David J. Engelsma
In Matthew 5 Jesus is obviously contrasting his teaching on divorce with another teaching. That other teaching is Moses’ regulation regarding divorce for Israel in the Old Testament. When Jesus declares in verse 31, “It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement,” he refers to the regulation concerning divorce in Deuteronomy 24:1-4:
- When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
- And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife.
- And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife;
- Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.
This Old Testament regulation is so important in Matthew 19. The Pharisees tempted Jesus concerning divorce by asking him, “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?” (v. 3). Jesus answered that, since God joins married persons, man must not separate them: “what therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (v. 6). In other words, Jesus prohibited divorce. Then, the Pharisees sprung their trap. Moses had said that they could divorce: “They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?” (v. 7). They referred, of course, to Deuteronomy 24:1-4. Their argument is plain. Moses was the great prophet and lawgiver of God. Jesus stands in opposition to Moses on the matter of the permissibility of divorce. Therefore, Jesus cannot be of God.
The importance of Deuteronomy 24:1-4 for the subject of divorce requires that we look closely at the passage. The regulation concerning divorce found in the passage was grossly misunderstood in the days of Jesus and is still commonly misunderstood today. By this misunderstanding we compound the problem of the apparent lack of agreement between Jesus and Moses, between the New Testament and the Old Testament, and we fail to see the basic agreement between them on this matter of divorce. Our mistake is that we take the regulation as an approval of divorce and even of remarriage. So we understand the words “let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife” (vv. 1-2). We view it as a legitimizing of divorce for an insignificant reason “because he hath found some uncleanness in her” (v. 1). In fact, however, there is in the passage no approval of divorce whatsoever, much less of remarriage. Moses did not here require divorce. Nor did he approve divorce. But, as Christ pointed out in Matthew 19:8, he “suffered,” or permitted, divorce. To suffer something is fundamentally different from approving it. Moses gave Israel a law in Deuteronomy 24 that prescribed what a man had to do if he intended to divorce his wife. Moses took note that men in Israel were divorcing their wives and that they would continue to do so in the future. In such cases they must write out and give to their wives a “writing of cutting off,” an official bill of divorce. Moses did not command Israelite men, “Divorce your wives,” not even if there was uncleanness in them. But his command was this: “If you are going to divorce your wife, you must give her a bill of divorce.” The purpose of the requirement of giving a bill of divorce was the welfare of the woman who was put away. The woman in Israel was completely subject to the man and entirely at his mercy. If Moses had not required that the husband give a bill of divorce to the woman whom he was determined to put away, the women in Israel would soon have become mere playthings and would have been regarded as little different from whores. The bill of divorce had to be written to her and given in “her hand” (v. 1); that is, it was for her benefit.
There is something else in Deuteronomy 24, often missed, which indicates that Moses did not approve divorce or remarriage, much less command it, but merely suffered it. According to the correct reading of this passage, the regulation made by Moses is that a woman who has been divorced from her original husband and who has married another man may not return to her original husband in case the second man also divorces her. In verses 1-3 Moses merely takes note of what he actually sees happening in Israel. Men are divorcing their wives because of some uncleanness. These divorced women are marrying other men. Then the women are divorced by their second husbands. In such cases Moses forbids a return to the first husband (v. 4). Verses 1-3 do not set forth what Moses approves, but merely what he observes taking place. The translation in the King James Bible is somewhat misleading, especially in verses 1-2, where it leaves the impression that Moses expressly approves of a man’s divorcing his wife and even of her remarriage. The correct translation is this:
When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: and he writes her a bill of divorcement and gives it in her hand, and send her out of his house; and when she is departed out of his house, she goes and becomes another man’s wife: and if the latter husband hate her … Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again.
According to this translation, it still is an implied requirement that a husband give a bill of divorce to the wife he intends to divorce. But this translation makes clear that Moses is only suffering divorce, not approving it.
