Divorce in Ancient Judaism
According to Mathew’s Gospel, some Pharisees tested Jesus by asking him, “Can a man divorce a woman for any reason?” The conservative Jewish approach understood “unfaithfulness,” “abuse,” or “abandonment” as the only valid grounds for divorce. This view was represented back then by the Pharisaic leader Shammai, while more progressive interpreters argued that a man could divorce his wife for any reason at all. This latter view was represented by another Pharisaic sage named Hillel.
Can Divorce Be Legitimate?
In other words, there were many illegitimate divorces granted in the Jewish community in the time of Jesus that were not consistent with God’s instructions in the Torah. It is in this divorce-for-any-reason environment that Jesus is quoted as saying, “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.”
Reading in Jewish Context
From a 21st-century Christian perspective, it would seem that the Gospel forbade all remarriage. Yet, if read in their first-century Jewish context, Jesus’ words cannot be interpreted as a blanket statement condemning all remarriage, but only when illegitimate divorce was involved. When Jesus was faced with this question, he rejected the idea taught by Pharisees of the house of Hillel (that divorce was permissible for any reason) and sided with both the Pharisees from the house of Shammai and the Essenes. To discover more surprising gems that can be seen only in the Gospels’ authentic, first-century context, enroll in our Jewish Context and Culture Program, which will open your eyes to what has been lost in time and layers of translations! (CLICK HERE).
