The Christianization of Marriage Ritual in Late Antiquity: Ecclesiastical Rites at the Bridal Chamber*

Gabriel Radle

THe Christianization of Marriage Ritual in Late Antiquity: Ecclesiastical Rites at the Bridal Chamber*

Ancient literary works suggest that rites for marriage are as old as human civi- lization.1 Anthropologists claim this is because marriage is a true “life crisis” moment.2 THat is to say, in traditional societies, participating in marriage results in a dramatic alteration of an individual’s identity – their family ties, sexual norms, social responsibilities, etc. Across ancient societies, marriage was a rite of passage that was generally accomplished in multiple stages, including match-making arrangements, formal betrothal, and publicly-recognized cohabitation – usually carried out in that order and often with some amount of time (whether great or small) between each step. Each one of these stages tended to employ rituals rich in symbolism and social significance.3 Any discussion of early Christian marriage rites must attend to this simple fact: marriage, together with its ritual formation, is a human activity that existed long before the Church. THus, while early Christian authors identified marriage as a mysterion, or sacramentum,4 it must be underscored that this was primarily a theological claim applied to an old human social institution. What patristic authors declared about the sacramentality of marriage was precisely a soterio- logical and eschatological conviction: God’s action through his incarnation in Jesus Christ brought about a new creation that perfected and went beyond Eden,

* I would like to thank the organizers and participants of the conference “Marriage and/as Metaphor in Christian and Jewish Traditions”, especially Aldegonde Brenninkmeijer-Werhahn and Oded Irshai, for the fruitful exchange of research and scholarly fellowship that this opportunity provided, and which the present article has benefited from. 1 See, for example, the oldest known love poems that allude to sacred marriage, as translated and discussed in Y. Sefati: Love Songs in Sumerian Literature: Critical Edition of the Dumuzi- Inanna Songs, Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1998. 2 C. Bell: Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, 94-102, and bibliography. 3 On these stages and accompanying rituals in the ancient Greek context, see A.-M. Vérilhac/ C. Vial: Le mariage grec du Vie siècle av. J.-C. à l’époque d’Auguste, Athens: Ecole Française d’Athènes, 1998; J. Oakley/R. Sinos: THe Wedding in Ancient Athens, Madison, WI: Univer- sity of Wisconsin Press, 1993. For Rome, see K. Hersch: THe Roman Wedding: Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 4 Paul uses the word mysterion when describing the analogy of Christ’s marriage to the Church in Eph 5,31-32. For further reading on patristic discussions of the sacramentality of marriage, see for example. P. Reynolds: Marriage in the Western Church, Leiden: Brill, 2001; D. Hunter: Marriage in the Early Church, Minneapolis: Wipf and Stock, 1992.

Marriage, Families & Spirituality 26, 49-64. doi: 10.2143/INT.26.1.3288949 49 © 2020 by INTAMS/Peeters. All rights reserved Marriage, Families & Spirituality 26 (2020) where marriage was first willed by God. THus, many early Christians viewed marriage as a vehicle for salvation and union with God, whether through real marriages with an actual human spouse or via allegories of marriage that likened salvation and the eschatological age to a nuptial union with God.5 THe symbolic potential of marriage was readily employed by early Christians in reference to the identity of Christ. Already in the first century – including among the evangelists, esp. Matthew and John, as well as in Paul – we see the tendency to view the relationship between Christ and the Church through the lens of a spousal rela- tionship (e.g. Mt 25,1-13; Jn 3,27-30; Eph 5,25-33), which of course represents a Christian development of Jewish exegetical trends, most concretely exemplified in interpretations of the Song of Songs,6 with early antecedents already in Hosea.7 THe analogy is no accident. Weddings triggered the biggest feasts known to the ancient world,8 and their entire focus was the uniting of two people together. THe joy and celebration of a wedding – and even the sexual union of a bride and groom – were an obvious choice for anyone looking for an icon of paradise and union with God.9 For all of this theologizing (and we might add debating10) over the nature of marriage (both real and imagined) within early Christianity, the extant theologi- cal and moral discussions rarely venture into proclamations about any norms by which Christians should form their marriage unions. Few prescriptions about a “Christian way” to get married exist for the early centuries. THis silence leaves

5 THe bibliography on this latter topic is vast. Examples include, inter alia, A. Rush: “Death as a Spiritual Marriage: Individual and Ecclesial Eschatology”, in: Vigiliae Christianae 26 (1972), 81-101; G. Anderson: “Celibacy or Consummation in the Garden? Reflections on Early Jewish and Christian Interpretations of the Garden of Eden”, in: THe Harvard ­THeological Review 82 (1989), 121-148; S. Brock: “THe Bridal Chamber of Light: A Distinctive Feature of the Syriac Liturgical Tradition”, in: THe Harp 18 (2005), 179-191; E. Clark: “THe Celibate Bridegroom and His Virginal Brides: Metaphor and the Marriage of Jesus in Early Christian Ascetic Exegesis”, in: Church History 77 (2008), 1-25; S. Klaver: “THe Brides of Christ: ‘THe Women in Procession’ in the Baptistery of Dura-Europos”, in: Early Christian Art 9 (2012-2013), 63-78. 6 For a review of scholarly opinions about ancient Jewish interpretations of the Song of Songs as a metaphor for the love between God and Israel, see the discussion and bibliography in D. Stern: “Ancient Jewish Interpretation of the Song of Songs in a Comparative Context”, in: N. Dohrmann/D. Stern (eds.): Jewish Biblical Interpretation and Cultural Exchange: Comparative Exegesis in Context, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008, 87-107. 7 G. Hill: “Origin of the Marriage Metaphor”, in: Hebrew Studies 23 (1982), 169-171. 8 As Plutarch writes in Moralia, Quest. conv. IV.3, “of all the occasions for a banquet, none is more conspicuous or talked about than a wedding”. See P. Clement/H. Hoffleit: Plutarch: Moralia Volume VIII, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969, 335. 9 On the ancient religious tendency to use marriage as a metaphor of the divine-human encoun- ter, cf. M. Nissinen/R. Uro (eds.): Sacred Marriages: THe Divine-Human Sexual Metaphor from Sumer to Early Christianity, University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns, 2008. 10 See, for example, D. Hunter: Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity: THe Jovinianist Controversy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007; A. Guffey: “Motivations for Encratite Practices in Early Christian Literature”, in: THe Journal of THeological Studies 65 (2014), 515-549; G. Anderson: “Celibacy or Consummation in the Garden? Reflections on Early Jewish and Christian Interpretations of the Garden of Eden”, in: Harvard THeological Review 82/2 (1989), 121-148

