He taught them again

While Christ taught the multitudes, the Pharisees asked their question, vv. 1, 2. It held great danger because of where it was asked: in ‘the coasts of Judaea by the farther side of Jordan (Peraea)’, v. 1. This region was under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas, who had recently divorced his own wife to marry his brother Philip’s wife, and then imprisoned and executed John the Baptist for criticizing him, 6. 14-29. If the Lord Jesus openly condemned divorce He risked provoking Herod’s wrath and suffering the same fate as John. The Pharisees’ question also leaned on conflicting Jewish interpretation of what exactly a woman’s ‘uncleanness’ was which permitted divorce under Mosaic law, Deut. 24. 1, and assumed that divorce frees a man to remarry. Stricter Jews permitted divorce only for moral transgressions, whereas the liberals allowed divorce for tiny offences. Even if the Saviour permitted divorce, whichever view He took concerning its grounds would alienate some of His followers. These factors made the Pharisees’ question very difficult to answer.

Christ avoided the Pharisees’ trap by directing their attention to God’s original ideal, which did not even contemplate divorce. Marriage is a creatorial institution which originated in the heart of God and is as old as time itself. Through marriage God graciously gives to one man one female companion to help and complement him, Gen. 2. 18, bringing them into a relationship that is closer than that of children to parents, ‘For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh’, Mark 10. 7, 8; Gen. 2. 24. Adam verbalized this oneness with the expression, ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh’, Gen. 2. 23.

Marital infidelity fails to break this one flesh union. Hosea’s marriage still held good despite his wife’s unfaithfulness, Hos. 1. 2. The Lord Jesus affirmed the complete indissolubility of marriage by saying, ‘What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder’, Mark 10. 9. In fact, ‘Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her’, v. 11.