February 7th, 2026.
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I know, I know, this is going on my 5th or 6th post discussing this topic, but I think it is of the utmost importance and one of the Church’s GREATEST discoveries and must be expanded on further! I think the question that many of we Catholics would naturally have is, “how can a man be a best man to a bride?” Wouldn’t that break the norm? It makes sense that Saint John the Baptist is best man to Our Lord as Bridegroom as he describes himself thus:
John 3:29: “The one who has the bride is the Bridegroom. The friend of the Bridegroom, who stands and hears Him, rejoices greatly at the Bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.”
This glorious precursor uses this imagery to explain his divine role as one preparing the way as the friend/best man for Jesus (the Bridegroom) to take His bride (the Church). The BIBLICAL role of John is to PRESENT the Bridegroom to the bride and the BIBLICAL role of Saint Paul is to PRESENT the bride to the Bridegroom.
Because I’ve already discussed the biblical evidence at length, in my Saint Paul Trilogy, showing that Saint Paul’s “office” is indeed best man to the Catholic Church, just as Peter’s “office” is the “rock”, “chair” and the “wedding ring” 💍 , today I merely want to drive this biblical evidence home with the customs of ANCIENT Jewish weddings. Because you see, our norms are not the God Man’s norms. The Old Testament is a completion of the New Testament and the reason Christ the King, the perfect Jew, chose a gentile bride is not without meaning or foundation.
John, as best man, had intimate knowledge of the Bridegroom just as Paul, more so than any other apostle, had intimate knowledge of the bride BECAUSE he is her predestined and chosen best man. Today I’m going to tie the crystal clear biblical evidence to why the Marriage Supper of the Lamb will be the most unique wedding of all: a Jew marrying a Gentile. And not just ANY Jewish Man, but the God Man’s wedding to a bride the world, the Jews or Satan didn’t expect He would choose. Buckle up!
Marriage Supper of the Lamb described by Paul as a “Mystery”:
Let’s first study the profound words of Brant Pitri describing Saint Paul’s “mysterious” words about this Marriage to come, from his book Jesus the Bridegroom:
To be sure, most Christians are familiar with the Apostle Paul’s teaching that Christ is the “Bridegroom” and the Church is the “Bride.” But what does this really mean? And what would ever possess Paul to compare the death of Christ to the love of a husband for his wife? If you would have been at the Crucifixion, with Jesus hanging there dying, is that how you would have described it? How could a first-century Jew like Paul, who knew how brutal Roman crucifixions were, have ever compared the execution of Jesus to a wedding? And why does he refer to this as the “great mystery”.
Let me give you some solid evidence that Saint Paul had direct knowledge (direct knowledge only a best man can have) of the bride that was not given to the other apostles. In retrospect this entirely makes sense since Saint Paul was taken up to the 3rd heaven. Have you ever wondered where the title “Holy Mother Church” came from? NONE OTHER THAN SAINT PAUL. This must have indeed been one of the “mysteries” he saw in the third heaven as he describes the true Jerusalem, the Catholic Church thus:
Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But that Jerusalem, which is above, is free: which is our mother…. So then, brethren, we are not children of a bondwoman, but of the free”.
Galatian 4:25-31
But you are come to mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the company of many thousands of angels.
Hebrews 12:22
Paul understands whole heartedly that the Church is both bride and mother. What’s so utterly mysterious about this text is that Paul is essentially describing the Church on earth AND in heaven AT THE SAME TIME. How can the Church be in heaven AND on earth simultaneously and at the same time? It’s proof that the Church, even from the beginning of time (whatever that means), was present before the eyes of God the Father PROMISING that His Divine Son, the God Man, was always betrothed to His bride and yet, even though this wedding hasn’t officially taken place, The Church is already “the wife of the Lamb” because God lives OUTSIDE of time. Anne Emmerich describes this in her visions!
Hence why we also have a type of Trinity in a way: Church Militant, Church Suffering and Church Triumphant. Three in one, since the Church can only be one!
It’s as if Paul was taken up to the 3rd heaven, saw the bride who was free and filled with that PROMISED holy freedom and then when he returned he saw the bride in bondage and filled with sorrow on earth. If the bride above, Jerusalem is already with her Bridegroom in heaven, but at the same time, laboring in toil here below, this vision of Paul’s merely confirms the ultimate and absolute promise: this Predestined Wedding HAS already happened… even though it hasn’t actually happened yet! Wait what? Yes, you read that right. Isn’t that mysterious as ever? It’s just like the Blessed Trinity and the Immaculate Conception.
We can contemplate their meanings all our lives and still not understand them. The Church can only be one, so… LOGICALLY how can she be in heaven, purgatory and earth at the SAME TIME? But John the Beloved confirms this when he SEES in the Book of the Apocalypse the New Jerusalem COMING DOWN out of heaven as a bride adorned for her Husband. Wait… how can she be coming down if she is supposedly on earth WAITING for her Bridegroom? Do you see my point? Saint Paul alone, as best man, was given intimate knowledge of these great “mysteries” which made him proclaim:
“Would to God you could bear with some little of my folly: but do bear with me. For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God. For I have espoused you to one Husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”
2 Cor 11:2
Notice the “best man pattern”? John expresses his HOLY JOY at presenting Jesus to His bride and Paul expresses his HOLY JEALOUSY at PRESENTING and ESPOUSING the bride to Jesus! What other apostle has this unique privilege? Usually a FATHER of the bride presents his daughter to the bridegroom, but Paul proves that he can’t truly be that alone, even though he is indeed Father, because he mysteriously calls the Church “ OUR MOTHER”.