50 G. Radle us to wonder if we might take the so-called Epistle “of Mathetes” and apply it to the wedding ceremony when it claims in the second century that Christians “marry just like everyone else” (γαμοῦσιν ὡς πάντες).11 In the absence of detailed descriptions of the early Christian marriage ceremony, we must piece together the echoes, hints, and allusions to weddings scattered across multiple sources in order to gain an idea of what marriage ritual among Christian communities looked like. Furthermore, this puzzle must be compared with the surviving evidence for non-Christian weddings in the same period, which can both help interpret refer- ences to ritual within the Christian sources, and also signal where Christian wedding practice may or may not have diverged from that of non-Christians. Late antique Christian texts reveal that many of the stages of the ancient pre- Christian marriage ceremony continued to be followed by Mediterranean peoples long after their adoption of Christianity. Not only were such traditions continued, but many of them, from betrothal arrangements to the customs of wedding banquets, gradually took on Christian interpretations and began to include the formal participation of clergy. In this short article, I will examine one of these moments, namely, the rituals performed at the bridal chamber, to inaugurate and accompany the couple’s consummation. Beyond the actual sexual intercourse itself, marital consummation in the ancient Mediterranean world could include a host of rites, such as symbolic torch processions to the bedchamber, rituals for bedding the bride, and the performance of song and dance outside the chamber before and even during the consummation. For the purpose of brevity, I will concentrate my focus here primarily on the practice of offering public speech and prayer at the bridal chamber immediately before the couple’s sexual contact therein.

Speech and Prayer at Consummation Among Non-Christians in Late Antiquity

Menander Rhetor, writing from Athens at the end of the third century, leaves detailed instructions on how to deliver speeches at weddings. While not compre- hensive in his treatment of the ancient wedding ceremony, his instructions to rhetors nevertheless single out two moments of particular ritual importance for a late antique “pagan” wedding. THe first of these speeches is delivered at a non- specified time during the celebration, possibly at the banquet, which was the longest portion of a wedding, at which guests feasted, musicians entertained, and family and friends offered salutations.M enander instructs that these wedding speeches should extol the families of the bride and groom, who were evidently in attendance. Ancient sources imply that wedding feasts were typically hosted

11 Epistle of Mathetes to Diognetus 5.6. While the phrase alone is ambiguous whether it refers to the actual marriage ritual, it seems more likely the author originally intended to refer simply to the general act of getting married.

51 Marriage, Families & Spirituality 26 (2020) by the bride’s parents,12 a scenario implied also by Menander, since he seems to allude to the impending bridal procession that will transfer the bride, accompanied by songs and torches, to her new abode, that is, the house of the groom, where the bridal bed awaited.13 THe second moment of the wedding highlighted by Menander occurs precisely at the destination of that bridal procession, when the couple are about to con- summate the marriage in the bridal chamber of the groom’s house. Menander instructs that speeches and prayers are again offered before the couple retire in privacy. He highlights this as a moment of ritual climax at which a rhetor must offer a reflection on the nature of marriage and the couple’s sexual union.W hile this explicit discussion of the couple’s impending sexual intercourse is given in the presence of the guests, Menander warns that a rhetor should be careful not to seem “scandalous, cheap, or vulgar”.14 He instructs that the bridal chamber speech should praise the beauty of the bride, encourage the groom in the task at hand, and also end with prayer: “You should also advise the bridegroom, as he enters into the business, to pray (εὐχὰς ποιεῖσθαι) to Eros, Hestia, and the gods of birth to help him in his enterprise. THen you should add a prayer (εὐχὴν) asking the gods to grant them goodwill and harmony.”15 Menander returns to this point a second time, writing at the end of his instructions, “Finally, you should add a prayer, asking the gods on the couple’s behalf for a happy union, felicity, a lovely life, the birth of children, and the other blessings.”16 From Menander’s description, we gather that speeches and prayers at the bridal chamber were a feature of late pagan Roman weddings. THat such customs were widely practiced is implied by the very nature of his manual, which was intended for broad application to standards shared across late Roman social life. Further- more, the numerous epithalamia surviving from late antiquity are a sign of the ritual importance of the bridal chamber. THe fourth-century epithalamium for Severus composed by Himerius likewise gives instruction for the kind of speech one should deliver there. Himerius implies that the groom is outside the chamber with the crowd of guests during this speech while the bride is already inside

12 We should note that numerous exceptions existed, and even when the primary meal occurred at the house of the bride, additional feasting could also take place at the house of the groom. For broader discussion, see K. Hersch: THe Roman Wedding Ritual and Meaning in Antiquity, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, 212-213; S. Treggiari: Roman Marriage: Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian, Oxford: Clarendon, 1991, 161-162; S. Marks: “Present and Absent: Women at Greco-Roman Wedding Meals”, in: D. Smith/ H. Taussig (eds.): Meals in the Early Christian World: Social Formation, Experimentation, and Conflict at theT able, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, 123-148. For the ancient Greek context, A.-M. Vérilhac/C. Vial: Le mariage grec, 299-304. 13 At the conclusion of such a speech, Menander suggests a rhetor might say, “Hymen shall kindle the lamps and torches for us with the wedding fire.” D.A. Russell/N.G. Wilson: Menander Rhetor, Oxford: Clarendon, 1981, 144-145. 14 Ibid. 146-47 [406]. 15 Ibid. 150-151. 16 Ibid. 156-59.

