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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | PLEASE EXPLAIN MATTHEW 19:8 | Matt 19:8 | amenbob | 82688 | ||
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN MATTHEW 19;8 U SEE I HAVE BEEN SEPERATED FROM MY WIFE FOR A WHILE THE PERSON I WAS TALKING 2 SAID IF I DON'T GET BACK WITH MY WIFE I HAVE A HARD HEART N I'M NOT DOING THE WILL OF GOD THANK YOU 4 YOUR HELP N GBY YOUR BROTHER IN CHRIST ROBERT BEUCLER | ||||||
2 | PLEASE EXPLAIN MATTHEW 19:8 | Matt 19:8 | Hank | 82689 | ||
In Jesus' time there were among Jewish clerics two schools of thought concerning divorce. There was a Rabbi Shammai who interpreted the law rigidly and permitted divorce only in cases of sexual immorality. On the other hand there was a school led by Rabbi Hillel that took what we would call today a liberal approach, permitting indiscrimate divorce for any number of reasons, whether marital infidelity was involved or not. Beginning to read at Matthew 19:3, one sees that Jesus clearly sided with the Shammai school. In v.7 the Pharisees in asking, "Why did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and put her away?" misrepresented Deut. 24:1-4. It was not a "command" to divorce. It was instead a limitation placed on remarriage in the event of a divorce. Moses recognized the legitmacy of a divorce in the wake of sexual sin, but in no sense did he "command" divorce. In v.4, Jesus quotes from Gen.1:27 and 5:2 and in v.5, from Gen. 2:4. In doing so, He is underscoring the divine plan for a man and a woman and re-emphasizing that man is not to separate what God Himself has joined together. So, in v.9 the word to emphasize is "permitted" and not "command" as the Pharisees said in v.7. And the phrase "because of the hardness of their hearts" underscores the core truth of Jesus' teaching in this passage, that divorce is only a last-ditch response to the sexual immorality spoken of in v.9. Jesus does not teach in this passage that divorce is and must be the only remedy for even so grievous a sin as marital infidelity. He teaches only that it is permissible in such a case. His teaching does not command divorce, it does not rule out the possibility of reconciliation through repentance by the offender and forgiveness by the offended. Clearly restoration of a union as sacred as marriage is by far a nobler aim to pursue than to seek its destruction by divorce. --Hank | ||||||