The Wedding Ring

by Venerable Dr Ifechukwu. U. Ibeme http://www.scribd.com/ifeogo

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Comment on The Chapel Blog; http://thechapelofgrace.wordpress.com

Nowadays, many people seek the meaning of the wedding ring from
mystical and ritual uses of rings in paganism; others seek it from
structural features and shape of the ring, yet others from the economic
value and physical properties of its metal. This approach is misleading
and diversionary, for these are all divested by the Church in its use of the
Wedding Ring.
The use of the Wedding Ring outside or before the Church did not include
seal of security for the Bride; this was the Churchs monogamous
necessity, instituted for the protection of Christian wives as demanded by
marriage standards as Christ taught and ordained them. The Romans and
Greeks or even Egyptians and Indians used the ring (derived from the
circle of the sun and the moon) to symbolize endlessness, wholeness and
perfection, while precious metals served for price value or social status.
To the Greco-Romans, Egyptians, Indians and other ancient pagan
cultures, rings had mystical symbolisms, and the Wedding Ring also
symbolised the bond of covenant fidelity or even band of
ownership with which the husband owns the wife, but not the "seal of
security to guarantee the Brides right of possession in her Husbands
estate.
The Church (especially the Church of England) did not derive or institute
the legal use of the Wedding Ring from any of the usual fanciful or
mystical insinuations. Church monogamous wedding ensures the Brides
legal right to possess her husbands heritage, whereas pagan marriages
ensured the Grooms possessiveness over the Bride. Besides, because of
polygamy and divorce in non-Christian society, a security seal ring for the
Bride was unthinkable.
The only paganish legal use of the ring which has some bearing with the
Christian Wedding Ring is the Signet Ring. The Signet Ring was
engraved to emboss the royal pictogram on solid wax used as seal. Signet
rings had also served some redemptive purpose for the people of God in
the Scripture. Pharaohs Signet Ring conferred on Joseph the regal
authority and property right over Egypt (Gen 41:42) also as Ahasueruss
Signet Ring conferred royal legislative authority on Esther/Mordecai (Esth
8:1-2, 5-8). Gods messianic promise of guarantee to Zerubbabel was to
THE WEDDING RING by Ven Dr. I. U. Ibeme

make him a Signet Ring (Hag 2:23). Jewish men wore their Signet Rings
on their right hand (Jer 22:24). Since the Roman Empire began to accord
metro-political authority to the Bishops, the Church has been giving regal
Signet Rings to her Bishops during their enthronement.
Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria and the Catacombs findings indicate
that the Church used the giving of Signet Rings to represent the brides
security seals during weddings (c. 200 AD). Church records of early 7 th
Century AD (Bishop Isidore of Seville c. 560-636 AD) made reference to
the use of the Wedding Ring band on the fourth finger among the
Romans. But available written Marriage Liturgy with the security-seal
ring ceremony dates back to about 870 AD. By the 12 th Century (time of
Pope Innocent III), this liturgy had become almost uniform worldwide.
According to the Wedding Service, the Church originally intended the
Wedding Ring to serve as imperishable symbol of security or seal of
guarantee or sign of earnest by which the Groom symbolically bestows
the legal rights to his estate on the Bride. This is unambiguously
expressed in the words:
Old: WITH this ring I thee wed,
with my body I thee worship,
and with all my worldly goods I thee endow:
In the Name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

New:

I give you this ring

as a sign of our marriage.
With my body I honour you,
all that I am I give to you,
and all that I have I share with you:
in the name of the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

It is important to note that since the Second World War when women
began to also give ring and modern marriage revisionism, the thrust of
words used for giving the ring has been muddled and evolved in newer
liturgies. Unlike the Engagement Ring given before marriage as a fanciful
love proof or token of love, the Wedding Ring was not originally meant to
be valuable exchanged token of love as is popular today or merely
tangible covenant sign of marriage-bond or sign of marriage-vow but
mainly a legal covenant seal of guarantee or seal of co-signatory which
secures the Brides right of co-possession co-ownership and co-heritage
of her husbands identity and estate (Eph 1:13-14). This is clearly evident
from the ancient Churchs words for giving the ring. Many modern
liturgical revisions seem to play down on this though most Western and
Commonwealth family estate legislations still retain this ancient Christian
stance. The giving away of the Bride by her family removes her from her
THE WEDDING RING by Ven Dr. I. U. Ibeme

fathers heritage except for her dower. The transfer of heritage security
(somewhat similar to Germanic mund or Romanic manus) through the
endowment ring bond (Anglo-Saxon wed) ensures that no one has
multiple heritage lineages. This demands the prior settlement and
fulfilment of basic communal, civil, and legal requirements before
wedding.
With the Wedding Ring therefore, the Groom gives the Bride the earnest
or guarantee to co-possess his estate. This is in line with our salvation
experience where Christ gives us the Holy Spirit in our hearts as a seal of
guarantee and earnest to co-possess the Kingdom of Heaven together
with Christ when we believe in Him according to the Gospel.
Eph 1:13-14
(13) In whom you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also
after you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
(14) Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto
the praise of his glory.

