The answer
St. Ignatius of Antioch says, “But it becomes both men and women who marry, to form their union with the approval of the bishop, that their marriage may be according to God, and not after their own lust. Let all things be done to the honour of God.”1747
St. Ambrose says, “Since the marriage ceremony ought to be sanctified by the priestly veiling and blessing, how can that be called a marriage ceremony where there is no agreement in faith?”1748
In the fourth century, Emperor Constantine declared that the marriage of a Christian to a Jew is illegal. And in 338 A. D., a Roman Christian law declared the marriage to a non- Christian is equivalent to committing adultery.1749
Tertullian says, “Together they pray, together prostrate themselves, together perform their fasts; mutually teaching, mutually exhorting (Col. 3:16), mutually sustaining. Equally (are they) both (found) in the Church of God; equally at the banquet of God; equally in straits, in persecutions, in refreshments … The sick is visited, the indigent relieved, with freedom. Alms (are given) … Such things when Christ sees and hears, He rejoices.”1750
Someone might object based on the apostle’s words: “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy” (1 Cor. 7:14). St. John Chrysostom responds, “It is quite clear that the woman also who is joined to an idolater is one body. Well: it is one body; nevertheless she becomes not unclean, but the cleanness of the wife overcomes the uncleanness of the husband … Because here there is hope that the lost member may be saved through the marriage … For the question now is not about those who have never yet come together (in marriage), but about those who are already joined. He did not say, ‘if any one wish to take an unbelieving wife,’ but, ‘if any one has an unbelieving wife’ … What then, is the Greek (non-believer) holy? Certainly not: for he said not, He is holy; but, He is sanctified in his wife. And this he said, not to signify that he is holy, but to deliver the woman as completely as possible from her fear and lead the man to desire the truth.”1751
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty
Notes
1747 St. Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to Polycarp 5 (ANF 1:95).
1748 St. Ambrose of Milan, Letters 35(19) To Vigilius 23.7 (FOTC 26:XX).
1749 Carl A. Volz, Faith and Practice in the Early Church: Foundations for Contemporary Theology (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1983): p. 187.
1750 Tertullian, To My Wife (Ad Uxorem) 2.8 (ANF 4:48) amended.
1751 St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the First Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians 19.4 (NPNF I/12:107).