"It shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that Yahweh your Elohim will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. And Yahweh will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. And you shall destroy all the peoples whom Yahweh your Elohim delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you" (Deut.7:12-16, NKJV).

Egyptian marriage was monogamy-only for the masses probably because marriage was such an expensive matter and people only married within their social class...but not for the ruling class who practiced both polygamy (mostly by the kings for the contracting of political alliances with other potentates...and these were always concubines and not full wives, because they weren't allowed to marry foreigners) as well as a number of perversions, just like Europe and the West in general before the Hippie Revolution of the 1960's. Not that the masses were above adultery and fornication - they, like the ruling class, simply did it quietly behind the scenes. Until recently it was supposed that prostitution did not exist in ancient Egypt because these things were never spoken of, though it was not only admitted but openly paraded that 'sacred sex' took place in their temples. The 'gods' of Egypt were, as we have seen, not only magicised personifications of human behaviour, but were overtly sexual. Though not prostitution per se, it was nevertheless perversion...by Yahweh's standards.

Recently archaeologists unearthed the first known example of Egyptian pornography in a town especially built for workers on Pharaoh's architectural projects adjacent to the Valley of the Kings, shattering the myth that the ancient Egyptians were a cut above the rest when it came to marital fidelity. Nevertheless the myth held good for millennia because of the taboos of Egyptian society that kept the sexual violation of ma'at well and truly under the covers.

The 'Christian' West was, until recently, no different. The only real difference was, as I said, caused by the Hippie Revolution which not only denounced the façade of Western morality (especially amongst the ruling classes) but wholeheartedly embraced it in public, leading to the sexual anarchy that we have today. Their exposé of the ruling classes' hypocrisy was not, of course, for the purpose of encouraging reformation but a revolutionary Marxist drive to promote the single-minded destruction of Christian values, and especially marriage. 'Free love', so called, was hardly free - its heafty price tag included the near total destruction of the family which we see today, the overall decline of morality in general, and a proliferation of STD's (sexually-transmitted diseases).

Curiously, there is no evidence of any ancient Egyptian marriage ceremonial practices. There were no rituals, no spoken marriage covenants (beyond financial contracts), no parties or celebration (those took place much later in the Ptolomaic period) - which is most odd since the Egyptians loved to party. It appears that a woman was considered married if she took her belongings from her parents' house and moved them and herself into the home of a man who was not already married to someone else. There are records of parents using the occasion to transfer property to the bride or the groom but there are no other signs of anything approaching a ceremony or a party. There are plenty of love poems but absolutely nothing on marriage rituals.

One is sometimes tempted to compare this with the way couples move in with each other these days though in ancient Egypt there was nothing casual about getting together - it was considered a proper marriage with all the obligations of the marriage estate. My own view is that the Egyptian practice hearkens from the patriarchal era where there is evidence that no ceremonies were involved either - once a man slept with a woman, they were considered married, and everyone recognised the state as being so entered into and binding. Sex was the first act of marriage. Thus when Rebekah came to Isaac, she simply moved in with him, consummated the marriage, and they were 'wed'. There were no officiating ministers and no spiritual covenants - just the usual financial arrangements when Eliezer presented gifts to Rebekah's father. Only later, during the Mosaic period, did marriage ceremonies become customary.

Other similarities with the patriarchal period include the Egyptian custom of marrying off the eldest daughter in a family first and the youngest last. This still continues in some parts of modern Egypt. We are reminded of how Laban tricked Jacob into first marrying his eldest daughter Leah before being given Rachel - when he insisted it was their custom, he was no doubt telling the truth. Certainly the ancient Egyptians did so suggesting that this practice was widespread.

Unlike the Roman tradition of marriage where couples were expected to marry first and love later, Egyptian men thought very highly of women, considered love to be important, and embraced the marriage estate seriously...even without covenants and ceremonies. Museums are filled with statues and paintings showing husbands and wives with their arms around each other's waistes, holding hands or offering each other flowers or food, showing that love and affection were a part of Egyptian marriage. However, there is no evidence that girls were allowed to give their consent to marriage until the 26th Dynasty, unlike in the patriarchal era where we find Rebekah giving her consent before going with Abraham's servant Eliezer to be wed to Isaac.

The Egyptian wisdom literature was in many ways very similar to that of the Hebrews (e.g. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus/Sirach) which has led some liberal theologians to suppose that the Hebrews borrowed from the Egyptians.

The ancient Egyptians were more lax in regard to divorce than the pre-Talmudic Hebrews. The Egyptian state, unlike our modern ones, did not get involved in marriage and showed no interest in who got divorced. Either party could initiate a divorce, the reasons being irrelevent. Written divorce agreements do exist and it is likely that a woman seeking to remarry would need to show the document to her future husband before he would allow her to move in with him. Divorce was simple as it is in countries like modern-day Sweden. The ex-wife was entitled to take whatever personal items she brought with her (clothing, jewelry, cook-ware, etc.) and always retained separate ownership of land, buildings, slaves, etc., that she possessed before the marriage. Thus men and women retained separate ownership of any property they brought into the marriage.

An ancient Egyptian man could marry as soon as he was physically mature and had reached a point in his chosen career that ensured his ability to provide for his wife and for any subsequent children. Egypt being a mixed racial society, race probably played no consideration in marriage. Girls entered puberty around 12-13 and boys around 14 with marriages typically contracted when the boys were 17-20 (or older) and girls around 14-15. This was in part because life expectancy was short. Marriage between kin was common with step-brothers and sisters marrying, along with uncles and nieces. But the real incestual perversions occured amongst royalty where brother/sister and father/daughter marriages were not uncommon because of the pagan religious tradition of the 'gods' doing the same.

Virginity was not important to the ancient Egyptians as it was to the Hebrews. Indeed, premarital sex, or any sex between unmarried people, was socially acceptable. Only upon marrying were couples expected to be sexually faithful to each other.

It has correctly been asserted that ancient Egyptian society was mostly matriarchal. A number of male-female rôles seem to have been reversed in ancient Egyptian culture, even as late as the historian Herodotus (484-420 BC), who noted:

"The Egyptians appear to have reversed the ordinary practices of mankind. Women attend markets and are employed in trade, while men stay at home and do the weaving! Men in Egypt carry loads on their head, women on their shoulder. Women pass water standing up, men sitting down. To ease themselves, they go indoors, but eat outside on the streets, on the theory that what is unseemly, but necessary, should be done in private, and what is not unseemly should be done openly" (Herodotus II:33-37).

But perhaps the most matriarchal facet of ancient Egyptian life was the belief that descent is primarily traced through the mother and maternal ancestors (a non-biblical practice of Talmudic Judaism) as well as the father in a secondary sense, what we might call matri/patrilineage, reflecting the kind of strong female-dominant coheadship tendencies that characterise modern feminist society, Christian as well as secular.

Some scholars have concluded that this matrilineal element is the result of the earliest goddess cults within Egypt's pagan religion, principally those of Nekhebt and Ua Zit:

"Goddess Ua Zit was also known as Hathor and her 'legend related to creation' shows close resemblance to that of the legend of Tiamet, a goddess from nearby Mesopotamia. It was believed that Ua Zit or Hathor was the primal serpent which existed from the beginning of time. She was credited with the making of the heaven, earth, and all life. When things became uncontrollably corrupt, Hathor also threatened to destroy all creation and return back to her primal state of serpent behind all things. The existence of similar goddesses clearly shows that during that period which corresponds to the Neolithic times, goddess cult and matriarchal societies of similar nature with close cultural influence were widespread in the east and west.

"In fact the myths and religious traditions are one of the best indicators to study and understand a society. The Egyptian civilianization was one of the oldest human civilizations and the early part of it was matriarchal in nature. This extended from a prehistoric time up until the first appearance of Osiris c. 3000 B.C.

"The origin of the goddess cult would have begun with the early clans of Egypt which were matrilineal in nature and where the mother was the primary parent of her family. In these clans the family lineage was always traced through the feminine gender, going from the mother to daughter. It is believed that after many generations of such lineage, the oldest ancestors of the clan would have first been revered, then deified and finally mythologized into becoming a proto-goddess of the type of Nekhebt and Ua Zit.

"The matriarchal societies of Egypt from the Neolithic times had openly pronounced female superiority. Women were actually involved with the prominent roles in the society including the role of the breadwinner. Women went to marketplace where they carried out the business affairs. When it came to the matter of ancestral properties, daughters inherited the ancestral properties of the family and not the son. This was also true regarding the royal throne. Women had complete control of their home and matters related to property." [1]

"Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. So they said, 'Has Yahweh indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?' And Yahweh heard it" (Num.12:1-2, NKJV).

• 1. For claiming matriarchal authority as the elder sibling;
• 2. For attacking Moses' polygamy (for he was also married to Zipporah the Midianite) and she was therefore demanding implementation of the Egyptian monogamy-only rule that contradicted Torah; and
• 3. For racism (Ethiopians are black Nubians), for Yahweh is no respector of persons (only the 7 depraved, cursed Canaanite nations were excluded from matrimonial and national alliances with Israel).

If you are honest I am sure you would be willing to admit that you have thus far been nodding in agreement with some of the Egyptian practices I have mentioned and shaking your head with disapproval at others. The reason I am sharing this information today is so that you can identity where your sympathies and antipathies lie in respect of marriage customs and practices. In my experience, Christians and Messianics are very confused about these things, having sympathies with many modern, wordly 'Egyptian' practices, and having antipathies with some ancient Biblical ones. This is because we have been raised and educated not to think in terms of biblical tavnith or pattern any longer but in liberal, evolutionary, humanistic ones. We have been indoctrinated to think as the world does in some matters which makes us 'liberal' as far as scriptural emet (truth) is concerned even if we profess to be conservative 'Bible-believing Christians' or 'Torah-obedient Messianics'. Like it or not, the churches and messianic assemblies are riddled with false Egyptian notions of marriage. Almost no believer these days has, for example, any clue as to how the Bible defines adultery, and cannot tell the difference between adultery and fornication! And when you tell them that according to Torah a single, unmarried woman can never commit adultery, no matter how hard she tried, I guarantee you will be disbelieved. That's how little Christians and Messianics know about Yahweh's mitzvot (commandments) on marriage.

Have you compromised biblical teaching with worldly, humanistic and socialistic philosophical values as far as biblical marriage standards and practices are concerned? Will you find yourself inside or outside the New Jerusalem and the Messianic Millennial Theocratic Kingdom of Yah'shua (Jesus) when He returns? Do you agree 100% with the biblical revelation or does any part of you honestly believe it is sometimes 'primitive', belonging to a bygone age that will never return? Are you afraid of some of the biblical teachings about marriage?

Having looked at ancient Egyptian practices we are now going to look at the pure, unadulterated teachings of the Bible on the subject - admittedly only in outline and in summary - so that you can see the contrasts clearly. I give links at the bottom of this article for further reading. Whatever is out of harmony with the biblical revelation is out of harmony with Heaven and with the Millennial Reign.

Biblical marriage is the union of a man with one or more women according to the Torah standards set out by Yahweh-Elohim with the husband as the patriarchal head.

Monogamy was established as the norm for the vast bulk of humanity with plural marriage reserved for those men with a tov shem and therefore possessing proven spiritual leadership qualities such as David.

Marriage is a divine institution, authorised and established by the Creator in Eden both for the orderly multiplication of the human race - bringing into being the Nuclear Family, the basic unit of society - and for the bringing together into echad (union) of the spouses therein. It was designed to form a permanent bond between husbands and wives, that they might be mutually helpful to each other, and consequently enjoy great happiness together in both time and eternity.

By initially creating a mate for Adam, using his rib as a foundation, Yahweh made woman man's closest fleshy and spiritual relative on earth - his own flesh (Gen.2:21). Not only was this operation a picture of the spiritual origin of the woman from man also but a metaphor, the word tsela or 'rib' meaning an intimate 'support', 'sustainer' or 'helper' to stand next to him as a helpmate or assistant in the work he is called to do by Yahweh. Man leans on her just as the human body is supported by the ribs. Both were created to indicate their echadness or oneness.

Though humanly speaking they are two individuals, they are spiritually echad or one, and are regarded as such by Yahweh. The female has an extra rib because of her need for more room in her body to be able to conceive and bear children. Though this means she is subordinate to the man having a divinely designated rôle, this does not mean that she is inferior but rather complimentary. Both Adam and Eve were created in the likeness of Elohim (God) - Elohim the Father (Yahweh) and Elohim the Mother (the Ruach haQodesh/Holy Spirit). The Mother is Herself sevenfold (Rev.1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6), her echadness (oneness) repesenting the monoagmous union of new marriage of Adam and Eve and the sevenfold nature representing the complete, perfect and final uni-plural marriage of the Bride of Messiah at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.

Marriage was the normative way of life among the Hebrews, there being no word for 'batchelor' in Hebrew, and it affected not only family life but the whole patriarchal community, determining both the economy and strength of a tribe. The selection of a wife and the arrangement of all contractual and financial matters connected with it was consequently decided upon by the parents or guardians involved, though it was - when done in proper tavnith (pattern) - always through the consent of the parties involved (Gen.24:8) and frequently romantic attachments accompanied the arrangements (Gen.29:20; 1 Sam.18:20,27-28). The initial steps or proposals were generally made by the parents of the young man, but sometimes by the father of the girl, especially if there was a difference of rank (Josh.15:16-17; 1 Sam.18:20-27). Sometimes (as with Jacob) the arrangements were made without the parents apart from a constraint by the father to the son to find a bride amongst Yahweh's people. Mariage to unbelievers was frowned upon from the earliest times (Gen.26:34-35) though a soldier might marry a captive woman under very special circumstances, as disussed previously in Kidnapping and Slavery.

Under the Melchizedek Law of the Patriarchs, which also now applies in the New Covenant, there was little in the way of ceremony, as I have previously mentioned. Under the preparatory Mosaic or Aaronic (Levitical) system, an elaborate cycle was followed that included paying a bride-price, a wedding ceremony, a celebration, and following consummation, proof of virginity. Just as virginity was unimportant to the Egyptians, so it is unimportant to moderns. However, it is very important to Yahweh and it is very important to godly men and women too.

A Cohen Gadol (High Priest) was forbidden to marry a widow, a divorced or violated woman, or a prostitute, and was only to marry a virgin from the Israelite people (Lev.21:10,13-14). Similarly, Yah'shua our Messiah (Jesus Christ) will only allegorically wed a virgin Bride totally washed of all sin - He will not wed with all believers, but only those who have repented of all their sin and have been washed clean by His Blood. Similarly a cohen or priest could not marry a prostitute or a violated woman, nor a woman divorced from her husband (Lev.21:1,7); he could only marry a virgin of the House of Israel or the widow of a fellow cohen (priest) (Ezek.44:22). Since all believers are supposed to be cohanim (priests) - a Royal [Melchizedek] Priesthood (1 Pet.2:9) - this means that they must follow the same standards!

This is a huge subject that I will examine in more detail another time. This mitzvah (commandment) is almost universally flouted and degraded today. To the ancient Egyptians, casual, recreational sex before marriage was considered to be of no consequence but Yahweh and all decent men prize it above rubies. Likewise divorce was easily obtained. When Yahweh instituted marriage, He made no provision for divorce at all - a man was expected to stick with his wife. Divorce was only permitted after man fell and degraded himself, and then only under exceptional circumstances. Someone willing to engage in pre-marital sex casually will take a similar attitude to divorce so the two go hand-in-hand. Godly single men and women should take into special consideration the moral conduct of potential spouses before marriage in arriving at a decision as to whom to wed.

"Women were physiologically and spiritually designed to only have one soul mate. As when a woman has sexual relationships with a man, his soul and spirit [are] stamped and imprinted upon her soul and spirit. So each man she gives her body too, she also gives her soul to be stamped upon. The spirit, character, and good or negative traits will be placed upon her and can have numerous effects on the woman. When this occurs numerous times, it causes the woman to lose her natural design and she becomes very imbalanced and unstable.

"In fact the more men a woman has sex and bonds with, the more difficult it becomes for her to bond with the next man. She can very well ruin her entire soul and purpose in life after having sex with many men, to the point that she becomes incapable of bonding when she meets the right man in whom she could have been compatible with. She in most cases will not have anything left to offer to the relationship. That's why adultery is treated as a major offense, because the woman will bring the soul and spirit of her adulterous lover, which is obviously demonic in nature, into her home and destroy the natural bond she had with her husband. As lying, cheating, mistrust, unfaithfulness and emotional betrayal prevents one from ever being able to bond. That purity is forever lost and can never be regained again. Even if the relationship is able to be repaired, there will always be something missing. However in Yahwah ... all things are possible". [2]

"When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favour in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness ('ervah = nudity, disgrace, blemish) in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house..." (Deut.24:1, NKJV).

The Pharisees, who were lax in this particular mitzvah (commandment), raised it with Yah'shua (Jesus) who with the toqef (authority) given Him, restored this precept to is earlier, original form:

"Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality (adultery), and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery" (Matt.19:8-9, NKJV).

Such strictness was unheard of for an ancient Egyptian for whom divorce was permitted for any reason whatsoever, no questions asked, with the family wealth being more-or-less evenly divided, much as it is today. A true believer is given no such imagined 'liberty'. We can understand how quickly and easily the Israelites descended into orgiastic fertility rights around the Golden Calf with such a liberal mindset still engrained in them, though presumably married men and women were also indulging themselves. These days people think nothing of 'swinging' and 'group sex'.

Polygamy is a bit of an embarrassment for most Christians and Messianics, particularly for the majority imbued with the Egyptian mindset concerning marriage, given Yahweh's permission to practice it, a total absence of any scriptures labelling it as adultery, and the fact that many of the 'greats' practiced this lifestyle with His approbation. Why did the practice not take root in Egypt, except amongst the upper ruling class?

There are two reasons. The first, as I have already mentioned, is because marriage under the Egyptian system was so expensive that no poor person could ever afford to me married to more than woman at a time. But there is a more important reason - a spiritual one - that created a monogamy-only mindset for the lower, poorer classes, and that was the prominence of matriarchy, which I have also already discussed. Obviously polygamy (more specifically, polygyny - one man married to more than one woman) is incompatibe with a matriarchal hierarchy. And since polyandry (one woman married to more than one man at the same time) is so contrary to the natural order, and indeed is very rare in the history of world cultures because of this, the only possible marriage system compatible with matriarchy would have to be compulsory monogamy. And so it was that for the masses, monogamy was the only accepted marriage form in Egypt.

This was the mindset Miriam brought with her to Sinai and caused her to criticise Moses for having both an Ethiopian and a Midianite wife, and why she claimed priestly authority, per pro the Egyptian system of temple priestesses, to at the very least have equal theocratic rights to Moses. Aaron was the junior partner in this rebellion, meekly towing his bigger sister's feminist line...even though he was the Cohen Gadol or High Priest of Yahweh! Symbolically, this was a rebellion against the whole Divine Order, an attempt to install pagan goddess worship such as plagued Israel throughout her history, for you will recall the Cohen Gadol (High Priest) was a type of Messiah Himself! This action was therefore antimessiah or antichrist and had to be crushed as only Yahweh knows how...by means of the most hated and loathed disease of all, representing the ultimate in uncleanness: leprosy!

It is no accident, though, that Yahweh showed His power over leprosy when He earlier demonstrated His toqef (authority) before the children of Israel by making Moses' hand leprous and then healing Him right after. Miriam too found healing and pardon after her 7 day isolation outside the camp of Israel, signifying that such crimes require separation to acquire a right mind and heart before forgiveness is given. In this demonstration, Yahweh condemned (1) feminism, (2) monogamy-only, anti-polygamy exclusivism and (3) racism, all in one go, establishing patriarchy as Divine Emet (Truth) and Tavnith (Pattern). The two-tiered marriage system in ancient Egypt - monogamy-only for the masses, with concubinage for the royals plus some bizzare incestuous arrangements, can then be seen as a perversion of the true order of heaven, which is that monogamy is for the vast bulk of mankind with polygamy an option for spiritual, overcoming and Torah-obedient men and women, fully submitted to Messiah in everything, who are called and able to live this higher marriage lifestyle. Given the state of the Body of Messiah today, it is clear that very few are actually capable of living this latter lifestyle and that very, very few are therefore called into it. For this reason, we strongly discourage this marriage estate in this ministry.

Restoring proper gender rôles was critical for Israel in the wilderness under Moses just as it is today, for without this restoration an antichrist spirit will continue to trip up believers again and again by opening doors to the enemy to harrass and entrench disunity:

"There is one body and one Ruach (Spirit), just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Master (Lord), one emunah (faith), one baptism; one Elohim (God) and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (Eph.4:3-6, NKJV).

Egyptian ways - ancient and modern - are wholly incompatible with Yahweh's when it comes to marriage, gender rôles and relationships. They are not small demonic strongholds either which is why a 40 year wilderness wandering was required to purge them out requiring a totally new generation of believers. Of the original generation of Egyptianised Israelites, only two - Joshua and Caleb - were strong and valiant enough to throw off the matriarchal Egyptian cultural baggage and to be counted worthy to enter the Promised Land. They and the new generation born in the wilderness, or those who were under 20 when they left Egypt, were the chosen ones, just as the last generation emerging now - plus a handful from this one - will be chosen to meet the enemy victoriously in the final assault by Satan against the Woman and her Child.

We, in this ministry, are preparing this last generation, and we are searching for the Joshua's and Caleb's who are willing to join hands with us.

Selah!

Endnotes

[1] Sanjay Nair & Karishma Anand, Ancient Matriarchy
[2] Shalomim HaLahawi Rabi-Kohan, Are you a Soul Mate or Just a Married Mate?

Acknowledgements

[1] James C. Thompson, Marriage in Ancient Egypt
[2] Barbara Watterson, Women in Ancient Egypt
[3] Wikipedia, Egyptian Wedding
[4] Egypt: Then and Now, Marriage in Ancient Egypt
[4] Dougles J. Brewer & Emily Teeter, Ancient Egyptian Society and Family Life
[5] George M. Lamsa, Old Testament Light: A Commentary on the Aramaic (Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville: 1964)

Further Reading - ME Websites

[1] The Holy Echad Marriage website of this ministry
[2] The Sex, Romance and Marriage website of this ministry
[2] The Truth About Biblical Marriage - a biblical exegesis on plural marriage

Further Reading - Key ME Articles