REVEREND MlLTON T.WELLS  (1901-1975)

EASTERN BIBLE  INSTITUTE

GREEN LANE,  PENNSYLVANIA

1957 – (Public Domain)

Note by Standerinfamilycourt:    Rev. Wells was an Assemblies of God Pastor and served as President of the Eastern Bible Institute in Pennsylvania,  now known as the University of Valley Forge.

Our Lord Jesus Christ would have called his scholarly work, with its rigorous application of all the principles of hermeneutics to the scriptural texts on marriage “faithful”.

The author uses the term “Five-Word-School”  for those who reject Christ’s teaching, centered around Luke 16:18 and other scripture, that the marriage covenant is dissolved only by the physical death of one of the spouses; those who instead prefer to center their view around Matthew 19:9 according to the Erasmean / Lutheran / Calvinist rendering, in such a way as to contrive a “biblical exception” (except it be for fornication) to justify remarriage after civil divorce.  

Chapter VIII digs into the history of the Church Fathers for the first 400 years after Jesus went to the cross, and it resurrects the key extra-biblical writings that give further insight to interpreting what Jesus taught concerning the indissolubility of original covenant marriage.   (‘Variant” here means texts in addition to the text on which the English and American Revised Versions – 1881 & 1901- were based.)   Chapter IX  then explores Mark, chapter 10 in similar depth as Matthew 5, 19 and Luke 16 just completed.  

 

Chapter VIII – A STUDY OF THE VARIANT READING OF MATT.19:9

If debatable questions of grammar must be decided by the context of a verse and by the context of the general tenor of Scripture bearing on the doctrine under consideration, then the same principle is applicable when scholars differ greatly in their judgment respecting the true,  original Greek reading of a specific passage or text of Scripture.

The facts established in the study of Matt. 5:31, 32; Luke 16: 18, and Matt.19:9 (A. V.), and the facts that will be established in the study of the context of the harmony of Matt. 19: I – 12, and in the study of Rom. 7:2, 3 and I Cor. 7: 10, 11,39 impel one to consider and reconsider the variant reading of some of the ancient Greek texts of Matt.19:9.  Thefact that all the divorce texts.  apart from  the   dubious possibility of Matt.19:9(A.V.), close the door to the right of anyone to dissolve his marriage to another for any cause makes the study of the variant reading imperative. The strength of the argument that “fornication”in Matt.5:32 and 9:9 speaks of premarital sin, likewise makes the matter of this study very necessary.  Unfortunately, the FIVE WORD School of divorce either does not treat the problem, or speaks disparagingly of any school that attempts to do so. Certainly it is more important that the doctrine of divorce besettled on the basis of the original Greek text than on sundry Jewish traditions and customs.  The vital question is not what the Pharisees thought, but what Jesus said.

 

Sound rules of interpretation necessitate a careful study of the variant reading since it is contrary to such rules to establish a doctrine on a questionable, isolated text such as Matt. 19:9 (A. V.). The rules in question were given earlier. Three of them, 9. 10, 12, are here restated:

– Everything   essential in Scripture is clearly revealed.   This principle maintains that if a truth is an essential teaching of the Bible we need not scour the Bible to find it, nor will it be taught in one passing reference.

– All interpretations must be grounded in the original languages if they are to pass as accurate and factual interpretations.

– Obscure passages must give right of way, to clear passages. There is the dan­ger and temptation to invest a passage   of very dubious meaning with far greater content than it will bear.

(Bernard Ramm, loc. cit.)

 

It is a fact that no competent textual scholar would presume unquestionably to say that the Greek manuscript which supports Matt. 19:9 (A.V.) gives usChrist’s original statement of this text,

The importance of variant readings of ancient Greek manuscripts and of versions is indicated in the preface of the English Revised Version of the NewTesta­ment of 1881. which is the counterpart of the American Revised Version.  A portion of this preface follows:

Many places still remain in which, for the present, it would not be safe to accept one reading to the exclusion of others. In these cases we have given alternative readings in the margin, wherever they seem to be of sufficient importance or interest to deserve them.

(The English Revised Version London, The Oxford University Press, 1881, p.xiii).

 

The American Revised Version Of the Bible, which was newly edited in 1901 gives an alternative reading which makes Matt. 19:9 read virtually like Matt.5:32.  It is quoted under the next heading.

The English reader who is utterly unacquainted with the matter of variant Greek readings of early manuscripts of the New Testament will better understand the problem if he remembers that whereas the Bible most widely read among English evangelical Christians is the King James Version, the Authorized Ver­sion. the people of other races have the Bible translated into their own languages, not from the English but from the Hebrew of the Old Testament manuscripts and from the Greek of the New Testament  manuscripts.

These translations are not based on the originally written copies of the first writers of the several books of the Bible (which have been lost) but upon the oldest available manuscripts whose authenticity has been fully established. Of the goodly number of early manuscripts of the New Testament, dating from about the fourth and fifth centuries, their readings are found to be identical, except in a relatively few places which for the most part are of little or no doctrinal importance. Happily, the devout scholars of these ancient manuscripts are unanimous in asserting that no major doctrine of the Church is affected by the contrast in the differing readings.

 

B. The Variant Reading of Matt.19:9 is Presented.

The variant reading of the American Revised Version, which is an alternative reading to the exceptive clause of Matt. 19:9 (A. V. ), follows,

Saving the cause of fornication, maketh her an adulteress.

In the light of this preferred reading, Matt.19:9(A.V.) would read:

Whoever shall divorce his wife. saving for cause of fornication make her commit adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

 

Rotherham based his translation of the New Testament on theWestcott and Hort Greek text.   He gives the following translation in a footnote of Matt.19:9:

Or. (WH): without a reason of unfaithfulness (lit. harlotry) causeth her to be made an adulteress, and he that marrieth the divorced woman committeth adultery.   CF. Matt. 5:32; Luke 16:18.

The Text of Matt. 5:32 (R. V.) is as follows:

But I say unto you, that every one that putteth away his wife, saving for the cause Of fornication maketh her an adulteress: and whosoever shall marry her when she is put away committeth adultery.       ·

The Greek reader of the variant reading of Matt. 19:9 of Westcott and Hort’s text will see that it is all but identical to that of Matt. 5:32. The English translations given above assist the English reader to see the same thing. The implications of this variant reading, which is preferred by many eminent scholars, is given later.

 

C. Rules by Which Textual Scholars Ascertain the Correct Greek Text of the New Testament

When manuscripts, versions, and quotations are in agreement respecting a reading,   the external evidence for its correctness is established.

The internal evidence is complete when the reading that is established by external evidence agrees with the sense, the nature of the language. its connection with historical facts, and parallel passages.

If manuscripts could by their very number establish the external evidence of a reading, the matter would be simple; but the fact that a reading occurs in the largest number of ancient manuscripts is not necessarily a proof that the reading is preferred.

