Genesis 38:6-10 states “For his first son Er, Judah got a wife whose name was Tamar. Er’s conduct was evil, and it displeased the LORD, so the LORD killed him. Then Judah said to Er’s brother Onan, ‘Go and sleep with your brother’s widow. Fulfil your obligation to her as her husband’s brother, so that your brother may have descendants.'” (via Bible.com). This type of scenario was a set up for women who were widowed without any children. The practice of a woman marrying her dead husband’s brother is known as a levirate marriage.

In Genesis, Onan refuses to get Tamar pregnant: “But Onan knew that the children would not belong to him, so whenever he had intercourse with his brother’s widow, he let the semen spill on the ground, so that there would be no children for his brother. What he did displeased the LORD, and the LORD killed him also.” According to Bible Odyssey, this type of marriage provided an opportunity for a man who died without biological children to pass on his name and property, but the real aim was to protect widows who didn’t have anyone to take care of them following their husband’s passing.

Some men in the Bible had concubines in addition to one or more wives. The role of the concubine was to produce children if the man’s wife was unable to do so, to have children to expand the family, and to take care of a man’s sexual appetite, according to Christianity.com. While concubines had some rights under Hebrew law, they did not hold the same status as a wife. Concubines and polygamy were common during the “patriarchal period” of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but in later Biblical times most marriages were monogamous.

Concubines were typically Hebrew girls sold by their fathers, gentile captives, foreign slaves, or Canaanite women. Free Hebrew women without other means were also sometimes concubines. Some scholars refer to Hagar, Sarai’s servant, as a concubine, and Genesis 25:6 implies that a woman named Keturah was Abraham’s concubine, according to Christianity.com. King Saul had a concubine named Rizpah, while King David had 10 concubines, and King Solomon had 300 concubines and 700 wives.

Bible Ref interprets Genesis 2:22-24 as saying that “men are to separate from their parents and stick to their wives, becoming one flesh with them.” This can be interpreted as God wanting marriage to be between a single man and a single woman. Christianity.com explains that God’s allowance of concubines can be interpreted as him helping women who were unable to provide for themselves, saying “Concubinage was not part of God’s dream, but because human life now involved sin, God made laws to protect vulnerable women from further oppression, knowing a sinful world would always include broken relationships between men and women.”

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 has been interpreted in more than one way. The passage reads: “If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.” One interpretation is that a rape victim must marry her rapist, according to Got Questions. The words “seizes” is interpreted as rape, and the passage also notes that a man who has sex with an unbetrothed woman (whether it is consensual or not) must marry her.

If a woman was raped, she would be considered unworthy of marriage. Women without husbands had a very difficult time supporting themselves and often resorted to slavery or sex work to survive, according to Got Questions. The mention of the woman’s father in Deuteronomy 22:28-29 is important. It was ultimately the father’s decision whether or not his daughter should stay with the man who seized and violated her.

However, according to Apologetics Press, the translation from Hebrew to English notes that the word “seizes” can mean “lay hold on her” or “taking her,” which don’t necessarily indicate force. So, the passage may be interpreted as referring to a consensual coupling, not a rape.

If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit theRape, Abuse & Incest National Network websiteor contact RAINN’s National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).

The Bible does not contain examples of same-sex marriage. However, it has been interpreted as presenting homosexuality as immoral, as explained by to Got Questions. Leviticus 18:22 states: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” Romans 1:26–27 calls same-sex fraternizing “shameful” and “unnatural,” while First Corinthians 6:9 labels homosexuals as “wrongdoers” who won’t end up in the kingdom of God.

However, as M Live explains, there is ambiguity in the translation of the terms used in Corinthians, and some experts have more nuanced interpretations of the text. “Many scholars think that Paul is arguing against grown men having sex with adolescent boys and/or against men who are forced into the non-dominant position,” explains Kelly Murphy, a biblical scholar (via M Live).

Every example of marriage included in the Bible includes a man and a woman and some expectation that the couple will raise a family together, in whatever form that takes. In 2021, Pope Francis reiterated his stance on gay marriage, saying: “Marriage is a sacrament. The church doesn’t have the power to change sacraments. It’s as our Lord established.” (via Them). Earlier in that year, the Vatican released a statement that read: “There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.”

The head of the Catholic Church also made it clear that civil unions between same-sex couples should not include “things that by nature do not function in the church.” However, the Pope did not condemn civil unions, and stated that members of the LGBTQ+ community are “our brothers and sisters.”