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Is Common Law Marriage a Fallacy?

Scarecrow

Scarecrow

Member
John 4:16-18 Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here." The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true."

Rather than take another topic off on a tangent I decided to ask a separate question about the same verse.

Apparently this woman was living with a sixth man without a covenant agreement. If this is the situation and Jesus states that "the one you have now IS NOT your husband" would this not bring us to the conclusion that "Common Law" marriage is not scriptural?
 
I don't know that it would vitiate it unless we could know the intents of this man and woman Jesus spoke about.

I was asking earlier, would it make a difference if the woman and man here in this case had no intent for a permanent union? What if in their minds they thought of themselves as just sex partners but had no intent on staying together? If that were the case then I don't know this text would apply.

The laws, mostly case law, on common law marriage are complex, numerous, and are up to around 1,000 cases. But the one theme that unifies almost each and every common law case is that the man and woman presented themselves to actually be husband and wife and had all intent to be that. That key of intent if missing in this case before Christ might make this another issue different.
 
I think you're right...in this case she stated that "I have no husband" but apparently was living with a man "the man you are with now". I haven't looked into all the differences in the States, but I remember coming across information somewhere that in one State at least if a man and woman lived together for 6 months they were considered common law spouses legally (there may have been more to it than I remember). It just seemed to me that from this statement by Jesus one might have a religious basis to say that no...living together for 6 months does not make us husband and wife. As you pointed out though I think if someone is stating that they are husband and wife and the State has common law marriage then they would be accountable to that law.
 
Yep, I think you are right there. The law could say in a modern state, you are joined if you live together, and yet it still fail in the sight of God just like the homosexual unions fail too in the sight of God as a legitimate godly union.
 
Yes, I agree with Dr. Allen. The key to common law marriage is the presentation to the greater community that there is a established "my man-my woman" relationship, regardless of whether or not they actually call it marriage.
 
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