The presentation of marriage is more egalitarian, with equal responsibilities shared by the spouses. In the Pauline school, however, differentiation is made later between the roles of men and women even in religious situations and the household codes reflect the assumptions of the culture about hierarchy and patriarchal governance of the family. The gospels contain Christian marriage legislation, particularly regarding divorce and remarriage. It establishes a preference for virginity or sexual abstinence, though recognizing that it will not be the general practice of Christians. The gospels recount Jesus' relationship with various women but make no statements about his being married or having children.
Revelation gives special status to male virgins as the first fruits of redemption.
Christian practice affirmed marriage and childbearing. Gnostic Christianity tended to restrict marriage because it did not place a positive value on bodily life and the deeds performed in the body. Some groups, such as the Valentinians used sexual differentiation and a kind of generation to explain the ordering and the disordering of the heavenly realm. Manichees, on the other hand, saw generation as continuing the captivity of spirit in marriage. The main-line Christians affirmed the goodness of marriage, though like much of the philosophy of the Hellenistic world, they tended to relate it to childbearing and childrearing rather than to the development of a relationship between the couple.