Polygamy in the Bible

[TK Burk]

Originally Posted by MissBrattified

None of them. It wasn't the bride's house.

I've read historical accounts of this before, maybe T Burk can help me out here. The bridesmaids would light the way to the bride's house for the groom and groomsmen.

So the 5 without lit lamps were not able to participate in the procession to the bride's home, and had to go out and purchase oil for their lamps. By the time they caught up, the wedding was in progress, and the bridesmaids weren't allowed in.

How's this?

SKETCHES OF JEWISH SOCIAL LIFE
By Alfred Edersheim, D. D., Ph. D.
Chapter 9 - Mothers, Daughters, and Wives in Israel

The marriage followed after a longer or shorter interval, the limits of which, however, were fixed by law. The ceremony itself consisted in leading the bride into the house of the bridegroom, with certain formalities, mostly dating from very ancient times…..

It deserves notice, that at the marriage in Cana there is no mention of "the friends of the bridegroom," or, as we would call them, the groomsmen. This was in strict accordance with Jewish custom, for groomsmen were customary in Judaea, but not in Galilee (Cheth. 25 a). This also casts light upon the locality where Joh_3:29 was spoken, in which "the friend of the bridegroom" is mentioned. But this expression is quite different from that of "children of the bridechamber," which occurs in Mat_9:15, where the scene is once more laid in Galilee. The term "children of the bridechamber" is simply a translation of the Rabbinical "bene Chuppah," and means the guests invited to the bridal. In Judaea there were at every marriage two groomsmen or "friends of the bridegroom"--one for the bridegroom, the other for his bride. Before marriage, they acted as a kind of intermediaries between the couple; at the wedding they offered gifts, waited upon the bride and bridegroom, and attended them to the bridal chamber, being also, as it were, the guarantors of the bride's virgin chastity. Hence, when St. Paul tells the Corinthians (2Co_11:2): "I am jealous over you with godly jealousy; for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ," he speaks, as it were, in the character of groomsman or "bridegroom's friend," who had acted as such at the spiritual union of Christ with the Corinthian Church. And we know that it was specially the duty of the "friend of the bridegroom" so to present to him his bride. Similarly it was his also, after marriage, to maintain proper terms between the couple, and more particularly to defend the good fame of the bride against all imputations. It may interest some to know that his custom also was traced up to highest authority. Thus, in the spiritual union of Israel with their God, Moses is spoken of as "the friend of the bridegroom" who leads out the bride (Exo_19:17); while Jehovah, as the bridegroom, meets His Church at Sinai (Psa_68:7; Pirke di R. El. 41)....