Romans 7:1-12
1 Or do you not know, brothers [and sisters] —for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage [law concerning the husband]. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in AD 14.
Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans somewhere between 51-57 AD. Historically this is about as close as horseshoes and hand grenades. Close.
Augustus was a tidy man, someone who wanted to be a Caesar beyond reproach and his wife, Caesar's wife (whom he proposed to while she was married and pregnant with her other husband's child), as well. Romans had been allowed to marry in different forms and it was all pretty much live and let live as far as marriage went. Augustus decided it needed to be .... Defined and Legal.
1. Confarreatio (divorce almost unheard of)was a traditional patrician form of marriage. Divorce for confarreatio marriages, diffarreatio, was a difficult process and therefore rare. A special type of sacrifice that caused the dissolution of the relationship between the man and woman. She would then pass back into her father's home or family. Originally, the confarreatio was indissoluble. The wife leaves her family and becomes her husband's family, or property = cum manu. Later, divorce was easier the dowry returned with the wife.
2. Coemptio (slavery/service) was in essence a sale of the woman to the husband. Coemptio occurred at any time throughout marriage. This was a process of mancipation (slavery/service). The transaction occurred with a scales-holder and in the presence of at least five witnesses, adult male Roman citizens. Coemptio could occur not only with a husband but also with an outsider. However, this process is deemed for the “sake of trust” not for the “sake of marriage.” Coemptio was only a convenient legal practice. If a wife became cum manu through the process of coemptio divorced, then she became emancipated. By the 2nd century AD, a wife was able to compel her husband to emancipate her, a right not shared by her children.
3. Usus (living together, owned by husband) Cum Manu acquired by usus was simply the cohabitation of the husband and wife for the duration of a year. After a year passed the wife was transferred into the ownership of her partner, she was considered taken by the decree of yearly possession. This process required no ceremonial practices. If the woman was not willing to come into ownership of her husband, manus by usus was easily preventable. As conditioned in the Twelve Tables if the wife absented herself for the total of three days and three nights before the end of the year, each year, the marriage was not cum manu, and she was not under the ownership of her husband. If a woman married cum manu through the process of usus divorced then, she became Emancipated. Subsequently, the law of usus was dissolved by legal enactments presumably because it fell out of use..... so Do Not Spend Your Anniversary Together at all costs....
4. Sine Manu (living together, owned by father instead of husband) the wife legally and ritually remained a member of her father's family, standing under the control of her father's potestas. The bride is not under control of the husband. This form of marriage held no ceremonial formalities led by a public official. Ultimately it involved a husband and wife living together under the intention of a marriage, in conjunction with the legal capacity of marriage under the Roman law. Although no official ceremony was held, it was customary for the bride to be escorted to her bridegrooms house. The children of this union were legally members of the husband’s agnatic kin.
Women faced with the loss of property when entering a cum manu marriage began to only consent to sine manu (father's family property) unions (similar to living together, today, to avoid prenuptial agreements and financial wedding issues.)
So, Augustus was trying to put marriage together better for inheritance when he created these types of marriages, legally. They had been used for centuries. When we read the last paragraph in brown, Augustus' goal was promoting self and not promoting a couple living as one person.
Does it sound like these forms of marriages would help sort out society better and then the playing field is easily understood? It had an effect. A definite effect. The love of many grew colder.
Marriage is a work in progress. Dating or living together leads to a non-committed society - free to abandon hearts and children. Those abandoned hearts hurt others, the cycle goes on and on to the detriment of society.
True, we don't consider women property in most of the world today. But we do consider property, income, commitment instead of Christian marriage for love, honor, obey, cherish in sickness and all circumstances. Confarreatio (devoted love forsaking all other things) began to be a thing of the past.
When we look at the Roman Empire in 235–284 AD called the Imperial Crisis, it is the beginning of the end of the Roman Empire (not Christianity as pop culture tells us). Invasion, civil war, plague, economic depression, hyperinflation caused by years of coinage devaluation. A denarius coin, a day's pay, quit using silver and was devalued. Trade increased during the good years of the Empire, but war created large landowners unable to send their goods abroad. Local city dwellers were trapped and unable to buy what they needed by war and unsafe trade on the highways, pledged themselves to local land barons. The Empire broke up into 3 parts in 258 AD. Large, open cities of Classical antiquity slowly gave way to the smaller, walled cities that were common in the Middle Ages.
Christianity is said to have split the Roman Empire, but really selfishness is probably the downfall. What led people out of the fortified Middle Ages walled cities? The Churches. Most times, as Churches grew, they were built outside the walls because people felt they could trust not to be attacked going in and out of the Churches. When we look at the face of Europe and the UK, the Middle Ages walls are mostly removed, the wooden castles -gone. The stone castles in ruins. Yet the Churches remain - the light leading out of the darkness. Funny how we think of the monks hording the Bible from us and creating these fortified cities - but really the greed of man created the despair. Then the Church was a shining light which began to be corrupted in a world where greed of man invades a whole lot. The monks were kept busy farming, feeding the poor and creating oasis of light. God manages to pull us forward in a fallen world.
In 1937, A. P. Herbert went to the British Parliament newly elected to give his maiden speech about a bill called the A.P. Herbert Marriage Law. He proposed more liberal reasons for divorce like insanity and a marriage irreparably broken allowing divorce. Winston Churchill said, "Call that a maiden speech? It was a brazen hussy of a speech. It was the most painted harlot of a speech that ever presented itself before a modest Parliament."
As a child of divorced parents, I can tell you from experience, divorce can be very one-sided and un-asked for. But there is a direct correlation between Christ and His Church ... and society and marriage laws.
When we look at the problems facing School Boards before 1937 they are ... chewing gum, late to class, talking. Today problems are: drugs, pregnancy, weapons. Much more serious.
The Scriptures, God's Covenants, all involve treating one another with love and respect. When love becomes traded for property, for casual instead of commitment, for anything other than a marriage based on trust - people begin to look out for their own interests. Leading to a distrust all over, hording, materialism instead of affection, trade imbalances. Coveting, war. Trouble. 41% of children born today in the USA, are born outside of legal and spiritual commitment. Easier, emotionally, to walk away from children, when there is no commitment. Where is the pendulum? Scripture and God's plan are for love and peace. For building and upbuilding.
Romans 3:30-4:1-3
29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 31 Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the [God's] law.
4:1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”
Father God, You are the Shepherd, the Rock. A chosen and precious cornerstone. When we trust in You, we will never be put to shame. In You, Lord, You are the Rock upon a house to be build. When storm comes, You are our Shelter. You are the Mighty One.
In the Old Testament, You asked us to walk in Your ways. In the New Testament, we are asked to walk in Your ways. Help us each day to give justice with mercy and walk humbly with You. Teach us to build up our families for loving marriage. Teach us to make commitments of kindness and care to one another. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
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