52 G. Radle awaiting her encounter with the bridegroom.17 THe speech ends with a reference to the music and dancing that would continue outside the chamber during the consummation, and like Menander, Himerius closes his bridal-chamber speech with prayer: “I leave dancing to dancers. I myself shall stand next to the bedroom and pray to Fortune, to Eros, and to the gods of procreation: to Eros, that he shoot every one of his arrows; to Fortune, that she give life; and to the gods of procreation, that they grant the birth of lawfully begotten children.”18 Prayer before or within the chamber of consummation is doubtless a tradition practiced among at least some Jews of late antiquity. Complicating any discussion of this topic, however, is the fact that the bridal chamber (huppah) gradually shifted over time from the literal bridal chamber (that included consummation) into a ceremonial canopy of the wedding that was distinct from the actual room in which the newlywed couple engaged in sexual intercourse. It is therefore not always clear from the ancient sources whether a “huppah” is intended simply as a ceremonial canopy or also the actual chamber of consummation that was used ritually as a place for blessing a couple. Be that as it may, as late as the eighth century, at least some Romaniote Jews continued to know of the custom of bless- ing a couple in their bed chamber prior to consummation.19

Acts of THomas

If celebratory speeches and prayers are noteworthy features of non-Christian weddings in late antiquity, it is no surprise to find Christian parallels at the same time. After all, while marriage would take on new theological significance for Christians, weddings were nothing new to Christianity. Furthermore, as Michael Satlow has already demonstrated for the Jewish context, many “pagan” wedding customs of antiquity could likewise be practiced by monotheists.20 THe specific content of prayers might be different, but the types of ritual behaviors – feasts, bridal transfer processions, speeches, prayers – were common across different religious groups.

17 After describing the groom, Himerius writes, “But my oration has lingered outside the bridal chamber and has quite neglected the bride, as if unaware that it troubles the bridegroom by not yet having given a verbal depiction of her. Very well, we shall now conduct my oration into the bedroom and persuade it to encounter the bride’s beauty.” See R. Penella: Man and the Word: THe Orations of Himerius, Oakland: University of California Press, 2007, 153. On the custom of bedding the bride before the groom (cf. Tobit 7,15; 8,1), see S. Treggiari: “Putting the Bride to Bed”, in: Echos du Monde Classique 38 (1994), 311-331. 18 R. Penella: Man and the Word, 155. 19 A piyyut of Amittai composed in Southern Italy sometime around the year 800 imagines the wedding of Adam and Eve as a contemporary wedding in which God officiates over a blessing of first couple at their wedding bed. See L. Leiber: “THe Piyyutim le-Hatan of Qallir and Amittai: Jewish Marriage Customs in Early Byzantium”, in: Talmuda de-Eretz Yisrael: Archeology and the Rabbis in Late Ancient Palestine, ed. S. Fine, New York: De Gruyter, 2014, 275-299, here 290. 20 M. Satlow: Jewish Marriage in Antiquity, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.

53 Marriage, Families & Spirituality 26 (2020)

One of the oldest Christian sources for wedding ritual is the Acts of THomas. Written in the early third century,21 most likely in Eastern Syria, it survives in both Greek and Syriac versions.22 THe work describes the apostolic journey of the apostle Judas THomas to India and is made up of thirteen acts and the account of his martyrdom. In the first act, the risen Jesus organizes for THomas to travel to India by selling the apostle as a slave to the merchant of an Indian king named Gudnaphar. During THomas’s journey, he and his Indian master come upon the wedding of a local king’s daughter, and they obey the royal mandate to attend the feast. Although the Acts of THomas here attempts to describe a non-Christian wedding purported to have occurred in the first century, we might still read the description as hinting at Syrian customs with which the third-century Christian author of the Acts was familiar. According to the tale, during the wedding reception, THomas is recognized by guests as a prophet, and the king bids the apostle to come and pray at his daughter’s nuptial chamber. THomas is hesitant and led there by force. When he arrives at the bridal chamber, he offers a long credal prayer, which admittedly makes virtually no reference to marriage.23 After THomas’s prayer, the text explains that the king and the groomsmen leave the bridal chamber, upon which the bridegroom raises the curtain of the bed to “bring the bride to himself”,24 that is to say, the story presents THomas’s prayer as the immediate precursor to the sexual act. When examining the wedding description in the Acts of THomas, we must read around the ascetic overtones of the author. THe consummation does not in fact occur, since Christ miraculously appears at the wedding bed and discourages the couple from engaging in “filthy intercourse”, urging them instead to preserve the purity of their bodies by perpetually abstaining from sex.25 While the author’s supposed Syrian ascetic context can explain the unfulfilled physical eros of the wedding scene, the fact remains that for the Christian audience of this text, prayer before consummation seems presumed. For the author of Acts of THomas, pre-consummation prayer was both of interest to the pagan king, and also had apostolic precedent in THomas’s bridal invocation.

Pre-Consummation Rituals in Other Late Antique Christian Sources

While the Acts of THomas provides a narrative example of a “pagan” ritual custom being Christianized, other late antique sources attest to a diversity of opinions on the tolerability of pagan wedding rituals within Christian marriage.

21 On the dating, see J. Bremmer: “THe Acts of THomas: Place, Date and Women”, in: J. Bremmer (ed.): THe Apocryphal Acts of THomas, Leuven: Peeters, 2001, 74-90, here 74-79. 22 On the textual history, see A.F.J. Klijn: THe Acts of THomas: Introduction, Text and Commentary, Leiden: Brill, 2003, 1-15 and bibliography. 23 Translation of text and commentary in A.F.J. Klijn: THe Acts of THomas, 42-51. 24 Ibid. 51. 25 Ibid. 52.

