Teaching about Divorce
And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again; and again, as his custom was, he taught them.
And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to put her away." But Jesus said to them, "For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.' So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder."
And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."
Bede, In Marcum, 3, 40 - Up to this time, Mark hath related what Our Lord said and did in Galilee; here he begins to relate what He did, taught, or suffered in Judaea, and first indeed across the Jordan on the east; and this is what is said in these words: "And He arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judaea, by the farther side of Jordan"; then also on this side Jordan, when He came to Jericho, Bethany, and Jerusalem. And though all the province of the Jews is generally called Judaea, to distinguish it from other nations, more especially, however, its southern portion was called Judaea, to distinguish it from Samaria, Galilee, Decapolis, and the other regions in the same province.
Theophylact - But He enters the region of Judaea, which the envy of the Jews had often caused Him to leave, because His Passion was to take place there. He did not, however, then go up to Jerusalem, but to the confines of Judaea, that He might do good to the multitudes, who were not evil; for Jerusalem was, from the malice of the Jews, the worker of all the wickedness. Wherefore it goes on: "And the people resort unto Him again, and, as He was wont, He taught them again."
Bede - Mark the difference of temper in the multitude and in the Pharisees. The former meet together, in order to be taught, and that their sick may be healed, as Matthew relates [Matthew 19:2]; the latter come to Him, to try to deceive their Saviour by tempting Him.
Wherefore there follows: "And the Pharisees came to Him, and asked Him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting Him."
Theophylact - They come to Him indeed, and do not quit Him, lest the multitudes should believe on Him; and by continually coming to Him, they thought to bring Him into difficulty, and to confuse Him by their questions. For they proposed to Him a question, which had on either side a precipice, so that whether He said that it was lawful for a man to put away his wife, or that it was not lawful, they might accuse Him, and contradict what He said, out of the doctrines of Moses. Christ, therefore, being Very Wisdom, in answering their question, avoids their snares.
Chrys., Vict. Ant., Cat. in Marc., and see Chrys. Hom. 62 - For being asked, whether it is lawful, he does not immediately reply, it is not lawful, lest they should raise an outcry, but He first wished them to answer Him as to the sentence of the law, that they by their answer might furnish Him with what it was right to say. Wherefore it goes on: "And He answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you?" And afterwards, "And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away."
They put forward indeed this that Moses had said either on account of the question of our Saviour, or wishing to excite against Him a multitude of men. For divorce was an indifferent thing among the Jews, and all practised it, as though it were permitted by the law.
Augustine, de Con. Evan., ii, 62 - It makes nothing, however, to the truth of the fact, whether, as Matthew says, they themselves addressed to the Lord the question concerning the bill of divorcement, allowed to them by Moses, on our Lord's forbidding the separation, and confirming His sentence from the law, or whether it was in answer to a question of His, that they said this concerning the command of Moses, as Mark here says. For His wish was to give them no reason why Moses permitted it, before they themselves had mentioned the fact; since then the wish of the parties speaking, which is what the words ought to express, is in either way shewn, there is no discrepancy, though there be a difference in the way of relating it. It may also be meant that, as Mark expresses it, the question put to them by the Lord, What did Moses command?, was in answer to those who had previously asked His opinion concerning the putting away of a wife. And when they had replied that Moses permitted them to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away, His answer was concerning that same law, given by Moses, how God instituted the marriage of a male, and a female, saying those things which Matthew relates [Matthew 19:4]; on hearing which they again rejoined what they had replied to Him when He first asked them, namely - Why then did Moses command?
Augustine, cont. Faust, XIX, 26 - Moses, however, was against a man's dismissing his wife, for he interposed this delay, that a person whose mind was bent on separation, might be deterred by the writing of the bill, and desist; particularly, since, as is related, among the Hebrews, no one was allowed to write Hebrew characters but the scribes. The law therefore wished to send him, whom it ordered to give a bill of divorcement, before he dismissed his wife, to them, who ought to be wise interpreters of the law, and just opponents of quarrel. For a bill could only be written for him by men, who by their good advice might overrule him, since his circumstances and necessity had put him into their hands, and so by treating between him and his wife they might persuade them to love and concord.
But if a hatred so great had arisen that it could not be extinguished and corrected, then indeed a bill was to be written, that he might not lightly put away her who was the object of his hate, in such a way as to prevent his being recalled to the love, which he owed her by marriage, through the persuasion of the wise. For this reason it is added, "For the hardness of your heart, he wrote this precept"; for great was the hardness of heart which could not be melted or bent to the taking back and recalling the love of marriage, even by the interposition of a bill in a way which gave room for the just and wise to dissuade them.
