The Building Blocks of the Earliest Gospel: A Road Map to Early Christian Biography by Bellinzoni Arthur J

Author:Bellinzoni, Arthur J. [Bellinzoni, Arthur J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wipf & Stock, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2018-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

JESUS’ TEACHING ABOUT DIVORCE

10 :1 And he arose from there and went into the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds gathered to him again, and as he was accustomed, he taught them again.

2 And [the Pharisees approached and] they asked him if it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife—testing him.

3 But he answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?”

4 But they said, “Moses permitted to write a certificate of divorce and to divorce.”

5 But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart, he wrote this commandment for you.

6 But from the beginning of creation, he made them male and female.

7 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife,

8 and the two will become one flesh, so they are no longer two, but one flesh.

9 Therefore, what God has joined together, humankind shall not separate.”

— — —

10 :10 And when they were in the house again, his disciples asked him again about this.

11 And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.

12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”

The evangelist’s setting for the pronouncement story in verses 1 –9 is unclear, if not confusing: “And he arose from there and went into the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan (i.e., into Transjordan?). The most recent reference to location (9 :33 ) shows that Jesus was in Capernaum at the northwest corner of the Sea of Galilee. We previously observed that the evangelist’s editorial introductions to individual pericopes are not reliable with regard to history, geography, or sequence. However, in this introduction Jesus seems to be headed south from Galilee into Judea. Therefore, the reference to “beyond the Jordan” (or Transjordan) makes no sense geographically and may be an editorial gloss by a later scribe unaware of the geography of the area.

In verse 2 , the opening phrase “the Pharisees approached and” is omitted in many ancient manuscripts. Hence, the original text likely read, “And they (the evangelist’s indefinite ‘they”) asked him (Jesus) if it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife.” Mention of the Pharisees was likely a later scribal addition to the text, reinforcing the Pharisees’ earlier confrontations with Jesus.

The pericope (vv. 2 –9 ) makes it eminently clear that Jesus did not allow divorce for any reason. The pronouncement itself is in verse 9 : “Therefore, what God has joined together (in marriage), humankind shall not separate (by divorce).” The question to Jesus in verse 2 is viewed by the evangelist as hostile, as a test of Jesus. There were at the time two principal rabbinic schools in contemporary Judaism. The more conservative school of Rabbi Shammai allowed a husband to divorce his wife in the event of her sexual misconduct. The more liberal school of Rabbi Hillel permitted divorce for any reasonable cause. It should be noted that, to the best

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