Divorce
VIEW:47 DATA:01-04-2020
DIVORCE.See Marriage.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
Deu_24:1-4 permits the husband to divorce the wife, if he find in her "uncleanness," literally, "matter of nakedness," by giving her "a bill of divorcement," literally, a book of cutting off. Polygamy had violated God's primal law joining in one flesh one man to one woman, who formed the other half or converse side of the male. Moses' law does not sanction this abnormal state of things which he found prevalent, but imposes a delay and cheek on its proceeding to extreme arbitrariness. He regulates and mitigates what he could not then extirpate. The husband must get drawn up by the proper authorities (the Levites) a formal deed stating his reasons (Isa_50:1; Jer_3:8), and not dismiss her by word of mouth. Moses threw the responsibility of the violation of the original law on the man himself; tolerating it indeed (as a less evil than enforcing the original law which the people's "hardness of heart" rendered then unsuitable, and thus aggravating the evil) but throwing in the way what might serve as an obstacle to extreme caprice, an act requiring time and publicity and formal procedure.
The school of Shammai represented fornication or adultery as the "uncleanness" meant by Moses. But (Lev_20:10; Joh_8:5) stoning, not merely divorce, would have been the penalty of that, and our Lord (Mat_19:3; Mat_19:9, compare Mat_5:31) recognizes a much lower ground of divorce tolerated by Moses for the hardness of their heart. Hillel's school recognized the most trifling cause as enough for divorce, e.g. the wife's burning the husband's food in cooking. The aim of our Lord's interrogators was to entangle Him in the disputes of these two schools. The low standard of marriage prevalent at the close of the Old Testament appears in Mal_2:14-16. Rome makes marriage a sacrament, and indissoluble except by her lucrative ecclesiastical dispensations.
But this would make the marriage between one pagan man and one pagan woman a "sacrament," which in the Christian sense would be absurd; for Eph_5:23-32, which Rome quotes, and Mar_10:5-12 where even fornication is not made an exception to the indissolubility of marriage, make no distinction between marriages of parties within and parties outside of the Christian church. What marriage is to the Christian, it was, in the view of Scripture, to man before and since the fall and God's promise of redemption. Adulterous connection with a third party makes the person one flesh with that other, and so, ipso facto dissolves the unity of flesh with the original consort (1Co_6:15-16). The divorced woman who married again, though the law sanctions her remarriage (Deu_24:1-4), is treated as "defiled" and not to be taken back by the former husband. The reflection that, once divorced and married again, she could never return to her first husband, would check the parties from reckless rashness.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Divorce. Divorce is "a legal dissolution of the marriage relation". The law regulating this subject is found in Deu_24:1-4, and the cases in which the right of a husband to divorce his wife was lost are stated. Deu_22:19; Deu_22:29.
The ground of divorce is a point on which the Jewish doctors of the period of the New Testament differed widely; the school of Shammai seeming to limit it to a moral delinquency in the woman, whilst that the Hillel extended it to trifling causes, for example, if the wife burnt the food she was cooking for her husband.
The Pharisees wished, perhaps, to embroil our Saviour with these rival schools by their question, Mat_19:3, by his answer to which, as well as by his previous maxim, Mat_5:31, he declares that he regarded all the lesser causes than "fornication" as standing on too weak ground, and declined the question of how to interpret the words of Moses.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
As the ancient Hebrews paid a stipulated price for the privilege of marrying, they seemed to consider it the natural consequence of making a payment of that kind, that they should be at liberty to exercise a very arbitrary power over their wives, and to renounce or divorce them whenever they chose. This state of things, as Moses himself very clearly saw, was not equitable as respected the woman, and was very often injurious to both parties. Finding himself, however, unable, to overrule feelings and practices of very ancient standing, he merely annexed to the original institution of marriage a very serious admonition to this effect, viz. that it would be less criminal for a man to desert his father and mother, than without adequate cause to desert his wife, Gen_2:14, compared with Mal_2:11-16. He also laid a restriction upon the power of the husband as far as this, that he would not permit him to repudiate the wife without giving her a bill of divorce. He farther enacted in reference to this subject that the husband might receive the repudiated wife back, in case she had not in the meanwhile been married to another person; but if she had been thus married, she could never afterward become the wife of her first husband; a law, which the faith due to the second husband clearly required, Deu_24:1-4, compare Jer_3:1, and Mat_1:19; Mat_19:8. The inquiry, What should be considered an adequate cause of divorce, was left by Moses to be determined by the husband himself. He had liberty to divorce her, if he saw in her any thing naked, any thing displeasing or improper, any