The Cyclopedic Handbook To the Bible by Joseph Angus and Samuel G. Green gives us the following rules of external evidence for a given reading:

1. Its age. There is at least a presumption that the older the document, the older the text, and one less vitiated by successive copyings. But it is both a possibility and a fact that some late MSS may preserve transcripts of very early ones which have since perished. •••
2. The age of the text it contains, ascertained by comparison with early patristic citations and early version•••
3. The family to which it belongs. In their support of readings, the MSS and versions are found to fall into groups; the same set of documents are continually together on the one side or the other. This fact has been genealogically interpreted.•••

(Joseph Angus: The Cyclopedic Handbook to the Bible. New York, Fleming H Revell Company,   1853.   p.78)

 

When we come to consider readings which are but probable, being equally or more or less nearly equally supported by external evidence, the rules of criticism become more difficult, and the application of them must be made with less rigidity. The Cyclopedic Handbook to the Bible gives us the following rules for the internal evidence of a given reading:

1. Of two readings, equally supported by external evidence, that is the most probable which best suits the sense or else which could not, so easily as the other. have been written by mistake.•••
2. Of the readings, the easy and the other difficult, the latter is generally to be preferred;   a rule thus formulated by Bengel: ‘Proclivi scriptioni praestat ardua’ .   Evidently, a copyist was more likely to smooth away a difficulty than to introduce one. •••
3. Of two readings, equally supported, the shorter is probably thegenuineone. as copyists were more likely from intention to add than to omit.al­though more likely from accident to omit than to add; and the rulethere­fore must not be pressed in every case •••
4. Of two readings, the one classical and the other Oriental, the latter is more probable. •••
5. Of two readings equally supported, that is to be preferred which best agrees with the style of the writer, or with his design or with the context
6. Conjectural readings, supported by the sense, or by versions, may be probable; but must not be received as indubitable, unless they are confirmed by evidence.

(Ibid, pp.79-81)

 

One of the greatest Greek scholars of modern times, A. T. Robenson, has stated in his text, Introduction to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament:

“No manuscript reading can possibly be original which contradicts the context of the passage or the tenor of the writing” (McClellan)….Since transcriptional evidence should come before intrinsic evidence the last piece of evidence brought forward Is the intrinsic evidence… If the external evidence and transcriptional evidence justified the Doxology as a part of the Lord ‘s Prayer, certainly intrinsic evidence would not raise any objection.

But there are cases where intrinsic evidence positively refuses to agree to the reading approved by external evidence of the documents and even by transcriptional evidence.

It is like getting married. The girl has to say .. “Yes.” When intrinsic evidence clearly rejects a reading, we may know such a reading is wrong.. . . .

(Archibald Thomas Robertson: Introduction to the Textual Criticism of the New Testament, Nashville, Broadman Press, 1925, pp. 165, 166)

 

D. Internal Evidences Favoring the Variant Reading of Matt. 19:9 are Presented.

1.  Scholars like Tischendorf, Weiss, Dean Alford, McClymont and Olhausen believed the exceptive clause to be a scribal addition. Interpolations will be discussed on pages 172 through173.
2. Eminent scholars declare tha t the exceptive element is not found in thefol­lowing manuscripts: Sinaiticus and Codex Ephraimus(3).
3. The exceptive element is not found in the Egyptian Thebaic versions believed to be of the third century; nor in the Syrian Curetorian believed to have been made in the second century, nor in some other Syrian versions.

 

Some scholars believe that the Greek text for Matt.19:9(A.V.) has the bet­ ter attestation, because it is found in the majority of manuscripts and versions and in those which they consider today (1957) to be the better qualitatively.   It is important to remember that the apparent quality of a given manuscript may vary from century to century in the light of more textual information.

Felix L. Cirlot has stated the following respecting this problem in his book entitled Christ and Divorce:

Of course, other things being anywhere nearly equal, the reading having the better attestation from the manuscripts and versions ought to be preferred. In a great majority of cases, it appears to be the correct reading. But scholars are well acquainted with the fact that there is a sufficient minority of cases in which the less well attested reading seems to be in all probability correct conclusively that       criterion alone is not decisive.   And in the present case (Matt.19:9), other factors are not by any means equal.  Everything else seems to tell 1n favor of the less well attested reading.

(Felix L. Cirlot,  op. cit., p.9)

In commenting on Matt. 5:32 and 19:9, the International Standard Bible En­ cyclopaedia states:

The view implied by the exception, of course, is that adultery ipso facto dissolves the union, and so opens the way to remarriage.   But remarriage closes the door to reconciliation, which on Christian principles ought always to be possible. (cf Hosea; Her 3; Hermas, Mand iv, 1). Certainly much Is to be said for the view which Is steadily gaining ground, that the exception in Mt. is an editorial addition made under the pressure of local conditions and practical necessity, the absolute rule being found too hard (seeH D B, extra vol.27b, and the Teaching of Our Lord as to the indissolubility of Marriage, by Stuart Lawrence Tyson, M.A. Oxon. , Universlty of the South, 1912).

(James Orr, General Editor, op. cit., Vol.III, p.1999)

 

E. Textual Rules Which Favor the Variant Reading of Man. 19:9 are Presented.

Of the textual rules given above, the following cast their weight on the side of the variant reading of Matt. 19:9:

Rules of External Evidence

1. Rule 1: Its age.     See Section D.2.

2. Rule 2:   The age of the text.   See Section P. 3. and Section F.

 

Rules of Internal Evidence

1. Rule 1

See the twelve points of the Context of the Harmony of Matt. 19:1-12 and Mark 10: 1-12 which confirms the fact the variant reading is the more probable original reading of Matt. 19:9. These points are discussed on pages 92 through107.

2. Rule 5

See the twelve points referred to immediately above.

 

3.  Rule 3

 

F. External Evidence Favoring the Variant Reading of Matt. 19:9 ls Presented.

Many of the Church Fathers quote Matthew 19:9 without the exceptive element. In fact, many of them reject it.

It now seems quite certain that scholarly Origen, who lived in the latter part of the second century and in the early part of the third century, quoted Matt. 19:9 without the exceptive element.

St. Clement of Alexandria, who lived from 150 A.D. to 220 A.D. appears to have had at hand the reading of Matt. 19:9 without the exceptive clause, for in commenting on this text he states that it necessitates her to commit adultery.

It appears almost certain that Tertullian, who lived in the second and third centuries, had a manuscript which omitted the exceptive element. The reason lies in the fact that, in reply to a false doctrine of Marcion, he did not quote Matt. 19:9 as it is in the Authorized Version. Marcion had said that the God of the Old Testament was not the same as the God of the New Testament because while Moses permitted divorce, Christ had denied that right. Since Tertullian virtually leaned over backwards to prove that Christ had not without qualification closed the door to all divorce, it is all but certain that his New Testament reada s did that of Origen in the Matt. 19:9 passage, or he surely would have quoted it.

