Jesus on Divorce and Remarriage

By Ron Jones, DMin

Published May 6, 2024 ©Titus Institute 2024

Interpreting what God says about marriage and divorce is not an easy task. Sharing what one's interpretation of what God says about it is even more difficult in the light of so many differing views. Sincere and intelligent Christians have other interpretations which they feel best represents the Biblical evidence. I share mine to help Christians as best as I am able to do by God's grace.

The Context of Jesus's Statements on Divorce and Remarriage

The first question that needs to be asked about any of Jesus' statements about any topic is whether Jesus was attempting to say everything possible about a subject or was he interpreting and expanding what had already been revealed in the OT. It is obvious that Jesus was interested in interpreting and expanding on what God had already revealed in the OT. This is the case with the subject of marriage and divorce as well as many other subjects.

The Old Testament Reveals the Conditions of Marriage and the Grounds of Divorce

Genesis 2:24

The most important statement of God's plan for marriage is in Genesis 2:24 which says, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." As we saw in the two articles entitled "The Marriage Covenant and It's Vows" and "The Marriage Covenant and Divorce," marriage is a covenant before God between a man and a woman to become husband and wife and fulfill the responsibilities God has given for them as husband and wife. It is a conditional faith agreement. Each person trusts the other person to fulfill the conditions of the covenant. Once a covenant is made it remains in effect as long as each fulfills their part of the agreement. When one breaks the covenant by no longer fulfilling one of the conditions (vows), the other person is free to dissolve the covenant. If the covenant is legal like the marriage covenant, it is dissolved legally by a divorce. As in all covenants, when someone ceases to fulfill one of the vows of the covenant, the covenant can be righteously dissolved by the innocent party. This is evident in Matthew 1:19 where Joseph is described as a just (righteous) man who was going to divorce Mary when he thought she had committed adultery. This would have been a righteous divorce. Jesus addresses this issue.

Malachi 2:16

The OT gives two important passages speaking of divorce for the nation of Israel. In Malachi 2:16, God speaks to Jewish husbands who were divorcing their wives because they wanted to marry other women. It says, "For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the LORD, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless." God is speaking here about unrighteous divorce, that is, a husband divorcing his wife in order to marry another woman. Thus, they were breaking their marriage covenant by legally dissolving it in divorce. That was unrighteous, but was the typical reason men divorced their wives in Israel. And it was this specific reason that Jesus was condemning in his teaching about divorce just as God had done in the Old Testament.

Deuteronomy 24:1-4

The second passage is Deuteronomy 24:1-4. This regards what happens when a man who divorced his wife and she marries another man and then is divorced from him or he dies and the original husband wants to remarry her. God says through Moses that he can't remarry her. Jesus also addresses the proper interpretation of this passage as many men and women of Israel in the first century were justifying unrighteous divorce based on a misinterpretation of this passage.

The Nation of Israel and Divorce

As we have already seen from the OT, marriage is clearly established in the second chapter of Genesis. Genesis 2:24 clearly describes the marriage covenant. As all legal contracts, implied in the contract are the provisions of breaking the contract. Any behavior that violates the contract breaks the contract. In the OT, God does not give the conditions that break the marriage covenant because he had already given what the marriage covenant was. If the marriage covenant is violated, the covenant is broken and divorce is allowed. David Instone-Brewer who has done extensive research into divorce and remarriage in the nation of Israel explains this, "The promises spoken and implied in the marriage contract thereby became the grounds for divorce."1

According to Instone-Brewer, the Jews during their history recognized four grounds for divorce: adultery, material neglect, emotional neglect, and refusal to have children. However, before the time of Jesus a new view of divorce had emerged. It was called the "any cause" divorce. It originated with a Jewish teacher named Hillel who interpreted Deuteronomy 24:1 which says a divorce certificate can be given "for a matter [or cause] of indecency" as giving two grounds of divorce, one for indecency and one for "any matter." Another Jewish teacher named Shammai interpreted it as giving only one ground of divorce, "a matter of indecency" which was sexual immorality. For obvious reasons, Hillel's interpretation became very popular. Instone-Brewer writes about this debate, "The phrases 'any matter' and 'except indecency' were the phrases that encapsulated the positions of the Hillelites and Shammaites, respectively in their debate about the meaning of 'ervat dabar' [translated "any matter of indecency"] in Deuteronomy 24:1. The School of Shammai says: A man should not divorce his wife except if he found indecency in her, since it says, For he found in her an indecent matter [Deut.24:1]. The School of Hillel said: Even if she spoiled his dish, since it says, any matter."2