thing so much at war with propriety, and a source of so much dissatisfaction as to be, in the estimation of the husband, sufficient ground for separation. These expressions, however, were sharply contested as to their meaning in the later times of the Jewish nation. The school of Hillel contended, that the husband might lawfully put away the wife for any cause, even the smallest. The mistake committed by the school of Hillel in taking this ground was, that they confounded moral and civil law. It is true, as far as the Mosaic statute or the civil law was concerned, the husband had a right thus to do; but it is equally clear, that the ground of just separation must have been, not a trivial, but a prominent and important one, when it is considered, that he was bound to consult the rights of the woman, and was amenable to his conscience and his God. The school of Shammai explained the phrase, nakedness of a thing, to mean actual adultery. Our Lord agreed with the school of Shammai as far as this, that the ground of divorce should be one of a moral nature, and not less than adultery; but he does not appear to have agreed with them in their opinion in respect to the Mosaic statute. On the contrary, he denied the equity of that statute, and in justification of Moses maintained, that he permitted divorces for causes below adultery, only in consequence of the hardness of the people's hearts, Mat_5:31-32; Mat_18:1-9; Mar_10:2-12; Luk_16:18. Wives, who were considered the property of their husbands, did not enjoy by the Mosaic statutes a reciprocal right, and were not at liberty to dissolve the matrimonial alliance by giving a bill of divorce to that effect. In the latter periods, however, of the Jewish state, the Jewish matrons, the more powerful of them at least, appear to have imbibed the spirit of the ladies of Rome, and to have exercised in their own behalf the same power that was granted by the Mosaic law only to their husbands, Mar_6:17-29; Mar_10:12.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
Gods plan for marriage was that it be a permanent union between one man and one woman a union broken only by death. Divorce was something God hated (Gen_2:24; Mal_2:16; Mat_19:3-6; Rom_7:2-4). From earliest times, however, people on the whole rejected God, and polygamy and divorce became common practices (Gen_6:1-8; Rom_1:20-27; see MARRIAGE).
Examples from Bible times
Among the Israelites of Moses time, marriage disorders had become so widespread that Moses set out special laws designed to deal with the problem. In particular he wanted to stop easy divorce and protect women from unjust treatment.
For instance, if a man tried to find an excuse for divorcing his wife by accusing her (falsely) of sexual immorality before marriage, he was fined for his cruel accusation and prevented from divorcing her (Deu_22:13-19). He could divorce her only if there was a valid reason, and only if he gave her divorce documents that protected her rights should she want to marry someone else. He could not take her back if he later changed his mind, and she could not go back to him if her second marriage came to an end (Deu_24:1-4).
Moses decision to permit divorce in certain circumstances was not because he approved of divorce. Rather he was trying to reduce divorce and restore some moral order to society. When Jews of later times quoted Moses law as approval for divorce, Jesus referred them back to Gods original standard. According to that standard, to divorce and remarry was adultery (Mar_10:2-12; Luk_16:18; 1Co_7:10-11). The only exception that Jesus allowed was the case where a persons adultery was already destroying the marriage (Mat_5:31-32; Mat_19:3-9; see ADULTERY; FORNICATION).
A difficult situation arose in New Testament times when one partner in a non-Christian marriage later became a Christian. The Christian was not to divorce the non-Christian partner, but was to do everything possible to make the marriage work harmoniously. If the non-Christian partner was not willing to continue the marriage and departed, the Christian partner had to let it be so and consider the marriage at an end. The statement that in such cases the Christian partner was no longer bound seems to mean that he or she was free to remarry (1Co_7:12-15).
A universal problem
In any society where there is a widespread breakdown of marriage, the result will be an increasing number of social and family problems. The Creator knows what is best for his creatures, and where people reject the plan he has laid down, they will have troubles (cf. Deu_10:13).
There is often no clear-cut solution to the complications that arise because of divorce and remarriage. In some cases, no matter what is done, some ideal will be broken. Moses accepted less than the best because of the peoples hardness of heart, which suggests that the right course of action may at times mean choosing the lesser of two evils (Mat_19:8).
Repentant sinners can receive Gods merciful forgiveness for divorce and adultery as they can for other sins (2Sa_12:13; Psalms 51; Psa_145:14; Isa_43:25). Whatever people might have been guilty of previously, when God forgives them the church must also forgive them (1Co_6:9-11; cf. Mat_6:14-15). Although Christians must, like Jesus, uphold Gods standards when others want to destroy them (Mat_19:3-9), they must also, like Jesus, give help to those who, having broken Gods law, are later repentant (Luk_7:36-50; Joh_8:1-11; cf. Hos_14:4).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.
