On What Kind of Wives Men Should Marry

This homily asks what kind of wife a Christian man should seek and answers by shifting attention away from money, status, and physical display toward character, chastity, gentleness, hospitality, and fear of God. Chrysostom begins with an encomium for a fellow preacher named Maximus and then develops a sustained teaching on choosing a spouse. His main biblical model is the search for Rebekah as Isaac’s wife in Genesis 24. Marriage appears not as a financial transaction but as a lifelong partnership that should be entered prayerfully and judged by spiritual rather than worldly standards.

BiblIndex identifies the work as CPG 4379, Quales ducendae sint uxores, a Greek homily on Christian life and marriage preserved in Patrologia Graeca 51:225–242 and broadly dated 386–403. Its exact preaching date is uncertain. The sermon belongs to a group of Chrysostom’s independent moral and Scriptural homilies rather than to a verse-by-verse commentary series. Its criticism of dowries, wealth-seeking, legal calculations, luxury, and elaborate weddings reflects the social world in which marriage joined households economically as well as personally, while Chrysostom presses his hearers toward a distinctly Christian measure of marital choice.

After praising Maximus, Chrysostom warns men not to consult civil law and financial advantage more carefully than God’s commandments when considering marriage. He rejects marrying for wealth and argues that a spouse should be chosen for virtue, moderation, and chastity. The greater part of the sermon follows Abraham’s servant in Genesis 24 as he prays for guidance, encounters Rebekah, recognizes her hospitality and purity, and brings her to Isaac. Chrysostom ends by contrasting their simple, prayerful union with noisy contemporary wedding spectacles and urging Christians to entrust marriage to God.