What Jesus Really Said Putting Away the Mistranslations

What Jesus Really Said Putting Away the Mistranslations About Divorce Presented by Dan Knight Minister of Church Life Overland Park Church of Christ dan. knight@opcofc. org

Voltaire “Divorce probably dates from the same time as marriage. I think, though, that marriage is a few weeks older, that is to say that a man fought with this wife after a fortnight, beat her after a month, and that they separated after living together for six weeks. ” (quoted by Roderick Phillips in Untying the Knot: A Short History of Divorce, p. 252)

Definition of Divorce is the opposite of a marriage ceremony. The latter begins a marriage; the former ends it.

Five Christian Stances on Divorce No divorce. Isaksson, Fitzmyer Divorce. Remarriage for one cause for “innocent” party. Heth Divorce for one cause. * No remarriage after divorce. Wenham; Pryor Divorce for various causes. * Remarriage for “innocent party”. Instone-Brewer, Keener, Cof. C (trad) Divorce. Remarriage. Shelly, Richards, pramatism *Other causes that are permitted: usually the four A’s.

Biblically, divorce goes back to the time of Abraham. (Genesis 21) 14 Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.

Three Steps Write a certificate kerithuth Send her away shalach Give it to your wife

Time for a Language Clarification = כריתות kerithuth = divorce = שלח shalach = send away

The Law of Moses introduced a new concept: The Divorce Certificate “David Instone-Brewer “As originally intended, the Pentateuch gave women greater freedom than any other ancient Near Easter law. It gave divorced women the documentary evidence of their divorce, which enabled them to remarry without fear of counterclaims some time in the future from their former husbands. ” Divorce & Remarriage in the Bible, p. 31.

What were the mosaic provisions? If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, . . . (Deuteronomy 24: 1)

Could a man send her away without a certificate? On one condition: Deuteronomy 22: 13 – 20 13 If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her, dislikes her 14 and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity, ” 15 then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate proof that she was a virgin.

Deut. 22 continued 16 Her father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. 17 Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin. ’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity. ” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, 18 and the elders shall take the man and punish him. 19 They shall fine him a hundred shekels a of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name.

Deut. 22 continued She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives. 20 If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, 21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.

In other words, . . . if she was guilty of fornication, the man did not need to give her a certificate of divorce. Note: In practice, this became an “annulment” instead of a capital offense. Case in point, Matthew 1: 19.

Matthew 1: 19 18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce [Grk. apoluo] her quietly.

Time for another language lesson A. Hebrew 1. = כריתות kerithuth = divorce 2. = שלח shalach = send away B. Greek 1. apostasion = divorce 2. apoluw = apoluo = send away

Back to Joseph & Mary • They were betrothed, but not married. A divorce certificate was not necessary for breaking a betrothal in the Second Temple Period. (536 BC – 70 AD). * • Even if it were, it would not have been required because of Mary’s “sin. ” • He only needed to apoluo (send her away).

Peter Zaas While biblical law makes no provision for divorce in the case of a broken betrothal, rabbinic law famously does. The Mishna, for example, so unselfconsciously assumes that a betrothal constitutes a marriage 15, so far as divorce is concerned, that contemporary scholars who get the point at all 16 generally read the rabbinic legal situation back into the biblical one, and conclude that biblical law requires a get to dissolve a betrothal as well. 17 16 Neither Keener, Brown, nor Davies and Allison bother asking why Joseph needs to divorce Mary at all.

Peter Zaas – 2 Recently Michael Satlow, in his 2001 volume Jewish Marriage in Antiquity 11, notes that Matthew reflects a rabbinic, rather than a biblical view of Jewish law in this matter. Specifying examples from the Hebrew Bible 12 and from the Elephantine papyri 13, Satlow concludes that, while financial damages may be assessed when a betrothed woman is acquired by someone else, the law does not obligate a divorce: …during the entire Second Temple period, (most? ) Jews neither customarily “betrothed’ (in the biblical sense) nor did they even have a firm understanding of what such a betrothal would mean. 14 The law does not mandate a divorce to terminate a betrothal, nor is a divorce possible, if we extend Satlow’s conclusion to its logical conclusion, when there is no marriage.

What Jesus Really Said Before reading Matthew 5: 31 – 32, use your imagination, and pretend you have never read this passage before today. I will read it using the words “send away” for apoluo and “divorce” for apostasian.

Mt 5: 31 ᾿Ερρε θη δε · ὅτι ὅς ἂν α πολυ ση And it was said that: anyone who sends away τη ν γυναι κα αυ του , δο τω αυ τη α ποστα σιον. his wife should give her a divorce Mt 5: 32 ᾿Εγω δε λε γω υ μι ν ὅτι ὅς ἄν α πολυ ση But I say to you that anyone who sends away τη ν γυναι κα αυ του παρεκτο ς λο γου πορνει ας, his wife apart from a matter of fornication ποιει αυ τη ν μοιχα σθαι, και ὃς ε α ν makes her commit adultery, and whoever α πολελυμε νην γαμη ση , μοιχα ται. the sent-away one shall marry, commits adultery.

