A Naughty Question.

A NAUGHTY QUESTION.

Mark 10:2-12.

The Pharisees’ question about divorce was worse than mischievous in that it, like many of their questions addressed to Jesus, was asked with the intention of “tempting” Jesus into saying something that would cause offence (MARK 10:2).

I assert this on two counts:

(i). Mark locates Jesus at this time in Herod Antipas’s jurisdiction (cf. Mark 10:1). This is the same Herod who had divorced his own wife in order to take his brother’s wife, and who had arrested and beheaded John the Baptist for speaking out against them (cf. Mark 6:17-29). When this particular king Herod heard about Jesus, he declared that this was John the Baptist, risen from the dead (cf. Mark 6:14-16)!

(ii). There was a controversy within Judaism about the right interpretation and application of Deuteronomy 24:1.

The school of Shammai insisted that a man may not put away his wife unless he finds unchastity in her, whilst the school of Hillel wanted to trivialise the expression ‘she find no favour in his eyes’ to include a failure in culinary skills!

Hence the wording of the question in the parallel passage (cf. Matthew 19:3) is, ‘Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife FOR EVERY CAUSE?’

Jesus first met them on their own ground: “What did Moses command you” (MARK 10:3).

They boiled down the passage in dispute (cf. Deuteronomy 24:1-4) to just one thing: “Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away” (MARK 10:4).

Jesus pointed out that this precept was written on account of “the hardness of your heart!” (MARK 10:5).

Then Jesus masterfully changed the direction of the conversation to discuss marriage rather than divorce:

(i). Jesus got right down to basics: “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female” (MARK 10:6; cf. Genesis 1:27), and

(ii). “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and they two shall be one flesh” (MARK 10:7-8; cf. Genesis 2:24).

(iii). “What therefore God has joined together let not man put asunder” (MARK 10:9).

When Jesus and His disciples returned to the house, they asked Him privately about this matter of divorce (MARK 10:10).

Jesus’ answer was twofold:

(i). “Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her” (MARK 10:11).

In the parallel passage (cf. Matthew 19:9a), Jesus said, ‘Whosoever shall put away his wife, EXCEPT IT BE FOR FORNICATION, and shall marry another, committeth adultery.’

Similarly, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught, ‘That whosever shall put away his wife, SAVING FOR THE CAUSE OF FORNICATION, causes her to commit adultery’ (cf. Matthew 5:32a).

(ii). Jesus continued, “And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery” (MARK 10:12).

In Roman law, if not in Jewish law, women could initiate legal proceedings and file for divorce.

Which brings us right back to where we started: not only did king Herod Antipas divorce his wife, Aretus, in order to marry Herodias; but Herodias divorced her husband, Herod Antipas’s brother, in order to marry Herod Antipas!

FOOTNOTE.

Jesus has told us that Moses wrote Deuteronomy 24:1-4 because of “the hardness of our hearts” (MARK 10:5). Divorce will, and does take place: but the burden of that passage is that a former husband may not remarry his ex-wife after she has been married to another (cf. Deuteronomy 24:4).