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Divine Marriage from Eden to the End of Days
Communion with God as Nuptial Mystery in the Story of Salvation
Imprint: Wipf and Stock
In Divine Marriage from Eden to the End of Days, Andre Villeneuve explores the mystery of God's love in the Bible and ancient Jewish tradition. Scripture portrays the covenant between God and his people as a divine-human marriage spanning through all of human history. For the ancient Jewish interpreters, God married humanity at the dawn of creation in the Garden of Eden; but the union was broken by human sin. The Lord restored the relationship when he betrothed Israel at Mount Sinai; yet the covenant was wounded again with the transgression of the golden calf. The nuptial bond was healed anew, commemorated, and reenacted through liturgical worship in Israel's tabernacle and temple. This worship in God's "nuptial chamber," in turn, anticipated the ultimate fulfillment of the divine-human marriage in the messianic age at the end of history.
The first part of the book explores the marriage through Israel's biblical history in light of ancient Jewish exegesis. The second part unveils the marriage in the ancient interpretation of the Song of Songs and in wisdom literature. The third part reveals how the same symbolism is taken up in the New Testament and applied to the marriage between Christ and the Church.
André Villeneuve Associate Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. He holds an MA in theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville, a PhD in religious studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Licentiate in Sacred Scripture from the Pontifical Biblical Commission. He is the author of Nuptial Symbolism in Second Temple Writings, the New Testament, and Rabbinic Literature (2016).
“Arguably the most important work on the nuptial theme in Scripture published in recent decades. Villeneuve opens up the richness of the rabbinic interpretive tradition to readers unfamiliar with it. The breadth, color, boldness, and pervasiveness of the matrimonial paradigm in rabbinic and patristic exegesis amazes the reader and suggests new interpretive possibilities present in otherwise familiar biblical texts. Essential reading for contemporary theologians, Bible scholars, exegetes, and homilists.”
—John S. Bergsma, author of Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Revealing the Jewish Roots of Christianity.
“From the beginning to the end of the biblical canon, marriage is the preferred metaphor for God’s covenant relationship with his people. For that reason, the ancient rabbis and fathers treated the Song of Songs as the interpretive key to the whole Bible. In this illuminating study, Villeneuve recovers that interpretive tradition. This will be a useful resource in biblical theology and historical theology. . . . Highly recommended.”
—Scott Hahn, author of Kinship by Covenant
“Villeneuve has written a beautiful book about a beautiful subject. He shows how the Bible presents the twists and turns of salvation history as a matrimonial adventure—a dramatic story of God wedding himself to a people as his bride. . . . Not many scholars could have pulled off such an ambitious synthesis of this sprawling topic. Villeneuve is one of the few who could manage this. His expert command of ancient sources, combined with his clear and graceful style, make this book a delightful and informing read.”
—Curtis Mitch, associate editor of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible
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