Jesus addressed the marriage bond situation which has relevance for break-up of marriage, collapse of the home with far-reaching consequences – most especially for the children of the union.
At the time of Jesus, the status of a woman was that of a chattel. She had almost no legal rights. A woman could not divorce her husband for any reason whatsoever. The husband, however, could divorce his wife for any reason.
Deuteronomy 24:1 stated, “When a man takes his 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 bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and send her out of his house.” The procedure of divorcement was for the man to hand his wife the document in the presence of witnesses and she stood divorced.
In other words, the man could put an uneducated woman out of his house with no recourse to shelter, food or employment. Two fates faced her, either starvation or prostitution. The children apparently remained with her husband. The woman thus lost her marital status, home and her children. Many situations must have presented; if the woman were pregnant at the time of her divorce, what future did her child have?
Deuteronomy was interpreted by two school of thought: Shammai and Hillel. Shammai and his school defined some indecency as unchastity, and nothing but unchastity. Hillel interpreted this text in a wide manner. A man could divorce his wife for putting too much salt in the food, if she walked in town with her head uncovered, if she brawled, if she spoke with men in the street, if she was quarrelsome.
One Rabbi Akiba held that a man might divorce a woman if she found no favor in his sight, in that he found a woman he considered more attractive than her. So the dedicated wife and mother with figure, face and health changed due to childbearing and devoted parenting, could be legally discarded for another.
Apparently Hillel’s school of thought proved more popular. Jesus directly challenged this, explaining that “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” [Matthew 5:32]
It is clear that Jesus considers the bond between husband and wife a sacred one. Elsewhere the Savior explains, “What God has put together, let no man put asunder.” [Matthew 19:6]
God, called upon to bless the marriage bond, considers it binding and sacred. Marriage is a commitment not to be undertaken lightly.
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