Main WEDDING LETTERS 7 SEALS Jericho Scroll 7 TRUMPETS 7 THUNDERS 6 Second Woe p2 7 evil kingdoms Anglic proclamations 7 Bowls APPENDIX

Behold, the bridegroom cometh!
The ancient Jewish wedding as a pattern of Christ’s second coming.

There are many parallels between the ancient Jewish marriage customs and the marriage of Jesus. In fact the first 5 OT books look similar to an ancient Jewish wedding contract. The OT sets up many patterns; the best known is the Passover. Many centuries later Jesus becomes our ultimate Passover. But Passover is just part of the biggest but often overlooked pattern of all. Marriage.

Many Christians know that the climax of the Bible is the marriage of Jesus, but usually don’t see huge parts of the Bible are laying the groundwork for His marriage. Or that many NT verses are loaded with reference to wedding customs. The first five books of the Bible, written by Moses, follow the pattern of an ancient Jewish marriage contract so the love story starts early on in the Bible. The first reference, I’m aware about, is a reference to the first layer of a wedding garment.

Gen 3:21 To Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

The ancient wedding customs are not fully described in the Bible. Complete descriptions are found in extra-Biblical writings. To some that’s a big red flag because it opens the way to inject all sorts of fantasy doctrines into the Bible. That’s true; but likewise seeing the Bible as Book that’s totally disconnected from the ancient Jewish society, also gives opportunity to slip in false doctrines. In my opinion using extra Biblical writings is no problem as long as the writings don’t contradict what’s written in the Bible. As you will see overlaying the wedding customs on the Bible reveals a pattern in the Bible. A way of looking at verses without changing a single letter in the original God inspired Scriptures.

The wedding customs changed over time and sometimes differed per area. In Judea they were big on as many festivities as possible while in Galilee they tried to keep everything as simple as possible. So at times it can be difficult to pick the right set of customs because the only set we are looking for is during the ministry of Jesus and before that.

The verses listed are quite often shortened by using ‘…’ to make the text more readable. In case of doubt you are encouraged to read the full verse in context in your favorite translation.

Enjoy the ride, bride!

◊──────────────────◊──────────────────◊

Summary

Let’s start with a summary of this article.

A marriage is arranged.

A marriage contract, which is mostly financial business, is signed.

Many preparations start.  Often takes one to two years.

The financial side of the deal is wrapped up.

The groom, sitting on a wooden bier, is carried to the bride’s house.

When near her house the bride runs toward the groom.

The groom pulls her up the bier without out his feet touching the ground.

They go to a place where a night long party takes with a select group of people.

The next day is the wedding party with guests

This website consists of three main parts.

1. An explanation of the ancient Jewish wedding and the Scriptural parallels.

2. A discussion of Revelation which takes the wedding parallels to a whole different symbolic level.

3. An appendix containing graphs showing how the various covenants, letters, seals, etc align. It’s advised to give the graphs at least a quick look before starting to read this book.