(Felix L. Cirlot, op. cit., pp 9,10)

 

Felix Cirlot has affirmed that O. D. Watkins, who is quoted with the agree­ment of Kenneth E. Kirk, stated that no Church Father during the first five centuries of the Christian Church ever quoted Matt.19:9 in support of the innocent party’s right to divorce a spouse for adultery in order to marry another during the lifetime of the adulterous mate. Neither have these authorities denied that some of the Church Fathers may certainly or possibly have taught that the innocent party had the right to remarry. However, none of them stated on what grounds they made this allowance. It is possible that the following may have permitted the innocent party to remarry:   Lactantius, Asterius, Basil, and Epiphanius. It is not certain that they did. Ambrosiaster certainly is one of the Fathers whom scholars affirm did teach that an innocent party could remarry. Ambrosiaster lived in the latter half of the fourth century. Neither he nor any of the other Church Fathers named stated on what grounds they allowed the right to an innocent party to remarry.

(Ibid, pp. 10,11)

 

One thing is certain, the testimony of the Church Fathers for the first three centuries is absolutely unanimous in affirming that marriage is indissoluble. They went further than that; they would not allow even separation (without remarriage, a mensa et thoro) except for the cause of FORNICATION.   Felix Cirlot could not find (outside of the Apostle Paul himself) a case of the so-called “Pauline privilege” (ICor.7:10,11) in the first three centuries. Not until the fourth century did one writer, Ambrosiaster. allow remarriage for an innocent party who put away an unchaste spouse.

(Ibid, pp. 44,45)

 

Not until after the fourth century is there any considerable breach in the early Church’s position on divorce.   It is believed that there is only one alleged case of a marriage having been dissolved by the approval of the Church before the close of the fourth century. The sharp departure of the Church from its primitive position did not occur until the sixth century. In the two intervening centuries only one Western writer, Ambrosiaster, allowed for the dissolution of marriage, and then Church Fathers may have vaguely referred to the same thing, but it is doubtful.

(Ibid, p.45)

 

During the earlier centuries, when the exception was made that one could divorce another for the cause of adultery yet could not remarry, they based their conclusion on Man.5:32, and consequently on the minority of manuscripts for Matt. 19:9 without its exceptive clause. The gospel of Matthew was in the hands of the Church during this period.

A teaching beginning with the generation in which Christ lived and continuing from the days of Paul (ICor.7:10,11) for several centuries with virtual unanimity is of very great value in determining Christ’s true statement and teaching respecting the right of an innocent spouse to marry another.

The point at which there came a departure in the divorce teaching in the early Church is important to notice. The virile form of Christianity of the ante-Nicene character was not substantially weakened by the influx of the spirit of the world until the time of Constantine. He came to power in Rome in the early part of the fourth century. He endowed Christianity with worldly power and filled the Church with poorly instructed and half-saved Christians. In the subsequent centuries of declension, the Church slowly accommodated herself to what appears to be an intrusion of an interpolation into the Matt. 19:9 text of the exceptive element. If it was in the original Greek text of Matthew, and that cannot today be proven, Matt. 19:9 was not understood by the early Church of the first five centuries to support the right of an innocent party to marry another.

Church history bears out the fact that a laxity In Christian practice precedes and causes doctrinal degeneration. Is that not what is happening in the Church today because for so long she has compromised in practice with the world’s degenerated standards of divorce and remarriage? The scriptural doctrine of the indissolubiIity of marriage cannot be maintained in any church which does not constantly teach by its standards and practice that all remarriages of divorcees are continuing examples of unions unequivocally disapproved by Christ.

What is more astounding than the mere fact that the early Church taught and practiced the complete indissolubility of marriage for so long, is the fact that the Church chose to take its stand against the strong contemporary lax social and legal attitudes toward divorce which prevailed so universally all about them. The Church, today, feels that it is on the horns of a dilemma, because so many divorcees are coming to her for help and encouragement. Shall she accommodate the Scriptures to the apparent need of the unfortunate divorcees, or shall she uphold the Biblical standard of the indissolubility of marriage for any cause while faithfully discharging her duty to such distressed individuals?  Every church of today which considers the lowering of its divorce standards should remember that the early Church stood true to the Biblical doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage in a world that was pagan and strongly opposed to the moral and marriage standards of the New Testament. Not only did the Church maintain her stand on the indissolubility in the early centuries, she changed the attitude and standards of the whole world toward it. Even today the whole Church of Christ and the entire western world is still reaping the rich benefits of that heritage.   Shall the Christian Church of today be less courageous and faithful than the Church of the early centuries of the Christian era? Does she not under God have the same spiritual resources?

There were other grievous social evils in the early Christian centuries. Slavery enveloped the Roman Empire of that age, yet the Christians did not set themselves to change the thinking of the masses against it, but they did set themselves to change the thinking of the masses toward marriage and divorce. Why did they not attack slavery with the same vehemence? The reason was that the Apostles had not received a “thus saith the Lord” from Christ respecting it. They had, however, received such in the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage. No sect or school of philosophy is known to have influenced the early Church in this teaching. From whence, then, did she get the teaching? Certainly she received it from the teaching of the Gospels and from the teaching of the Apostles, who had earlier conveyed the same orally (as well as in writing) to the leaders of the early Church who succeeded them.

(Kenneth E. Kirk, op.cit., p.71)

 

The First Epistle to the Corinthians was written before any of the Gospels. It reaffirmed that Christ taught the indissolubility of marriage (1 Cor,7: 10, 11 ,39).

Some Christian leaders of today state that they find it unbelievable that Christ should have taught the complete indissolubility of marriage. However, the fact that the early Church taught and practiced this doctrine for the first three centuries, despite degenerate views of marriage in the contemporary world, is strong evidence that Christ must have taught such a doctrine of marriage.

J.B. Phillips states the following respecting the pungent strength of the early Church in the midst of overwhelming opposition and other handicaps. The statement is found in his preface to his translation of the New Testament Epistles, the title of which is Letters to Young Churches:

. . . these letters were written, and the lives they indicate were led, against a background of paganism. There were no churches, no Sundays, no books about the Faith. Slavery, sexual immorality, cruelty, callousness to human suffering, and a low standard of public opinion, were universal; travelling and communications were chancy and perilous; most people were illiterate. Many Christians today talk about the “difficulties of our times” as though we should have to wait for better ones before the Christian religion can take root. It is heartening to remember that this faith took root and flourished amazingly in conditions that would have killed anything less vital in a matter of weeks.

(J.B.Phillips: Letters to Young Churches. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1950. p.xiv)

 

In writing of the lax views and practices of marriage among the Greeks and Romans, Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury of the Church of England, said:

The Romans and Greeks were even laxer than the Jew: either partner could divorce the other on the slightest pretext and marry again.

