Mark 10:1-12: before divorce there was marriage

In Jesus' day divorce was a hot-button issue, just as it is in ours.  It led to especially heated arguments in the religious world.  Many used it as a litmus test for religious teachers, similar to the way politicians use abortion or views on the 2nd amendment to evaluate judicial nominees.  That's why the Pharisees ask Jesus this question, that and because they want to get Him into some hot-water with the authorities.  After all, it was John the Baptist's teaching on marriage that led to his ultimate demise.

To answer their question, Jesus replies with a question.  He asks them, "what did Moses command you?"  He frames the discussion this way because he knows that Moses never commanded divorce, but simply tolerated it.  Their response that Moses "allowed" for certificates of divorce shows that the precedent in Deuteronomy is not a commandment, that in fact divorce is the prerogative of man, not God.  Divorce is not an invention of the loving God that created marriage, but rather of the hardness of heart of man.  Jesus is having to respond to the question in a society that had lost sight of what God intended in the marriage relationship.  Consider a few of the views of marriage and divorce we have recorded from around the time of Jesus:

•  The school of Shammai adhered to a strict interpretation, with the wife’s sexual misconduct being the only grounds for divorce (notice nothing is mentioned of the husband's sexual misconduct)
•  The school of Hillel gave a far more liberal interpretation, saying divorce was permissable “even if she spoiled a dish for him.”
•  Rabbi Aqiba said divorce was acceptable “even if he found another more beautiful than she is”, placing no value on fidelity and commitment in the marriage relationship. 
• Concerning divorce, in around 200 B.C. Joshua ben Sira would write, "if she go not as you would have her go, cut her off and give her a bill of divorce."

 The existence of the contingency itself does not determine whether divorce is right or wrong, it simply tries to put into place some safeguards to protect the wife who has been dismissed.  The ancient world was extremely patriarchal, as is shown by Josephus' writing that “a divorced woman may not marry again on her own initiative unless her former husband consents.”  According to the law, a man could commit adultery against another man by seducing his wife, or a woman could commit adultery against her husband, but a man wronging his wife by committing adultery is never mentioned as a possibility.  Jesus must operate in this world, and it is in this context that he must address the issue of marriage and divorce.  After asking an initial question of his own, how does Jesus respond?  In short, by going back to the beginning. 


In a way, Jesus asks the question, "what did God originally intend for the marriage relationship to look like?"  The Pharisees go back to the Mosaic law, which was written to help fallen humanity navigate life with one another.  By appealing to the creation story, Jesus is showing God’s intention for marriage, prior to fallen humanity’s corruption of the relationship.  He quotes directly from Genesis 1:27 and 2:24, and by quoting from these creation accounts, Jesus shows marriage to be a type of reunification.  He does warn that to end a marriage for any reason other than adultery, is to commit adultery oneself.  This statement has caused a lot of confusion, and even division in Christian communities.  Does that mean that if someone divorced their first spouse years ago over something petty, that they have to end the marriage with their current spouse, and remarry the first spouse?  Things get pretty sticky as we see all the implications of trying to interpret this passage through any lens but that of grace.  Personally, I don't think Jesus is instructing his followers to go and try to fix all their past mistakes on their own by ending some relationships, and rekindling others.  I think what he's saying is far simpler.  He's instructing us to see marriage as God sees it, and to enter into the covenant we make with our spouse with the same intentions that God has had for marriage from the very beginning.  Maybe our past mistakes led us to commit adultery.  As bad as that is, it doesn't lie beyond the scope of God's grace.  I think there is a connection between what Jesus says here, and what he says to the woman caught in adultery in John.  "Go and sin no more." (John 8:11)  Perhaps instead of rehashing our mistakes and trying to find ways to make things right ourselves, what we should be doing is focusing our energy on nurturing our current marriages, striving to make them what God intended for them to be all along.