Jesus Christ · The Sermon on the Mount
Divorce
Jesus is asked, in effect, to settle a fight two rabbinic schools were already having over one word in Deuteronomy. His answer tightens the loophole that let a first-century husband dismiss his wife for almost any reason — and He tightens it to protect her, in a world where a divorced woman had few ways to support herself and little standing left. What He says about the one exception He allows has been read three different ways in church history ever since, and this page holds each reading honestly.
The Text
— Matthew 5:31–32It has also been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’The old rule, as it was popularly taught — a writing of divorcement, and that was that.
But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, brings adultery upon her. And he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.Jesus's tightening — one ground named, and a warning about what an unjust divorce does to those it touches.
Two verses, tucked between the teaching on lust and the teaching on oaths. Short as it is, it answers a controversy every person listening to Jesus that day would have recognized instantly — a live argument about marriage law, not an abstract point of doctrine.
The Three Moments
— design, permission, restorationTHE DESIGN
Genesis 2:24
“they shall be one flesh”
THE PERMISSION
Deuteronomy 24:1
“he hath found some uncleanness in her”
THE RESTORATION
Matthew 19:8
“from the beginning it was not so”
What He Is Saying
— a live controversy, not an abstract ruleThe law Jesus quotes comes from Deuteronomy 24:1, where Moses allows a man to write his wife a certificate of divorce if he finds “some uncleanness” in her — a deliberately vague phrase. By Jesus's day, two rabbinic schools disagreed sharply about what it meant, and everyone listening knew exactly which side of that argument they were hearing Him answer.
The debate Jesus was asked to settleBeth Shammai vs. Beth Hillel
Rabbi Shammai's school read Deuteronomy 24:1 narrowly: divorce was permitted only for sexual immorality. Rabbi Hillel's school read the same phrase broadly — divorce was permitted for almost any dissatisfaction at all, down to a wife who ruined her husband's dinner. When the Pharisees later ask Jesus directly, “is it lawful for a man to put away his wifefor every cause?” (Matt 19:3), they are quoting Hillel's own technical language back to Him, asking Him to rule on a controversy that was already famous. His answer here in Matthew 5 sides, in effect, with the narrower Shammai reading — against the far more common, looser practice of His day.
Three ways the church has read the exceptionnamed positions, not a verdict
Jesus allows one exception — “saving for the cause of fornication.” Faithful readers of Scripture have not agreed on exactly what that exception covers, and this page names each position rather than picking one for you:
- The exceptive view(the majority evangelical position, held broadly by Calvin and the Reformers): sexual immorality is a legitimate ground for divorce, and by most who hold this view, for the innocent party's remarriage as well.
- The preteritive, or no-remarriage, view: divorce may occur for fornication, but remarriage while the first spouse is still living is itself adultery. Held by parts of the Catholic tradition and some historically stricter Protestant traditions.
- The betrothal view(a minority reading): “fornication” here means premarital unchastity discovered during a Jewish betrothal (as in Matt 1:19), a narrower and more culturally specific case than a general exception for marriage.
Whichever position a reader lands on, the shape of what Jesus is doing does not change: He closes a loophole the loose Hillel reading had opened wide, and He closes it on behalf of the party with the least power to protect herself — the wife who could be dismissed on a whim and left with no standing and no recourse.
The Voices on the Old Rule
— the church hears Matthew 5:31Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement--a legal check upon reckless and tyrannical separation. The one legitimate ground of divorce allowed by the enactment just quoted was "some uncleanness"--in other words, conjugal infidelity.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 5:31
It hath been said ... - That is, by Moses, Deu 24:1-2. The husband was directed, if he put his wife away, to give her a bill of divorce, that is a certificate of the fact she had been his wife, and that he had dissolved the marriage. There was considerable difference of opinion among the Jews for what causes the husband was permitted to do this. One of their famous schools maintained that it might be done for any cause, however trivial. The other maintained that adultery only could justify it.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, Matt 5:31
Why Moses Allowed It At All
— hardness of heart — the fuller answer in Matthew 19Jesus does not treat Moses's allowance as a mistake. When the Pharisees push Him further in Matthew 19, He explains that Moses permitted divorce “because of the hardness of your hearts” — a concession to human sin, not God's original design for marriage. Two early readers of Matthew 5 heard the same note:
For touching Moses's allowance of divorce, the Lord and Saviour more fully explains in conclusion, that it was because of the hardness of the hearts of the husbands, not so much sanctioning discord, as checking bloodshed.
Jerome· Catena Aurea by Aquinas (420), on Matt 5:31–32
But the Lord who brought peace and goodwill on earth, would have it reign especially in the matrimonial bond.
Hilary of Poitiers· Catena Aurea by Aquinas (367), on Matt 5:31–32
The Voices on the Exception
— the church hears Matthew 5:32But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery--that is, drives her into it in case she marries again. and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced--for anything short of conjugal infidelity. committeth adultery--for if the commandment is broken by the one party, it must be by the other also.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), Matt 5:32
Saving for the cause of fornication - Λογου πορνειας, on account of whoredom. As fornication signifies no more than the unlawful connection of unmarried persons, it cannot be used here with propriety, when speaking of those who are married. I have therefore translated λογου πορνειας, on account of whoredom. It does not appear that there is any other case in which Jesus Christ admits of divorce.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), Matt 5:32
But another reason, too, conspires; nay, not another, but (one)which imposed the law of "the beginning," and moved the will of God to prohibit divorce: the fact that (he)who shall have dismissed his wife, except on the ground of adultery, makes her commit adultery; and (he) who shall have married a (woman) dismissed by her husband, of course commits adultery. A divorced woman cannot even marry legitimately; and if she commit any such act without the name of marriage, does it not fall under the category of adultery, in that adultery is crime in the way of marriage?
Tertullian· On Monogamy (220), on Matt 5:32
How the earliest church applied ita fourth-century church order
By the fourth century, Jesus's teaching had become church discipline, not just doctrine — spelled out plainly in one of the earliest surviving collections of church order:
If a layman divorces his own wife, and takes another, or one divorced by another, let him be suspended.
Apostolic Constitutions· Apostolic Constitutions (Book VIII), The Ecclesiastical Canons of the Same Holy Apostles, Section 48 (380)
Where It Points
— the same question across ScriptureIf a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her, and send her away from his house.The certificate of divorce Moses permitted — the law behind the debate.
“For I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel. “He who divorces his wife covers his garment with violence,” says the LORD of Hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit and do not break faith.“I hate putting away” — God's own verdict on casual divorce, centuries earlier.
Then some Pharisees came and tested Him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?” Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses order a man to give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hardness of heart; but it was not this way from the beginning. Now I tell you that whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman, commits adultery.”The fuller parallel — the same question, pressed harder, answered from creation.
But if the unbeliever leaves, let him go. The believing brother or sister is not bound in such cases. God has called you to live in peace.Paul's own addition — the “Pauline privilege” for a believer abandoned by an unbelieving spouse.
Paul takes up the same subject in 1 Corinthians 7:10–16, repeating the Lord's command against divorce and then adding a case Jesus had not directly addressed — a believer left by an unbelieving spouse who refuses to stay. “A brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases,” Paul writes, extending the same protective instinct Jesus showed in Matthew 5 into a new situation the early church was actually facing.
Closing
Two verses, one exception clause, and centuries of careful reading — but the instinct behind all of it is not hard to see. Jesus tightens a rule that had grown loose enough to hurt the person with the least power to stop it, and He does not leave His hardest words for the person who has been through a divorce. He leaves them for the loophole that made it too easy to walk away.