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God through His prophet Malachi proclaimed that He hated divorce in Judah (the remnant of Israel). He announced this because the Jews were not obeying the exception cause of Deuteronomy 24 but divorcing innocents and causing tears upon His altar (Malachi 2:16). Meanwhile God had Himself “divorced” the northern tribe of Israel (Jeremiah 3:8) for the exception clause of Deuteronomy 24 and He later commanded those returning from Babylon to divorce their idolatrous wives (Ezra 10:3). Now Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 24 and explained it to His challenging Pharisees.

When Jesus spoke of the original creative intent of marriage[ii], He was not negating Moses Law nor was He restoring what was lost by the original sin in the perfect Garden. God through Moses and now through Jesus allowed divorce because of the hardness of man's heart (Matthew 19:8). When the NT Hebrews urges us to “exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13), we are reminded that the world is still under the curse of sin. As long as man is subject to the deceitfulness of sin his heart can be hardened. Meanwhile, “He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered (permitted) you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8). Therefore, the need for God's permission of divorce will continue until “mortality might be swallowed up of life” (2 Corinthians 5:4) and marriages be no more (Matthew 22:30).

Jesus reconfirmed Moses' divorce law in the “gospels” (Matthew 5:32; Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18) and used the exception clause. Later, the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 7 explains the divorce law further for Christians along with any modifications. For example, under Moses, a Jew was commanded to divorce an alien spouse (Ezra 10:11) but under the New Testament the alien spouse has the freedom of choice in the matter of remaining married to a Christian (1 Corinthians 7:12-15).

The “Husband's Law” Of Divorce.

What was the specific law under Moses? The law had given the wife permission to leave and be free from a neglectful husband; however, no stipulation of the power to issue a bill of divorce was given her.[iii] Historically, she had to appeal to the Jewish court to require this of the husband. Exodus 21:9b-11,  “... after the manner of daughters. If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish. And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money.”[iv]

To the Pharisees, Jesus referred to their Pharisaic interpretation of Deuteronomy 24 which gave the husband the exclusive power of issuing the bill (scroll) of divorce.[v] This was that law: “When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness [dabar ervah] in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.  And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.  And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife;  Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance” (Deuteronomy 24:1-4 -KJV).

According to those acquainted with the Law of Moses this Law was understood to be the “Law of the Husband” (Romans 7:2). Even if the woman was due a divorce for negligence (Exodus 21:9-11) she had to solicit the court to require the husband to give a writing of divorcement.[vi] Jesus (privately to the disciples) mentions a practice giving a woman the power to divorce in Mark 10:12 which already was being practiced at that time in the Gentile world [even by some Jews[vii]].

This is the “Law of the Husband”:

MAN MARRIES ...

WIFE LACKS FAVOR BECAUSE OF FORNICATION

What is fornication or “uncleanness”?

KJV translates Hebrew (dabar^H1697 ervah^H6172): “some uncleanness

LXX's Greek (an ancient Jewish translation of the Hebrew): aschēmōn πρᾶγμα

aschēmōn^G809 indecorous, uncomely, indecent,

πρᾶγμα^G4229 “thing” [N-ASN ABP+ & LXX translation-- “a euphemism for unlawful sexual conduct”(Mounce),*

*compare NT's 1 Thessalonians 4:6 “matter” (pragma^G4229).

My summary of the matter: dabar ervah “uncleanness” or “nakedness” is used in the Hebrew for what is called porneia “fornication” in the New Testament. For example, ervah is the exception used in Deuteronomy 24:1; ervah is used in the sexual sins of Leviticus 18:6- 16. Leviticus's ervah is called “fornication” (Greek porneia) in 1 Corinthians 5:1. This is the word (porneia, “fornication”) that Jesus uses when quoting Deuteronomy's law for permitting the divorce exception. In other words, in the manuscript Jesus is quoted as using the Greek translation in Matthew 5, etc., instead of the Hebrew.

Summary of the divorce law:

1.    If he find in her ‛ervâh/ er-vaw' nudity, literally (especially the pudenda) or figuratively (disgrace, blemish): - nakedness, shame, unclean (-ness); [called porneia [fornication] in the NT].

2.    Write her a BILL OF DIVORCEMENT,

3.    Give it to her.

4.    Send her out.

THE DIVORCE THAT GOD HATES.

Without the steps (which includes fornication [which could also be adultery since the nation was negligent in stoning adulterers]), a divorce against an innocent would be one that God hates (Malachi 2:14-16).

SUBSTANCE OF DIVORCING:

1.    One guilty of fornication is put away and may go and marry another. The original marriage is null/void. To be o.k. the fornicator would have to repent of fornications (not the divorce) and as Jesus admonished the one caught in adultery, “GO AND SIN NO MORE (John 8:11).” Repentance[viii] means "to make a change of principle and practice" [ix] turning from the act of the sin (in this case, fornicating) and/or leaving a second husband [compare to the sin of lying or murder: you can't undo a lie or murder but you can stop the pattern of lying and anger to kill!]. The second marriage means she cannot ever return to the original husband! Whatever the sin that caused the divorce is, is what one repents of. According to the New Testament an innocent wife should return to her husband (1 Corinthians 7:11; based upon Deuteronomy 24 the indication to me is that neither has remarried).

2.    Jesus did not condemn the marriage of the innocent in Matthew 5. This is a misunderstanding in the translating of a Greek verb into an English noun. The text is condemning the divorce that Jesus and God hates; i.e., a divorce from the innocent. The man (or woman in Mark) has no grounds for divorce, so if he/she marries again, an act of adultery results because God has not authorized the dissolving of the original marriage. In the Matthew 5 and 19 accounts Jesus is correcting the rabbinical errors and pointing out that the divorce causes the innocent to be stigmatized and is the sin and the shedding of tears at the altar (Malachi 2:14-16).

3.    After any divorce, the participates must honor any new marriage; otherwise, sin and guilt will be repeated. Jesus' command applies, “Sin no more” (John 5:14; 8:11); be faithful to any new spouse!

4.    All sins are to be repented of, by determining of not doing the sin (violations of the Law, 1 John 3:4) anymore. Start keeping recent vows, etc. Be faithful to Jesus.

STATUS of ONCE DIVORCED AND REMARRIED

Such a one cannot return to her former husband since she is defiled to him --; such is an abomination to God (Deuteronomy 24). Unfortunately, some teachers unwittingly advise one to divorce their second mate and remarry the first. This is an abomination according to the Law.

DEFILED? -- ṭâmê'  ^H2930 A primitive root; to be foul, especially in a ceremonial or moral sense (contaminated): - defile (self), pollute (self), be (make, make self, pronounce) unclean, X utterly. The remarried spouse is “defiled” to the original husband.

ABOMINATION?- tô‛êbah    ^H8441 properly something disgusting (morally), that is, (as noun) an abhorrence; especially idolatry or (concretely) an idol: - abominable (custom, thing), abomination.

INFERENCE: According to Deuteronomy 24 a divorced person was totally free from the first marriage with the one "remarriage prohibition." She and he with the bill of divorcement were “single” to remarry. If the guilty party (a fornicator) was free from the sin of adultery to remarry, obviously an innocent would surely be free. Otherwise, the solution would be for the innocent to actually commit fornication in order to be free to remarry which would be ludicrous.