The Bible does not name who can marry a couple. No verse requires a priest, pastor, rabbi, or any other religious figure to stand between a man, a woman, and the covenant they make before God. Scripture treats marriage as something the couple enters into, with family and community as witnesses, and God himself as the one who joins them. That silence is consistent across the Old and New Testaments, and it has real consequences for how couples today think about the difference between a biblically valid marriage and a legally recognized one.
Scripture Is Silent on Who Performs a Wedding
The Mosaic Law regulated an enormous range of daily life, from food to fabric to temple sacrifice. It does not regulate who conducts a wedding. Levitical priests received detailed instructions for their duties, and officiating marriages was not on the list. If God had intended a specific religious office to authorize every marriage, you would expect to find that instruction somewhere in the hundreds of laws given to Israel. It is not there.
The New Testament continues the pattern. Paul devotes a long chapter in 1 Corinthians 7 to marriage questions: when to marry, whether to remain single, how to handle a believing spouse married to an unbeliever, and the permanence of the union. He never addresses who should perform the ceremony. His attention stays on the relationship, not on the person at the front of the room.
Jesus, when pressed about divorce, pointed back to Genesis and said, “What God has joined together, let no one separate.”1YouVersion. Matthew 19:4-6, 8-9 The joining is attributed to God. No human intermediary is credited with making the marriage happen.
How Marriages Actually Happened in the Bible
The weddings described in scripture show a consistent pattern. Families arranged the match, the community witnessed it, and no officiant presided.
Isaac and Rebekah
Abraham sent his senior servant to find a wife for Isaac among his relatives. The servant negotiated with Rebekah’s family, gifts were exchanged, and Rebekah agreed to go. When she arrived, Isaac brought her into his mother’s tent, and she became his wife. That is the whole account. A servant arranged it, a family approved it, and the couple began their life together. No priest. No pronouncement.
Boaz and Ruth
The marriage of Boaz and Ruth gives the clearest view of how an ancient Israelite union was formalized. Boaz went to the town gate, gathered ten elders, and publicly declared his intention to take Ruth as his wife. He turned to the assembled crowd and said, “You are witnesses today.” The elders and people answered, “We are witnesses,” and offered a blessing.2Bible Hub. Ruth 4:10 No one performed this marriage. Boaz declared it, the elders blessed it, and the community confirmed it. The witnesses were there to make the commitment public and binding, not to grant permission.
The Wedding at Cana
The most famous wedding in the New Testament mentions a “master of the feast” who tasted the wine and remarked on its quality.3Bible Hub. John 2 – The Wedding at Cana That person was a banquet coordinator, not an officiant. Jesus attended as a guest. The Gospel writer did not think the identity of anyone presiding over the ceremony was worth recording, and that tells you something about how the role was regarded in first-century Jewish culture.
God Is the Witness Scripture Names
If the Bible does not assign an officiant, it does say who sanctions the union. The prophet Malachi writes that “the LORD has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth… she is your companion and your wife by covenant.”4Bible Hub. Malachi 2:14 God is the witness. The marriage is a covenant. Breaking faith with a spouse is framed as breaking faith with God.
Genesis sets the foundation: a man leaves his father and mother, is united to his wife, and the two become one flesh.5Bible Hub. Genesis 2:24 That “one flesh” language describes a union, not a credential check. The couple’s commitment, made before God and the community, is what creates the marriage. Whoever happens to be at the front of the room does not change that.
What State Law Requires Even When the Bible Does Not
Here is where biblical silence runs into modern reality. Scripture does not require an officiant. Every U.S. state does. A ceremony that satisfies biblical principles alone, without a marriage license and an authorized person to solemnize the union, will not be recognized by the government.
The categories of people a state will accept generally include:
- Ordained clergy, including ministers, priests, rabbis, imams, and other religious leaders ordained by a recognized religious organization. Many states also accept ordination through online ministries.
- Active judges, magistrates, and justices of the peace. Some states include retired judges.
- Certain government officials, such as mayors and county clerks, depending on the state.
- Notaries public, in a handful of states.
Each state sets its own rules on registration, and some require the officiant to file credentials with a state or county office before performing ceremonies. If a friend or family member is going to officiate, check the state’s specific requirements. An ordination that counts in one state may not count in another.
Self-Uniting Marriage Licenses
A few states offer self-uniting or self-solemnizing marriage licenses, which let a couple marry without any officiant at all. Colorado and Pennsylvania are the best-known examples, with roots in the Quaker tradition of marrying each other before God and witnesses rather than being pronounced married by a third party. This option sits closest to the biblical model.
Common Law Marriage
A small number of states still recognize common law marriage, where couples who live together, hold themselves out as married, and intend to be married are treated as legally wed without a ceremony or license. States that currently recognize some form of common law marriage include Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah, among others.6National Conference of State Legislatures. Common Law Marriage by State This resembles the biblical pattern, where cohabitation and public acknowledgment often constituted the marriage, but relying on it is risky. The requirements are murky, and most states do not recognize it at all.
Why the Legal Piece Still Matters
A couple who hold a biblical ceremony without obtaining a marriage license face consequences beyond the spiritual question of whether God recognizes the union. Legal marriage unlocks rights a purely religious ceremony does not.
Social Security spousal and survivor benefits are one example. You generally need to have been legally married for at least one year to qualify for spousal benefits, and a divorced spouse must have been married at least ten years to claim benefits on an ex-spouse’s record.7Social Security Administration. What Are the Marriage Requirements to Receive Social Security Spouse’s Benefits Legal marriage also affects joint tax filing, inheritance without a will, medical decision-making for an incapacitated spouse, and access to employer-sponsored health insurance.
Nothing in scripture suggests that getting a license and having an authorized person sign it undermines a biblical marriage. A couple can hold that their covenant before God is what makes the marriage spiritually real, and still complete the legal paperwork to protect themselves. Both can be true at once.