The Church went directly against these universal social practices with the flat demand of the Gospel statements and the practice of the Pauline and other Churches. This tiny sect in the end revolutionized marriage. It routed the whole practice of the contemporary world. It created a new belief in monogamous lifelong marriage as a duty to God, and imposed it upon its members and in the end on the civilized world. Surely the impetus for such an assault and victory must have come from our Lord. It could not have happened otherwise.

(Geoffrey Francis Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury: Problems of Marriage and Divorce, New York, Morehouse-Gorham Company, 1955, pp.5,6)

Happily for the people of our generation, the impact of the early Church’s views and practice was not slackened appreciably until after the middle of the nineteenth century. Because of this rich heritage of the Western World, the common man of the occident for the most part enters marriage with the conviction that it is ordained by God to be a lifelong union.

 

G. Implications of the Internal and External Evidence for the Variant Reading of Matt. 19:9 are Stated.

1. Implication 1: Whether or not it could be proved (as at present it cannot) that the text of Matt. 19:9 (A. V.) was based on the original Greek text of Matt.19:9, the fact remains that the Christian Church believed in the indissolubility f marriage for more than three centuries, and never in the first five centuries did the Church Fathers ever state that Matt. 19:9 provided in its exceptive clause for the divorce of an adulterous spouse with the right to remarry. This is true in spite of the fact that some Church Fathers quote Matt. 19:9 with the exceptive element. That is to say, the appearance of the exceptive element in Matt.19:9 did not alter the belief of the Church respecting divorce and remarriage for the period of the early centuries. This substantiates the fact that the early Church did not understand the grammar of Matt. 19:9 to teach what the FIVE WORD School says it teaches.
2. Implication 2: The Church of Christ of the first three centuries could not have developed, practiced, and promulgated a doctrine of marriage in such a pagan society from the very birth of the Church unless she had received the teaching of the indissolubility of marriage from Christ and His Apostles.
3. Implication 3: Sections 1 and 2 above erase any impression of contradiction between Matt.19:9 and Mark 10:11,12 or any other divorce statements of Christ.   They also erase any apparent contradiction between Matt. 19:9 and the divorce texts of the Epistles (Rom.7:2,3 and I Cor.7:10,11,39).
4. Implication 4: The reader of the Scriptures may indeed have a strong conviction that the exceptive reading of Matt.5:32 was the reading of Matt.19:9 in the original Scriptures as used by the very early Church.
5. Implication 5: The total effect of all the implications arising out of the detailed study of the internal textual study of Matt. 19:9 and of the external evidences relating there to shows that the Conservative School’s position is to this point proven almost beyond a single doubt. The total facts established in this study raise many grave doubts about the FIVE WORD School’s view of divorce. They also erase any apparent contradiction between Matt. 19:9 and the divorce texts of the Epistles (Rom.7:2,3 and I Cor.7:10,II,39).

 

H. Further Doubt is Raised About the Position and Method of the FIVE WORD School

Is it not presumption for the FIVE WORD School to build a doctrine of divorce on ONE verse (Matt. 19:9 A.V.) when its Greek text is so seriously open to question? Do not strong evangelical leaders thunder against teachers of markedly abhorrent isms who presume to do a similar thing to support their peculiar doctrines? Should not the difference of opinion of eminent scholars respecting the more correct reading of the Greek text of Matt.19:9, and the fact that the early Church never quoted it for the first five centuries as a support for the right of an innocent party to marry another cause objective students to look to other statements of Christ and of the Apostles to ascertain which of the two readings is the more correct in the light of the general tenor of their combined teaching? Should they shun the normal principle of establishing a doctrine approved by the Christian Church for nearly two thousand years, namely, that induction is distinctly the Scriptural method of ascertaining divine truth, and that such inductions are perfect or imperfect in the measure they regard the teachings of all the Scriptures bearing on a particular doctrine?  Has not the evangelical Church always avoided the building of a Doctrine on isolated text which has a strong variant reading? May God help each one who makes this study in the Holy Scriptures to regard truth for TRUTH’S sake more than he regards his personal opinions, prejudices, fears of ecclesiastical leaders, or the spirit of accommodation to the seeming necessities of divorcees.

The followers of the FIVE WORD School assert that they have established their position beyond a reasonable doubt, i.e., the degree of proof required by a court of law in a criminal case.   However, inasmuch as the evidence presented thus far shows the FIVE  WORD School’s interpretation   of   Matt. 19:9 to be based on only portion of ONE text, their position is open to serious question! The slender scriptural justification offered by the FIVE WORD School in support of their doctrine would in itself appear to be sufficient to cause an objective student to reject it.

 

  Whatsoever is not of   faith is sin (Rom.14:23).

Fortunately, Christ did not leave the Christian Church in ignorance respecting the meaning of His statement in Matt. 19:9, whichever reading of the original Greek one accepts. The harmony of the parallel accounts of Matt.19:1-12 and Mark 10:1-12 provides the context which clarifies the matter completely. “Etymology will kill you, but context   will save you.”  The statements of the Epistles respecting the same subject confirms the testimony of the two integrated Gospel accounts and the testimony of the early Church.

==================================================

Chapter IX –  COMMENTS ON MARK 10: 11, 12 (R.V.)

And he saith unto them. Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her; and if she herself shall put away.her husband, and marry another, she commiteth adultery.

The text is Christ’s last statement on the subject of divorce. That fact is in itself of some moment, especially when it is noted that this statement is a commentary on His treatment of divorce in Matt. 19: 1-9 and Mark 10: 1-9. These portions of Scripture have become the battleground of the divorce question.

 

A. The Place of the Gospel of Mark Among the Gospels is Noted.

The followers of the FIVE WORD School imply that the account of Mark 10:1-12 is of less worth and importance in settling the meaning of Matt. 19:9 than the parallel passage of Matt. 19: 1 -12.

The comments of Dr. A. T. Robertson, one of the great Greek scholars of our time, is pertinent here:

In my Harmony of the Gospels, I have placed Mark first in the framework since Matthew, Luke, and John all follow in broad outline his plan with addi­tions and supplemental material.   Mark’s Gospel throbs with life and bristles with vivid details. We see with Peter’s eyes and catch almost the very look and gesture of Jesus as he moved among men in his work of healing men’s bodies and saving men’s souls.

(Archibald Thomas Robertson:   Word Pictures in the New Testament,   Vol.I. Nashville, Tennessee, Sunday School Board of Southern BaptistConvention,1923, p.251.)