What role is left, then? BEST MAN. If Paul is essentially mirroring John the Baptist’s ministry in every way in this matter, biblically, we have our answer. Jewish traditional weddings, if you read history, were very different than what we see today. Women didn’t actually usually have bridesmaids. Same with the dowry aspect; it was the Bridegroom who supplied the dowry the way Jacob laboured for Rachel! Not the other way around.
Traditionally, the bridegroom showered his bride with gifts before the wedding and it was her role to receive. Sound like Our Lord, yet? He GIVES and we receive. We are dealing with a God Who often “confounds” us! But it doesn’t make it untrue. Sort of like Our Lord returning as “King of kings” with His wedding party, the saints, which are both men and women. We often see wedding parties for men with strictly men in their wedding party and vice versa with a woman and her own wedding party being strictly women.
Brant Pitri does a great job describing this in His book Jesus the Bridegroom where he ties in scripture to Jewish traditional weddings! They not only look very different today but God doesn’t follow our modern standards (thank God, literally). It’s all there: John the Baptist “presents” the Bridegroom to the bride and Paul “presents” the bride to the Bridegroom! Traditionally, Jewish weddings include a seven-day celebration known as Sheva Brachot (Seven Blessings) or Shiv’at Y’mei Mishteh (Seven Days of Feasting).
Following the ceremony, the couple is treated like royalty, typically hosting festive meals with family and friends for seven evenings, during which the Seven Blessings are recited. When I said the Old Testament is a completion of the New, we see that in FEAST DAY OCTAVES. In fact, Palm Sunday all the way up to Easter Sunday (or Easter Vigil) is viewed as Our Lord’s wedding with His bride to be. How many days is that? SEVEN.
See how Our Lord carried on many of these Jewish wedding customs into the New? That annoying expression that weddings are all about the bride and the wedding planning is left to her, is lame and biblically untrue. No One, and I mean NO ONE, obsesses over THE wedding more than Christ the King, who has been planning His own wedding since before time (again, whatever that means). More mysteries. I will never forget my Grammie telling me, “it’s HIS wedding, too!”. Tell em, Gram!
Saint Paul partakes and mirrors the bride’s passion and captivity (imprisonment)
Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the church… The mystery which hath been hidden from ages and generations, but now is manifested to his saints.
Col 1:25 and 27
Paul keeps speaking of this great “mystery”, does not he? A mystery that indeed has been hidden from ages and generations but NOW BEING MANIFESTED: that he is best man to the gentile bride. It’s truly a two fold mystery, if you will: “mystery of iniquity” (passion of the Church) and the “mystery” of Jesus’ predestined wedding to the gentile bride, the Church.
How does Paul partake in her passion in his flesh and mirror her exile on earth as a bondwoman? Easy, a quarter of his ministry was spent in prison (5-6 years total which included even some house arrest where he wrote some of his epistles). He was stoned, whipped and even shipwrecked (most of us know the ship symbolizes the Church). Paul proves, and in great humility, that even though he sees himself as the least of all the apostles (though I beg to differ), that he has suffered more than ALL OF THEM.
At first glance one might think that statement is prideful, but we must remember that true humility is also proclaiming simple truths. Truth can’t be deemed as prideful simply because people don’t like what they are hearing. It’s indeed very clear that Paul’s sufferings were not only unique but tremendous. BEST man? A best man’s role is to be the right hand man on the wedding day itself and on the lead up to it. It’s safe to assume that Paul’s suffering mirror the Church’s suffering because he is constantly laboring and suffering AT HER SIDE.
They are the ministers of Christ (I speak as one less wise): I am more; in many more labours, in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in deaths often.
2 Cor 11:23
Paul wrote his 14 letters to the bride and there are 14 stations of the cross.
Moses, bridal mysteries and meaning of shaved heads in the book of Numbers and Deuteronomy
Did you know that the scene of Moses and the burning bush was a type of marriage between Christ and the Church? Bernard of Clairvaux, in his sermons on the Canticles, quite remarkably shows Moses as another “friend” or best man to Christ by saying the reason he did not enter into the Holy Land was because:
“It seems to me, however, that, by a secret dispensation, this destiny, on account of its greatness, was providentially reserved to the Spouse, so that she, and not Moses, might grow into a mighty people. For it would not be right for the friend of the Bridegroom to snatch away the blessing that belonged to the bride.”
I have discovered some of the most profound and utterly mysterious MYSTERIES in the book of Numbers and Deuteronomy, as I have displayed in some former posts about the fate of Babylon and her “trial of jealousy”. However, I only scratched the surface. Numbers 12 is another jaw dropping head scratcher. Aaron and Miriam were murmuring again Moses and God was so angry at them, that He summoned all three of them: Moses, Aaron and Miriam and in defense of Moses, struck Miriam with Leprosy.