Consistent with S. on the M. Old Testament Anger is okay, but don’t murder “Raca” is a harsh word, but not condemnable You can lust, but don’t commit adultery If you send her away, give her a divorce certificate Jesus’ words Anger is equal to Murder “Raca” puts you in risk of Hell Lust is adultery committed in your heart Remarriage without a divorce is adultery

Can we send away our wives for any reason? Review: Three Steps Write a certificate Send her away Apoluo Give it to your wife

Matthew 19: 1 – 9 NIVr 1 When Jesus finished saying these things, he left Galilee. He went into the area of Judea on the other side of the Jordan River. 2 Large crowds followed him. He healed them there. 3 Some Pharisees came to put him to the test. They asked, "Does the Law allow a man to send away his wife for any reason at all? " 4 Jesus replied, "Haven't you read that in the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female'? —(Genesis 1: 27) 5 He said, 'That's why a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife. The two will become one. '—(Genesis 2: 24) 6 They are no longer two, but one. So a man must not separate what God has joined together. " 7 They asked, "Then why did Moses command that a man can give his wife a letter of divorce and send her away? " 8 Jesus replied, "Moses let you send away your wives because you were stubborn. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 Here is what I tell you. Anyone who sends away his wife and gets married to another woman commits adultery. A man may send away his wife only if she has not been faithful [Greek – fornication] to him. "

Instone-Brewer • The meaning of the answer that Jesus gave has been the subject of much debate, mainly because it is inherently difficult. … It appears to be illogical because it charges a person who remarries with the very specific crime of “adultery, ” which a remarried person is not guilty of in any known legal system. p. 148.

Dialogue : Pharisees/Jesus Exception: if she’s been promiscuous. “Send away for any reason? ” “Send away without a divorce certificate, and it’s adultery. ” “He permitted it. ” “What God has joined don’t separate. ” “Moses said we could send away”

Responses to this “theory” Three main responses. 1. Don’t agree. 2. Have to study it more. 3. Agree.

The “study more response” The NIV paraphrases the question the Pharisees raise, for the Pharisees actually do not ask about divorce, but about putting away (which is how the King James and American Standard Versions rightly translate the Greek term apoluein). It is possible that the Pharisees are not asking about whether one could divorce his wife (which the Law clearly permitted; cf. , Deut. 24: 1 -4;

The “study more response” – 2 Ezra 10), but about whether one could abandon his wife without divorcing her. In other words, the question may involve a man who doesn’t want to divorce his wife legally, but merely wants to abandon her (remember that divorce was expensive in antiquity, too). Extreme Discipleship: Following Jesus from the Gospel of Mark, p. 166.

Instone-Brewer The many changes in divorce law during the Intertestamental period added up to greater rights for women but also greater instability of marriage. Divorce became more common, and both men and women started to be able to demand a divorce. The reforms of Simeon ben Shetah tried to discourage divorce among Jews, but they also resulted in greater financial security for divorced women, and so divorce was no longer perceived as calamitous or cruel. All these changes form the background for the debate in Judaism concerning the grounds for divorce. p. 84.

Instone-Brewer The divorce certificate was therefore both a disincentive to divorce as well as a benefit to a divorced woman. Without the law of the certificate of divorce a man could simply dismiss his wife from the house and then change his mind on a future occasion. The certificate made this dismissal a more significant event and gave the woman legal rights. Instone-Brewer, David. Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002, p. 33

The Disagree Response

Gordon Wenham “[T]he early church is free from this problem, for, in that view , when Jesus uses the word apolyein, it always means ‘separate from. ’” Remarriage After Divorce in Today’s Church, p. 55, note 21. Mark Strauss, Editor. (Wenham’s section is entitled, “No Remarriage After Divorce”)

Instone-Brewer • Therefore, [according to the Jewish leaders] a woman who had remarried and whose divorce was discovered to have been invalid could not continue to be married to either husband, and any children she had by them since the time of the “adultery” were considered as illegitimate. p. 129.

Instone-Brewer • Jesus, however, refused to recognize the validity of this type of divorce. [In all the synoptic accounts]. . . the only detail that remains is Jesus’ assertion that remarriage after an invalid divorce is adulterous. The reason for this is now clear. This was the only point at which Jesus differed with everyone else in Judaism. p. 167.

The Scholarly Runaround Apoluo means send away Except when talking about marriage When talking about marriage it means divorce Because it’s talking about marriage. Why does it mean divorce in that context?

What if? Five Christian Stances on Divorce for one cause. * “If the facts were on your side, yours would be a No divorce. No remarriage after very neat solution. ” [e-mail from David divorce. Isaksson, Fitzmyer Wenham; Pryor Instone-Brewer] Divorce. Remarriage for one cause for “innocent” party. Heth Divorce for various causes. * Remarriage for “innocent party”. Instone-Brewer, Keener, Cof. C (trad) Divorce. Remarriage. Shelly, Richards, pramatism *Other causes that are permitted: usually the four A’s.

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