One of the clearest results of modern critical study of the Gospels is the early date of Mark’s Gospel. Precisely how early is not definitely known, but there are leading scholars who hold thatA.D.50 is quite probable . . . Zahn still argues that the Gospel according to Matthew is earlier than that according to Mark, but the arguments are against him.   The framework of Mark’s Gospel lies behind both Matthew and Luke and nearly all of it is used by one or the other.   One may satisfy himself on this point by careful use of a Harmony of the Gospels in Greek or English. . . The early writers all agree that Mark was the interpreter for Simon Peter with whom he was at one time, according to Peter’s own statement, either in Babylon or Rome{1 Pet.5:13). This Gospel is the briefest of the four. but is the fullest of striking details that apparently came from Peter’s discourses which Mark heard, such as green grass, flower beds (6:38)   [sic]two thousand hogs (5:13), looking round about (3:5,34).

Peter usually spoke in Aramaic and Mark has more Aramaic phrases than the others….Some even thlnk that he wrote the Gospel in Rome while with Peter who suggested and read the manuscript….Mark was once a co­worker with Barnabas and Paul, but deserted them at Perga. Paul held this against Mark and refused to take him on the second mission tour. Barnabas took Mark, his cousin, with him and then he appeared with Simon Peter with whom he did his greatest work. When Mark had made good with Barnabas and Peter, Paul rejoiced and commends him heartily to the Colosslans (Col. 4:10). In the end Paul will ask Timothy to pick up Mark and bring him along with him to Paul in Rome for he has found him useful for ministry, this very young man who made such a mistake that Paul would have no more of him.

(Ibid., pp. 249,250).

 

At least nine of the early Church Fathers confirm the fact that Mark wrote much of his Gospel from what he had heard the Apostle Peter give in his sermons or in private conversation.

Papias, who lived in the early part of the second century and who was the com­panion of Polycarp (who was the disciple of the Apostle John) said that Mark hav­ing become the interpreter of Peter, wrote accurately whatever he recorded.

W. Graham Scroggie, a devout evangelical scholar, made a very detailed study of the four Gospels and stated his belief that:

Mark is the earliest of the Synoptic Records and most nearly represents the Oral Gospel of early apostolic preaching. That both Matthew and Luke made large use of Mark. That, therefore, Mark is not an abridgment of Matthew and Luke, but the latter are enlargements and re-arrangements of Mark to which in each Gospel is added a large amount of material from other sources.

To Mark. therefore, must be accorded first place in historical value, because it ranks first in order of time, and is incorporated bodily In Matthew and Luke.

It is impressive that Mark, the earliest of the Four Gospels, has so much of the Old Testament in it….It is safe to say that there are, at any rate;·sixty­ three references…. of these 63 references 36 are quotations, verbal, or nearly so, and the remainder are allusions…. of the 661 verses inMark’s Gospel (R. V.) 61,. or nearly one-tenth, contain Old Testament references.

(W. Graham Scroggie, loc. cit., pp. 179, 190, 192)

A.T. Robertson stated in his introduction to the book of Romans that it is ap­parent that the early Church at Rome was made up of Gentiles and Jews. The very nature of the Roman epistle makes it impossible for anyone to believe otherwise. The Apostle Paul speaks of the “law” 77 times in this epistle and refers to circum­cision and the reactions of the Jews to the Gospel of God’s free righteousness by faith apart from works.

(Archibald Thomas Robertson: World Pictures In the New Testament, Vol.IV. Nashville, Tennessee, Sunday School Board of Southern Baptist Convention,1933, p.322).

Clement of Alexandria, who was born in the middle of the second century, wrote:

The occasion for writing the Gospel according to Mark was as follows: After Peter had publicly preached the word in Rome and declared the Gospel by the Spirit, many who were present entreated Mark, as one who had followed him for a long time and remembered what he had said, to write down what he had spoken, and Mark after composing the gospel, presented it to his petitioners.

So charmed were the Romans with the light that shone in upon their minds from the discourses of Peter, that, not content with a single hearing and the viva voce proclamation of the truth, they urged with the utmost solicitation. Mark, whose gospel is in circulation and who was Peter’s attendant, that he would leave them in writing a record of the teaching which they had received by word of mouth. They did not give over until they had prevailed on him; and thus they became the cause of the composition of the so-called Gospel according to Mark.

(James Orr, General Editor, loc. cit. , Vol. III, p. 1999)

 

B. The Text and Context of Mark 10: 11,12 Will Provide an Answer to the Fol­lowing Important Questions:

1. Is the first question of the Pharisees to Christ respecting the right of putting away a wife essentially the same in Matt. 19:3 and Mark 10:2?
2. Did the Pharisees understand that Christ taught the indissolubility of marriage on this occasion?
3. Did the Disciples twice reflect their conviction that Christ taught the indis­solubility of marriage despite hearing Christ’s original utterance of Matt.19:9?
4. Did Christ’s answer to the Pharisees indicate that He taught the indissolubility of marriage?
5. Did Christ give a commentary on His Matt. 19: 1-9 statement to the Pharisees when He went into the house alone with the Disciples so that His Disciples would understand that He did, indeed, teach that marriage was absolutely indissoluble?
6. Does not Mark10:11,12, in the light of the harmony of the two divorce ac­counts prove conclusively that Christ was speaking about the problem of un­chaste wives in Mark as well as in Matthew?
7. Does not Christ’s Commentary of Mark 10: 11,12 show that He did not permit one to interpret Matt. 19:9 to mean that an innocent party had the right to marry another.
8. Does a true harmony of the two divorce accounts permit one to say honestly that Mark’s account speaks of “the general rule” of divorce whereas the Matthew account speaks of “the exception to the rule”?
9. Can one objectively say that Matthew’s account is complete without Mark, or that Mark’s account is complete without Matthew? Must not an honest student of the two accounts admit that they are mutually dependent one upon the other for completion and for an accurate understanding of the whole of the discourse in question?
10. Does not Mark 10: 11, 12, in the light of the context of the harmony of the two divorce accounts, confirm the teaching of Matt.5:32 and Luke16:18 that marriage is indissoluble?

 

C.  The Context of Parallel Accounts In the Gospels Is Noted.

The context of a specific teaching of Christ is never limited to one Gospel if one or more Gospels carry the parallel account elsewhere. If a teacher chiefly bases his conclusion respecting the teaching of Christ pertaining to a particular subject on His statements in one Gospel without regard to His statements on the same occasion in another Gospel or Gospels, he is failing to follow the divine principle of “comparing Scripture with Scripture”: he is presuming to interpret a verse or a part thereof without respect to its complete context, for the respective accounts are both divinely inspired. In no sense can one be said to take priority over the other; together they make up the true context of any given verse of the respective parallel accounts.

The importance of interpreting any passage or any text in the light of the gen­eral tenor of Scripture and its parallel accounts is emphasized by Dr.Eric Lund in his text on Hermeneutics, which has been translated by Rev. P.C. Nelson:

It Is necessary to cousult parallel passages explaining “spiritual things by spiritual” (I Cor.2:13,original). •••     ·

It is necessary to appeal to such parallels not only to clear up specific obscure passages, but also to attempt to acquire exact Biblical knowledge in regard to Christian doctrines and practices. Because, as we have already indicated, a doctrine which pretends to be Biblical, cannot be considered entirely to be such

It is necessary to take the words in the sense which the context indicates, that is, the verses which precede and follow the text that is being studied.

