Are Wedding Rings in the Bible?
What do they SYMBOLIZE?

Q. What does the Bible say about wedding rings? Are wedding rings a Biblical tradition or a tradition of men? What does the wedding ring SYMBOLIZE?

(Submitted by: Sherry)

A. In the Biblical account of creation you will find the following scant details regarding marriage, but no specific procedures for weddings:

"So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him;  male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:27, NKJV throughout)

"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.  Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man.

"And Adam said: 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.'

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." (Genesis 2:21-24)

The Bible is clear, however, on how men and women are to love and cherish each other within a marriage:

"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.  Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, . . .

"So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself . . . Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." (Ephesians 5:22-25, 28, 33)

"And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,’ and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?  So then, they are no longer two but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." " (Matthew 19:4-6)

Although the Bible has quite a few references to marriage and weddings it does not establish the use of any particular symbols such as wedding rings to represent the marriage commitment. God made marriage, so marriage is holy. Only God can make something holy. Since he didn't command the use of wedding rings, there is nothing holy about them.

In lieu of this, the various societies of mankind throughout history have established their own customs regarding marriage and the symbols they may use to represent the union between two people.  The following general information about wedding rings was gleaned from sources on the Web:

According to some customs, the wedding ring (or wedding band) forms the last in a series of gifts, which also may include the engagement ring, traditionally given as a betrothal present. This tradition was already in use in Ancient Rome and could be much older.

It was thought that the fourth finger (which we now call the 'ring finger') contained a special vein that was connected directly to the heart, and therefore it became the official finger for the wedding band.

A European tradition encourages the engraving of the name of one's intended spouse and the date of one's intended marriage on the inside surface of wedding rings, thus strengthening the symbolism and sentimentality of the rings as they become family heirlooms. (Sources: Wikipedia, article Wedding Rings, and other sources.)