A couple of years ago we took a survey trip through the Bible with the goal of understanding Scripture’s teaching on divorce and remarriage. Key passages include Genesis 2, Deuteronomy 24, Malachi 2, and 1 Corinthians 7. To say this subject is controversial is a serious understatement, and Matthew 5:32 and 19:9 are among the most hotly debated in the entire Bible. There Jesus spoke of sexual immorality as an exception to his general rule against divorce, and on the basis of that phrase, many conclude that divorce and remarriage are approved by God in situations involving adultery, abuse, and/or abandonment.
After studying some thirty-five passages dealing with marriage, we concluded that this exception was not an exception at all, but rather specifically applied to the betrothal period before marital consummation had taken place. The betrothed couple was considered legally wed, so a break at this point required a legal divorce. The closest thing today would be a couple breaking off their engagement after finding out one of them had cheated, but this does not require a divorce.
While we spent a great deal of time examining Matthew 5 and 19, we overlooked two other Gospel texts which give us Jesus’ teaching on the subject of divorce and remarriage. It would be worth our time to consider them as well.
The Pharisees came and asked Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” testing Him.
And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?”
They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her.”
And Jesus answered and said to them, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. But from the beginning of the 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 then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
In the house His disciples also asked Him again about the same matter. So He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Mark 10:2-12
Now, much of what Mark records is the same as we find in Matthew 19:1-12. We have a confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees in which they ask him to explain what he considers to be the acceptable grounds for divorce and remarriage. Jesus responds by asking them concerning Moses’ teaching on divorce, explains that the instructions of Deuteronomy 24 were merely a concession to the hardheartedness of their ancestors, and appeals to the original created design from Genesis 1 and 2. And both Gospel accounts record Jesus saying that man must not separate what God has joined. Mark makes no mention of the disciples’ incredulity or Jesus’ teaching about singleness and eunuchs from Matthew 19:10-12, and he does not include the phrase “except for sexual immorality” when talking about divorce and remarriage resulting in adultery.
But if we make a closer comparison between Matthew 19:9 and Mark 10:11-12, we see that they seem to have slightly different emphases.
| Matthew 19:9 | Mark 10:11-12 |
| “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery, and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.” | So he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” |
Notice that both Matthew and Mark say that a man who divorces his wife in order to marry another woman commits adultery. Mark adds the detail that he has committed adultery against his first wife by marrying the second, while leaving out the exception clause. But the other differences are important, too. Matthew speaks of a man marrying a woman who has been divorced by her husband, and says that he, too, is committing adultery. On the other hand, Mark talks about a woman divorcing her husband in order to marry another man. This is identical to the first situation, except that he swaps the roles of the man and the woman.
I think the implications of this are two-fold. First, Mark seems to have something a little different in mind than Matthew. This explains why he does not include the exception clause about sexual immorality. He is concerned only with declaring that anyone who would divorce their spouse simply to marry someone else has committed adultery against their spouse. This is a violation of God’s created design for marriage and a serious offense. Second, Mark does not shed any light on the question of remarriage for the spouse who has been put away, since he does not mention them at all. That is a question we will address next time, when we compare Matthew 19:9 with Jesus’ teaching in Luke 16:18.