Also see 2Cor 1:22 and 5:5.

Modern wedding services are tending to focus on the fancies of

preciousness of the rings metal and the roundness of its structure which
have little biblical value and thereby beginning to neglect and abandon
this ancient biblical use of the ring for peculiarly security originated by
the Church. Since the World War II, when parting soldiers requested rings
from their fiances as reminders of their troth till death in battle, the
Church is surreptitiously changing the wedding ring from being a legal
sure seal of guarantee from Groom to Bride to becoming a fanciful
token of endless love exchanged by both Bride and Groom. But did
Jesus not teach that there is no marriage in eternity (Mat 22:30)? After all,
the marital love is clearly pledged with their lives by the couple to last as
long as they both shall live, not for endless circular eternity!
This is not to say that there is no place for expensive endowment as a
sign of love. But a solitary ring is too small to match biblical examples
where the bride is adorned and decked with such ornamental gifts of
marital love (Gen 24:22, 30, 53; Psa 45:9, 13-14; Isa 61:10; Jer 2:32; Ezek
16:10-13; Luk 15:22; Rev 21:2). This is usually prior to (not during) the
wedding ceremony.
Psa 45:9-14
(9) Kings' daughters were among your honorable women: at your right hand did stand the queen in gold
of Ophir.
(10) Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline your ear; forget also your own people, and your
father's house;
(11) So shall the king greatly desire your beauty: since he is your Lord, worship him.
(12) And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall entreat your
favor.
(13) The king's daughter is all glorious within the palace: her clothing is of woven gold.
(14) She shall be brought unto the king in robes of needlework: the virgins, her companions that
follow her, shall be brought unto you.
THE WEDDING RING by Ven Dr. I. U. Ibeme

Eze 16:8-14
(8) Now when I passed by you, and looked upon you, behold, your time was the time of love; and I spread
my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness: yea, I swore unto you, and entered into a covenant with
you, says the Lord GOD, and you became mine.
(9) Then I washed you with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away your blood from you, and I anointed you
with oil.
(10) I clothed you also with embroidered work, and gave you sandals of badgers skin, and I
clothed you with fine linen, and I covered you with silk.
(11) I adorned you also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon your hands, and a chain on
your neck.
(12) And I put a ring on your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown upon
your head.
(13) Thus were you adorned with gold and silver; and your clothing was of fine linen, and
silk, and embroidered work; you did eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and you were
exceedingly beautiful, and you did prosper into a kingdom.
(14) And your renown went forth among the nations for your beauty: for it was perfect through my
splendor, which I had put upon you, says the Lord GOD.

We must not lose sight of the fact that the Prophets and Apostles warned
against distraction and deception of ornamental and cosmetic beauty at
the expense of inner beauty (Isa 3:16-24; 1Pet 3:3-4). A wifes ornamental
beauty is the sign of her husbands love and social duty to her. What God
requires of the wife as her moral and spiritual duty to her husband is her
inner beauty. While she may not forget her given wares (Isa 52:1; Jer
2:32; Rev 21:2), she should invest in and acquire excess of inner beauty
of good works and godly manners as holy matrons did rather than
excess of outer beauty of gold wears which even witches and prostitutes
could do (2Kin 9:30; Ezek 23:39-44; 1Tim 2:9-10).
From ancient times, the fourth fingers (especially of the left hand) had
been thought to have the vena amoris that specially connects to the
heart. We now know that all the fingers equally have veins and arteries
connecting them to the heart. Whatever finger that bears the Wedding
Ring is not very important as this had been changed by the Church even
to the right hand and also to the thumb in the past. What matters is not
some unfounded superstitious anatomy about the location of the ring but
ecclesiastical consensus and actual bestowal of the ring with appropriate
bestowal of rights. It is only ecclesiastical consensus or convention that
has kept the Wedding Ring on the second to the last finger of the left
hand.
Updated May 3, 2013 by Ven. Dr. I. U. Ibeme
Copyright PriscAquila Publishing, Maiduguri, Nigeria.
Click here for PriscAquila Christian Resource Centre
http://priscaquila.6te.net http://www.scribd.com/ifeogo

THE WEDDING RING by Ven Dr. I. U. Ibeme