54 G. Radle

John Chrysostom is a vocal opponent to what he views as several intolerable wedding traditions. While discussing the practices of marriage feasts, he shows considerable frustration with the “satanic songs”, dancing maidens, and insobriety often encountered at them,26 and he encourages these domestic weddings to be sanctified through the prayer of priests, although he gives no indication of precisely when and where such prayer could be offered.27 In a homily on Ephesians, Chrysostom alludes to the important role of the bridal chamber within contemporary weddings when he discourages Christians from decorating them ostentatiously with borrowed gold and silver ornaments. But his homily does not describe bridal chambers further except to admonish bridegrooms against tolerating “dances and indecent songs”, presumably those performed outside the chamber preceding and during the sexual encounter.28 In his twelfth homily on 1 Corinthians, the famed preacher repeats his concern over the need for Christian weddings to preserve modesty,29 and here too he shuns some of the established public rituals for enacting the couple’s cohabitation, namely, the traditional transfer procession of the bride to the bridal chamber. For Chrysostom, these events attract immodest behavior and language: the devil is content with those words and those songs, so flagitious; with making a show of the bride openly, and leading the bridegroom in triumph through the market-place … Moreover, because all this takes place in the evening, that not even the darkness may be a veil to these evils, many torches are brought in, suf- fering not the disgraceful scene to be concealed.30 THe fact that torch-lit bridal transfer processions are still practiced to this day in parts of southeastern Europe is evidence enough that Chrysostom’s condemna- tion of these customs had little effect on their perdurance.31 Rather, it is likely that the acceptance and adaptation of these customs by other church authorities helped them to live on. Chrysostom’s contemporary, Gregory Nazianzen, takes a rather different approach to certain pre-Christian wedding traditions. While

26 Hom. 12 on Colossians 4:18. See C. Roth/D. Anderson: St John Chrysostom, On Marriage and Family Life, Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1986, 78. 27 In illud, propter fornicationes uxorem, PG 51:210; C. Roth/D. Anderson: St John Chrysostom, 77-82. 28 Homily 20 on Ephesians, PG 62:145; D. Hunter: Marriage and Sexuality in Early Christianity, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2018, 127. 29 On Chrysostom’s condemnation of the public sexualization of the bride, see also B. Leyerle: THeatrical Shows and Ascetic Lives: John Chrysostom’s Attack on Spiritual Marriage, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001, 70-72. 30 P. Schaff: Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 12: St John Chrysostom, Edinburg: T&T Clark, 1889, 70. 31 On the ancient wedding customs practiced in some remote regions of the Balkan Peninsula, see O. Lodge: “Serbian Wedding Customs: St Peter’s Day in Galicnik”, in: THe Slavonic and East European Review 13 (1935), 650-673, here 656. THe wedding customs attested by Lodge in the early twentieth century are conserved at Galicnik to this day, yet more as an annual folk celebration than as the standard wedding rite, as observed by Lodge in her day.

55 Marriage, Families & Spirituality 26 (2020) agreeing with Chrysostom in condemning immodesty and insobriety at weddings,32 Gregory’s personal correspondences allude to the Christianization of bridal chamber rituals. In a letter to a friend Eusebius, Gregory writes that he will unfortunately be absent from the upcoming wedding of his interlocutor’s daughter, Evopia, but would have loved to be present and pray with them. After excusing his absence, he writes: So let others call on the Erotes, since this game fits in a wedding. Let them describe the beauty of the bride, exalt the grace of the bridegroom, and strew the bridal chamber with speeches as well as with flowers. As for me, I want to sing to you my epithalamium: THe Lord bless you from Zion, and may he himself harmonize this union. May you see your children’s children, and in short, may they be even better. THis is what I would have wished unto you, had I been present, and what I wish now.33 Gregory acknowledges that the classical custom of bridal chamber speeches continued to be practiced by Christians in his day, and he gives his own epitha- lamium as an example, an adaptation of Psalm 127,5-6. While it is true that, by the time of Gregory, the term epithalamium was used sometimes as a generic term for a “wedding speech” and not always delivered according to the etymological indication “at the bedchamber” (ἐπι + θάλαμος),34 Gregory does envision his epithalamium as connected to the bridal chamber, since he imagines “strewing the bridal chamber with speeches as well as with flowers”, while his reference to calling upon the Erotes at the site is clearly related to the impending erotic encounter between the bride and groom. Gregory’s letter here paints quite a ­different picture from the impression made by Chrysostom’s homilies, although the contrast is likely due in part to the genre of these different sources. In any case, Gregory’s letter provides clear evidence for an influential church leader both embracing and adapting previously established, non-Christian wedding ritual at the bridal chamber. Furthermore, the context of the letter, a negative response to an invitation, implies that clerical participation in bridal chamber rites was not simply an act of clergy imposing themselves on lay rituals but rather something likely desired and sought out by the family members who were hosting a wedding. Elsewhere in the Mediterranean world, we find further evidence for Christian ritual at the bridal chamber. THe fifth-century account of the life of St. Amoun of Nitria in the Lausiac History contains an example of a late antique Egyptian

32 See his remarks in his letter to Diocles in P. Gallay: Saint Grégoire de Nazianze: Lettres, tome II, Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1964, 123 33 See P. Gallay: Saint Grégoire, 122-123. I have adapted a faulty portion of the translation given in B. Barrois: THe Fathers Speak: St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1986, 200. 34 As Russell points out, the most common usage views the epithalamios as a bridal bedroom speech, even in Menander Rhetor, uses the term for a general wedding speech, while preferring kateunastikos for the bedroom speech. See D.A. Russell: “Rhetors at the Wedding”, in: Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, New Series 25 (1979), 104-117, here 105.

