2.4 The Origin of Marriage (OB4)

Evolution: Marriage has not been established by God, neither did it exist from the beginning, rather, it was socially acquired in the framework of cultural evolution. Robert Havemann [H3, p. 121] describes the evolution of matrimony as follows: “In primitive societies everybody—men and women—were equal. There were no matrimonial unions, but so-called group marriages existed. These groups had no rules about who could have intercourse with whom.” Similarly, a development from a matriarchy (Latin mater = mother; women ruling) to a patriarchy (Latin pater = father; men ruling) is assumed.

The Bible: Marriage is a gift of God. When God brought to Adam the woman who was specially created for him, he cried out joyfully: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” (Gen. 2:23). This joy over a real companion is the explicit will of God: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him” (Gen. 2:18). Marriage has been established by the Creator; it is therefore not a humanly devised institution. It existed from the beginning, as Jesus himself defined the origin and essence of marriage in Matthew 19:4-6: “Haven’t you read . . . that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” With the commandment “You shall not commit adultery,” God protects marriage and allows sexual intercourse only inside this close union (Eccles. 9:9). Sexual relations (becoming one flesh) before or outside marriage is branded as fornication and immorality.

The supposed evolutionary development from a matriarchy to a patriarchy is biblically false. The woman was originally given as a “helper” (Gen. 2:18), but not as a ruler of the man. Through Paul, Christ also confirmed this revelation in the New Testament: “Now I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God” (1 Cor. 11:3). The role assigned to men neither leads to a slavish submission of women as in Islam, nor to the rivalry aspired to by the women’s liberation movement. The God-given relationship between man and woman is expressed most clearly in the comparison with the relationship between Christ and the Church: “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Eph. 5:24–25).