MARRIAGE (tulerij), (Heb. o-nawh').
(1) Divine Origin. The Divine origin of mar riage, and the primitive state of the institution, are clearly recorded in the instance of the first human pair (Gen. ii A-25), whence it appears that woman was made after man to be 'a helper suited to him.' The narrative is calculated to convey exalted ideas of the institution. It is in troduced by a declaration of the Lord God, that 'it is not good that the man should be alone' (ver. 18) ; of the truth of which Adam had become convinced by experience. In ordcr still further to enliven his sense of his deficiency, the various species of creatures arc made to pass in review before him, 'to see what Ile would call them ;' on which occasion he could behold cach species ac companied by its appropriate helper. and upon concluding his task would become still more af fectingly aware, that amid all animated nature 'there was not found an help meet for himself.' It was at this juncture, when his heart was thus thoroughly prepared in appreciate the intended blessing, that a Divine slumber (Sept. gKetractr,ech' sta-sis) or trance. fell upon him—a state in which, as in after ages, the exercise of the external senses being suspended, the mental powers are pecu liarly prepared to receive revelations from God (Gen. xv :t2; Acts x:to; xxii:17; 2 Cor. xii:2). His exclamation when Eve was brought to him shows that lie had been fully conscious of the circumstances of her crcation, and had been in structed by them as to the nature of the relation which would thenceforth subsist between them. 'The man said, this time, it is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh; this shall be called woman, for out of man was this taken' (New Transla tion by the Rev. D. A. De Sola, etc. Lond. p. 8). The remaining words, 'for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they (two) shall be one flesh,' which might otherwise seem a proleptical an nouncement by the historian of the social obliga tions of marriage, are by our Lord ascribed to the Divine agent concerned in the transaction, either uttered by him personally, or by the mouth of Adam while in a state of inspiration. 'Have
ye not read that he that made them at the be ginning, made them male and female, and said, for this cause,' etc. (Matt. xix:4, 5).
(2) Monogamous. It is a highly important circumstance in this transaction that God created only one female for one man, and united them —a circumstance which is the very basis of our Lord's reasoning in the passage against divorce and remarriage; but which basis is lost, and his reasoning consequently rendered inconclusive, by the inattention of our translators to the absence of the article, 'he made them dpacv Kai OFIXu,' a male and a female, 'and said, they shall be come one flesh; so that they are no more two, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."The weight of our Lord's argument,' says Campbell, 'lay in this circumstance, that God at first created no more than a single pair. one of each sex, whom he united in the bond of marriage, and, in so doing, exhibited a standard of that union to all generations. The apostasy introduced a DM fea ture into the institution, namely, the subjection of the wife's will to that of her husband (Gen. iii:16; comp. Num. xxx :6-n5). The primitive model was adhered to even by Cain, who seems to have had but one wife (Gen. iv:17).
(3) Polygamy. Polygamy, one of the earliest developments of human degeneracy, was intro duced by Lamech, who 'took unto him two wives' (Gen. iv :ig). The intermarriage of 'the Sons of God,' i. c. the worshipers of the true God, with 'the daughters of men,' i. e. the irreligious, is the next incident in the history of marriage. They indulged in unrestrained polygamy, 'they took them wives of all that they chose.' From this event may be dated that headlong degeneracy of mankind at this period, which ultimately brought on them extirpation by a deluge (Gen. vi:3-7). At the time of that catastrophe Noah had but one wife (Gen. vii:7), and so each of his sons (ver. 13). Pursuing the investigation according to chronological arrangement, Job next appears (B.