Can an engagement be broken?

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William Branham taught that being engaged was the same as being married and couldn't be broken. But is this what Scripture teaches?

What the Bible says

1 Corinthians 7:36-38 states:

If anyone is worried that he might not be acting honorably toward the virgin he is engaged to, and if his passions are too strong and he feels he ought to marry, he should do as he wants. He is not sinning. They should get married.  But the man who has settled the matter in his own mind, who is under no compulsion but has control over his own will, and who has made up his mind not to marry the virgin—this man also does the right thing.  So then, he who marries the virgin does right, but he who does not marry her does better.

The Pillar New Testament Commentary on The First Letter to the Corinthians states that Paul here is addressing is addressing betrothed Christian couples in this passage.

It makes sense of the details of the passage and is congruent with Paul’s advice elsewhere in the chapter. In v. 36 the two parties concerned are addressed with the words anyone (the betrothed male) and his virgin (his fiancée). TNIV is clear: If anyone is worried that he might not be acting honorably toward the virgin he is engaged to.… The word “virgin” refers to a single “young woman of marriageable age” (BDAG), that is, an eligible young woman. When such a young woman is called “his virgin,” it suggests that she is spoken for.

The man might not be acting honorably toward the virgin he is engaged to either because he is giving in to sexual temptation, or because he has been holding off on the marriage longer than was considered appropriate. Much of Paul’s language in these verses is open to being interpreted in terms of either sexual temptation or social/moral pressure. In the context of this chapter’s focus on porneia and concerns about “touching” women, it seems natural to take it as a reference to sexual impropriety.

However, it should also be noted that the last explicit reference to sexual temptations was back in v. 9, and that much or most of vv. 10–35 deal with social expectations and obligations. The man thinks or worries that he may not be treating his virgin properly. We hold that the nature of the man’s inappropriate behavior is suggested later on in the verse, when Paul indicates what the man thinks he ought to do. That is, he ought to marry the girl who has now come of age.

...Roman society looked down on keeping an adult “daughter at home, without any apparent reason”; he contends that such behavior was considered “dishonorable.” In fact ...“[t]he Augustan marriage laws forbade a paterfamilias to prevent the marriage of his daughter,” but the practice persisted and later emperors “ordered provincial governors to enforce this rule” and interpreted the law to “cover fathers who did not look for a match for their children.” Some men engaged themselves to underage girls in order to benefit from the privileges given to married men by law. Although they would not actually become married until the girl was older, they could claim the benefits of a married man right away.

The next clause... has been translated in two ways: and if she is getting beyond the usual age for marrying (TNIV) and “if his passions are strong” (NRSV). Part of the problem is that the subject of the dependent clause is unexpressed. It could be either the subject of the previous clause, the man (anyone), or the most recently mentioned person, the virgin. The relevant word has been taken to refer “either to puberty on the part of a woman or ‘full of passion’ with reference to men.” A reexamination of the evidence suggests that the word means to have passed through puberty, that is, to have arrived at full adulthood. As such, it most likely applies to the woman (since men usually married at a later age). Since most women would be expected to marry as adolescents, TNIV’s getting beyond the usual age for marrying probably reflects Paul’s meaning.

The sequence of ideas—“if she has come of age, and so it ought to happen, … let them marry”—suggests that the man feels an “obligation to meet certain social or moral expectations,” namely, that of following through on his promise to marry the girl (a promise which may well have brought him legal benefits in the interim) now that she has come of age. To not do so would be to have exploited her and her family, an unseemly thing to do. The “it” to which Paul is referring is made explicit at the end of the verse: They should get married426 (which employs a permissive imperative), given the man’s sense of moral obligation in light of the girl’s arrival at a critical age.

The fact that Paul says, He is not sinning, has been taken by many to indicate that he is dealing with Corinthians who are promoting celibacy and who have suggested to the man that it would be wrong, a sin, to go ahead and marry his fiancée. But it is Paul himself who has been advocating celibacy and who has indicated that he does not want anyone to seek to change their status but, rather, wants each one to remain in the situation in which they already found themselves (vv. 17, 20, 24, 26). In light of the various ways he has driven home this point, it is not surprising that when giving his permission to marry Paul feels the need to clarify that this would not be a sinful course of action.

Paul might have preferred that the man be and feel free not to follow through with the marriage, but he respected his right to decide whether or not this was the best course of action. This man is concerned, as he should be, not to do anything unseemly or disgraceful. He is concerned about his own moral integrity and the reputation of the gospel. He too wants to “glorify God with [his] body” (6:20). It is not a preference for marriage or singleness that counts, but “Keeping God’s commandments” (7:19).

As a result, it is clear that William Branham's teaching is not scriptural.

Quotes of William Branham

"Joseph, fear not, take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost." He was minded to put her away privately, see, after he'd already engaged to her. When you're engaged to her, as far as God is concerned, you're married to her.

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