Were they king and queen, or bride and groom, in the Garden of Eden?

The story of the creation of Eve is a type of the establishment of the Church, the bride of Christ, the incarnate Word of God, for whose sake He emptied Himself in order to cleave unto her, and to carry her to His heaven. St. Augustine comments on the words of the apostle Paul, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church” (Eph. 5:32), saying, “We are with Him in heaven through hope; He is with us on earth through love.”⁴⁷⁹

So also St. John Chrysostom says, “Since then Christ made a covenant with us (for He was about to take me as a bride) he also assigned a dowry to me not of money, but of blood. But this dowry which He assigns is the bestowal of good things ‘such as eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, neither has entered into the heart of man’ (1 Cor. 2:9). He assigned them for the dowry — immortality, praise with the angels, release from death, freedom from sin, the inheritance of a kingdom (so great are his riches), righteousness, sanctification, deliverance from present evils, discovery of future blessings. Great was my dowry … He came; He took me: He assigns me a dowry: He says, ‘I give you my wealth.’ How? ‘Have you lost paradise?’ He says, ‘Take it back. Have you lost your beauty? take it back; take all these things.’ But yet the dowry was not given to me here … ‘Why do You not give me the dowry here?’ ‘It will be given when you have come to my Father, when you have entered the royal palace. Did you come to me! Nay I came to you. I came not that you should abide here but that I might take you and return. Seek not the dowry here: all depends on hope, and faith.’”⁴⁸⁰

479 St. Augustine, Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm 55.3 (NPNF I/8:210) amended.

480 St. John Chrysostom, Two Homilies on Eutropius 2.12–13 (NPNF I/9:260) amended.