In both cases, the woman has no say. These examples of marriage in the biblical tradition illustrate the fluidity of the institution. To 21st-century Americans, these biblical understandings or ...

4. Those who claim a “biblical definition of marriage” as a model for today ignore various marital arrangements in the Bible that would be illegal or condemned today.

The Bible, it seems, has at least as many definitions of marriage as a Webster's dictionary. The book of Deuteronomy has some strange rules for biblical courtship.