JEWISH MARRIAGE CUSTOMS: Part Eight

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Bride Price (Mohar)

According to Jewish marriage customs, it was mandatory, by law, that the groom negotiated and paid a price to the father of the bride. The price (Mohar) was normally in the form of currency and was compulsory. The bride price was high so as to compensate the parents for the raising of that female child and as an indication of the value that the groom placed on her.

Sometimes the bride price was sheep or it could very well have been anything that they agreed upon [1] and I mean anything, as 1 Samuel 18:25 declares. David doubled that and gave Saul 200 [2]. I am guessing it was an “in your face type of thing,” because the price was to render David dead.

Parallels to the Church. . .
As stated above, it was legally binding and mandatory that the groom negotiated and paid a price (Mohar), to the father of the bride. I bet that everyone caught this one. (You guys are catching on.) Jesus has bought us for a price [3], as required by law [4], and the currency with which He paid, was His own life [5] and the Blood of the Covenant. He has paid for us in full [6]. We are not our own [7]. Jesus must place a high value on His bride [8] that He would pay for her with His own life [9].

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Corinthians 6:20

Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men. 1 Corinthians 7:23

From here Christ traveled back home to his Father's house to prepare a home for us, his new Bride.
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[1] Genesis 24:53; 29; 34:12; 1 Samuel 17:25; 18:25; Hosea:3:3
[2] 1 Samuel 18:27
[3] 1 Corinthians 6:20
[4] Romans 8:3, 4
[5] John 3:16; Mark 14:36
[6] 1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Peter 1:18
[7] 1 Corinthians 6:19
[8] John 3:1
[9] Ephesians 5:25

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