Moses is so grieved that he begs God to cure her immediately to which Our Lord tells Moses Miriam can wait seven days (sound familiar?). This of course shows God’s perfect justice, but the real mystery lies behind THE WHY: what Aaron and Miriam were murmuring about… the fact that Moses was married to an Ethiopian. Ethiopians were knows as “beta Israel”, an inferior group so to speak. It’s tale as old as time with this stuff and nonsense of Jewish supremacy. I tell you from experience, the only type of “supremacy” I have witnessed has been in the Jews.
You see, Satan HATES the idea of a gentile bride because to him and to the current day Jews, her “blood”, “DNA” and “race” doesn’t qualify. He has this same attitude toward Our Lady, but in a different way. Our Lady is of the bloodline, but according to Mary Agreda Lucifer saw Our Lady as an under-qualified Palestinian girl. Humility, humility, humility… God always chooses and elevates the humble. “He hath regarded the humility of His Handmaid.” Something the fallen loser angel will never understand.
Satan is not jealous with a jealousy of God, he is downright filled with egotistical murderous rage at Mary and Our Lord’s choice of a gentile bride. It struck me that Zipporah, Moses’ bride was a type of gentile bride and God in defense of Moses would not only stand for murmuring against his beloved servant, but in a way can also be seen as mysterious defending of HIS OWN FUTURE BRIDE TO BE. The Church looks at her children through the lens of grace, not race. As a gentile herself, she ought to know!
That is why Saint John Lateran Basilica is known as her Basilica, “Mother and head of all the Churches of the City and of the World”, where traditionally each year she is depicted as giving birth at the baptismal font on Easter Vigil. Chapter 12 of the Apocalypse depicts her as laboring for her children amdists trials and tribulation. Again, all this perfectly depicts the Church as mother and bride, and the Holy Ghost is her soul, animating and guiding her smothered in Mary, His Perfect and Immaculate Spouse.
The Marrying of a Captive:
Paul also mirrors the bride in ANOTHER mysterious way. In Deuteronomy Chapter 21 God sets forth a law for Moses of a Israeli man, in times of war, choosing to take a “captive bride”:
11 And seest in the number of the captives a beautiful woman, and lovest her, and wilt have her to wife, 12 Thou shalt bring her into thy house: and she shall shave her hair, and pare her nails.
I was so utterly struck by this for multiple reasons, but the number one being this: “captive bride”. Who else did Saint Paul describe as “captive”? Jerusalem, the Church here below, as bondwoman. Another confirmation is captive brides were required to shave their heads for a few different reasons, and be prepared to be stunned:
Renouncing Her Past: The act symbolized the removal of her former identity, including her pagan religion and culture, separating her from her past to become a new person (NEW Jerusalem?).
Shaving was a form of purification, similar to rituals for lepers or the cleansing of the Levites, preparing her for life within the community of Israel.
By removing her hair and changing her clothes, her physical beauty was temporarily obscured. Proving that her husband didn’t solely choose her for vain reasons of beauty alone.
A Rite of Transition: It marked a formal transition from a captive to a wife, ensuring she was not treated merely as a spoil of war.
All this is a symbol of Jesus’ union with a chosen bride who must sever ties with her past (sin of Babylon) and prepare her for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb as we read above that this custom was a “formal transition” from a “captive TO A WIFE”. Are you as excited as I am? It’s all remarkably stunning and again proves that the Old Testament completes the New. Who else shaved his head during his ministry for a vow he made per the book of Numbers 6? You guessed it, PAUL:
In Numbers 6, men (Nazirites) do not shave their heads as part of the normal, active vow, but rather at the end of their vow as a symbol of its completion and purification. If a Nazirite becomes defiled by accidental contact with a dead body, they must shave their head on the seventh day.
Key Details on Head Shaving in Numbers 6:
- During the Vow: Nazirites were forbidden from using a razor on their heads, allowing their hair to grow as a sign of consecration.
- At Completion: Once the period of separation was over, the Nazirite was required to shave their head at the tent of meeting.
- Offering: The hair, which was considered holy, was burned in the fire under the peace offering.
- Defilement: If the Nazirite touched a dead body, they had to shave their head on the seventh day to cleanse themselves and restart their vow.
The act of shaving in Numbers 6 symbolizes the transition from a state of separation back to normal life, having fulfilled their dedication to God.
There you have it, my dear readers! Paul also uniquely belongs to Mary as well. He’s linked to the Church’s passion and Mary’s Triumph, and even the Freemasons seem to know this as I relayed in my former post where I showed Saint Paul’s “ceremonial requirement” for the disgusting enthronement of Lucifer in 1963.
Paul presents the bride, the Church and stands by her. The best is truly saved for last. Saint Paul is saved for last, and he is very much… the best. The conversion of Russia and the Jews will mirror Paul’s conversion. When the best are not the best, they become the worst. May we anticipate this consecration and conversion with great fervor. It’s a promise from heaven. A testament. A wedding!
AVE MARIA, CHRIST IS KING!
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