Divorce And The Bible (1)

 

Divorce And The Bible

Brett A. Todd

Just as there was no one single view on marriage in the Bible, so is it true for divorce.  This can be said no clearer than what is reported in Mark 10:2-9:

Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’”

Then in the house, the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’

In the passage above, it is reported Moses allowed divorce (Deuteronomy 24:1-4), but for Jesus, no, “What God has joined together, let no one separate.”  In other words, divorce was wrong and should not be allowed.  To be clear on this point and to leave no confusion for the reader, the author of Mark tells us that after Jesus had this discussion with the Pharisees, he sat down with his disciples and unambiguously declared, whoever divorces their spouse and marries another is committing adultery. 

Whether Jesus and the Pharisees actually had this discussion as reported by Mark and whether or not Moses and Jesus believed what was stated above, it is clear that we have two different perspectives of divorce in the Bible.  The first perspective, common in Jesus’ time, was that divorce was allowed, whereas, in Jesus’ perspective, divorce was not allowed.  Here the Gospels of Matthew and Mark seem to agree.

Keep in mind, that these two perspectives are not the only ones found in the Bible. The Apostle Paul had a different perspective as well, which we will talk about in our next study.