To Marry or Not To Marry: Paul, Church Fathers, Conclusion

<p>For additional notes and resources check out Douglas’ <a href="https://www.douglasjacoby.com/divorce-remarriage-v-paul-the-2nd-century-church-and-conclusion/" target="_blank"><strong>website.</strong></a></p><ol><li>1 Cor 7:10-12, 15<ol><li>“Not I, but the Lord” and “I, not the Lord.” Paul reveals the Lord’s will on an issue common in the Greco-Roman world: mixed marriages. (“I, not the Lord.”) A Christian has a pagan spouse.</li><li>Paul and Jesus agree on the subject of divorces between covenant people. Assuming there are no grounds for divorce—and no remarriage—then anyone who deserts a Christian spouse is still married to them. Ideally reconciliation will be reached. Otherwise, one must live as a single person.</li><li>Paul accepted neglect (abandonment) as grounds for divorce and remarriage. He refers also to withholding of conjugal love. Thus the promises of the marriage vows are in the background of everything he writes. In 1 Cor 7 Paul stresses the 4 obligations of marriage (corresponding to the 4 grounds for divorce).</li><li>Divorce by separation: Desertion is grounds for divorce as it deprives one’s spouse of essential marital rights.</li><li>Since separation <i>was </i>divorce in the Roman world, if the unbeliever left, the Christian spouse was free to remarry (“not under bondage”). If Christians could <i>not</i> remarry, they would still be in bondage to a spouse who had left, even if that spouse had remarried.</li><li>1 Cor 7:39: Paul frees the woman from the strictures of levirate marriage (Deut 25:5) – the brother of the widow is required to marry her so that her dead husband’s lineage will not die out. The language of 1 Cor 7:39 (free to marry whoever she may please) is part of all standard ancient divorce documents.</li><li>Thus it appears that widows and divorcees had equal rights – permission to remarry. Yet the traditional church interpretation forbids remarriage except after death or adultery. This does not concur with the understanding of 1stcentury rabbis, Jesus, and Paul.</li></ol></li