Instone-Brewer further describes the first century situation at the time of Jesus when he writes, "By the first century C.E. there was general agreement in rabbinic Judaism concerning most aspects of divorce and remarriage. The rabbis agreed that the grounds for divorce were childlessness, material neglect, emotional neglect, and unfaithfulness. Divorce was generally regarded as undesirable but sometimes necessary. Divorce was enacted by the man, though a court could persuade a man to enact a divorce when his wife demonstrated that she had sufficient grounds for a divorce. Remarriage was generally accepted, but if it followed an invalid divorce, it was treated as adultery. The rabbis also agreed on the financial penalties for divorce when marriage vows were broken. The main dispute concerned a new interpretation of Deuteronomy 24:1 by which the Hillelites allowed divorce for 'any matter.' This new groundless divorce was much easier to enact and very quickly became the form of divorce used by almost all Jews."3

In properly understanding Jesus' teaching on marriage and divorce, it should be noted that Jesus did not change God's teaching on marriage and divorce revealed in the OT. He repeated it and reminded them of its core principles as we shall see. Jesus focused on emphasizing four important principles, marriage was meant to be a life-long commitment, the proper interpretation of Deuteronomy 24:1-4 is sexual immorality, the guilty party in divorce is the spouse that divorces his or her mate to marry another more desirable person, and a wife can have adultery committed against her just like a husband. These four principles are the basis of all Jesus says about divorce. Let's examine specifically what Jesus said.

Matthew 19:3-11

The first statement about divorce Jesus makes that we will examine is in Matthew 19:3-6. It says, "And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, 'Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?' He answered, 'Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?' So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."

Matthew tells us that the Pharisees were asking this question to test Jesus. The Pharisees tested Jesus by asking him questions that were controversial at that time and would cause him to take a position that would alienate some of the Jews. The question that the Pharisees asked was centered in whether it is lawful for a Jewish man to divorce his wife "for any cause"? They were not asking Jesus whether it was lawful for a Jewish man to divorce his wife for legitimate reasons, but for "any cause" or "any reason." As we have seen above, this phrase "any cause" comes from Deuteronomy 24:1 and describes the interpretive position of the Hillelites.

Jesus begins his answer by going to the OT text that describes where God establishes marriage which is Gen.2:24. Jesus quotes Gen.2:24 and explains that marriage was a covenant where God joined together husband and wife as "one flesh." It was intended to be a covenant for life. Thus, separating from your husband or wife in divorce is always the exception to staying married. The implication is that it is not something that is to be done "for any reason" a man wants. There has to be a legitimate reason and the only legitimate reason is if the marriage covenant has been broken.

The Pharisees go right to the text in Deuteronomy to try to draw Jesus into the debate that was being held in the Jewish world between the Hillelites and the Shammaites. Matthew 19:7-11 records, "They said to him, 'Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?' He said to them, 'Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another commits adultery.' The disciples said to him, 'If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.' But he said to them, 'Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given.'"

The Pharisees ask Jesus why did Moses command a person to give a certificate and divorce her? In their question, the Pharisees twist the original intent of the direction given in Deuteronomy 24:1 by Moses and God. Moses did, in fact, command the Jews to give their wives a certificate when they divorced their wives. This certificate was to protect the wife and give her an official legal recognition that she was no longer married and had the right to remarry. But, Moses never commanded husbands to divorce their wives for "any reason."

Jesus then explains that Moses was not commanding the Jews to divorce their wives for any reason, but he was allowing divorce because of the hardness of their hearts. This hardness of their hearts manifested itself when their husbands or wives broke their marriage vows out of their own selfishness and unfaithfulness and thus created the necessity for divorce in the first place. From the beginning divorce was not what God wanted when he gave the marriage covenant, but it is a consequence that God allows because human beings out of the hardness of their hearts violate their marriage covenants and thus they are broken. Jesus is not contradicting Moses. Moses allowed divorce as God's representative. Jesus is not saying that divorce is wrong, but that divorce by its very nature is only necessary because of hard hearted human beings who break their marriage covenants. And thus, divorce becomes necessary. God's intent from the beginning was that husbands and wives stay true to their marriage covenants for life.

Jesus, then in v.9 gives the proper interpretation of Deuteronomy 24:1. That verse does not mean that a husband can divorce his wife for any reason, but only for sexual immorality (porneia in the Greek). The "indecency" in her is sexual immorality. Jesus, here sides with the Shammaite interpretation of divorce which is how the Jews listening to him familiar with the debate about divorce from Deuteronomy 24:1 would have understood it. They would not have understood Jesus saying that the only reason for a legitimate divorce is sexual immorality. We know this because later in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul adds another reason for a legitimate divorce, if an unbeliever no longer wants to be married to a believer because of that believer's faith in Christ. Paul could have never added that if sexual immorality was the only legitimate reason for divorce. We shall see this later.

