Study

1. Marriage is to be between one man and one woman; neither is it lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband at the same time.

Genesis 2:24 Malachi 2:15 Matthew 19:5-6

Genesis 2:24 KJV Read in context

²⁴Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Malachi 2:15 KJV Read in context

¹⁵And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.

Matthew 19:5-6 KJV Read in context

⁵And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? ⁶Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

2. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife,

Genesis 2:18

Genesis 2:18 KJV Read in context

¹⁸And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue,

Genesis 1:28

Genesis 1:28 KJV Read in context

²⁸And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

and the preventing of uncleanness.

1 Corinthians 7:2 1 Corinthians 7:9

1 Corinthians 7:2 KJV Read in context

²Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

1 Corinthians 7:9 KJV Read in context

⁹But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

3. It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry, who are able with judgment to give their consent;

Hebrews 13:4 1 Timothy 4:3

Hebrews 13:4 KJV Read in context

⁴Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

1 Timothy 4:3 KJV Read in context

³Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

yet it is the duty of Christians to marry in the Lord;

1 Corinthians 7:39

1 Corinthians 7:39 KJV Read in context

³⁹The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.

and therefore such as profess the true religion, should not marry with infidels, or idolaters; neither should such as are godly, be unequally yoked, by marrying with such as are wicked in their life, or maintain damnable heresy.

Nehemiah 13:25-27

Nehemiah 13:25-27 KJV Read in context

²⁵And I contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, saying, Ye shall not give your daughters unto their sons, nor take their daughters unto your sons, or for yourselves. ²⁶Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin. ²⁷Shall we then hearken unto you to do all this great evil, to transgress against our God in marrying strange wives?

4. Marriage ought not to be within the degrees of consanguinity or affinity, forbidden in the Word;

Leviticus 18

Leviticus 18 KJV Read in context

¹And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ²Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God. ³After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. ⁴Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God. ⁵Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD. ⁶None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the LORD. ⁷The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. ⁸The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness. ⁹The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father, or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home, or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover. ¹⁰The nakedness of thy son’s daughter, or of thy daughter’s daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover: for theirs is thine own nakedness. ¹¹The nakedness of thy father’s wife’s daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. ¹²Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister: she is thy father’s near kinswoman. ¹³Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister: for she is thy mother’s near kinswoman. ¹⁴Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s brother, thou shalt not approach to his wife: she is thine aunt. ¹⁵Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter in law: she is thy son’s wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. ¹⁶Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness. ¹⁷Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter, to uncover her nakedness; for they are her near kinswomen: it is wickedness. ¹⁸Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her life time. ¹⁹Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness. ²⁰Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour’s wife, to defile thyself with her. ²¹And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD. ²²Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. ²³Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. ²⁴Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: ²⁵And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. ²⁶Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations; neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: ²⁷(For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) ²⁸That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. ²⁹For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from among their people. ³⁰Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the LORD your God.

nor can such incestuous marriages ever be made lawful, by any law of man or consent of parties, so as those persons may live together as man and wife.

Mark 6:18 1 Corinthians 5:1

Mark 6:18 KJV Read in context

¹⁸For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife.

1 Corinthians 5:1 KJV Read in context

¹It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.