The fatal ease with which divorce could be obtained, and its frequency, appear from the question addressed to Christ by the Pharisees: “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?” (Matthew 19:3), and still more from the astonishment with which the disciples had listened to the reply of the Saviour (v. 10). That answer [by Jesus in Matthew 19 on the divorce question] was much wider in its range than our Lord’s initial teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:32).1
To the latter no Jew could have had any objection,2 even though its morality would have seemed elevated beyond their highest standard, represented in this case by the school of Shammai, while that of Hillel [which permitted divorce for “any cause/reason”], and still more Rabbi Akiba, presented the lowest opposite extreme. But in reply to the Pharisees, our Lord placed the whole question on grounds which even the strictest Shammaite would have refused to adopt. For the farthest limit to which he [Rabbi Shammai] would have gone would have been to restrict the cause of divorce to “a matter of uncleanness” (Deuteronomy 24:1), by which he would probably have understood not only a breach of the marriage vow [(to provide food, clothing and “love”)], but [also] of the laws and customs of the land. In fact, we know that it [“a matter of uncleanness”] included every kind of impropriety, such as going about with loose hair, spinning in the street, familiarly talking with men, ill-treating her husband’s parents in his presence, brawling, that is, “speaking to her husband so loudly that the neighbours could hear her in the adjoining house” (Chethub. [Ketuboth] vii. 6), a general bad reputation, or the discovery of fraud before marriage. On the other hand, the wife could insist on being divorced if her husband were a leper, or affected with polypus, or engaged in a disagreeable or dirty trade, such as that of a tanner or coppersmith.
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Author: Alfred Edersheim
Keywords: Marriage, Divorce, Sexual immorality, Fornication
Bible reference(s): Leviticus 21:13-14, Deuteronomy 22:30
Source: Sketches of Jewish Social Life, 1876.
Page indexed by: inWORD Bible Software.