Divorce [MARRIAGE]
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
Deu_24:1-4 permits the husband to divorce the wife, if he find in her "uncleanness," literally, "matter of nakedness," by giving her "a bill of divorcement," literally, a book of cutting off. Polygamy had violated God's primal law joining in one flesh one man to one woman, who formed the other half or converse side of the male. Moses' law does not sanction this abnormal state of things which he found prevalent, but imposes a delay and cheek on its proceeding to extreme arbitrariness. He regulates and mitigates what he could not then extirpate. The husband must get drawn up by the proper authorities (the Levites) a formal deed stating his reasons (Isa_50:1; Jer_3:8), and not dismiss her by word of mouth. Moses threw the responsibility of the violation of the original law on the man himself; tolerating it indeed (as a less evil than enforcing the original law which the people's "hardness of heart" rendered then unsuitable, and thus aggravating the evil) but throwing in the way what might serve as an obstacle to extreme caprice, an act requiring time and publicity and formal procedure.
The school of Shammai represented fornication or adultery as the "uncleanness" meant by Moses. But (Lev_20:10; Joh_8:5) stoning, not merely divorce, would have been the penalty of that, and our Lord (Mat_19:3; Mat_19:9, compare Mat_5:31) recognizes a much lower ground of divorce tolerated by Moses for the hardness of their heart. Hillel's school recognized the most trifling cause as enough for divorce, e.g. the wife's burning the husband's food in cooking. The aim of our Lord's interrogators was to entangle Him in the disputes of these two schools. The low standard of marriage prevalent at the close of the Old Testament appears in Mal_2:14-16. Rome makes marriage a sacrament, and indissoluble except by her lucrative ecclesiastical dispensations.
But this would make the marriage between one pagan man and one pagan woman a "sacrament," which in the Christian sense would be absurd; for Eph_5:23-32, which Rome quotes, and Mar_10:5-12 where even fornication is not made an exception to the indissolubility of marriage, make no distinction between marriages of parties within and parties outside of the Christian church. What marriage is to the Christian, it was, in the view of Scripture, to man before and since the fall and God's promise of redemption. Adulterous connection with a third party makes the person one flesh with that other, and so, ipso facto dissolves the unity of flesh with the original consort (1Co_6:15-16). The divorced woman who married again, though the law sanctions her remarriage (Deu_24:1-4), is treated as "defiled" and not to be taken back by the former husband. The reflection that, once divorced and married again, she could never return to her first husband, would check the parties from reckless rashness.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.
Divorce. Divorce is "a legal dissolution of the marriage relation". The law regulating this subject is found in Deu_24:1-4, and the cases in which the right of a husband to divorce his wife was lost are stated. Deu_22:19; Deu_22:29.
The ground of divorce is a point on which the Jewish doctors of the period of the New Testament differed widely; the school of Shammai seeming to limit it to a moral delinquency in the woman, whilst that the Hillel extended it to trifling causes, for example, if the wife burnt the food she was cooking for her husband.
The Pharisees wished, perhaps, to embroil our Saviour with these rival schools by their question, Mat_19:3, by his answer to which, as well as by his previous maxim, Mat_5:31, he declares that he regarded all the lesser causes than "fornication" as standing on too weak ground, and declined the question of how to interpret the words of Moses.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863
As the ancient Hebrews paid a stipulated price for the privilege of marrying, they seemed to consider it the natural consequence of making a payment of that kind, that they should be at liberty to exercise a very arbitrary power over their wives, and to renounce or divorce them whenever they chose. This state of things, as Moses himself very clearly saw, was not equitable as respected the woman, and was very often injurious to both parties. Finding himself, however, unable, to overrule feelings and practices of very ancient standing, he merely annexed to the original institution of marriage a very serious admonition to this effect, viz. that it would be less criminal for a man to desert his father and mother, than without adequate cause to desert his wife, Gen_2:14, compared with Mal_2:11-16. He also laid a restriction upon the power of the husband as far as this, that he would not permit him to repudiate the wife without giving her a bill of divorce. He farther enacted in reference to this subject that the husband might receive the repudiated wife back, in case she had not in the meanwhile been married to another person; but if she had been thus married, she could never afterward become the wife of her first husband; a law, which the faith due to the second husband clearly required, Deu_24:1-4, compare Jer_3:1, and Mat_1:19; Mat_19:8. The inquiry, What should be considered an adequate cause of divorce, was left by Moses to be determined by the husband himself. He had liberty to divorce her, if he saw in her any thing naked, any thing displeasing or improper, any thing so much at war with propriety, and a source of so much dissatisfaction