It turns out sometimes that the connection of a phrase is not enough to deter­mine what is the true signification of certain words. Therefore, and in that case, we ought to begin the reading further above and continue it further down in order to take into account what precedes and follows the obscure expression, and proceeding in this way clearness will be found in the context through dif­ferent circumstances. 59

(Eric Lund:   Hermeneutics.   Paul Nelson, 2122 N. W. 23d Street, Fort Worth, Texas, 1941. pp. 59,79·

There are a number of passages of Scripture in different Gospels covering the same themes on an identical occasion. Some of these seem superficially to be contradictory to one another. Simon Greenleaf who was a notable attorney, quotes from Newcome the following in his harmony of the Gospels, The Testi­mony of the Evangelists, respecting the parallel accounts of Matt.12:22-37 and Mark 3: 19-30, “Thus the Evangelist is wonderfully supplemental to another by notations of time, place, and other circumstances, and the strictest propriety and agreement result from diligently comparing them. ”

(Simon Greenleaf: The Testi­mony of the Evangelists, Newark, New Jersey, Soney & Sage, 1903, p.348)

By painstakingly comparing one parallel passage with another, the careful student clarifies and establishes the whole body of truth under discussion in a given passage or passages of the Gospels.

All of the great harmonies of the Gospels include Mark 10: 10-12 as an essen­tial part of the parallel divorce accounts. No objective student can honestly deny that Matt. 19: 1-12 and Mark 10: 1-12 are indeed parallel accounts, nor can he deny that a true exegete harmonizes two or more parallel accounts before presuming to give a true interpretation of isolated text in the combined con­text.

In seeking honestly and objectively to harmonize the two passages at issue, it is well to remember a common practice of life, namely, that if one of great moral repute and seasoned judgment is reported to have recently contradicted in a brief statement all of his earlier statements on a great moral principle, friends and honest foes alike would surely study the whole body of truth which he had presented on the subject to see wherein a harmony of the seeming conflict might be found. A human might change his mind or contradict himself, but Christ who is the TRUTH could not do so.   Surely there is greater reason to seek to harmonize Christ’s isolated statement of His seeming contradiction of Himself with His more harmonious statements on the same subject than to seek to harmon­ize the conflicting statements of a man conceived in sin. It is also important in natural circumstances to see if the speaker’s original puzzling statement has not been misquoted or confused in transcription by another’s hand.   Certainly it important that we consider very carefully Christ’s last statement on divorce (Mark 10: 11 , 12) since it, rather than the FIVE WORD School’s interpretation of Matt 19:9 (A. V.), harmonizes with the greater body of truth on the same subject. Christ’s earlier divorce statements likewise harmonize with the Apostle Paul’s statements on the same subject.

The followers of the FIVE WORD School have insisted that the problem and rights of the “innocent party”  be settled by isolated text of Scripture and more strictly by the meaning of FIVE words of Mart.19:9. They further in­sist that Mark 10: 1-12, which completes the whole context of Matt. 19: 1-12. is not relevant to the problem. A thorough study of the harmony of Matt.19:1-12 and Mark 10:11-12 will show how unscrlptural and presumptuous it is for this School to assume this to be true. Sound rules of interpretation will require that a student must decide the meaning of any verse or part thereof in the light of the complete of the parallel divorce accounts of both Gospels.

 

D.  The Harmony of Matthew 19: l·12 and Mark 10: 1-12 Is   Noted. (The Seed Bed of the Divorce Controversy).

In proceeding to harmonize the two accounts, it will be important to approach the task with complete objectivity. This harmony should indicate the true reconciliation of the two seemingly contradictory passages of Matt. 19:9 and Mark 10: 11, 12 and give Christ’s true reaching on the subject of divorce and remarriage.

 

1. 1. DISTINCTIVE FEATURES OF THE TWO GOSPEL ACCOUNTS

a. The occasion of Matt. 19: 1-12 and Mark 10:1-12

It ls identical in each.   See Matt. 19:1 and Mark10:1.

b. The Persons

They are identical in each;   Christ, the Pharisees, and the Disciples were present.

c. The Main Questions of the Pharisees: Matt.19:3; Mark10:2

They were on the identical subject, namely, whether it was right for a man to “put away” (divorce) his wife.   Matthew’s account stresses one facet of the question: “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?” Es­sentially, the question of Mark’s Gospel, (10:2) and this question (Matt. 19:3) are one. The question of Mark 10:2, ‘·’Is’it lawful for a man to put away hiswife?”of necessity covers every cause; for one cannot ask such a question as10:2 with­out projecting an inquiry concerning more than one cauise.

The harmony of the two accounts (as will be seen) makes clear that Christ understood the implication of “every cause” in the question in Mark as truly as in the opening question as given in Matthew 19:3. Christ’s reply, as reported in either or both accounts, leaves no room for doubt in the matter.Christ’s reply in the harmony of both accounts was ONE answer, not two, since it was addressed to the same Pharisees by the same Person on the same occasion. In the strictest sense, it is apparent that the differently worded questions in the two accounts of the two Evangelists was ONE question embracing both ideas. This subject is treated in detail later.

 

d. Christ’s Answer to the Pharisees: Matt. 19:4-9; Mark10:3-9

Except for order and arrangement, the two accounts of Christ’s answer are identical in substance. There is this difference, however: Matthew’s account adds the following words:

 And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for forni­cation, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery (Matt.19:9).

It is important to observe here that the Disciples heard the original words of Matt.19:9 as a part of Christ’s whole answer to the Pharisees on the question of divorce.

1. 1. 1. Two Questions of the Disciples on the Same Problem of Divorce

Their First Question: Matt. 19:10

His disciples say unto him,,if the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.

JESUS’ ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION FOLLOWS ONLY   IN MATT.19:11,12

But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom   it is given.     For there   are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made them­selves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to re­ceive it, let him receive it.

 

The Disciple’s Second Question: Mark 10:11,12

And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter.                             ·

JESUS’ ANSWER TO THIS QUESTION (Mark 10:11,12) FOLLOWS:

And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

It should be carefully noted that the second question and the answer were stated after Christ had completed His statement to the Pharisees which   included Matthew 19:9.

 

A HARMONY OF THE PARALLEL DIVORCE ACCOUNTS

 

The portion in Matthew’s Gospel which is unbrokenly underscored is not foundin Mark’s account, and the portion in Mark’s Gospel which is brokenly underscored is not found in Matthew’s account.

Both of the inquiries referred to above may possibly have been asked in the house, although this is very unlikely.  Of one thing the reader may be sure, the answer of Mark 10:11-12 was given in the house to the Disciples alone and not to the Pharisees.   The answer of Christ in Matt. 19:11, 12 was also not directed to the Pharisees but to the Disciples.

