Beth-El Baptist Church

09/14/2008

Greg Tomlinson


Digging deeper into marriage and divorce


After a great message on Jesus teaching about marriage and divorce (Matthew 5:31-32), it would be good to expand on a couple of issues raised in order to better understand the teachings of scriptures and thus the right and true understanding.


  1. Why monogamy?

Leviticus 18:18 Exodus 26:3-5; 16-17

Ezekiel 1:9, 23; 3:13 Song of Solomon 5:1-2


These passages clearly demonstrate that the phrase 'take a wife to her sister' clearly indicate that what is called 'sister' is not necessarily blood relative sisters as we commonly think. For such phrases as 'one to another' is the exact same Hebrew phrase as 'a wife to her sister' and Solomon refers to his wife as his sister yet she was most likely not his sister due to her life of labor (Song of Solomon 1:5-6).


1 Corinthians 7:1-2 Genesis 2:23-24

Matthew 19:4-6 Mark 10:6-9


These passages clearly teach that a relationship of sexual intimacy is a one man to one one woman relationship.


Jeremiah 3:1-10, 14


We have to be careful about drawing too much from both Israel (northern 10 tribes) and Judah (southern 2 tribes) being called sisters yet the relationship of God to the entire nation of Israel is often likened to a marriage. The difficulty lies in Israel being united and later being divided. No man can marry one woman which latter becomes two women from the one.


  1. What about the Bible's description of plural marriages?

Genesis 6:1-5 – Note the specific sin identified is multiple wives

Deuteronomy 17:17 cmp 1 Peter 2:9 – Kings were not to multiply wives. We are 'royal' people.

Deuteronomy 21:15-17 Exodus 21:9-11


These are the only passages in the Law which specifically addresses the plural wives issue. There are a couple of things to note. Neither scripture prescribes nor endorses such a relationship but they do acknowledge that they occur. The implication in Deuteronomy is that the first wife, the beloved wife, was barren and in that culture a second wife would be brought in for the purpose of continuing the family name. In the Exodus passage, the implication is that a man arranged a marriage between his son and a slave woman. The son later actually found a woman he loved and wanted to marry. It is a recognition of what happens and ways to deal with it.


  1. Is Jesus' exception for 'fornication' a reference to adultery?

Matthew 5:31-32; 19:3-12 Deuteronomy 24:1-3


In Deuteronomy, the King James translation of 'she find no favor in his eyes' would be better rendered 'she finds no grace in his eyes'. This agrees with Jesus associating the divorce with 'the hardness of your hearts'. Divorce is the result of a hardened heart and not a softened heart of grace.


In Deuteronomy, the King James translation of 'then let him write her a bill of divorcement' would be better rendered 'and he writes her a letter of divorcement'. This agrees with Jesus associating the writing of the letter of divorce with 'suffered you to put away your wives' indicating the allowance of divorce not as a commandment but as an allowed thing demonstrating the hardness of a human's heart.


In Deuteronomy, the 'uncleanness' is often translated as 'nakedness' would could indicate sexual immorality but sexual immorality is to be treated with death not divorce (Leviticus 20:10). A better rendering might tie it more closely with 'shame' (Isaiah 20:4). The difficulty is that it is in what is called the 'construct state' indicating possession ('of') to the next word. This wold mean that the Hebrew would literally say 'nakedness of a thing' or 'nakedness of a word' or 'nakedness of shame' so this 'uncleanness' would be something of great shame to her husband, but it could not be adultery.


1 Corinthians 5:1; 6:16-18 Galatians 5:19-21

Mark 10:2-12 Luke 16:18

1 Corinthians 7:10-11 Romans 7:1-3


The Greek word 'porneia' is always translated as 'fornication' in the New Testament. In the Septuagint, it is commonly translated as whoredom or harlot. In either case the picture is some sort of sexual sin or sexual perversion. He is obviously not specifically dealing with adultery since that would be a different Greek word. It is also worth noting that this 'exception' clause is found only in the gospel of Matthew, that does not however eliminate its divine origin as some try to do. It is also only in Matthew where the reason behind the allowance in Deuteronomy 24, the hardness of man's heart. Matthew's 'exception' clause must ultimately be in agreement with the rest of scripture, both the Old and New Testaments.


The only room for a remarriage in all of scripture is the death of the spouse. Even when it comes to the 'marital' relationship between God and Israel (Hebrews 9:15-17). Matthew's message must ultimately agree. His exception then cannot be viewed as an 'allowance' for marriage, divorce, and remarriage. He cannot be saying that if fornication is involved and a man puts away his wife, assuming the fornication is on her part, that his remarriage is not a form of fornication since that disagrees with all of the other scriptures on this part. Also consider that if the fornication is on his part and divorce takes place, that even in Matthew the woman's new husband commits adultery. This is an inconsistency. Therefore the 'exception' must be dealing with the origins of the fornication itself. If fornication has already occurred, then a divorce and remarriage is not the cause of the fornication seeing it is already in existence.