56 G. Radle wedding, although Palladius of Galatia’s authorship here makes it impossible to know whether some details in the description of events may have been influenced by the author’s own understanding of marriage ritual in his Asia Minor homeland. Be that as it may, the story of Amoun describes a wedding rite as taking place within the bridal chamber. Like the Acts of THomas and other ascetic texts, the bridal chamber in this story becomes the stage for a couple’s embrace of the ascetic life of sexual renunciation. THis late antique trope takes the anticipated sexual climax of a story and retools it as a moral, ascetical portal envisioned as leading to an eventual eschatological climax. For our purposes, however, it is important to stress that within the story of Amoun of Nitria, the wedding ceremony is the bridal chamber ritual. After reluctantly agreeing to be married, we read that Amoun would “take his seat in the bridal chamber and undergo all the marriage rites” (καθέζεσθαι ἐν παστῷ καὶ πάντα ὑπομεμενηκέναι τὰ κατὰ τὸν γάμον).35 THe text also alludes to the couple being bedded by the wedding participants before they departed and left the couple to their privacy, where, in this case, they decide to forgo the expected sexual encounter. THe ritual use of the bridal chamber by Christian communities was not isolated to the East. As I have shown elsewhere, the earliest evidence for Christian mar- riage liturgies in Gaul clearly places clergy in bridal chambers, where they offered blessings to couples prior to their consummation.36 A sixth-century letter by Avitus of Vienne implies that this bishop practiced a custom of blessing couples in their bridal bedchamber,37 a practice confirmed in the early seventh-century Vita Amatoris, where we read of another bishop coming to a decorated bridal chamber to pray over a couple being wed.38 It is no accident then that the oldest manuscript of a priest’s prayer book from the region of Gaul to contain any text for marriage blessings includes a bedchamber blessing to be recited upon a couple being married (Benedictio talami super nubentes).39 THe manuscript contains no evidence of prayers to be recited as part of a wedding in a church building, imply- ing – like the late antique texts discussed above – that as late as the eighth century, some parts of Gaul did not know of wedding services in churches, but continued to conceive of the bridal chamber as the primary setting for ecclesiastical rites of nuptial blessing.40

35 Palladius, Historia Lausiaca, 8.1. Greek text in C. Butler: THe Lausiac History of Palladius: THe Greek Text Edited with Introduction and Notes, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1904, II, 27. English translation in Palladius: THe Lausiac History, ed. R. Meyer, London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1965, I, 41f. 36 See G. Radle: “Bishops Blessing the Bridal Bedchamber in the Early Middle Ages: Recon- sidering the Western Evidence”, in: Medium Aevum 87 (2018), 219-238. 37 Text in PL 59: 266f. English translation in D. Shanzer/I. Wood: Avitus of Vienne: Letters and Selected Prose, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002, 292. 38 AASS May I: 51–61, here 52f. See discussion in G. Radle: “Bishops Blessing the Bridal Bed- chamber”, 221-222. 39 For further discussion and the text of the rite, see ibid. 223-224. 40 Liturgical manuscripts from some regions of the Eastern Mediterranean imply the same ­phenomenon. See G. Radle: “THe Development of Byzantine Marriage Rites as Evidenced by Sinai Gr. 957”, in: Orientalia Christiana Periodica 78 (2012), 133-148.

57 Marriage, Families & Spirituality 26 (2020)

While bridal-chamber blessings feature strongly within some regions of the late antique Christian world, it should be highlighted that for some places, the evidence is scant or even non-existent. For the city of Rome, all formal liturgical evidence points to the development of church wedding services fairly early on. According to the so-called Leonine Sacramentary as preserved in Codex Veronensis from the early-seventh century, the tradition of a Nuptial Mass was already the presumed Christian marriage rite in the city of Rome by at least the sixth century,41 even if it was not regarded as canonically necessary and frequently omitted from prac- tice by many Christian couples at the time.42 Likewise, within sixth-century ­Constantinople, we witness the germination of an ecclesiastical rite – still then performed within a “domestic” palace context – that would soon come to be adopted more broadly as a wedding rite performed within the church building.43 THus, while Christian bridal chamber rites were frequently practiced across late antiquity, that same period also saw the die cast for their eventual replacement in the Middle Ages by the tradition of wedding services within church buildings.

Early Christian Bridal Chambers Beyond Weddings

Examples from across the Mediterranean world illustrate that various local Christian communities often singled out the bridal chamber as a place for mar- riage ritual, including the practice of Christian prayer and blessing. In so doing, these communities adapted ancient, non-Christian customs that highlight the bridal chamber as a place of personal and social transformation, celebrated with speech, song, and prayer. THese bridal chamber rites were certainly not the only example of the Christianization of ancient marriage ritual – the entirety of which is beyond the scope of this study. But blessings at the bridal chamber represent one of the strongest places in which the early Church stepped into pre-existing ritual norms by both continuing and adapting established cultural practices of marriage. THis is because, in contrast to contemporary Western societies that regard sexual consummation as the most private element of nuptials, for the ancient Mediterranean context, the sexual union of a couple was of primary social interest for establishing and recognizing a marriage, and thus perceived as a fitting place for public commemoration.

41 For discussion of marriage in the Leonine, as well as the Old Gelasian and Hadrian, sacra- mentaries, see P. Reynolds: Marriage in the Western Church, 375-82. For texts of the rites, see K. Ritzer: Le mariage dans les Eglises chrétiennes, du Ier au XIe siècle, Paris : Cerf, 1973, 421-429. 42 On the Roman perspective of not requiring a church wedding service as late as the eighth century, see the response of Pope Nicholas to Boris of the Bulgars in J.A. Álvarez-Pedrosa: Las respuestas del papa Nicolás I a las consultas de los búlgaros (edición crítica, traducción y comentario), Granada: Centro de Estudios Bizantinos, Neogriegos y Chipriotas, 2009, III, 74-78. 43 See G. Radle: “THe Development of Byzantine Marriage Rites”, 138.

