²⁸ You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ^(A)‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ^(B)‘I have been sent before Him.’

The Parable of the Wedding Feast^(A)

22 And Jesus answered ^(B)and spoke to them again by parables and said: ² “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son,

The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins

25 “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet ^(A)the bridegroom.

¹⁹ And Jesus said to them, “Can the ^[a]friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. ²⁰ But the days will come when the bridegroom will be ^(A)taken away from them, and then they will fast in those days.

² For I am ^(A)jealous for you with godly jealousy. For ^(B)I have betrothed you to one husband, ^(C)that I may present you ^(D)as a chaste virgin to Christ.

^25 (A)Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and ^(B)gave Himself for her, ²⁶ that He might ^[a]sanctify and cleanse her ^(C)with the washing of water ^(D)by the word, ^27 (E)that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, ^(F)not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

^31 (A)“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the ^(B)two shall become one flesh.” ³² This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.