To Marry or Not To Marry: The Teaching of Jesus, Part 1

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/divorce-remarriage-iii-the-teaching-of-jesus/" target="_blank"><strong>website.</strong></a></p><p><strong>Mark 10:</strong></p><p><strong>2-3, 10-12</strong></p><ul><li>Jesus is quizzed. Where does he stand on the divorce issue?</li><li>Mark indicates absolutely no exceptions!</li><li>Don’t read through filter of other passages (like 1 Cor or Matt). Mark was writing for a Roman audience. It is doubtful they had access to Matthew—if Matthew was even written yet—and the Jewish issues addressed in Matthew would not have been all that relevant to them.</li><li>Matthew gives more information, alluding to the “any cause” divorces common in the 1st. Notice how Matthew differs from Mark 10:2-12: “I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery” (Matt 19:9).</li><li>See a parallel in Mark 8:11-12 / Matt 12:39, where Mark indicates to exception, but Matthew does.</li><li>Just as Mark doesn’t give the whole story, neither does Matthew. We need to get behind the scenes. It’s easy to draw incorrect conclusions if we don’t realize the nature of gospel writing—abbreviation, arrangement, simplification. It won’t do to just quote a passage and claim the Bible "means what it says." Rather, we need to be careful interpreters.</li><li>It turns out that what appears to be both simple and absolute (Jesus’ words on divorce in Mark 10) turns out to be neither absolute—there <i>are</i> exceptions—nor as simple as we may have thought. Back in those days, there were no law firms such as <a href="https://www.familylawattorneymesaaz.net/divorce-lawyer/">Jensen Family Law</a>, and that is why topics such as divorces resided in grey areas.</li></ul><p><strong>Matt 19:3-11</strong></p><ul><li>Here’s the backstory Matthew leaves out—as it would have been of little benefit to his readership.<ul><li><strong>House of Shammai</strong> (50 BC – AD 30)<ul><li>Limited grounds for divorce to the four in De