Mark 10:12
in Mark 10And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and if she herself shall put away her husband, and marry another, she committeth adultery.
KJV
And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.
⋯
This verse in Mark 10
Commentary
11 notes on this verseTherefore, there is only one carnal cause, fornication: and one spiritual cause, the fear of God, so that a wife may be dismissed, as many are read to have done for the sake of religion. But no cause is prescribed by God's law, for the …
This site's exposition
asked him again of the same matter
on Mark 10:10-12
Asked him again of the same matter moves the teaching from public debate to private instruction, and what Jesus adds there is Mark's own distinctive contribution to the saying, whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her, and if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery. Jewish law of the period gave a husband the standing to divorce his wife but gave a wife essentially no comparable right, while Roman law, familiar to Mark's likely Gentile readers, did allow a wife to initiate divorce, and the bench reads Mark's second clause as addressed directly to that audience's own legal reality rather than to Jewish practice alone. The symmetry itself, both husband and wife equally bound and equally capable of the same offense, is the verse's quiet claim about marriage regardless of which culture's law happens to permit more.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.) The Lord calls by the name of adultery cohabitation with her who is not a man's wife; she is not, however, a wife, whom a man has taken to him, after quitting his first; and for this reason he commits adultery upon her, that is, upon the second, whom he brings in. And the same thing is true in the case of the woman; wherefore it goes on, And if a woman shall put away her husband, and marry another, she committeth adultery; for she cannot be joined to another as her own husband, if she leave him who is really her own husband. The law indeed forbade what was plainly adultery; but the Saviour forbids this, which was neither plain, nor known to all, though it was contrary to nature.
The Medieval Church1 voice
The Lord answered them: whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery with this second wife; likewise a wife who has left her husband and joined with another becomes an adulteress.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
), and it will be no excuse at all for her to say that it was with the consent of her husband. Wisdom and grace, holiness and love, reigning in the heart, will make those commands easy which to the carnal mind may be as a heavy yoke. Christ's Love to Little Children.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
And if a woman shall put away her husband,.... Not that there was the same law, or the same sufferance by the law of Moses, for a woman to put away her husband, as for the husband to put away the wife; nor was it practised among the Jews, unless it came to be in use about this time, in their declining state, having taken it from the Gentiles; of whom they say (s), that "they divorce one another: says R.
No more is here related of this private conference, that the law Christ laid down in this case--That it is adultery for a man to put away his wife, and marry another; it is adultery against the wife he puts away, it is a wrong to her, a breach of his contract with her,
4 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
And if a woman shall put away her husband - From this it appears that in some cases, the wife assumed the very same right of divorcing her husband that the husband had of divorcing his wife; and yet this is not recorded any where in the Jewish laws, as far as I can find, that the women had such a right.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
See this question about divorce explained in the notes at Mat 19:1-12. Mar 10:12 And if a woman shall put away her husband - It would seem, from this, that a woman, among the Jews, had the power of separating herself from her husband, yet this right is not given her by the law of Moses. There is not, however, any positive evidence that females often claimed or exercised this right. Cases had occurred, indeed, in which it had been done. The wife of Herod had rejected her former husband and married Herod.
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1857)
proposed
The opening verse of this passage shows us the patient perseverance of our Lord Jesus Christ as a teacher . We are told that "Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them." Wherever our Lord went, He was always about His Father's business, preaching, teaching, and laboring to do good to souls. He threw away no opportunity. In the whole history of His earthly ministry, we never read of an idle day.
A commentator
J.C. Ryle1816–1900
Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition) (1857)
proposed
The opening verse of this passage shows us the patient perseverance of our Lord Jesus Christ as a teacher . We are told that "Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them." Wherever our Lord went, He was always about His Father's business, preaching, teaching, and laboring to do good to souls. He threw away no opportunity. In the whole history of His earthly ministry, we never read of an idle day. Of Him it may be truly said, that He "sowed beside all waters," and that "in the morning He sowed his seed, and in the evening withheld not His hand." (Isaiah 32:20. Eccles. 11:6.) And yet our Lord knew the hearts of all men. He knew perfectly well that the great proportion of His hearers were hardened and unbelieving. He knew, as He spoke, that most of His words fell to the ground uncared for and unheeded, and that so far as concerned the salvation of souls, most of His labor was in vain. He knew all this, and yet He labored on. Let us see in this fact a standing pattern to all who try to do good to others, whatever their office may be. Let it be remembered by every minister and every missionary — by every schoolmaster and every Sunday-school teacher — by every district visitor and every lay agent — by every head of a house who has family prayers — and by every caretaker who has the charge of children. Let all such remember Christ's example, and resolve to do likewise. We are not to give up teaching, because we see no good done. We are not to relax our exertions, because we see no fruit of our toil. We are to work on steadily, keeping before us the great principle, that duty is ours, and results are God's. There must be ploughmen and sowers as well as reapers and binders of sheaves.
How the passage was read
On Mark 10:2-12On Mark 10:2-12
The divorce question, translated for Rome
The test question “Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?” lands in Perea, Herod Antipas's territory, where John the Baptist had just died for saying Antipas's marriage to Herodias was unlawful. Behind the question stands the recorded dispute of the Pharisaic schools over Deuteronomy 24:1: the house of Shammai allowing divorce only for unchastity, the house of Hillel for far less (“even if she spoiled his dish,” Mishnah Gittin 9:10). This site's Matthew 19 note walks that dispute; Jesus answers from creation, behind Moses.
Mark alone adds: “and if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery” (10:12). Under Jewish law of the period, the get (bill of divorce) ran from husband to wife; a wife initiating divorce was Roman law's provision, and famously what Herodias had done to her first husband. Mark, writing for Roman readers, translates the ruling into their legal world, one more instance of the New Testament doing for its first readers what this layer does for the modern one.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
The words behind it
10 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| καὶ | kai | And | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| ἐὰν | ean | if | G1437 → | 352 times |
| αὐτὴ | aute | she | G846 → | 5565 times |
| ἀπολύσασα | apolusasa | having divorced | G630 → | 63 times |
| τὸν | ton | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἄνδρα | andra | husband | G435 → | 216 times |
| αὐτῆς | autes | of her | G846 → | 5565 times |
| γαμήσῃ | gamese | shall marry | G1060 → | 28 times |
| ἄλλον, | allon | another, | G243 → | 155 times |
| μοιχᾶται.¶ | moichatai | she commits adultery. | G3429 → |
καὶAnd
kaiG2532 →9120 times
ἐὰνif
eanG1437 →352 times
αὐτὴshe
auteG846 →5565 times
ἀπολύσασαhaving divorced
apolusasaG630 →63 times
τὸνthe
tonG3588 →19766 times
ἄνδραhusband
andraG435 →216 times
αὐτῆςof her
autesG846 →5565 times
γαμήσῃshall marry
gameseG1060 →28 times
ἄλλον,another,
allonG243 →155 times
μοιχᾶται.¶she commits adultery.
moichataiG3429 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
1 Corinthians 7:11But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 3:1
“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with…
- 1 Corinthians 7:10
To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband.
- Judges 19:2–3
But she was unfaithful to him and left him to return to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. After she had been there four months,
- Isaiah 50:1
This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of My creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold for…
- Deuteronomy 22:19
They are also to fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give them to the young woman’s father, because this man has given a virgin of Israel a bad name. And she shall…
- Jeremiah 3:1
Where this verse is studied
About Mark
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Gospels; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, On the Gospel of Mark; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Pseudo-Chrysostom, Catena Aurea by Aquinas and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Mark.