as to be, in the estimation of the husband, sufficient ground for separation. These expressions, however, were sharply contested as to their meaning in the later times of the Jewish nation. The school of Hillel contended, that the husband might lawfully put away the wife for any cause, even the smallest. The mistake committed by the school of Hillel in taking this ground was, that they confounded moral and civil law. It is true, as far as the Mosaic statute or the civil law was concerned, the husband had a right thus to do; but it is equally clear, that the ground of just separation must have been, not a trivial, but a prominent and important one, when it is considered, that he was bound to consult the rights of the woman, and was amenable to his conscience and his God. The school of Shammai explained the phrase, nakedness of a thing, to mean actual adultery. Our Lord agreed with the school of Shammai as far as this, that the ground of divorce should be one of a moral nature, and not less than adultery; but he does not appear to have agreed with them in their opinion in respect to the Mosaic statute. On the contrary, he denied the equity of that statute, and in justification of Moses maintained, that he permitted divorces for causes below adultery, only in consequence of the hardness of the people's hearts, Mat_5:31-32; Mat_18:1-9; Mar_10:2-12; Luk_16:18. Wives, who were considered the property of their husbands, did not enjoy by the Mosaic statutes a reciprocal right, and were not at liberty to dissolve the matrimonial alliance by giving a bill of divorce to that effect. In the latter periods, however, of the Jewish state, the Jewish matrons, the more powerful of them at least, appear to have imbibed the spirit of the ladies of Rome, and to have exercised in their own behalf the same power that was granted by the Mosaic law only to their husbands, Mar_6:17-29; Mar_10:12.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.
Gods plan for marriage was that it be a permanent union between one man and one woman a union broken only by death. Divorce was something God hated (Gen_2:24; Mal_2:16; Mat_19:3-6; Rom_7:2-4). From earliest times, however, people on the whole rejected God, and polygamy and divorce became common practices (Gen_6:1-8; Rom_1:20-27; see MARRIAGE).
Examples from Bible times
Among the Israelites of Moses time, marriage disorders had become so widespread that Moses set out special laws designed to deal with the problem. In particular he wanted to stop easy divorce and protect women from unjust treatment.
For instance, if a man tried to find an excuse for divorcing his wife by accusing her (falsely) of sexual immorality before marriage, he was fined for his cruel accusation and prevented from divorcing her (Deu_22:13-19). He could divorce her only if there was a valid reason, and only if he gave her divorce documents that protected her rights should she want to marry someone else. He could not take her back if he later changed his mind, and she could not go back to him if her second marriage came to an end (Deu_24:1-4).
Moses decision to permit divorce in certain circumstances was not because he approved of divorce. Rather he was trying to reduce divorce and restore some moral order to society. When Jews of later times quoted Moses law as approval for divorce, Jesus referred them back to Gods original standard. According to that standard, to divorce and remarry was adultery (Mar_10:2-12; Luk_16:18; 1Co_7:10-11). The only exception that Jesus allowed was the case where a persons adultery was already destroying the marriage (Mat_5:31-32; Mat_19:3-9; see ADULTERY; FORNICATION).
A difficult situation arose in New Testament times when one partner in a non-Christian marriage later became a Christian. The Christian was not to divorce the non-Christian partner, but was to do everything possible to make the marriage work harmoniously. If the non-Christian partner was not willing to continue the marriage and departed, the Christian partner had to let it be so and consider the marriage at an end. The statement that in such cases the Christian partner was no longer bound seems to mean that he or she was free to remarry (1Co_7:12-15).
A universal problem
In any society where there is a widespread breakdown of marriage, the result will be an increasing number of social and family problems. The Creator knows what is best for his creatures, and where people reject the plan he has laid down, they will have troubles (cf. Deu_10:13).
There is often no clear-cut solution to the complications that arise because of divorce and remarriage. In some cases, no matter what is done, some ideal will be broken. Moses accepted less than the best because of the peoples hardness of heart, which suggests that the right course of action may at times mean choosing the lesser of two evils (Mat_19:8).
Repentant sinners can receive Gods merciful forgiveness for divorce and adultery as they can for other sins (2Sa_12:13; Psalms 51; Psa_145:14; Isa_43:25). Whatever people might have been guilty of previously, when God forgives them the church must also forgive them (1Co_6:9-11; cf. Mat_6:14-15). Although Christians must, like Jesus, uphold Gods standards when others want to destroy them (Mat_19:3-9), they must also, like Jesus, give help to those who, having broken Gods law, are later repentant (Luk_7:36-50; Joh_8:1-11; cf. Hos_14:4).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.
Divorce [MARRIAGE]
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.
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