58 G. Radle

Yet the Christianization of marriage ritual was not just a typical case of late antique negotiation between pre-existing cultural norms and the precepts of Christian theology. Rather, from its inception, Christianity witnessed a theologiz- ing of the nuptial chamber, which must have at least in part resulted from the cultural prominence of real chambers, and which in turn would have impacted how some early Christians perceived actual bridal chamber rituals. One early place in which the bridal chamber possibly features as a theological symbol is the Gospel passage of John 3,27-30. Here, John the Baptist likens himself to the friend of the bridegroom who “waits and listens for [the bridegroom], and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice”. THe passage appears to employ an actual wedding custom of the time in order to make a claim about the identities and relationship between Christ and the Baptist. Yet while the wedding custom alluded to here must have been clear to the Johannine community, the precise meaning of this passage has puzzled exegetes for generations. Some biblical scholars have argued that it was intended to express an allegory of Christ’s relationship to the Church as one of consummation in the bridal chamber, where the “voice of the bridegroom” here represents the custom for the groom to indicate to his paranymph that the consummation has successfully taken place, a presumably ancient practice attested in some Near Eastern communities to this day.44 While an overtly sexual interpretation of this specific Johannine passage is certainly debatable,45 less nebulous is the explicit mention of a bridal chamber found in each of the Synoptic Gospels. In Jesus’s response to a challenge posed by the disciples of John the Baptist over the question of fasting, Jesus refers to his followers as οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ νυμφῶνος, or “sons/children of the bridal chamber” (Mk 2,19; Mt 9,15; Lk 5,34). While scholars have noted that this expression is a Hebrewism/Aramaism for “wedding guests”46 – hence the modern biblical

44 THis argument can be found in R. Schnackenburg: THe Gospel According to St. John: Intro- duction and Commentary on Chapters 1-4, New York: Burns & Oates, 1982, 416; U. Wilckens: Das Evangelium nach Johannes, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1998, 76. Cf. M. Coloe: “John as Witness and Friend”, in: P. Nerson/F. Just/T. Thatcher (eds.): John, Jesus, and History, vol. 2: Aspects of Historicity in the Fourth Gospel, Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009, 45-61, here 58. 45 See, for example, the reservations expressed by R. Zimmermann: “Jesus – the Divine Bride- groom? John 2-4 and Its Christological Implications”, in: B. Reynolds/G. Boccaccini (eds.): Reading the Gospel of John’s Christology as Jewish Messianism: Royal, Prophetic, and Divine Messiahs, Leiden: Brill, 2018, 358-386, here 360-362, and the earlier article on the topic, M. Zimmermann/R. Zimmermann: “Der Freund des Bräutigams (Joh 3, 29): Deflorations- oder Christuszeuge?”, in: Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der Älteren Kirche 90 (1999), 123-130. Many other modern interpreters of this passage do not make reference to the consummation theory, instead opting for more general descriptions of the friend as a sort of facilitator of the wedding. See, for example, A. Villeneuve: Nuptial ­Symbolism in Second Temple Writings, the New Testament and Rabbinic Literature: Divine ­Marriage at Key Moments of Salvation History, Leiden: Brill, 2016, 19, 120, 148-49. See also J. McWhirter: THe Bridegroom Messiah and the People of God: Marriage in the Fourth Gospel, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, 46-57. 46 See R. Riesner: “THe Question of the Baptists’ Disciples on Fasting”, in: T. Holmén/ S. Porter (eds.): Handbook for the Study of the Historical Jesus, vol. 4: Individual Studies, Leiden: Brill, 2011, 3305-3348, here 3310. For comparison with early interpretations, see

59 Marriage, Families & Spirituality 26 (2020) translation across languages47 – the fact remains that the term inherently conceives of such guests as present at/within a bridal chamber as a central focus of the wedding celebration, and the dull translation “wedding guests” robs the passage of its rich connection to bridal-chamber references found across early Christian texts. Early Christians – some of whom may not have understood the original Hebrewism of this Synoptic passage – developed the concept of “children of the bridal chamber” further, the most vivid example being the community of the Gospel of Philip. Scholars have noted the strong appearance of bridal-chamber imagery in this and other sources associated with Valentinian or more general Gnostic groups,48 which has led to significant debate over whether some Gnostic Christians practiced specific sacramental rites in actual bridal chambers.49 Yet several scholars, including Elaine Pagels and Einar THomassen, have argued con- vincingly that the bridal chamber references within the Gospel of Philip are likely allegorical language for Christian initiation rites that accord well with general ritual practices across Christian groups,50 even if such scholars typically fail to note that the expression “children of the bridal chamber” is already contained in canonical gospels (in nothing less than a discussion with the disciples of John the Baptist) and not restricted to Gnostic Christians.51

