Matthew 5:32

One of the most common translations is that the permissible rule for divorce should be translated as adultery or marital unfaithfulness. Protestant churches have traditionally read πορνείας/porneia as adultery. [1]

At the time of first century Iudaea Province, Pharisaic Judaism was divided between two major groups. The dominant teaching was that of Hillel, who taught that divorce could be granted on a wide array of grounds, even because a wife burnt a dinner. Shammai took a more conservative opinion, arguing that only adultery was valid grounds for divorce.[2] The most accept theory of the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are that they are based upon a single writer whose original verse is that of Mark, with Matthew being the most intended to communicate with the Jewish community. Some scholars feel that in Matthew 5:32 Jesus is endorsing the view of Shammai over Hillel, and arguing for the adultery only rule.

Some scholars feel that under the liberal divorce policy of Hillel men had been marrying woman and then casually divorcing them after they lost interest, deeply injuring the women. In this era a woman had few legal rights, a divorce could endanger a woman's very survival. Thus some have read Jesus' teachings here as a defence of the rights of the downtrodden wives. Feminist scholar Levine rejects this view. She notes that in this era elaborate prenuptial agreements were negotiated prior to every marriage, and that they invariably included steep financial penalties, known as ketubah, paid by the husband in case of divorce, guaranteeing the wife financial well being even in case of divorce.[3]

Other scholars take the opposite view to the argument that Matthew was adding more detail than the other gospels for his more Jewish audience, arguing that the exception was not mentioned in the other Gospels because it was so obvious as to be implicit to contemporary readers. Leviticus 20:10 makes clear the punishment for adultery is death, so to Jesus's Jewish audience it would be assumed that adultery meant that the marriage would be over. While at the time of Jesus, and in modern societies, capital punishment is not imposed for adultery several scholars still feel the death sentence is important.[4] Martin Luther argued that since in the eyes of God an adulterer was dead, their spouse was free to remarry. More evidence for this view comes from Genesis 2:24, which makes clear that the sexual act permanently joins two individuals, so adultery can be understood to have created a new bond erasing the old one.

Another view is that the exception is not a part of Jesus's teaching, but rather a comment indicating that adultery automatically led to divorce under the law of the time, and that Jesus may very well have disagreed with this law. Instone-Brewer sees no evidence that this is how the law worked in that era, however.[5]

Following their reading of the verse, Protestant churches give prominence to the Gospel of Matthew over Mark and Luke and accepted adultery as a valid grounds for divorce. They also often believe that an innocent divorcee can freely remarry afterwards. That adultery is a valid reason for divorce is the standard Protestant position. This interpretation was first advanced by Desiderius Erasmus,[6] and received the backing of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and most other major Protestant thinkers.

For many centuries there was debate over this issue in the Roman Catholic Church. Major thinkers such as St. Augustine supporting adultery as the valid reason given in this verse for divorce.[7] However, at the Council of Trent in 1563 the indissolubility of marriage was added to the canon law. Since that day Catholic doctrine has been that divorce is unacceptable, but the separation of spouses can be permitted.

The main argument against this translation is that Matthew has just been discussing adultery in the previous antithesis, and there used the specific term μοιχεύσεις/moicheia, rejecting the vaguer πορνείας/porneia.

Some translators believe that this verse means divorce is allowed on greater grounds than just adultery. Swiss reformers Huldrych Zwingli and Heinrich Bullinger both read porneia as referring to all manner of marital immorality, including spousal abuse and abandonment. British Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who served under King Henry VIII, listed a considerable number of valid reasons for divorce, but this never became standard Anglican doctrine. The Church of England instead took a far more restrictive view, and adultery was one of the only legal reasons for divorce in Britain up to the twentieth century. The same was true in many parts of the British Empire and the United States.[8]

Many mainline Protestants churches have accepted a broader translation of porneia than just adultery, and now support a wide array of valid reasons for divorce. One modern view is that, since throughout the Sermon on the Mount Jesus condemns the excessive legalism of his day, delineating specific views of divorce from the exact wording of a piece of scripture should be rejected. Several major churches today believe that rules for divorce should be set to best advance Jesus's overarching goals of love and justice, rather than a legalistic interpretation of his words.

The Orthodox Church has also recognized this verse as permitting divorce for adultery and other reasons, such as spousal abuse, abandonment, and apostasy. In Eastern Orthodox practice, churches are to allow penitential remarriage up to two times after a divorce.[9] A first marriage is celebrated, a second performed, a third tolerated, and a fourth prohibited.

The official Catholic position remains that there are no valid reasons for divorce, and a number of methods for reconciling this with Matthew's exception have been proposed. One is that the other synoptics do not mention the exception could be because it only refers to very obscure circumstances. Some read it as referring specifically to marriages that, while permissible under pagan religions, such as those between blood relations, were illegal under Jewish and Christian law.

According to Bruce Metzger's Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, commentary on the Apostolic Decree of the Council of Jerusalem: "it is possible ... (fornication means) marriage within the prohibited Levitical degrees (Leviticus 18:6–18), which the rabbis described as "forbidden for porneia," or mixed marriages with pagans (Numbers 25:1; also compare 2 Corinthians 6:14), or participation in pagan worship which had long been described by Old Testament prophets as spiritual adultery and which, in fact, offered opportunity in many temples for religious prostitution".

Another reading is that the exception refers to the rules surrounding the Jewish betrothal ritual, linking this to Matthew 1:19, and has no relevance to the modern world.

• Davies, W.D.; Allison, Dale C., Jr. (1988–1997). A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.
• Instone-Brewer, David (2002). Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible: The Social and Literary Context. Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans.