340. What does the Old Testament teach about marriage?
(Comp
340) God helped his people above all through the teaching of the Law and
the Prophets to deepen progressively their understanding of the unity and
indissolubility of marriage. The nuptial covenant of God with Israel prepared
for and prefigured the new covenant established by Jesus Christ the Son of God,
with his spouse, the Church.
“In brief”
(CCC 416) By his sin Adam, as the first man, lost the
original holiness and justice he had received from God, not only for himself
but for all human beings. (CCC 417) Adam and Eve transmitted to their
descendants human nature wounded by their own first sin and hence deprived of
original holiness and justice; this deprivation is called "original
sin".
To deepen and explain
(CCC 1609) In his mercy God has not forsaken sinful man. The
punishments consequent upon sin, "pain in childbearing" and toil
"in the sweat of your brow" (Gen 3:16, 19) also embody remedies that
limit the damaging effects of sin. After the fall, marriage helps to overcome
self-absorption, egoism, pursuit of one's own pleasure, and to open oneself to
the other, to mutual aid and to self-giving. (CCC 1610) Moral conscience
concerning the unity and indissolubility of marriage developed under the
pedagogy of the old law. In the Old Testament the polygamy of patriarchs and
kings is not yet explicitly rejected. Nevertheless, the law given to Moses aims
at protecting the wife from arbitrary domination by the husband, even though
according to the Lord's words it still carries traces of man's "hardness
of heart" which was the reason Moses permitted men to divorce their wives
(Cf. Mt 19:8; Deut 24:1).
Reflection
(CCC 1611) Seeing God's covenant with Israel in the image of
exclusive and faithful married love, the prophets prepared the Chosen People's
conscience for a deepened understanding of the unity and indissolubility of
marriage (Cf. Hos 1-3; Isa 54; 62; Jer 2-3; 31; Ezek 16; 23; Mal 2:13-17). The
books of Ruth and Tobit bear moving witness to an elevated
sense of marriage and to the fidelity and tenderness of spouses. Tradition has
always seen in the Song of Solomon a
unique expression of human love, a pure reflection of God's love - a love
"strong as death" that "many waters cannot quench" (Song
8:6-7).
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