This interpretation of Deuteronomy 24:1 startles the disciples because it means that a husband cannot divorce his wife for any reason and he must married to her until she violates the marriage covenant which did not happen very often. They realize this means a man cannot get out of marriage if he changes his mind later. They suddenly realize the serious implications of the marriage covenant. It is indeed for life if a man's wife remains faithful. There is no changing of one's mind. So they blurt out "then it is better if a man does not marry." Jesus agrees with them. It is better for a man not to marry if he is not serious about the life commitment. But for a man not to get married, "it must be given to him" that is, God must work in his heart not to desire to get married.

Then Jesus compares a person who desires to remain single with a eunuch who has been castrated and must remain single. He says basically there are three kinds of persons who remain single just like there are three kinds of eunuchs. The first kind remains single because it is part of their personality or nature from birth. They just don't have a desire to get married. The second group has been forced to remain single. Maybe they have been made slaves and not allowed to marry or circumstances have forced this upon them. The third group makes a conscious choice not to get married so they have more time to serve the Lord and further his kingdom. The implication of Jesus' words is that most people are not like this, most want to get married and when they do they must remember they are promising to stay married to that person for life. They are not going to have a choice to divorce their wives for any reason they want.

So we see in these statements that Jesus is not attempting to give the only legitimate reason for divorce, but to emphasize the life union that God desires and to explain that Deuteronomy 24:1 demonstrates that divorce is allowed when a spouse commits sexual immorality. He desires to point out the centrality of the lifelong commitment of marriage and to settle the Hillel and Shammaite debate for his followers.

Mark 10:2-12, Luke 16:18

The second passage we will look at is Mark 10:2-12 which is a similar if not parallel passage of Matthew 19. It says, "And Pharisees came up and in order to test him 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 divorce and to send her away.' And Jesus said to them, 'Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 And he said to them, 'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.'"

In this passage Mark leaves out the discussion of Deuteronomy 24 and "any cause" divorce. Notice, that Mark records the Pharisees asking the same question as Matthew records in chapter 19, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" but he purposely leaves out the phrase "for any cause." The primary readers of the Gospel of Mark were Gentiles. There was no debate in the Gentile world regarding "any cause" divorce being justified by Deuteronomy 24. The Gentiles accepted divorce for any reason. Mark realized that Jesus' comments can apply equally to the Gentiles without referring to the debate they wouldn't understand.

In v.3-9, Mark focuses on what Jesus said about God's original intention of marriage and the allowance of divorce by God through Moses for their hardness of heart in violating the marriage covenant and thus causing a legitimate divorce. This is a repeat of what Matthew records. Then Mark adds Jesus' proclamation to his disciples that divorcing your spouse to marry another is adultery whether that is done by husband or wife.

The disciples had questioned Jesus about several issues Jesus had brought up about marriage and divorce. Mark leaves out the comment by the disciples about it being better not to marry and Jesus' response and records another statement Jesus made at that time about divorce. Jesus said in 10:11-12 "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery." Luke also records a parallel statement by Jesus in 16:18, "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery." These parallel statements by Jesus are commonly misunderstood. It is often interpreted as if divorcing your spouse and marrying another are two separate acts that take place at two separate times sometimes years apart. That is, if a person divorces his spouse and later marries another it is adultery. But the Jewish understanding of this statement would have been that these two actions occur together, that is, a man divorces his wife and right away marries another because that is why he divorced his wife.

In his book, Jesus the Jewish Theologian, Brad Young explains that the parallel statement by Jesus in Luke 16:18 refers to one continuous action in the Jewish mind, he writes, "Jesus did not prohibit divorce; however, in Luke 16:18 we discover a saying which deals with a specific situation: 'Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery.' Is divorce synonymous with adultery? When we understand the Jewish background of the saying, its meaning becomes clear. In the Mishnah (Sotah 5.1) we discover that a woman who is divorced because of an adulterous relationship is not permitted to marry her paramour.

In this Gospel passage did Jesus seek to prevent injustice and to set limits on the interpretation of the biblical law which might encourage divorce for the sake of remarriage? As is often the case, divorce can be employed as a convenience for a man to divorce the wife of his youth in order to remarry a younger, more attractive woman. While the Mishnah deals with the case of a married woman who commits adultery, Jesus addresses a somewhat similar case. What if a man divorces his wife in order to marry someone else? Actually Jesus seems to be addressing this specific case. Divorce used to marry another is the same as adultery.

