Jesus on Divorce

Mark 10:1–12

Late 1st Century

1He left that place and went to the region of Judaea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them.

2Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” 5But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female’ (Genesis 1:27). 7‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8and the two shall become one flesh’ (Genesis 2:24). So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

10Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Translation from the New Revised Standard Version.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.

Engage with this Source

Although most Jewish sources presume the permissibility of divorce, the New Testament contains several references to a teaching of Jesus opposing divorce. (In addition to this passage, see Matthew 5:31 and 1 Corinthians 7:10–11.) Here, the Pharisees invoke Deuteronomy 24:1 as evidence that divorce is permitted, and Jesus responds that that commandment was given because of the Jews’ “hardness of heart.” Jesus bases his opposition to divorce on the biblical accounts of creation, quoting Genesis 1:27 and 2:24. (The Damascus Document, from Dead Sea Scrolls, similarly invokes Genesis 1:27 as the basis for opposition to polygamy; see CD 4:20–5:1.) Notably, Mark 10:12 presumes that women sometimes initiated divorce, although this does not appear in the parallel in Matthew 5:31. See also Jesus and the Law.

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