The parable is the story of a wedding as seen through the eyes of the ten bridesmaids.  But first we must go back to a point before the parable opens.  The East is renowned for its love of ceremony and display on any festive occasion.  Everything was, and is, done to make a young woman’s wedding day the most colourful, as well as the greatest, in her life. Until then her attire was simple with a minimum of ornaments.  But her bridal array was as rich and gorgeous as could be.  Her long robe and train were embroidered with coloured silks and gold and silver thread, and embellished still further with precious stones.

So Isaiah pictures the blessings that God showered on his people by saying. “...he has clothed me with the garments of salvation…as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (NRSV, 61:10).  And Jeremiah, in contrasting his fellow countrymen’s forgetfulness of God with a bride’s remembrance of herself on her wedding day, asks, “Can a girl forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?” (NRSV, 2:32).  And in the Book of the Revelation, St John pictures the Church of God herself, the Bride of Christ, bright with jewels, as “…coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (NRSV, 21:2).