In Luke both verbs 'divorce' and 'marry' are in the present tense. The parallel in Mark 10:11 puts them in the subjunctive mood. In Hebrew the force of the expression would have linked the two actions together in continuous motion..., 'Everyone who divorces and marries another commits adultery.' Perhaps in English one could better capture the meaning of the saying by translating it, 'Everyone who divorces his wife [in order] to marry another commits adultery.' This suggested new translation makes the saying of Jesus clear.

The second part of the verse must be understood in a similar fashion. In light of the Mishnah passage in Sotah, if a man marries a woman who obtained a divorce merely for the sake of her second marriage, then it is considered adultery. Divorce is not adultery. However, one can obtain a divorce for the sake of remarriage and thereby break the sacred trust of marriage fidelity."4

Young gives an excellent explanation of this prohibition by Jesus. Also, the kind of divorce that a Jewish man would use to divorce his wife and marry another would have been the "any cause" divorce. The evil practice of doing an "any cause" divorce in order to marry another based on Deuteronomy 24:1 was what Jesus wanted to strike down not divorce for legitimate reasons. It is not surprising that both Mark and Luke whose readers would have been primarily Gentile converts would have recorded these words of Jesus. Again, the Gentile world did not have an "any cause" divorce debate because they already accepted divorce for any matter. The Gentiles were particularly prone toward divorcing their spouses to marry another person. This was rampant in the Roman world for both men and women especially wealthy ones. King Herod was rebuked by John the Baptist for divorcing his wife and marrying the wife of his brother Phillip who had divorced Phillip (Matthew 14:3-4). John the Baptist was right, according to Jesus they had committed adultery.

Matthew 5:31-32

Another time Jesus teaches about marriage and divorce is during his sermon on the mount recorded in Matthew 5, specifically v.31-32. Jesus says, "It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.' But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery."

In Matthew 5 in his "Sermon on the Mount," Jesus gives an abbreviated statement of what he says more fully regarding any cause divorce and Deuteronomy 24 in chapter 19. Jesus shares how the Jews influenced by the Hillelites were interpreting Deuteronomy 24 when he uses the phrase, "It was said." Then he states that the Jews were saying that whoever desires to divorce his wife can simply give her a certificate of divorce. They thought that once the divorce certificate was given the husband was righteously divorced. He had no sin or guilt. The Hillelites as we have seen interpreted Deuteronomy 24 this way. Jesus gives the proper interpretation of Deuteronomy 24 and says it is talking about "a matter of sexual immorality." We know this is what Jesus is addressing because he uses the phrase "on the ground of sexual immorality" which is literally "on the matter of sexual immorality." This phrase is an interpretive translation of the Hebrew phrase in Deuteronomy 24 "a matter of indecency."

Jesus' meaning is that anyone using Deuteronomy 24 to divorce one's wife can only divorce her on the ground of sexual immorality. Jesus gives a prohibition based on the proper interpretation of Deuteronomy 24. Instone-Brewer explains this shows Jesus is agreeing with the Shammaite interpretation of Deuteronomy when he writes, "The order of the words logou porneias [on the matter of sexual immorality] in Matthew 5:32 is the reverse of the natural order and is of particular significance. It is likely that this word order was deliberately intended to reflect the Shammaite interpretation because they reversed the order of the words in the Biblical text in this same way, in order to emphasize their interpretation of Deuteronomy 24:1: The School of Shammai says: A man should not divorce his wife except he found in her a matter of indecency, as it is said: For he finds in her an indecent matter. (m. Git.9.10) Therefore it is likely that the exception that occurs in Matthew is a literal translation 'ervat dabar' in Deuteronomy 24:1 in a way that summarizes the Shammaite interpretation.5

Again Jesus is not discussing any other valid grounds of divorce because the Jews were not wrong in the area of other grounds of divorce. They were wrong in using Deuteronomy 24 to justify the "any cause" divorce. In this passage Jesus again condemns the husband or wife who divorces his or her spouse to marry another by implication, but brings in two more persons involved, the innocent wife who is being divorced by her husband and the adulterous man who marries a woman who has sought a divorce from her husband so she can marry him. In the above passage, the NIV translation brings out the correct translation of the Greek text. It reads, "But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery."

