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Dogged Pursuit

Text: Matthew 19 : 1 - 12

The Pharisees did not want to engage Jesus over the text that He had cited (Cf. Genesis 2:24). To do so would see them defeated one more embarrassing time. Instead they sought to pursue the subject of divorce, but this time round they added the difficult text found in the Mosaic law.

“They said to Him, ‘Why then did Moses command to give
a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?'”
MATTHEW 19:7

The text the Pharisees cited was taken from the Book of Deuteronomy. Let us take a look at this text that many applied if they elected for divorce.

“When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens
that she finds no favour in his eyes because he has found
some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce,
puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house…”
DEUTERONOMY 24:1

The Pharisees were, of course, well aware of the two prevailing views that dominated the discussion on divorce. The tricky phrase in the ancient Mosaic text that needed careful handling and interpretation was “some uncleanness”.

1. The strict view (The Shammai school of thought)

This view interpreted the word “uncleanness” with immorality. That was the only reason a man could divorce his wife.

2. The liberal view (The Hillel school of thought)

This view suggested that the word “uncleanness” could mean a variety of things. If the husband can find some unacceptable things about his wife he could divorce her. Some rabbis even went so far as to say that if the wife burnt the dinner, that would be sufficient reason for divorce! (Interestingly, the latter view was more popular)!

AN EXEGESIS OF THE TEXT IN DEUTERONOMY

Jesus was not perturbed in the least by the line of argument the Pharisees had taken. He was prepared to exegete both texts, Genesis and Deuteronomy together.

“He said to them, ‘Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts,
permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning
it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife,
except for sexual immorality, and marries another,
commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced
commits adultery.'”
MATTHEW 19:8-9

1. The principle of harmony of the Scriptures

The Pharisees believed in the written Scriptures. They also subscribed to Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Scriptures).

a) If Moses was the author of both Genesis and Deuteronomy then he must be consistent with himself.

b) He cannot write one thing in Genesis and then pursue another line of argument in the Book of Deuteronomy.

c) Moses did not advocate divorce!

2. The principle of authorial intent

All who write do so with authorial intent. A careful scholar must pay attention to the authorial intent of the text he is seeking to interpret.

a) It was not Moses’ intent to encourage divorce.

b) Divorce was permissible – but only in an obviously impossible situation.

c) It was because of the hardness of the heart of men that divorce was finally allowed (However, permission is not to be equated with advocacy).

A SOLEMN WORD FROM JESUS

The Pharisees must have pressed Jesus to make a definite statement concerning the question of divorce. He was not afraid of making that statement. All He wanted was to make sure that He would not be misunderstood or misquoted. His personal view reflected that of the stricter school of thought of the rabbi Shammai. However, Jesus did not rely on any one for authority. The authority of His statement came from within Himself.

1. “And I say to you…”

This was the introductory phrase Jesus used, to signify the authority that resided in Him (Cf. Matthew 5: 22, 28, 32 etc)

2. The sin of adultery

The sin of adultery was considered a very serious sin problem in the Mosaic Law. The liberal school of thought figured that if they could argue for the validity of divorce in their interpretation of the law, then the sin of adultery could be circumvented!

Jesus warned against taking this approach. Manipulation of the law does not make a person free from the consequences of the original authorial intention of Moses when he wrote out the laws. These laws were Divine laws! To attempt to manipulate Divine laws was a very serious matter. Jesus gave clear warning that those who manipulated the laws would not be guiltless before God!