WHAT ARE SOME ERRORS TAUGHT ABOUT MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE?
rev. 01/01/2014
Trivia truth: Did you know that God married and had to divorce His wife? (Ezekiel 16)
ERROR
Jesus said that Moses erred by allowing divorce.
Truth:
(ERV) "I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for the problem of sexual sin [fornication], and marries another woman is guilty of adultery" (Matthew 19:9). Jesus likewise authorized divorce by stipulating the exception.
ERROR:
Jesus said that marriage was absolutely until death and forbade divorce.
Truth:
Matthew 19:9.
ERROR:
The Pharisees said that Moses commanded divorce but Jesus corrected them by insisting that Moses allowed divorce.
Truth:
Matthew 19:8 (CEV) "Jesus replied, "You are so heartless! That's why Moses allowed you to divorce your wife. But from the beginning God did not intend it to be that way."
However, Mark reports that the verb command was used by Jesus.
Mark 10:3-4 "And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you?"
And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away." The Deuteronomy 24 Hebrew language uses three conditional phrases, i.e., they are initiated with an "if , then one can do this." The Septuagint apparently translates the first two as conditional but the third is expressed as a command. Matthew Henry's Commentary on the verse observes that Jesus corrected the Pharisees concerning divorce being a command in Matthew 19. He states that the precept can be understood as one of choice (i.e., "permission") and not mandated. However, the commentary ignores Mark 10:3's account where Jesus also uses the same word as the Pharisees; i.e.,
Greek: ἐντέλλομαι, Thayer's definition: "to order, command to be done, enjoin".
ERROR:
Jesus said that marriage without any cause for divorce was absolute and forbade divorce.
Truth:
(ERV) "I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for the problem of sexual sin [fornication], and marries another woman is guilty of adultery" Matthew 19:9. Jesus gave an exception and therefore did not completely forbid divorce.
ERROR:
Fornication means only adultery.
Truth:
Jude 1:7 "Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire"
ERROR:
Fornication means only sexual intercourse between unmarrieds.
Truth:
1 Corinthians 5:1 "It is reported commonly [that there is] fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife."
ERROR:
Deuteronomy 24:1 was divorce for adultery only.
Truth:
Deut. 24:1 "because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement..." Note: uncleanness was the cause for divorce. The penalty for adultery was death. The offended party in adultery did not have to divorce the spouse.
ERROR:
A wife bound by marriage until death--no recourse for abuse.
Truth:
Rom 7:2 "For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband." [OT LAW].
The Old Testament (through Moses) allowed divorce (Deuteronomy 24:1,2). Jesus allows divorce (for fornication) in the New Testament..
ERROR.
God hates divorce (Malachi 2). Therefore He has never sanctioned or permitted divorce at all.
Truth:
God divorced Israel. Jeremiah 3:8 "And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. "
Mark 10:5 "And Jesus said to them, 'Because of your hardness of heart he [Moses] wrote you this commandment.'" God spoke through Moses: Exodus 34:27 "And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel."
ERROR:
Jesus would never divorce a wife Himself.
Truth:
John 1:1-3 "Jesus is from the beginning, with God and is God."
Jeremiah 3:6-8 "And I [God --the Trinity] saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also."
ERROR:
Marriage is a binding until the death of partner absolutely (1 Corinthians 7:39).
Truth:
Similar language as Romans 7:1,2 which allowed divorce, etc. The wording is for a widow who has been married to a faithful husband (for he "sleeps" in the Greek whereas Romans 7 is concerned with any husband). The context is giving the widow permission to remarry.
ERROR:
1 Corinthians 7:15 and 39 have two different definitions for binding.
Truth:
1. The able translators translated both passages the same: "bound"; same word in the English.
2. The original Greek of verse 15 is a derivative of the verse 39's "bound". Both are figurative expressions of the binding of slaves or animals with chains. Both allow freedom from marriage and, hence,the slavery of marriage. Verse 39's "liberty" means a "free man" and is compared with the slave's freedom in the context and the freedom of verse 15.
ERROR:
A married person can choose not to have sex with the spouse.
Truth:
1 Corinthians 7:5 "Defraud ye not one the other [in sex]"; The context has it as the answer to avoiding "fornication." "Defraud not" is one of the commandments emphasized by Jesus according to Mark 10:19 at which time Jesus was telling the commandments to provide the young man eternal life.
ERROR:
Each spouse has the authority to refuse to have sex anytime he/she wants.
Truth:
1 Corinthians 7:5,6 "except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency. But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.“ Permission if mutual agreeement “for a time”."
ERROR:
A spouse has never divorced the other for defrauding in duty of marriage (sex).
Truth:
Exodus 21:10-11 "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."
ERROR:
Divorce was granted in the Old Testament for adultery.
Truth:
Leviticus 20:10 "And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death."
The Law authorized death without divorce. However, the prophets later say that divorce is allowed for adultery (Jeremiah 3:6-8)
ERROR:
No righteous individual would ever divorce.
Truth:
Matthew 1:19 "Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily.." Note: the alternative would have meant her death.
ERROR:
Jesus said that divorce was allowed by Moses because of the hardness of heart of the innocent so that he would not sin.
Truth:
Hebrew 3:8 -10 "Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.."
Hence, divorce is because of the errors of the spouse and not the innocent. If both were innocent, there would be no violation and no need for divorce. It would be like God designed it from the beginning (Matthew 19:8).
ERROR:
God allowed divorce under the Law of Moses but not under the New Covenant.
Truth:
"except for fornication" (Matthew 19:9).
ERROR:
God hates divorce but He was never "married."
Truth:
Isaiah 54:5 "For thy Maker [includes Jesus, John 1:2] is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called."
God knows unfaithfulness from a spouse. He was a husband to Israel (Jeremiah 31:31-33). The book of Hosea shows the grief of God.
ERROR:
Jesus as God never divorced anyone.
Truth:
Jeremiah 3:8 "And I [God] saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also."
ERROR:
Jesus commanded divorce for fornication.
Truth:
Matthew 19:8(Darby) "He says to them, Moses, in view of your hardheartedness, allowed you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not thus." Jesus said that what God has joined together, let no man put asunder. He gives "fornication" as an exception.
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