.

As we read the entire account as told in the second chapter of Luke, the fifth verse caught our attention.  "Luke 2:5 "He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child."  Wait, Mary was only engaged to Joseph when they traveled to Bethlehem?

Yes, this is another evidence that Jesus' coming was different.  It was prophesied (even the details of being conceived in a virgin's womb) hundreds of years before it occurred.  Mary was pregnant and the marriage hadn't been consummated. They were only engaged.  How hard was that to believe for those in the community?  How hard was that for Joseph?  This was so taboo that the woman could be stoned to death for this.  They must've both been very afraid.  I wonder if they thought to hurry and marry instead of just staying engaged?  

Well, unlike in our culture, where if a couple found that they were pregnant, they could quickly marry and call the baby "premature", that wasn't possible in Hebrew culture.

So we looked into what it meant to be engaged in that culture and what we found was amazing.  Our research using various commentaries and histories of ancient Hebrew cultures, revealed to us just how scandalous Mary and Joseph's relationship was .  No wonder an Angel had to go to Joseph and convince him to follow through with his marriage to Mary.  Everything about Jesus' life, to include his earthly parents, was not "normal".

What we discovered about the ancient Hebrew engagements and wedding ceremony was very enlightening. Just like most other Hebrew celebrations, feasts and festivals, the engagement and wedding practices served as a shadow of Christ. The below chart lays that out so very clearly. Thank you to www.returntogod.com for this chart!

(Tip:  To read the small font in this chart, you can press down the Ctrl and + keys to make it larger (Cmnd and + keys for Mac).  Ctr and - (Cmnd -) keys will make it smaller again.  Or go to the chart on the website I mention in the caption.)

Chart found at

 http://www.returntogod.com/hebrew/wedding.htm.

Again I say, isn't our God amazing?  Every detail found in the Word is there for a reason. It is such a treasure to really study it and explore it.