F.G. Cremer: “‘Die Söhne des Brautgemachs’ (Mark 2,19 parr) in der griechischen und latei- nischen Schrifterklärung”, in: Biblische Zeitschrift 11 (1967), 246-253. 47 Examples of translations that gloss over the expression οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ νυμφῶνος include “wedding guests” (RSV), “guests of the bridegroom” (NIV), “Hochzeitsleute” (Luther Bibel 1545), “gli invitati a nozze” (CEI), “los invitados a una boda” (DHH), etc. Noteworthy among modern translations is KJV, which opts for “children of the bridechamber.” 48 See, for example, the second-century Infancy Gospel of THomas 4,1, as reconstructed and trans- lated by Tony Burke, available online at: https://www.tonyburke.ca/infancy-gospel-of-thomas/ the-childhood-of-the-saviour-infancy-gospel-of-thomas-a-new-translation/. See also the funer- ary inscriptions discussed in H.G. Snyder: “A Second-Century Christian Inscription from the Via Latina”, in: Journal of Early Christian Studies 19 (2011), 157-195. Another example, whether Gnostic or not, is Odes of Solomon 42.9. 49 On the debates surrounding the bridal chamber and its ritual meaning within Valentinian Gnosticism, see the discussion and bibliography in R. Uro: “Gnostic Rituals from a Cognitive Perspective”, in: P. Luomanen/I. Pyysiäinen/R. Uro (eds.): Explaining Christian Origins and Early Judaism: Contributions from Cognitive and Social Science, Leiden: Brill, 115-137, esp. 121. 50 See E. Pagels: “Ritual in the Gospel of Philip”, in: J. Turner/A. McGuire (eds.): THe Nag Hammadi Library After Fifty Years: Proceedings of the 1995 Society of Biblical Literature ­Commemoration, Leiden: Brill, 1997, 280-291, here 282-283, 286-287; E. Thomassen: “Baptism among the Valentinians”, in: D. Hellholm et al. (eds.): Ablution, Initiation, and Baptism: Late Antiquity, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2011, vol. 2, 895-915. Others, such as Michael Peppard, have followed suit in viewing “Gnostic” and non-Gnostic initiation rhetoric (and presumably practice) as much more compatible than not. See M. ­Peppard: “Valentinians on the Euphrates?”, in: D. Brakke/S. Davis/S. Emmel (eds.): From Gnostics to Monastics: Studies in Coptic and Early Christianity in Honor of Bentley Layton, Leuven: Peeters, 2017, 117-141. 51 In addition to this connection being left out of the scholarly discussions cited in the previous note, Risto Uro even labels the title “children of the bridal chamber” as a “peculiar expression” of Valentinians for some sort of unknown initiation rite that they practiced (thereby counter- ing Pagels’s conclusions). R. Uro: “Gnostic Rituals”, 124-25. One of the few recent studies on the Gospel of Philip to acknowledge “children of the bridal chamber” in the Synoptics is the

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It is clear that various forms of early Christianity – Gnostic and not – widely exploited the image of the bridal chamber for its symbolic value. Across the patristic corpus one finds metaphorical constructions of the eschaton as entry into a bridal chamber, an image that was part of larger nuptial symbolism employed for the Church’s sacramental life.52 THus, an anonymous fourth-century Holy Saturday homily envisions Christ in his descent to Hades as declaring to Adam, “THe Bridal Chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready …” (ὁ νυμφὼν παρεσκεύασται, ἐδέσματα ἕτοιμα …),53 just as a homily by Pseudo-Hippolytus on the THeophany (ca. third/fourth century) states, “For when Christ the Bride- groom was baptized, it was fitting that the bridal chamber of heaven should open its brilliant gates.”54 In the patristic age, even the wood of the cross could be likened to the wood of a bridal chamber, as Quodvultdeus does in a homily on the creed in which he writes about the crucifixion, saying, “Let our bridegroom ascend the wood of his bridal chamber; let our bridegroom ascend the wood of his marriage bed. Let him sleep by dying. Let his side be opened, and let the virgin Church come forth. Just as when Eve was made from the side of a sleeping Adam, so the Church was formed from the side of Christ, hanging on the cross.”55 In a context where salvation was readily discussed through nuptial language, one could even describe a martyr’s tomb as his/her bridal chamber, as Hesychius of Jerusalem did in the sixth century when discussing his city’s shrine of St. Stephen.56

doctoral dissertation of B. van Os: Baptism in the Bridal Chamber: THe Gospel of Philip as a Valentinian Baptismal Instruction, Groningen: University of Groningen, 2007, 134. 52 See, for example, the discussion of Syrian bridal metaphors for the rite of baptism, in W. Ray: “Baptismal Images, Baptismal Narratives”, in: D. Pitt/S. Alexopoulos/C. McConnell (eds.): A Living Tradition: On the Intersection of Liturgical History and Pastoral Practice: Essays in Honor of Maxwell E. Johnson, Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2012, 120-25, here 123-29; D. Serra: “THe Baptistery at Dura-Europos: THe Wall Paintings in the Context of Syrian Baptismal THeology”, in: Ephemerides Liturgicae 120 (2006), 67-78; S. Klaver: “THe Brides of Christ”. THe theories of Serra and Klaver are developed in the more recent work of M. ­Peppard: THe World’s Oldest Church: Bible, Art, and Ritual at Dura-Europos, Syria, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2016, 122-40. 53 Pseudo-Epiphanius, Homily for Holy Saturday, PG 43: 464. 54 Critical edition in H. Achelis/G.N. Bonwetsche: Hippolytus Werke, Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1897, 255-263. English text here adapted from A. Roberts/J. Donaldson/A.C. Coxe (eds.): ­Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5 Edinburg: T&T Clark, 1886, 336. For a discussion of the origins of the text, see A. Stewart-Sykes: “THe Pseudo-Hippolytean Homily on the THeophany (CPG 1917): A Neglected Witness to Early Syrian Baptismal Rites”, in: Studia Liturgica 30 (2009), 23-39. THe passage here seems particularly relevant for discussions of bridal-chamber imagery within the context of initiation. 55 T. Finn (ed.): Quodvultdeus of Carthage: THe Creedal Homilies, Mahwah, NJ: Newman Press, 2004, 37. 56 Hesychius of Jerusalem: A Homily in Praise of Stephen the First Martyr, 2-3, in: P. Allen/ B. Dehandschutter/J. Leemans/W. Mayer (eds.): ‘Let us die that we may live’: Greek ­Homilies on Christian Martyrs from Asia Minor, Palestine and Syria, c. 35-450 AD, New York: Routledge, 2003, 196. See H. Mendez: “Stephen the Martyr (Acts VI-VIII) in the Early Jerusalem Lectionary System”, in: Journal of Ecclesiastical History 68 (2017), 22-39, here 26, 35. For a later, colorful Greek example of the elaboration of bridal-chamber descriptions of the eschaton, see the Middle Byzantine Life of Niphon, discussed and translated by V. Marinis: “THe Vision of the Last Judgment in the Vita of Saint Niphon (BHG 137IZ)”, in: Dumbarton

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Examples such as these demonstrate that the bridal chamber featured strongly within the early Christian imagination, likely in part because it featured so strongly within actual wedding ceremony.