In the first part of that statement Jesus tells them that the husband who divorces his wife makes her the victim of adultery. Rather than just stating that the divorcing husband is committing adultery, he focuses on the innocent wife as a victim of adultery. This was a new teaching for the Jews. They thought that only a man could be a victim of adultery, but Jesus said that a wife can be a victim of adultery also if her husband divorces her to marry someone else (that's what the Jews were doing). This verse has been translated in the past and present as "But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery." The Greek text can be translated either way, but it should not be translated so that then the innocent wife commits adultery when she remarries because that was never condemned by God in the OT or NT. Nor can a husband cause his wife to commit adultery under any circumstances, only she can commit adultery by her own choices if she separates herself from her husband to marry another.

In the second part of the statement, Jesus refers to a woman who has sought a divorce from her husband to marry another and condemns that man who marries her as an adulterer. When you first read it, it sounds like Jesus is talking about the innocent wife in the first part that is being divorced by her husband and is saying that if a man marries her he is committing adultery. However, an innocent wife who is unjustly divorced by her husband was never considered by the Jews or Jesus as someone that could not remarry righteously so Jesus can't be talking about her. There is only one other wife he could be talking about, the one who pushed her husband into a divorce. In the first century, a Jewish woman could not institute a divorce from her husband under Jewish Law, but she could push and push her husband into giving her a divorce. That was done.

Instone-Brewer tells us that a Jewish woman could obtain a divorce from her husband in first century Judaism. He writes, "Only a man could enact a divorce, but this did not mean that women could not initiate a divorce. If a woman could show a court of rabbis that she had sufficient grounds for a divorce, the court could persuade her husband to divorce her. The principle that divorce could be enacted only by a man was based on the law that said that a man should write out the get or "divorce certificate" (Dent. 24:1).

This resulted in the principle that a man had to enter into divorce voluntarily, but a woman could be divorced against her will, as stated in the maxim: The man who divorces his wife is not equivalent to a woman who receives a divorce, for a woman goes forth willingly or unwillingly, but a man puts his wife away only willingly. However, it came to be recognized that a woman could force a man to divorce her if he broke his marriage vows or other obligations in the marriage contract. The marriage contract enshrined both the grounds and the authority for a woman to get a divorce.

If the terms of the contract were broken, the injured party, man or woman, was within his or her rights to terminate the contract with a divorce. The promises spoken and implied in the marriage contract thereby became the grounds for divorce. The rabbinic court would make sure that the woman could be released from the marriage contract if the husband broke any of its terms."6

So in the case of a man marrying a wife who has pushed for a divorce so she can marry him, Jesus says, he is committing adultery. Again those women thought that as long as they had a valid certificate of divorce they could be married to the man of their sinful desires righteously. Jesus says they are wrong and committing adultery. Of course, implied in the man who marries he commits adultery is the fact that she herself would obviously be committing adultery as well.

Summary:

So we have seen that Jesus did not come to overturn the Jewish Laws on divorce that were righteous and allowed by God when hard hearted human beings violated their marriage covenants. Jesus came and rightly interpreted the important passage of Deuteronomy 24 which the Jews had misinterpreted based on the Hillelite view of any cause divorce. Jesus sided with the Shammaites that Deuteronomy 24 was talking about sexual immorality only not "any cause."

To summarize, concerning marriage and divorce, Jesus' teaching does not overturn the OT Mosaic Law. Rather, Jesus places the proper emphasis on the importance of lifelong marriage revealed in Genesis 2:24 which the Jews had de-emphasized and he clarifies the meaning of Deuteronomy 24:1-4 which the Jews had been debating. He interprets that OT passage as talking about only sexual immorality being a cause of legitimate divorce, not any cause whatsoever. Jesus also condemned the practice of divorcing one's spouse to marry another more desirable in one's sight whether that be the husband who outright divorces his wife or the wife who has sought a divorce from her husband to marry another. Jesus finally focused his attention on the innocent wife who he declared was a victim of adultery when her husband divorced her to marry another. It was not just the husband who could be a victim of adultery. Did the disciples understand what he was teaching about marriage and divorce. Yes they did and we can also over two thousand years later.

END NOTES:

1. Instone-Brewer, David, Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible, William B. Eerdman's Publishing, Michigan, 2002, p.86

2. Ibid, p.85.

3. Ibid, p.85

4. Brad Young, Jesus the Jewish Theologian, Hendricksen Publishers, 1995, 115

5. Instone-Brewer, p.159.

6. Ibid, p.85-86

Titus Institute Press Free Ebooks

All our eBooks contain Daily Readings.