821. In the East the custom of arranged marriages goes back to early Old Testament times. When Esau married against his parents' wishes, he caused Isaac and Rebekah grief. Why did parents insist on their right to select a bride for their son? The new bride became a member of the bridegroom's clan, and the whole family had a vested interest in knowing if she would be a good fit. There is evidence that sometimes the son or daughter was consulted, as in Rebekah's case when she was asked if she was willing to go and become the wife of Isaac (Gen. 24:58).
822. What's love got to do with it? Eastern peoples consider love between husband and wife very much like westerners do between brother and sister. It is believed that husbands and wives should love one another because God chose them for each other through the selection of their parents. Love comes after marriage. There are some exceptions to the rule. The case of Jacob and Rachel is the most notable example. For Jacob it was love at first sight (Gen. 29:10-18).
823. For centuries it has been possible for a husband in Arab lands to divorce his wife by a spoken word. When the wife is divorced, she is entitled to all her wearing apparel, and the husband cannot take anything from her that she has on her body. For this reason, coins on the headgear, rings, and necklaces became an important source of wealth in time of a woman's need. Such customs of divorce were no doubt prevalent in Gentile lands during Old Testament times. A woman was not allowed to divorce her husband.
824. A husband must give a written certificate of divorce (Deut. 24:1) to his wife in order to divorce her. This is so that she may remarry. The prophet Malachi taught that God hated divorce and severely condemned any man who dealt treacherously with the wife of his covenant (Mal. 2:14-16).
825. The sin of adultery did not have anything to do with divorce under the Jewish law. Adultery was punishable by death or stoning (Lev. 20:10). A man who was guilty of unfaithfulness was considered a criminal only in that he had invaded the rights of another man. Jesus swept away all grounds for divorce under the law, and made unfaithfulness the lone grounds for divorce for New Testament Christians (Matt. 5:31-32).
826. Prostitutes often appear in the stories of the Bible. There were two kinds of prostitutes in the Hebrew Scriptures. There were "cultic prostitutes" of the Canaanite religion, but Rahab, the prostitute in Jericho, was a zonah, which is Hebrew for a common prostitute. Rahab was the prostitute who hid Israelite spies and later dangled a red cord out her window to mark her house for protection during the conquest of Jericho. New Testament genealogy in Matthew lists Rahab as the mother of Boaz, who married Ruth and is an ancestor of David, as well as Jesus.