Conclusion

While many early Christians highlighted sexual renunciation as a virtuous endeavor or even the Christian ideal, others continued to practice marriage. Because of the disproportionate survival of sources from the celibate portion of the Church, some scholars have termed the married faithful as the “silent major- ity” in the Church’s early centuries,57 and it is difficult, though not impossible, to reconstruct the domestic rites practiced by early laity within the confines of their families. As this short study has argued, there is ample evidence to suggest that many Christians continued the ancient use of the bridal chamber as a center­ piece of marriage ceremony, which they gradually Christianized. While the offer- ing of formal Christian prayer at the bridal chamber by bishops and priests could be viewed as a mere intrusion of clergy into the social institution of marriage, I suggest that such ritual behavior actually represents a continuation of pre- Christian customs, in which families sought to commemorate and establish ­marriage through the public offering of speech, prayer, and celebration surround- ing the context of a couple’s private sexual union. Since marriage was an early exegetical image readily employed by Christians to discuss the relationship of Christ and the Church, it is not surprising to find so many unmarried ecclesiastical authorities making references to bridal chambers within their works. At least some of these authors had encountered actual bridal chambers as ritual objects, either from their own experience of attending wed- dings, hearing about such from eyewitnesses, or reading of them in contemporary descriptions. THus, the employment of the bridal chamber as a Christian metaphor for initiation, salvation, and the eschaton interacted with the lived experiences of individuals who underwent and witnessed such late antique wedding ceremonies

Oaks Papers 71 (2017), 193-227. Note that within Christian Greek sources, the terms νυμφών, θάλαμος and παστάς/παστός are all found in various bridal discussions of the eschaton, and it is often difficult to discern what differences between these terms an individual author imagined at the time, partly because of a collapse in these terminological distinctions within Byzantine Greek. In the latter text, for example, the author clearly conceives of both a wed- ding chamber for feasting and a distinct bridal bedchamber, but this is only evident from a contextual reading, as the author mixes the terms for each. In origin, παστάς/παστός would best be understood as a bed canopy, θάλαμος a chamber (often bedchamber), and νυμφών used specifically for a bridal chamber. For the terminology, cf. E. Lane: “Παστός”, in: Glotta 66 (1988), 100-123. 57 C. Harrison: “THe Silent Majority: THe Family in Patristic THought”, in: S. Barton (ed.): THe Family in THeological Perspective, Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1996, 89-97; D. Hunter: “On the Sin of Adam and Eve: A Little-Known Defense of Marriage and Childbearing by Ambrosiaster”, in: THe Harvard THeological Review 82 (1989), 283-299.

62 G. Radle that exalted the bridal chamber as both a place of intimate encounter and public celebration. Furthermore, this patristic rhetorical use of the bridal chamber in turn likely reinforced the significance of actual bridal chamber ceremony, which could now stand as an image of eschatological fulfillment. In this context, it is unsurprising to see the Church inaugurating a couple’s sexual initiation with liturgy in their bedroom, a concrete example of just how large of a cultural gulf separates the practice of Christianity in the late antique Mediterranean from that of contemporary societies.

Summary THe Christianization of Marriage Ritual in Late Antiquity: Ecclesiastical Rites at the Bridal Chamber THe article looks at one aspect of the marriage ritual – that concerning the bridal chamber – to explore how weddings received new meaning and adjustments as Jewish and Roman patterns were taken into a Christian context. Christian marriage rituals were not developed from scratch but for the most part took over the rites that were central to the culture in which the gospel was received. THese included multiple stages, with highly codified actions. THe new theological perspective was applied to the pre- existing institutions. THe article specifically examines the ritualization of the bridal chamber in the late antique world, looking at public speech and prayer at the bridal chamber. Examples from the Roman world are given to show that such speeches were a common feature of Roman life. Jewish practices are also mentioned, where the bridal chamber itself came to be ritualized with a symbolic canopy over the couple. THe article then examines the Acts of THomas, which provides an early, 3rd century, Christian description of the wedding ritual. It discusses the speech at the wedding given there and argues that it shows that Christian weddings presumed some kind of prayer before consummation. Next, other Christian sources are examined to show that there existed a variety of opinions on the usability of pagan wedding rituals in a Christian wedding. John Chrysostom and Gregory of Nazianzus are discussed. Gregory specifically alludes to bridal chamber rituals and is an example of a Christian bishop embracing and adapt- ing previously established non-Christian bridal chamber rituals. THe author then presents other later accounts of Christian weddings from the fifth to the eighth century. THese show that many Christian areas did not know any wedding services other than those conducted at the bridal chamber while other places, like Rome and Constantinople, had a fully developed church marriage liturgy by the sixth century. THe final section of the article looks at the bridal chamber itself in the early Christian world, which often was the place of the marriage ritual. What happened, the author shows, was a theologizing of the nuptial chamber, drawing its inspiration from Jn 3,27-30 where John the Baptist evokes a wedding context, as well as other gospel passages. THese passages were taken up in the patristic period, in both orthodox and Gnostic circles, to develop a full theol- ogy of the bridal chamber. THe article concludes that the bridal imagery found in Christian theology in more symbolic terms was developed through Christian contact with actual bridal chamber rituals, practiced throughout the Christian world, at least in the earliest years of the Church. Furthermore, this patristic rhetorical use of the bridal chamber in turn likely reinforced the significance of actual bridal chamber ceremony, which could now stand as an image linking the sexual union of the couple with the eschatological union of humanity with God.

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Gabriel Radle is Assistant Professor of Liturgical Studies in the Department of THeology and a fellow of the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame. He specializes in early and medieval Christian liturgy, with a particular interest in the eastern Mediterranean world. He has published extensively on medieval marriage ritual, Byzantine prayer-book manuscripts, and life-cycle liturgies.

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