The objection of the FIVE WORD School that Mark 10:11,12 is not a commentary on Matt. 19:9, because the opening question of the Pharisees is different, is answered fully on pages 86 through 87.

 

E.  Highlights of the Harmony of the Divorce Accounts are Noted.

1. The Two Introductory Questions of the Pharisees Are Essentially One Question:

Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife (Mark 10:2)

Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause (Matt.9:13)

2.  The Two Accounts Make One Context, Not Two; the Two Accounts Are Related to One Question and One Teaching, Not Two

The answer of Christ to the Pharisees (Matt. 19:1-9 and Mark 10:1-9) is one answer to the Pharisees and not two. The answer of both Gospels is one. Christ’s clarifying statement in the house (Mark 10:11-12) makes this certain.

The parallel accounts of divorce in Matt. 19:1-12 and Mark 10:1-12 are equally inspired by the Holy Spirit. Some of the FIVE WORD School assert that, since the Gospel of Mark did not report the first question of the Pharisees as given in Matt. 19:3, and since Mark’s Gospel does not include the statement of Matt. 19:9 nor Matt. 19:11-12, Christ’s answer to the Disciples in the house (Mark 10:10-12) incomplete and is not, therefore, a clarification of Matt. 19:9 and 19:3-9.

The fallacy of such reasoning becomes apparent in light of the following:

1. By the same reasoning, as followed above by the FIVE WORD School, Matt. 19:1-12 may not be interpreted by itself, because it, too, presents an incomplete account of Christ’s full statement on the divorce problem raised in Matt. 19:1-9 and Mark 10:1-9, for these two passages were spoken on the same occasion, to the same people, on the same topic.   Neither Gospel record of the divorce discourse is complete without the other.
2. That Mark’s Gospel does not record Matt. 19:9 (whatever it was in the original utterance of Christ) does not mean that it was not a part of the discourse of Christ to the Pharisees not that Christ did not take into account Matt. 19:3-9 when He later went into the house and gave the Disciples a clarifying statement on the whole discourse.   One thing is sure, what the Holy Spirit intended Mark to record, was recorded.

 

3.   The Fact that the Two Questions (Matt. 19:3 and Mark I0:2) under Discussion Are Not in the Same Form Does Not Make Them Two Questions.

 

Dissimilar forms of statements  bearing on the same problem in parallel ac­counts in the Gospels cannot objectively be said to speak of dissimilar things. Can one honestly say that because the question of Mark 17:21:

And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?

is much shorter, and because it has left out so much of what is In Matt. 16:11, its parallel passage, that it is not the same question? The text of Matt. 16: 11 follows:

How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?

The entire context of the above references should be read to get the full impact of this comparison.

Another example occurs in Matt. 21:23 and Mark 11:28. The first of these two verses presents aquestion, as does the latter Scripture, when speaking of the authority of Christ to do the things enumerated in the earlier context of either Gospel, Matt.21:23 in part follows:

 By what authority doest thou these things? And who gave thee this authority?

Mark 11:28 states the question thus:

By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?

The difference of form of the two questions does not change the fact that they are speaking of the same thing.

A further contrast of one and the same account is given In Matt.27:38 and Mark 15:17 with John 19:2. Matthew’s Gospel says that a scarlet robe was put upon Christ. Whereas Mark’s and John’s accounts say that it was a purple robe. Certainly any careful Bible student will not take these contrasts to mean that there were two robes. Rather, they mean that the eyewitnesses who brought a description of the scene differed in the term they used to describe the color, which was the same. Biblical authorities say that the purpose of Bible times was closer to what we call crimson -· a red that leans toward blue. The robe may have been old and faded, which possibilities could have added to the difficulty of nam­ing the original color.

Newcome in Greenleaf’s harmony of the Gospels, in discussing the dissimi­larities of the two divorce accounts. Matt. 19:.1-12and Mark 10:1-12, states:

The two Evangelists go on to relate our Lord’s observations about divorce and marriage: they agree in substance, which is sufficient; though they differ In the form of the dialogue, neither adhering scrupulously to the exact manner in which the words passed though we may learn it, by comparing both.

(Ibid., p.179).

 

The FIVE WORD School is certainly textually poor to find it necessary to as­sert that the question as stated in its two forms (Matt. 19:3 and Mark 10:2) con­stitutes two different questions. Obviously, the purpose of this School’s stating that the two forms are not one question, drawing forth one answer to the Phari­sees is to discredit or nullify Christ’s commentary of Mark 10: 11, 12 on Matt.19:9 and more exactly on Matt. 19:3-9. · For, indeed, the Disciples asked Christ again of the same matter  (Mark 10: 10). The teachers of the liberal school can­not allow Mark 10: 11, 12 to be such a commentary, or else their whole argu­ment falls to the ground. Rather, these teachers persist in distorting the whole context (which is the combination of the two accounts) and twist it to conform to their prejudiced view, of ONE isolated text, Matt. 19:9 (A.V.).

 

4. Christ Refers to Genesis 2:21 -24 to Show That Marriage Was Indissoluble from the Beginning.

Christ said,”Have ye not read that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female“(Matt.19:4). By this statement He referred to Genesis 2:21-24 which follows:

And the LORD God . . . took one of his [Adam’s] ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the LORD God had taken.from man, [Hebrew – isha] builded he a woman [ Hebrew – ish] and brought her unto the man.   And Adam said, This is now bone of my bone., and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman [ Hebrew – ish] because she was taken out of man [Hebrew – isha] ish]. Therefore,shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: they shall be one flesh.

Unlike animal kind. the male and female of the human family were not made simultaneously, separate and distinct from each other. Woman was made out of the man. By this unique and striking manner of making woman from man, God indicated that when a woman is united in marriage to man, they are ONE FLESH.unbrokenly one, until death parts one from the other. The “therefore” of Gen.2:24 proves this point. God had plenty of material at hand; He could have easily made two, or three, or more wives for Adam. God, however, planned that there should be only one Mrs. Adam. and that nothing but death could dissolve the union. True, the law of Moses did later prescribe that an adulterous mate should be stoned to purge the land from this iniquity, but it was death ,not divorce, which dissolved the union. God ordained from the beginning that a husband and wife should be ONE FLESH; there was no provision for more than one wife or husband at the same time, either by simultaneous polygamy or by the successive polygamy of divorce and remarriage. In the economy of marriage, God has ordained that one and one equals one not two!

Note that because in the original creation woman was made out of man, the statement follows from Gen.2:24:

 Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: they shall be one flesh.

Christ’s commentary on the above follows:

Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. What God therefore hath joined  together, let not man put asunder (Matt.19:6).

 

5.   Christ Teaches Correctly that Moses Suffered (tolerated) Divorce. But did Not Command Israel to Put Away Their Wives.

