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Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible, Part 5 – Jesus and Exodus 21

Start in Part 1 here.

Jesus is recorded in several places in the gospels as weighing in on the subject of divorce as presented in Deuteronomy 24.1. However, he is portrayed as silent on the well-accepted reasons for divorce in Exodus 21. Here is the Exodus passage again:

If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.
Exodus 21.10-11

As I showed in earlier posts in this series, this passage was interpreted by the contemporaries of Jesus as allowing divorce for either the husband or the wife if one did not provide food, clothing or marital rights to the other. Jesus is not recorded as teaching anything on this passage, one way or the other. The question is, Why? The two options we have to consider are:

Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible, Part 4 – The Teaching of Jesus

Part 1 of this series can be found here.

The central message of Jesus on divorce is this: “don’t do it.” He commands his followers not to separate what God has joined together. However, Jesus didn’t stop there; he said much more on the topic, and on marriage in general. Here is a summary, which I will elaborate on in this post:

The Law teaches monogamy
Marriage should be lifelong
Divorce is not mandatory
Divorce is allowed in some cases
Marriage is not mandatory
Divorce for “any cause” is invalid

Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible, Part 3 – New Testament Introduction

Background

The previous discussion (start with Part 1) on Old Testament laws and their interpretation helps us understand the commonly held views on divorce and remarriage at the time of Jesus. Before we examine the New Testament, however, it’s important to understand the disagreement between two rabbinical schools regarding the definition of “indecency.”

Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible, Part 2 – Old Testament

For Part 1, click here.

Old Testament Laws regarding divorce and remarriage

I’m surprised at how many attempts to discuss divorce and remarriage in the Bible actually ignore three-fourths of the Bible. Christians seem to start and stop with the New Testament. The New Testament does have a lot to say on the subject, but the Old Testament does as well.

The Old Testament allows for four reasons for a valid divorce (source). If a divorce is valid, the wife is allowed to remarry. The husband always may remarry, as polygamy was not forbidden by the Law. An important point here is that if a divorce is valid, remarriage is always permitted.

Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible, Part 1 – Introduction

The purpose of this series of posts is to identify the biblical guidelines for divorce and remarriage. So you don’t have to wait until the last post to find my conclusion, here it is: I conclude that both the Old and New Testaments provide certain grounds for a valid divorce, which includes the option of remarriage. Divorce outside of these grounds is forbidden to Christians, and Christians are always encouraged to maintain the marriage. Read on for the details!