Divorce: Christian Tradition and Culture Versus Scripture

Religion 314

Christian Ethics

Divorce: Christian Tradition and Culture versus Scripture

Should Christianity permit divorce? This is a question that has been debated for years, but no one answer has been found. One way to address this question is to turn to the most recognized and respected sources of knowledge on the topic of Christian tradition, The Bible. It seems most efficient to start from the beginning of Christianity’s holy text, The Bible; since the principles of Christianity derive from the teachings of this text. It starts with the story of Adam and Eve.

According to Christian Teachings and tradition, the stories in The Bible are meant to serve as examples for how Christians should and should not act. The Bible says, in Genesis chapter 2, that God created Adam and Eve so that they would be united as one flesh, husband and wife forever. God did not create two women for Adam to have a backup wife in case his relationship with Eve didn’t work out. And neither did God create more than one Adam for Eve to possibly divorce her first husband to remarry another. Even after Eve talked Adam into eating the forbidden fruit, which later condemned them to being cursed by God, they were still husband and wife for the rest of their lives. Now, it can be speculated that if this situation was re-created in modern times, Eve’s misleading Adam into actions that angered God and cause them to be banished from the Garden of Eden would serve as more than sufficient grounds for divorce. But this fact only proves that originally, divorce was unheard of because according to Christian tradition, it was not in God’s original plan for marriage, as the story of Adam and Eve shows. But Christian tradition regarding divorce and remarriage has evolved over time.

According to annotations of scripture in the Dake, during the historical time of Jesus, it was a prevailing custom for people to divorce and remarry. But the Pharisees wanted to know if Jesus approved of divorce and remarriage, so they asked him, “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?” In answering this question, Jesus tells the Pharisees to remember what Moses commanded them to do in regard to marriage between a male and a female. Jesus said:

For the hardness of your heart [Moses allowed you to divorce.] But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

In this passage from St. Mark, Jesus is telling the Pharisees that Moses allowed them to divorce and remarry because their hearts were “hardened” against love for their spouses; therefore, even though divorce was not in God’s original plan for marriage, he allowed it because reconciliation would not be possible between two spouses who have no desire to love one another.

The same Pharisees approached Jesus before this incident in St. Matthew 19:3-12, where they asked him, “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?” Jesus replied by saying:

Have ye not read, that ye which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, for this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.

The Pharisees go on to ask Jesus, “Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?” Jesus said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: But from the beginning it was not so.” This dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees is important in answering the question of whether it was in God’s original intent to permit divorce. According to Jesus’s reply to the Pharisees, divorce was clearly not in God’s original plan for man and woman in marriage. Jesus answered both of the Pharisees’ questions with the same answer. This repetition shows that Jesus was adamant about his disapproval of divorce.

The Dake annotation of St. Matthew 19:3-12 makes reference to Moses’ reason for allowing divorce during his time, and under what circumstances:

Stating why Moses suffered divorce for fornication. Moses saw that if he did not permit divorce, many women would suffer untold hardships from ungodly husbands.

In this annotation, it is stated that Moses permitted divorce for the sake of the women, who would suffer from “ungodly husbands,” or in other words, unfaithful husbands. So divorce was permitted in order to allow a way out for wives that may fall victim to adulterous husbands. This assertion leads to the question of whether divorce is permitted in the Christian tradition by reason of adultery.

According to Exodus 20:17, adultery is forbidden in Christian Tradition and scripture as supported by the seventh commandment:

Thou shalt no covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is they neighbor’s.

Lewis Smedes, author of article, “Respect for Covenant” writes, “The reason sex outside of marriage is wrong, in the biblical way of looking at it, lies in a notion of what a marriage is. Adultery is wrong because sexual intercourse fits with marriage.”

Smedes also writes that adultery is “prohibited as a most likely and most threatening assault in the partnership.” (348) Smedes identifies the issue of adultery as being linked to the root of what sort of person one wants to be and how one chooses to view relationships in general. Smedes writes that there are two kinds of people that live within every person, self-maximizers, and covenant keepers. Smedes also writes:

Culture tells us to be self-maximizers; the commandment tells us to be covenant keepers. Covenant-keepers are loyal, trustworthy, committed, dependable, even heroic-qualities that hardly throb with sexuality. A self-maximizer is open, self-asserting, expanding, and erotic.

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