God Himself instituted marriage and gave it certain purposes, laws and blessings.

God instituted marriage at the very beginning of the human race, when He created Adam and Eve, as we read in the book of Genesis: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth’” (Genesis 1:27–28).

Marriage was instituted by God for the procreation and education of children and for the mutual sanctification and fulfillment of husband and wife.