Pseudo-Chrys., Cat. in Marc. Oxon - Or else, it is said, "For the hardness of your hearts," because it is possible for a soul purged from desires and from anger to bear the worst of women; but if those passions have a redoubled force over the mind, many evils will arise from hatred in marriage.
Chrys. - Thus then, He saves Moses, who had given the law, from their accusation, and turns the whole upon their head. But since what He had said was grievous to them, He at once brings back the discourse to the old law, saying, "But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female."
Bede - He says not male and females, which the sense would have required had it referred to the divorce of former wives, but "male" and "female", so that they might be bound by the tie of one wife.
Chrys. - If however he had wished one wife to be put away and another to be brought in, He would have created several women. Nor did God only join one woman to one man, but He also bade a man quit his parents and cleave to his wife.
Wherefore it goes on: "And he said, (that is, God, said by Adam) For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife.
From the very mode of speech, shewing the impossibility of severing marriage, because He said, "He shall cleave."
Bede - And in like manner, because He says, he shall cleave to his wife, not wives. It goes on: "And they twain shall be one flesh."
Chrys. - Being framed out of one root, they will join into one body. It goes on: "So then they are no more twain, but one flesh."
Bede - The reward then of marriage is of two to become one flesh. Virginity being joined to the Spirit, becomes of one spirit.
Chrys. - After this, bringing forward an awful argument, He said not, do not divide, but He concluded, "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."
Augustine, cont. Faust, XIX, 29 - Behold the Jews are convinced out of the books of Moses, that a wife is not to be put away, while they fancied that in putting her away, they were doing the will of Moses. In like manner from this place, from the witness of Christ Himself, we know this, that God made and joined male and female, for denying which the Manichees are condemned, resisting now not the books of Moses, but the Gospel of Christ.
Bede - What therefore God hath conjoined by making one flesh of a man and a woman, that man cannot separate, but God alone. Man separates, when we dismiss the first wife because we desire a second; but it is God who separates, when by common consent [1 Corinthians 7:5], for the sake of serving God, we so have wives as though we had none [1 Corinthians 7:29].
Chrys. - But if two persons, whom God has joined together, are not to be separated; much more is it wrong to separate from Christ, the Church, which God has joined to Him.
Theophylact - But the disciples were offended, as not being fully satisfied with what had been said; for this reason they again question Him.
Wherefore there follows: "And in the house, His disciples asked Him again of the same matter."
Pseudo-Jerome - This second question is said to be asked "again" by the Apostles, because it is on the subject of which the Pharisees had asked Him, that is, concerning the state of marriage; and this is said by Mark in his own person.
Gloss - For a repetition of a saying of the Word, produces not weariness, but thirst and hunger. Wherefore it is said, "They that eat me shall yet be hungry, and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty"; for the tasting of the honied words of wisdom yields all manner of savour to them who love her.
Wherefore the Lord instructs His disciples over again; for it goes on, "And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery upon her."
Pseudo-Chrys., Vict. Ant., e Cat. in Marc. - The Lord calls by the name of adultery cohabitation with her who is not a man's wife; she is not, however, a wife, whom a man has taken to him, after quitting the first; and for this reason he commits adultery upon her, that is, upon the second, whom he brings in. And the same thing is true in the case of the woman; wherefore it goes on, "And if a woman shall put away her husband, and marry another, she committeth adultery"; for she cannot be joined to another as her own husband, if she leave him who is really her own husband. The law indeed forbade what was plainly adultery; but the Saviour forbids this, which was neither plain, nor known to all, though it was contrary to nature.
Bede - In Matthew it is more fully expressed, "Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication." [Matthew 19:9] The only carnal cause then is fornication; the only spiritual cause is the fear of God, that a man should put away his wife to enter into religion, as we read that many have done. But there is no cause allowed by the law of God for marrying another, during the lifetime of her who is quitted.
Pseudo-Chrys., Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc. - There is no contrariety in Matthew's relating that He spoke these words to the Pharisees, though Mark says that they were spoken to the disciples; for it is possible that He may have spoken them to both.
- text taken from Catena Aurea - Gospel of Mark by Saint Thomas Aquinas, translated by William Whiston, 1842