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Marriage

37 Episodes

Marriage is a socially recognized union that organizes sexual access, kinship, household membership, inheritance, and often reproduction. In the biblical texts, it is usually framed less as a modern partnership of equals than as a household and property arrangement shaped by patriarchy, status, and control over women's bodies.

Why this topic matters

Marriage sits at the center of some of the show’s sharpest arguments about how badly modern culture misreads the Bible. Episodes on marriage, divorce, adultery, levirate obligation, and polygamy keep returning to the same point: biblical texts do not present a single timeless family model, and many of their assumptions are structurally unequal in ways modern readers often miss or sanitize.

Marriage also becomes a recurring test case for larger interpretive questions. It exposes how translation choices, later theology, and modern political rhetoric can turn descriptive ancient social arrangements into supposed divine ideals. That makes it a natural entry point for the show’s broader concerns with gender, power, sexuality, and the gap between historical evidence and popular religious claims.

Where to start

Start here for the best in-depth listening on Marriage: featured segments, featured episodes, and the episode with the most mentions.

Quotes from the Data

“Marriage is, is very similar in the Bible. It is not two equal parties entering into a contract the way the legislation exists in, particularly in the Pentateuch.”

Dan McClellan Episode 108

“Marriage in that environment had nothing to do with what we—how we determine how we see marriage now. It's a totally different institution.”

Dan Beecher Episode 108

“This is bollocks, right? One man, one woman. Come on, people.”

Jennifer Bird Episode 44

“It's not saying, look, this is how marriage was created. It's saying, look, this is how humanity matures. And you become an adult and you go out and you pair bond and you start your own household and you leave your parents alone.”

Dan McClellan Episode 44

Top episodes

Ranked by mentions of Marriage across the transcript. Start with the top mention above, then keep going here.

All episodes

Every episode currently tagged with Marriage.