A study of   Deut.24: 1-4 will reveal   that   Christ   did   indeed understand that Moses only permitted the practice of divorce, which was current in the nations about Israel at that time, and that Moses did not institute divorce for any cause.

 

The comments of the Pulpit Commentary on Deut. 24: 1-4 is pertinent here. It reads:

These verses should be read as one continuous sentence, of which the protasis is in vers. 1-3, and the apodosis in ver. 4. thus: “If a man hath taken a wife,and married her, and it come to pass that she doth not find favour in his eyes, because of .some uncleanness in her, and he hath written her a bill of divorce­ment, and given it in her hand, and set her out of his house; and if she hath departed out of his house, and hath gone and become another man’s; and if the latter husband hate her, and write a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house; or if the latter husband who took her to be his wife, die her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, ” etc. This ls not a law sanctioning or regulating di­vorce; that is simply assumed as which might occur, and what is here regu­lated is the treatrnent by the first husband of a woman who has been divorced a second time… The woman was held to be defiled [ver. 4] by her sec­ond marriage, and thus by implication, the marrying of a woman who had been divorced was pronounced immoral, as is by our Lord explicitly asserted (Matt.5:32).   The prohibition of a return of the wife to her first husband, as well as the necessity of a formal bill of divorcement being given to the woman before she could be sent away, could not fail to be checks on the licenseof divorce, as doubtless they were intended to be.

(H.D.M.Spence and Joseph S.Exell, Editors,  op-cit.,pp.380-,381)

 

Robert Young, who gave the world the great Young’s Concordance of the Bible, gives virtually the same translation of the Hebrew of Deut.24: 1-4 in his literal translation of the Bible as does the Pulpit Commentary, above.

The great Old Testament theologian, Gustave F. Oehler, comments on Deut.24:1-4 as follows:

The proper aim of the law (Deut. 24 ff.) lies in the closing sentence, ver.4. Ver. 1 does not contain a command, and even its last clause belongs to the conditional clause . .. the apodosis begins only in ver. 4….The Pharisees indeed say (Matt.19:7): “Why did Moses then command to give a writ­ing of divorcement, and to put her away?” but the Lord answered ver. 8;! “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered [Greek –   permitted] you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.”

(Gustave F. Oehler: Theology of the Old Testament, 1^st. ed. Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House,   1883.   pp.231, 232)

[The underscoring (italicizing in this transcription) is the writer’s and he has presented the above quotes of Christ in English, whereas Gustave F. Oehler gave them in the Greek. The change has been made to assist the reader].

Christ indicates that divorce was not in the will of God for man when He brought Eve to Adam.   He said that Moses because  of the hardness of Men’s hearts (Deut.24: 1-4) permitted men to put away their wives: “but from the beginning it was (Matt.19:8). When sin entered the human race, man de­ parted from God’s original standard of marriage.   God in His wisdom and com­ passion met man where He found him in the centuries subsequent to the Fall, and then progressively revealed anew His original ethic for man. He dealt with man­kind as a pastor deals with a church which he finds in a deplorably low state; the minister begins tactfully and slowly to lift the people from the level where he finds them that he may bring them to the ultimate of his vision and standards. This analogy explains the purpose, under God, ·of…Moses’ toleration of divorce. The toleration was part of God’s pedagogical method of bringing the race grad­ually back to His Edenic standards.   God did not accept Moses’ permission of divorce as either His past, present, or future marital ethic; the divorce permission and other seeming concessions to evil were God’s efforts to reach man at the point of His deplorable moral decline in order patiently to bring mankind out of moral night into the full day of the moral ethic of the kingdom of God which Christ came to announce.

Cornelius Van Til of Westminster Theological Seminary and other eminent theologians of the past and present have recognized that God, in the Old Testa­ment period, pedagogically dealt with fallen man as a father deals with a small and infirm child. After Adam, God temporarily permitted divorce and polyg­amy; but they were never his standard of marriage. Indeed things are allowed in a child, and particularly in a sick child, that a parent would never tolerate in the same individual when he is nearing maturity.   The Apostle Paul uses this very figure of a child in Gal.4:1-8.

Christ said, “The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached,and every man press­eth into it” (Luke i6:i6). The twilight of the partial revelation of God’s divine ethic ended in Christ. The Apostle Paul declared,[God]”in times past suffered (permitted] all nations to walk in their own ways”…. “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: Because . . . He will judge the world . ..by that man [Christ] whom He hath ordained”(Acts 14,16; I7:30,3l).   What God tolerated in Moses’ day, He will not tolerate today! Jesus said, in announcing the laws of the kingdom of God, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time . .. But I say unto you• (Matt.5:21,22). Certainly no citizen of the kingdom of God should now presume to live by the standards of the permissions of the Old Testament.

(From Christian Theistic Ethics by CorneliusVan Til, Westmin­ster Theological Seminary, 1951,p.85.)

 

6.  The Importance of Christ’s Comments to His Disciples When Alone with Them.

The importance of Christ’s utterances when alone with His Disciples is plain in the light of the following. When Christ completed His public teaching re­specting the parable of the sower, Mark4:1-2, the Scriptures state: “And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked him of the par­able. And he said unto them, “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables”(Mark 4:10,11).   Following this statement Christ gave the Disciples a private exposition of the same truth.

We find that it was Jesus’ practice to explain more fully in private what He had said in public.   In accordance with the Disciples’ custom, they asked Him, when alone, for a further explanation of His amazing declaration prohibiting the dissolution of marriage for any cause, including adultery. Then. as He was wont, He gave them a complete and final clarifying statement about the matter, and thus left no doubt in their minds that He.indeed, taught the complete indissolu­bility of marriage.

The Scriptures add, “But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to His Disciples” (Mark 4: 10, 11). .Mark frequently brings bright and clarifying details into his accounts which are not found in other parallel accounts. He particularly noted the fact that Christ often gave a further word of explanation concerning His teaching when He was alone with His Disciples. Mark 7: 17 and 9:38 provide additional examples of this practice. No other Gospel writer refers so frequently to this unique relation of Christ to His Disciples.    It is probable that the Apostle Peter told Mark privately of the “in the house” experience and utterance of Christ in Mark 10: 10- 12, or Mark may have heard the Apostle Peter refer to it in his public reaching .. Some believe that Mark was an eye witness of many things which he records. In any case. Mark 10: 10- 12 is a part of Christ’s teaching in the parallel divorce accounts, and is a commentary on Matt 19:3-9 and the Lord’s final word on the original question of the Phari­sees ( Matt. 19:3: Mark 10:2), “Is it lawful for a man to put away his .wife for every cause?”

 

Back to Chapter VII

Proceed to Chapter X

Appendix

 

 

www.standerinfamilycourt.com

7 Times Around the Jericho Wall  |   Let’s Repeal No-Fault Divorce!