Marriage in the Old Testament. here we deal with the practice and understanding of marriage in the life of the Israelites beginning with Abraham.

 Types of marriage .  The marriage practice of the Israelites was very much influenced by by the neighboring peoples. There are four types of marriages in ancient Israel:  Polygamy (David and Solomon) which seems to have been the privilege of the rich, bigamy (Ieah and Rachel for Jacob), concubinage (Abraham, Sara and Hagar), which involved a legalwife and a concubine, and monogamy which received more insistence manly in the post exilic period.

Marriage celebration. Marriage wasa family affair which required actually no public or religious ceremonies . It became effective by the mere act of bringing the bride into the house of the bridegroom. Though as an institution it was never in the hands of the priests, it was still celebrated with some religious elements for it was considered to be sacred.