Marriage after divorce

'I'm divorced. Can I get married in your church?'. As a Baptist minister, I was regularly asked this question, especially by Catholics and Anglicans. The traditional answer is: 'Sorry, but Jesus taught that remarriage is equivalent to adultery.'
The church started to misunderstand divorce when it separated from the synagogue and lost touch with its Jewish roots. After doing a doctorate in first century Judaism, I found myself reading the New Testament with a completely new understanding - through their eyes, so to speak. I remember the surprise I experienced when I read the texts on divorce and found that they now made sense! I could see that Jesus and Paul were affirming the Old Testament teaching and refuting Jewish misinterpretations. They affirmed the ground for divorce in Deuteronomy 24.1 (adultery) and the other grounds for divorce in Exodus 21.10f (physical and emotional neglect). What surprised me more was that almost no Christian has written about the grounds for divorce in Ex. 21.10f, though any knowledgeable Jew is very familiar with them. Unfortunately there is room here only to discuss Deuteronomy 24.1.

Memorised summaries

Jesus was invited to take part in a debate which was well known in the Jewish world. We find a record of that debate in the Mishnah, which is a collection of early Pharisaic writings. The name 'Mishnah' means 'to repeat' or 'to memorise', because it was originally the memorised summaries of the important debates on the meaning of the Law. These summaries are often highly stylised and abbreviated to aid memorisation. Any details or phrases which were obvious to a first century Jew are omitted. We find the same kind of abbreviation in many Gospel passages, especially in Mark, though Matthew and Luke are often less abbreviated, and John is sometimes quite verbose!
The rabbinic debate on divorce is a little difficult to follow because of its brevity (see the box). The two schools of Pharisees were debating the ground for divorce in Deuteronomy 24.1. The ground for divorce in Deuteronomy is literally 'indecency of a thing', which is as strange in Hebrew as it is in English. The Shammaites said it should be understood as 'something indecent', so the only ground for divorce in Deuteronomy 24.1 was 'indecency'. The Hillelites said that Deuteronomy 24.1 had two grounds for divorce, which were 'indecency' and 'a thing'. And they said that 'a thing' meant 'anything' even something as minor as burning a meal.

Jesus, Hillel and Shammai

The Gospel passages on divorce are also difficult for us to read because they are too abbreviated. Matthew includes two vital phrases which Mark misses out, though Matthew is still very brief. The two phrases are 'for any thing' and 'except for indecency', which are the two phrases which summarise the Shammaite and Hillelite teachings. When Jesus is asked: 'Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any thing?', he is effectively being asked: 'Do you agree with Hillel?' When he answers that one cannot divorce 'except for indecency', he is effectively saying Shammai's interpretation is correct.
Any first century Jew would have mentally added those two phrases, but Matthew is probably writing for Christians who are starting to lose touch with their Jewish roots. It would be obvious that the question posed in Mark was an abbreviation, because otherwise it was absurd. If they had really asked Jesus: 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?', he would have humiliated them by saying: 'Yes, of course it is lawful - it is written in the Law.'

No to easy divorces

Although Jesus agreed with the Shammaite interpretation of Deuteronomy 24.1, he did not agree with them about everything. In particular, he did not agree that it was compulsory to divorce one's wife, or that one could have several wives. Before giving a direct answer to the Pharisees' question about the meaning of Deuteronomy 24.1, Jesus emphasised his disagreement on these issues, and reminded them that divorce was always due to sin. This does not mean that it is wrong to get divorced, but the breaking of marriage vows which leads to divorce is always wrong. The strong condemnation of divorce in Malachi is directed at this unfaithfulness, and not at the legal procedure of divorce: 'Let none be faithless to the wife of his youth, for I hate divorce, says the Lord.' (Malachi 2.15f).
Jesus condemned the easy divorces of the Hillelites, based on the grounds of 'any thing'. This is equivalent to many modern divorces which are based on minor matters. Instead of going to 'Relate', some people rush straight to their lawyer. At a church wedding we are urged to keep our marriage vows with the words of Jesus: 'What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.' The traditional church teaching has been that it is impossible to break asunder a marriage till one partner dies. But if that were the case, Jesus would have said: 'What God has joined together, no man can put asunder.' Unfortunately, in our hardness of heart, it is all too possible to break our marriage vows and divorce sometimes follows.
We need to make sure that our condemnation is directed at the person who breaks their vows, and not at their partner. If a divorce is based on Biblical grounds, there is nothing in Jesus' teaching to stop them from remarrying.

David Instone Brewer is Research Librarian at Tyndale House, Cambridge and writing an academic book on the Jewish background of Biblical divorce and remarriage. You can see the book on the Internet, as it is written, at www.tyndale.ac.uk/Brewer/Divorce.htm

Mishnah brevity

Abbreviated version of the Pharisees' debate, as recorded in Mishnah Gittin 10: 'The House of Shammai say: 'A man should not divorce his wife unless he found in her something indecent, as it is said: 'For he finds in her an indecent thing' (Deuteronomy 24.1)'. And the House of Hillel say: 'Even if she burned a dish for him, as it is said: 'For he finds in her an indecent thing' (Deuteronomy 24.1).'
Expanded version, as it would be unpacked in the mind of a first century Jew: 'The school of rabbis who follow the teacher Shammai teach: 'If a man is basing his divorce on Deuteronomy 24.1, he cannot divorce his wife for anything except indecency.' The school of rabbis following Hillel teach: 'The text of Deuteronomy 24.1 also allows divorce on the grounds of any 'thing', which includes even a small thing like burning a meal, because the text contains both the words 'indecent' and 'thing'.'

A consideration of the grounds for divorce in the Old Testament and the teaching of Jesus

Memorised summaries

Jesus, Hillel and Shammai

No to easy divorces

Mishnah brevity

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