Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 68:1 (NA 2017)
Article: The State And Marriage Cut The Connection
Author: Daniel L. Hill

---

TynBull 68:1 (2017) p. 95

The State And Marriage
Cut The Connection1

Daniel Hill

([email protected])

Summary

I argue that the connection between the state and the institution of marriage should be cut. More precisely, I argue that the state should not (i) solemnise or purport to solemnise any marriages, (ii) register any marriages and (iii) make any laws, civil or criminal, respecting marriage. I advance several arguments for this thesis, and then respond to many possible objections. I do not argue for any change in any of the typical Western laws respecting sexual intercourse; in particular, I do not argue for any change in the laws regarding rape, the age of consent to intercourse or intercourse with a minor.

1. What Is Marriage?

1:1 The Scriptural View

The nature of marriage and marital status are hotly debated today. The fundamental disagreement seems to be between those who, on the one

TynBull 68:1 (2017) p. 96

hand, think that marriage is purely an institution of the state or society, and those who, on the other hand, think that marriage is of divine institution.2

The Christian Scriptures present marriage as an institution of divine origin. The first marriage-related word to appear in most English translations of the Scriptures is the word ‘wife’, and its first occurrence in most English translations is in Genesis 2, 3 where it occurs twice.4 This first occurrence is in a sentence traditionally held to be describing the institution of marriage – ‘therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh’5 – while the second occurrence describes Eve in particular.6 In the New Testament, Jesus is recorded in Matthew 19:6 as referring back to Genesis 2 when he says:

Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’”? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.’7

Here, Jesus says that it ...

visitor : : uid: ()