N
newton3003
Guest
Matthew 19: 3-8 says the following:
‘And Pharisees came up to [Jesus] and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.”’
Why did the Pharisees ask Jesus this question? For they must have known that the Talmud recognizes divorce as something that can be initiated (although it is said that the Talmud infers that God weeps upon every divorce). Perhaps, when it was conveyed to the Pharisees that Jesus is a rabbi, they were testing him to see if he conformed to the Talmud, that body of Jewish law that every rabbi abides by and expects their congregations to do the same.
Jesus responds by asking them, by inference, if they have not read Genesis 2:24 which says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” There’re no ifs, and or buts in that passage.
But then the Pharisees ask, by inference, how Jesus’ assertion jives with Deuteronomy 24:1 which says, “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house…” thereby implying that a man could give a certificate of divorce to his wife, as is provided for in the Talmud? For it is evident that Genesis 2:24 says one thing about divorce, and the Talmud says something that runs counter to it. And the Talmud, which was written after Moses brought the Hebrews to the Promised Land, reflects God’s Law.
Jesus responds that Moses allowed for divorce, lest there be evil strife between a man and his wife such as to put the wife in physical jeopardy. As God in Genesis 8:21 says, “…the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth…” because, as it says in Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me,” that is, the sin not of the act of childbirth but amongst the sin of the world as generated by Satan, we are all prone to sin.
Moses determined, on his own volition, apparently, that the evil of causing physical harm to one’s wife, perhaps leading to death, is more evil by virtue of the Commandment “Thou shalt not commit murder,” than the commandment of God in Genesis 2:24, therefore, it would be better that a wife can leave her husband under the circumstances than if she remained with him. And since Deuteronomy is part of the Law, regardless of its seeming contradictions, a divorce can be granted for everyone’s safety.
So, if the Pharisees were testing Jesus’ abiding by the Talmud at least, as far as divorce was concerned, Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees effectively is in conformity with the Talmud, which in turn, reflects interpretations of God’s Law for others to follow.
Jesus also says, in Matthew 5: 17-20, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least vin the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great vin the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Based on that passage, those who are parties in a divorce would have to wait to go to Heaven until those who have abided by Genesis 2:24 are allowed in Heaven, if we were judged only in terms of whether or not we divorce. Of course, there’s the likelihood that those who divorce may possible be admitted into Heaven first, if they have been judged to be righteous enough in all other respects, and those who have abided by Genesis 2:24 may go in after, or may not go in all, if the evil that was in them was enough, in God’s judgement, to outweigh the goodness they’ve conveyed by sticking to their spouses.
My interpretation of Genesis 2:24 and Deuteronomy 24:1 is that it is up to the wife to initiate the divorce, and it is up to the husband to consent to it. But if the husband refuses, he invites the presence of evil in his household if he should commit acts that would be harmful to his wife.
‘And Pharisees came up to [Jesus] and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.”’
Why did the Pharisees ask Jesus this question? For they must have known that the Talmud recognizes divorce as something that can be initiated (although it is said that the Talmud infers that God weeps upon every divorce). Perhaps, when it was conveyed to the Pharisees that Jesus is a rabbi, they were testing him to see if he conformed to the Talmud, that body of Jewish law that every rabbi abides by and expects their congregations to do the same.
Jesus responds by asking them, by inference, if they have not read Genesis 2:24 which says, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” There’re no ifs, and or buts in that passage.
But then the Pharisees ask, by inference, how Jesus’ assertion jives with Deuteronomy 24:1 which says, “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house…” thereby implying that a man could give a certificate of divorce to his wife, as is provided for in the Talmud? For it is evident that Genesis 2:24 says one thing about divorce, and the Talmud says something that runs counter to it. And the Talmud, which was written after Moses brought the Hebrews to the Promised Land, reflects God’s Law.
Jesus responds that Moses allowed for divorce, lest there be evil strife between a man and his wife such as to put the wife in physical jeopardy. As God in Genesis 8:21 says, “…the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth…” because, as it says in Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me,” that is, the sin not of the act of childbirth but amongst the sin of the world as generated by Satan, we are all prone to sin.
Moses determined, on his own volition, apparently, that the evil of causing physical harm to one’s wife, perhaps leading to death, is more evil by virtue of the Commandment “Thou shalt not commit murder,” than the commandment of God in Genesis 2:24, therefore, it would be better that a wife can leave her husband under the circumstances than if she remained with him. And since Deuteronomy is part of the Law, regardless of its seeming contradictions, a divorce can be granted for everyone’s safety.
So, if the Pharisees were testing Jesus’ abiding by the Talmud at least, as far as divorce was concerned, Jesus’ answer to the Pharisees effectively is in conformity with the Talmud, which in turn, reflects interpretations of God’s Law for others to follow.
Jesus also says, in Matthew 5: 17-20, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least vin the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great vin the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Based on that passage, those who are parties in a divorce would have to wait to go to Heaven until those who have abided by Genesis 2:24 are allowed in Heaven, if we were judged only in terms of whether or not we divorce. Of course, there’s the likelihood that those who divorce may possible be admitted into Heaven first, if they have been judged to be righteous enough in all other respects, and those who have abided by Genesis 2:24 may go in after, or may not go in all, if the evil that was in them was enough, in God’s judgement, to outweigh the goodness they’ve conveyed by sticking to their spouses.
My interpretation of Genesis 2:24 and Deuteronomy 24:1 is that it is up to the wife to initiate the divorce, and it is up to the husband to consent to it. But if the husband refuses, he invites the presence of evil in his household if he should commit acts that would be harmful to his wife.
