Mark 10:8
in Mark 10and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and the two shall become one flesh: so that they are no more two, but one flesh.
KJV
And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.
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This verse in Mark 10
Commentary
12 notes on this verseWhere are we to find language adequately to express the happiness of that marriage which the church cements, the oblation confirms, the benediction signs and seals, the angels celebrate, and the Father holds as approved? For all around the earth young people do not rightly and lawfully wed without their parents' consent. What kind of yoke is that of two believers who share one hope, one desire, one discipline, one service? They enjoy kinship in spirit and in flesh. They are mutual servants with no discrepancy of interests. Truly they are "two in one flesh."
This site's exposition
For the hardness of your heart
on Mark 10:5-9
For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept relocates the divorce provision from God's original design to a concession made to human sin, and Jesus reaches back past Moses to the creation itself, from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female, for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder is the verse's own conclusion, and the traditions differ on how it governs remarriage and the grounds a believer may still claim, some reading it as an absolute rule softened only by a narrow exception named elsewhere in the Gospels, others reading Paul's own later allowance as a further concession alongside it. The bench names both readings and their holders without settling which controls, the text itself pressing the ideal harder than either exception.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
For the Word of God is to be considered as being more in one flesh with the soul than a man is one flesh with his wife. But to whom is it more becoming to be also one spirit with God, than to this human soul which has so joined itself to God by love as that it may justly be said to be one spirit with God?
In his mysterious plans the Father had destined a bride for his only Son and presented her to him under the guise of prophetic images. Moses appeared and with deft hand sketched a picture of bridegroom and bride but immediately drew a veil over it. …
The Medieval Church3 voices
And the two shall become one flesh. Therefore now they are no longer two, but one flesh. The reward of marriage is that two become one flesh. Chastity joined to the spirit becomes one spirit.
(ubi sup.) The reward then of marriage is of two to become one flesh. Virginity being joined to the Spirit, becomes of one spirit.
In a figurative sense, this can be understood as follows: the word of Teaching, sowing good seeds in the soul of a believing person, has the significance of a husband to the soul that receives it. And it leaves its father, that is, lofty thought, …
5 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Marriage is not an invention of men, but a divine institution, and therefore is to be religiously observed, and the more, because it is a figure of the mystical inseparable union between Christ and his church.
And the twain shall be one flesh,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
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.
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.
Modern Voices1 voice
Thus, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, an intelligent man in other matters, says that there is only a "theological" opposition to divorce, and that it is entirely founded on "certain texts" in the Bible about marriages. This is exactly as if he said that a belief …
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
14 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 |
| ἔσονται | esontai | will be | G1510 → | 2333 times |
| οἱ | hoi | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| δύο | duo | two | G1417 → | 133 times |
| εἰς | eis | for | G1519 → | 1755 times |
| σάρκα | sarka | flesh | G4561 → | 146 times |
| μίαν | mian | one’ | G1520 → | 343 times |
| ὥστε | hoste | Therefore | G5620 → | 83 times |
| οὐκέτι | ouketi | no longer | G3756 →G2089 → | 140 times |
| εἰσὶν | eisin | they are | G1510 → | 2333 times |
| δύο | duo | two | G1417 → | 133 times |
| ἀλλὰ | alla | but | G235 → | 635 times |
| μία | mia | one | G1520 → | 343 times |
| σάρξ. | sarx | flesh. | G4561 → | 146 times |
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
ἔσονταιwill be
esontaiG1510 →2333 times
οἱthe
hoiG3588 →19766 times
δύοtwo
duoG1417 →133 times
εἰςfor
eisG1519 →1755 times
σάρκαflesh
sarkaG4561 →146 times
μίανone’
mianG1520 →343 times
ὥστεTherefore
hosteG5620 →83 times
οὐκέτιno longer
εἰσὶνthey are
eisinG1510 →2333 times
δύοtwo
duoG1417 →133 times
ἀλλὰbut
allaG235 →635 times
μίαone
miaG1520 →343 times
σάρξ.flesh.
sarxG4561 →146 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 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
Genesis 2:24For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
it leads to
- Matthew 19:3–9
Then some Pharisees came and tested Him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”
- Ephesians 5:28–31
In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
- Mark 10:6–12
However, from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’
- Romans 7:2
For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.
- 1 Peter 3:1–7
Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your husbands, so that even if they refuse to believe the word, they will be won over without words by the behavior of their wives
- Matthew 19:3–9
Through
Ephesians 5:28In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
it leads to
- Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her
- Matthew 19:5
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’?
- Genesis 2:21–24
So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he slept, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the area with flesh.
- Ephesians 5:25
Where this verse is studied
About Mark
This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Bede, On the Gospel of Mark; Bede, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; GK Chesterton, The Superstition of Divorce, Ch. 1; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Mark (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); Jacob of Serugh, HOMILIES; John Calvin, Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.6.3; Tertullian, TO HIS WIFE 2.8 and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Mark.