{"id":380,"date":"2014-09-08T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=380"},"modified":"2014-08-27T20:44:59","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T20:44:59","slug":"matthew-531-32-divorce-historical-backgrounds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-531-32-divorce-historical-backgrounds.html","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 5:31-32; Divorce (Historical Backgrounds)"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may be surprised to discover that Old Testament Law did not codify the practice of divorce. In fact, biblical history indicates that divorce predated the time of Moses. As such, it was acknowledged by the Law (see Deuteronomy 24:1), but not created by it.<\/p>\n

Divorce in Jewish society was generally frowned upon, but as far as men were concerned, \u201cNo-Fault Divorce\u201d was already firmly in place\u2014and had been for millennia. The accepted reasoning in ancient Israel was that a man could divorce his wife for being \u201cdispleasing to him because he finds something\u00a0indecent about her\u201d (Deuteronomy 24:1). Of course, that left the definition of \u201csomething indecent\u201d up for broad interpretation.<\/p>\n

Rabbinical teaching by Jesus\u2019 time offered wide-ranging justifications for a husband to divorce his wife. If she claimed to be a virgin before betrothal and marriage and was subsequently found to not be virginal (either during betrothal or after the wedding), that was cause for divorce. If a wife overcooked her husband\u2019s food, that was cause for divorce. If a husband decided his wife was \u201cless beautiful\u201d than another woman, that was cause for divorce. Basically, as long as a man could point to any reason why his wife was \u201cdispleasing to him,\u201d that was counted as \u201csomething indecent\u201d and a legitimate cause for divorce. The wife, though, was not afforded any justification for divorcing her husband.<\/p>\n

It was in the context of these lax social mores that Jesus made this radical statement: \u201cWhoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery\u201d (Matthew 5:32 NKJV).<\/p>\n

That opinion would have been shocking to most of Jesus\u2019 audience\u2014perhaps labeled extreme, intolerant, and unrealistic, as it is today. For some reason, though, Jesus was unconcerned about how people would react to this hard teaching of his.<\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[HSJ, 56-57, 59]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n

About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n

About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You may be surprised to discover that Old Testament Law did not codify the practice of divorce. In fact, biblical history indicates that divorce predated the time of Moses. As such, it was acknowledged by the Law (see Deuteronomy 24:1), but not created by it. Divorce in Jewish society was generally frowned upon, but as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,2],"tags":[153,152],"class_list":["post-380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historicalbackgrounds","category-matthew","tag-deuteronomy-241","tag-divorce"],"yoast_head":"\nMatthew 5:31-32; Divorce (Historical Backgrounds) - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2014\/09\/matthew-531-32-divorce-historical-backgrounds.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Matthew 5:31-32; Divorce (Historical Backgrounds) - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You may be surprised to discover that Old Testament Law did not codify the practice of divorce. 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