Marriage as a human institution existed in some shape or form in most ancient cultures. The natural complementarity between man and woman expressed in various ways forms the basis of this union. In some ancient cultures, like that of ancient Rome, this noble institution was civilly enshrined. The old Roman law had proclaimed “Marriage is a union between a man and a woman, an association for the whole of life, in which both are under the same law, divine and human.”

From the book of Genesis, a picture can be built up of marriage in the order of creation (Gn 1:27-28 ; 2:18-24). Man and woman were entrusted by God with this office of nature deriving from the mutual attraction and union of the sexes (Gn 2:24). The union of man and woman was characterized by unity and indissolubility (Gn 2:24).

The holiness of Marriage is also apparent from other Old Testament texts such as the prayer of Tobias on the occasion of his marriage to Sarah: “It was You who created Adam, You who created Eve his wife to be his help and support; and from these two the human race was born. It was You who said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; let Us make him a helpmate like himself.’ And so I do not take my sister for any lustful motive; I do it in singleness of heart. Be kind enough to have pity on her and on me and bring us to old age together.” (Tb 8:5-7)

Marriage reflected the covenant which God had made with His chosen people. The Lord said; “I will betroth Myself to you for ever, betroth you with integrity and justice, with tenderness and love; I will betroth you to Myself with faithfulness, and you will come to know the Lord” (Ho 2:21-22).

The Law and the Prophets attempted to correct man’s waywardness in marriage as in other aspects of human life. The law given to Moses favored the wife as well as the husband (Dt 24:5) but allowed divorce, because of the hardness of man’s heart (Dt 24:1-4). Despite the fact that divorce was permitted in the Old Testament, it was not part of God’s original plan: “For I hate divorce says the Lord the God of Israel, and I hate people to parade their sins on their cloaks, says the Lord of Hosts” (Ml 1:16).

The marriage contract was regarded as sacred in the Old Testament, as taught in the Decalogue (Ex 20:14, 17).

Matrimony itself was also considered to be a covenant: “The Lord stands as witness between you and the wife of your youth, the wife with whom you have broken faith, even though she was your partner and your wife by covenant” (Ml 1:14). The books of Ruth and Judith offer a high vision of fidelity within marriage. The Song of Songs stresses the permanence of Matrimony: “Set me like a seal upon your heart” (Sg 8:6); and “Love is strong as death” (Sg 8:7).

Jesus performed His first sign at the wedding feast (Jn 2:1-11), henceforth Marriage was to be “an efficacious sign of Christ’s presence.” It was thus raised to the dignity of a sacrament, for Christ has come to perfect the order of creation, and grace builds on nature. Therefore, Christ restored Marriage to its original purity, and bestowed the grace required to carry out the demands which this involves: “Have you not read that the Creator from the beginning made them male and female, and that He said: This is why a man must leave father and mother, and cling to his wife, and the two become one body? They are not longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide” (Mt 19:4-6; cf. Mk 10:6-8; Lk 16:18). Christ was emphatic in teaching that the man who divorces his wife and marries another “is guilty of adultery” (Mt 19:9; cf. Lk 16:18).

St. Paul clearly indicated that Marriage was elevated to a sacrament (Ep 5:21-33). The marriage covenant is clearly intertwined with the image of the relation between Christ the Bridegroom and His Bride the Church: “Husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed Himself for her to make her holy. He made her clean by washing her in water with a form of words, so that when He took her to Himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless” (Ep 5:25-27). St. Paul wrote that Marriage is “a great mystery” the Greek word mysterion is rendered by “mystery”, in some modern translations, but in this context the word “sacrament” would be a more appropriate reading. Matrimony is therefore the only sacrament which is called by that name in the Bible. The Pauline letters contain many instructions about family life which indicate the Apostle’s concern that the sacredness of this sacrament be upheld (I Co 7; Col 3:18-21; Tt 2:4-5).

St. Augustine stressed the goodness of marriage against the Manichaeans, who taught that matter in general and Marriage in particular were evil; he firmly stated that the three goods of Marriage were fidelity, children, and a sacrament. According to Augustine, the essential content of Marriage is indissolubility, which reflects the indissoluble mystical union between Christ and His Church.

Right from the earliest days, the Church has had to proscribe the heresy that marriage is evil. St. Paul condemned the Gnostic error that “marriage is forbidden” (1Tm 4:3). The Manichaean system maintained that matter was evil and therefore so was marriage. Several Manichaean and Pricillianist errors were condemned by the 1^st Council of Toledo in 400 and also by the Council of Braga in 561. The goodness of Marriage was once more affirmed in 1208 against the Waldensians.

The Reformers maintained that Marriage was sacred in the order of nature, they denied that Marriage was a means of grace. Therefore, if Matrimony was not a sacrament it became a civil affair in the eyes of the Reformers: it was drawn into Luther’s separation of Church and State. Hence the Protestants handed over the solemnization of Marriage to the secular authorities. Thus the reformed ecclesial communities permitted divorce in the case of adultery and other causes; the bedrock of indissolubility was thereby gradually eroded in the Protestant tradition. The Council of Trent refuted the Protestant tradition. The Council of Trent refuted the Protestant errors and reaffirmed Catholic teaching on this sacrament. Trent defined that Matrimony was a sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ.[1]