by Dwight A. Pryor
A FEW DAYS AGO I was approached by a dear Christian man, a widower, with a painful story. He recently met a gracious Christian lady his age, also widowed, and their budding friendship seemed blessed by the Lord. Until , that is, he learned that she had been divorced from an abusive husband in an earlier marriage. As a person who always tries to walk in the obedience of faith, this righteous man felt he could no longer in good conscience pursue the relationship with an eye toward marriage -- because of Jesus' warning that, "... a man who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery" (Lk 16:18).
I am reminded of a similar situation many years ago, when my now thirty-five year old son was a mere toddler. Once a week a retired schoolteacher, "Mrs. P", came to our house to baby sit Ben so my wife and I could have an evening out. She was a devout and exceptional woman who had never remarried after her husband divorced her to run away with another woman more than fifty years before. "I never considered remarrying," she told me once, "lest I be guilty of adultery." She quoted Luke 16:18 to me.
WHAT ARE WE TO MAKE of this perplexing and problematic passage? "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery" (Lk 16:18 ESV). It seems uncharacteristic of Jesus for at least three reasons.
First it puts Jesus at odds with the Torah, in effect undermining or "abolishing" the Torah's provision for divorce in Deuteronomy 24:1. Though never the ideal, divorce and subsequent remarriage are permitted in certain cases according to biblical law and Jewish tradition.
Second, such an unconditional indictment, without regard for circumstance or motivation, seems alien to Yeshua's typical approach to halakhic issues, which emphasizes the "spirit" rather than the "letter" of the law. Indeed Luke 16:18 appears to contradict Matthew 19:9, in which he makes an exception for divorce (and thereby remarriage).
And finally, this odd saying seems to come "out of the blue," with no obvious context. It is spliced between a mention of John the Baptist and a parable about a rich man.
Interpreters long have wrestled with this text, but the most satisfying and coherent explanation has been suggested by David Bivin's examination of the linguistic and Hebraic backgrounds to Luke 16:18, and Steven Notley's insights into it's historical and contextual setting. (See their research at Jerusalem-Perspective.com.)
First, consider the phrase "and marries another." The conjunction "and" is kai, in Greek; but likely behind the Greek lies the Mishnaic Hebrew of Yeshua's day. The Hebrew vav(and) has a wider range of meanings than the Greek kai, including the "vav of purpose or intention" -- an idiomatic usage that means "in order to" or "so that". Here is a typical example: "Let my people go that [literal Hebrew: and] they may serve me in the wilderness" (Ex 7:16 ESV)
The evidence suggests that Jesus was saying, "The man who divorces his wife in order tomarry another commits adultery." In other words, the two actions are related by intent. But what might occasion such a comment?
A clue may be found in Josephus' history of Herod Antipas and the Gospel account of John the Baptist. One of King Herod's sons, Herod Antipas was the ruler of the Galilee at the time of Jesus and John. An illicit romantic entanglement between himself and his half-brother's wife, Herodias, eventuated in them both divorcing their spouses in order to marry each other.
The intrepid prophet, John, called out Antipas for this infidelity: "It is not lawful [i.e., permitted by the Torah] for you to have her" (Mt 14:4). As a result, John was arrested by the tetrarch and later, at Herodias' insistence, beheaded (14:9-11).
This appears to be the backstory behind Jesus otherwise perplexing comment. He is not arbitrarily issuing a blanket condemnation of divorce and remarriage, but soundly interpreting the Torah to mean that divorcing one's spouse with the intent or purpose of marrying someone else, whom you lust after, is equivalent to adultery and thus prohibited. He is alluding to Herod Antipas and Herodias, and reaffirming John's righteous condemnation of their equally adulterous actions.
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