This coming Sunday is the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time. Our gospel is the parable of the Ten Virgins. The gospel reading begins: “Jesus told his disciples this parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven will be like…’” and then goes on to place the parable in the midst of a first century wedding celebration. Both of Matther’s use of a wedding celebration setting are a part of the overarching message about the Kingdom of Heaven.

• The Parable of the Wedding Feast (Matthew 22:1-14; gospel for the 28th Sunday): This parable is unique to the Gospel of Matthew and directly addresses the theme of the Kingdom of Heaven. In this parable, a king prepares a great wedding feast for his son, symbolizing God’s invitation to people to enter His Kingdom. The initial guests (representing the religious leaders of the time) reject the invitation, and the king invites others from the streets and highways (representing the Gentiles and outcasts). The parable teaches that those who accept the invitation and come properly attired (with righteousness) will be part of the Kingdom, but those who reject it will be excluded. This parable reinforces the idea that the Kingdom of Heaven is open to all, regardless of their social or religious status, but there is a minimum standard of life by which one remains in the celebration.
• The Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13): In this parable, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to ten young women awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom for a wedding. Five are wise and prepared with enough oil for their lamps, while five are foolish and unprepared. When the bridegroom finally arrives, the wise virgins enter the wedding feast, but the foolish ones are left out. This parable emphasizes the importance of readiness and vigilance for the coming of the Kingdom. Those who are spiritually prepared will enter, while those who are not will miss out.

Weddings provided one of the high points in village life, and the question of who was and was not included affected one’s social standing. A first-century Jewish wedding in the time of Jesus was a significant cultural event with several distinct stages and ceremonies. The details of these weddings are primarily derived from historical and cultural sources of the time, including the Mishnah (a collection of Jewish oral traditions compiled in the 2nd century CE) and archaeological discoveries. While there is no direct account of a first-century Jewish wedding in the New Testament, we can reconstruct the general process based on these sources. It’s important to note that some variations in wedding customs existed depending on the region and specific Jewish community. Here is a brief summary of the known wedding customs.

In the first century Jewish culture, parents typically arranged marriages for their children. The prospective groom’s parents would approach the parents of the bride-to-be with a marriage proposal. This led to the initial stage of a Jewish wedding, the betrothal, which was a legally binding contract (cf. Luke 1:27 “to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary”). During this time, the bride and groom were considered husband and wife, even though they did not yet live together. Betrothals were typically arranged when the bride and groom were quite young, and the actual wedding would take place later. In the meantime the bride continued to live with her parents.

At the appointed time the groom, accompanied by his groomsmen, would proceed to the bride’s house. They would return together in a procession to the groom’s house for the ceremony and the festivities. The procession might be animated with shouting or the blowing of the shofar and was typically at nighttime so lamps were needed. The main part of the celebration was a festive banquet where guests would gather to celebrate the newlyweds. The feast often lasted for several days, during which time there was dancing, music, and rejoicing.

Image credit: Greek Fresco, “Bridal Chamber”, iconreader.wordpress.com, CC-BY