It must also be noted that the only ground for the divorce that is suffered by Moses is “some uncleanness.” Literally verse 1 reads: “the nakedness of a thing.” The phrase occurs elsewhere in scripture, only in Deuteronomy 23:14, which makes it difficult to say exactly what the phrase means. There can be no doubt that the reference is to some kind of sexual pollution or shamefulness in the woman. It is not adultery, for adultery was punishable by death. But it is related to adultery inasmuch as it is sexual uncleanness of some sort. Therefore, it is not the case that Deuteronomy 24 suffered divorce for minor reasons. On the contrary, even in suffering divorce, the Old Testament rigorously restricted divorce to instances that involved impurity in the realm of sex. Thus the old Testament showed its basic harmony with the teaching of Jesus, who limits divorce to cases of adultery.
Nevertheless, this regulation of Moses in Deuteronomy 24 is unsatisfactory. This is the plain implication of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:31-32: “It hath been said … But I say.” Jesus contrasts his teaching, which is the pure truth, with Moses’ teaching in Deuteronomy 24. Moses’ regulation is unsatisfactory in that Moses tolerated the practice of divorce on a ground other than adultery, as well as tolerating remarriage. Note well, however, that Christ does not blame Moses. Rather, he blames Israel! For in Matthew 19:8 he says, “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives” [emphasis added].
This may present a problem regarding the harmony of the Old and New Testaments. In fact, it does present a problem. However, the problem is not this: how can something be right in the Old Testament and wrong in the New Testament? Rather, the problem is this: how can the Old Testament occasionally suffer, or tolerate, the wrong, whereas the New Testament does not suffer it? Polygamy in the Old Testament falls into the same category. Regardless of this problem, it is crystal clear and indisputable that New Testament Christians may never appeal to Deuteronomy 24 in order to apply that Old Testament regulation to their lives. If they do, they acknowledge that they are hard-hearted, just as was the Israel for whom the rule had to be made. Still more, they would thus show that they insist on being hard-hearted. This is the spiritual condition of being ruled by unbelief for Jesus says that “because of the hardness of your hearts,” Moses made the rule of Deuteronomy 24.
Between us and Deuteronomy 24 stands the word of Jesus Christ: “But I say!” Christ has abrogated the sufferance of Deuteronomy 24. Divorce for any reason except adultery is suffered no longer. In Jesus Christ the kingdom of heaven has come in its fullness, also regarding the truth of marriage. Within this fully-come kingdom, it stands that “whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery” (Matt. 5:32).
Old Testament Law on Divorce
Yet, Deuteronomy 24 was not the law of the Old testament on divorce. Deuteronomy 24 was a deviation from the Old Testament law. This is evident from its being a suffering of divorce. One does not suffer what is right and good. One suffers what is not right and not good: a deviation from the law. In suffering what was wrong, Deuteronomy 24 also suffered much misery in Israel. This is often forgotten by those who are eager to apply the passage to themselves in the hope of relief from a marital problem. In this regulation of Deuteronomy 24 is Moses’ warning of the opening up of a most shameful mess and bitter woe. It is possible that a woman goes from one divorce to another and ends up wanting to go back to her first husband. This is the description of a marital mess and of widespread misery. And what about the children who result along the way? The way of a hard heart is the way of misery, already in this life. The same was true in the Old Testament as the result of polygamy. Also that violation of marriage led to trouble for the guilty. We in the New Testament are spared from this misery by the better light on marriage.
Deuteronomy 24 was not the law regarding divorce, but a deviation from the law. The law concerning divorce was that implied in God’s institution of marriage in Genesis 2. This is what Jesus called to the attention of the Pharisees in Matthew 19:8. After noting that Deuteronomy 24 was Moses’ suffering a deviation from the law of divorce, he reminded the Pharisees: “But from the beginning it was not so.” The law concerning divorce is found in Genesis 2:18-25, the record of God’s institution of marriage in the beginning. This is the law in both the Old and New Testaments: “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matt. 19:6). God joins married persons. Divorce, therefore, is prohibited. God hated divorce also in the Old Testament. He made this clear in Malachi 2:15-16: “Take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away.” In Matthew 5, therefore, Jesus does not contradict the Old Testament law concerning divorce, but he uncovers it, sets it forth, and shows its full significance: divorce is forbidden.
(Marriage, the Mystery of Christ and the Church, pp. 89-95)
