marriage laws in the Bible

Thank you for your questions, I will be more than glad to answer all of them.

I will edit this paper later, right now it is 7:50 AM on Sept 19,2006

Regarding your first question,

"Can you tell me how a person is legitimately married in the eyes of Yehowah?"

Here is your answer: In the Torah, certain things are established on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Those things would be things like if someone were guilty of a capital offense. The guilty one must not be put to death, unless two or three witnesses can testify and agree that the particular person is guilty of a capital offense crime. Anything short of that in such a case might just be a malicious accuser. This is the reason that more than one witness must testify.

These witnesses would also have to be present in cases of selling land, and other matters involving the court; whether for good, or for problems. When a marriage takes place these witness must also attest to such. The reason for this is to prove these individuals are not committing fornication, and so that people will know that the woman is now taken. Although, this was not necessarily done for the sake of the man. The reason it is not necessarily including the man in this scenario, is because a man, according to the torah, is allowed to have more than one wife, but a woman can only have one husband. And so, because of this fact a single woman can never commit adultery, but only fornication. Whereas, a single man can commit adultery with a married woman. Thus, witnesses were produced so that people would know that this woman was now married to "so and so", and that no man is allowed to covet her anymore, nor approach her.

Moreover, these witnesses, however, must be men because they are the heads of the community. I am talking about a Torah society, or a culture that only the Lord condones. When these witnesses were present, the man and woman said their vows before the God of Israel. If they were to say their vows before a foreign god or rather, a non-existing god, their vows were and are invalid. Their vows are also invalid if the witnesses were not at least two men, versus one man and one woman, or two women. Likewise, if the man and woman say their vows, and while doing so they believe that the God of Israel is some Trinitarian God, (whichever version that might be), they will not be actually married, even though they might think so, in the Lord's sight. This is because such a God does not exist. Therefore, that is the answer.

A couple must have all three combinations in order for the marriage to be valid in the Lord's sight. If just one of those ingredients are missing and they unite, they will commit fornication and are continuing to commit fornication, if they are still "married."

Then, as we know through another paper, once the couple say their vows, the woman from that point on must wear her hair up in public, or around others that are either not her children, nor her brothers, nor her husband.

Now here are some verses for you:

1. Proverbs 31:1-2, "The sayings of King Lemuel—an oracle his mother taught him: 'O my son, O son of

my womb, O son of my vows,'

(Here you can see she was married under a vow)

2. Proverbs 2:16-17, "It will save you also from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive

words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God."

Thus, we see that this vow is also a pact, or agreement, or covenant, and uttered before the God of

Israel.

3. Deuteronomy 19:15, "A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses."

4. By using Proverbs 2:16-17 that I mentioned above, we see that the vow is mentioned before the God

of Solomon, or of Israel, or of Jesus / Yehoshua, or of Judaism. If the couple does not believe in the true, and only existing God, they will commit fornication.

Now, on a further note, as explained above, unless a couple has all three combinations they are not legally married in the eyes of the Lord; this is regardless if the state or country they live in does recognize their marriage.

Moving on to the next question:

Likewise, can you explain to me what a concubine is?

This is an easy question to answer. When you become married, if your wife should have a female slave, or get a female slave for herself in order to help her around the home or for whatever, even to be a midwife, (someone that helps her while she is giving birth, because the man must not see her privacy at that time), that person is simply a female slave. But, if your wife would like to have more children, but not by her own self or to just have more helpers (slaves) around under her authority versus the man's, she would let you marry her in order to produce offspring for herself. When this slave girl becomes married to her free husband, she becomes a concubine. In other words, she is a married slave of your wife. This is why Ishmael and Hagar were not under the authority of Abraham, but Sarah, because Hagar was Sarah's slave girl, (or midwife).

So, when we read that Solomon had 300 concubines, understand they were the slave girls of his many wives.

Next question:

What is the difference between adultery and fornication in the eyes of Yehowah?

Adultery by definition of the Torah is strictly based on the status of the woman, not the status of the man as some people might wrongfully think. Even though this flies in the face of American, British or all 'Christian' nations. This is because 'Christians' don't follow Christ, they follow false doctrines that have been invented and are not of Judaism, the faith Jesus practiced and told his followers to observe.

Lets for a moment talk about two single people. If a single woman has intercourse with a married man, according to the Torah, this is merely fornication. If a single man, however, has intercourse with a married woman this is adultery. The reasons for these things is because a man is allowed to have more than one wife, thus making it impossible for a single woman to commit adultery with him, but they will nonetheless not avoid the sin of fornication in such actions. A woman however can only have one husband, thus if she has intercourse with another man, this is not fornication of either party, but adultery. Adultery is worthy of death, because of the broken vows before the God of Israel.

Therefore, as according to the first question in this article, if a couple are not married correctly, they are not married at all and are or still are committing fornication.

All through the Tanach we see men having more than one wife, from righteous Abraham to righteous David to many others.

When fornication takes place however, the guilty couple are now obligated and must marry each other.

If someone, a man or a woman commits adultery, but they are not caught in the act by two or more witnesses or they are caught by the priest (Num 5) or prophet (as David was) or they are caught with enough witness, but the girl was or is a slave girl, they

must not be put to death. Nonetheless, in all these situations the spouse may rightfully divorce the other over their conduct.

Divorce is also allowed if one of them is also caught in acts of bestiality or homosexuality, yet not enough witnesses were present when caught in order to put them to death.

Thus, if a couple becomes divorced without these causes, they are not truly divorced.

Therefore, according to these terms that I have mentioned about divorce and marriage we can now approach the words of Jesus with his Torah-observant mindset in Matthew 5:27-32.

Matthew 5:27-32 states:

You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart............It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.' But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.

Do you see how Jesus worded his phrase? He mentions his statement based on the woman's status, not the man's. For he says, "causes her to become an adulteress." This is because the couple might actually think they are divorced in the Lord's sight, but they are not. Remember, that the man can have more than one wife, but not the other way around. If the woman should then marry another man in this time of self-deception vs. literally being divorced, the new couple would be committing adultery in His sight. Though obviously the society may not pick this up, since it was the society that testified to their divorce. Thus, in this statement of Jesus, not only do we see Jesus speaking the meaning of true divorce, but we also see him pointing out the sins of the people in authority and the society around him.

Note:

To comment on Jesus' words at the beginning of what he said, " I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Here he is strictly speaking about a married woman, not a single lady, because you are allowed to covet someone that is single. For the commandment of "do not covet" is referring to your neighbor's wife that is bound under oath and vow to him whereas the daughter is not bound to her parent by oath or vow. Therefore, it is not referring to his daughter. If you look at that comment more clearly you will see that the man that is the neighbor is the one that "owns" whatever that is mentioned. Do not covet "his" house, wife, ox or donkey, male or female slave or....

So we see Jesus being the Rabbi he is and preaching the truth Judaism declares and not a fake Judaism of man made traditions, but rather strictly adhering to the written text.

Maregaal