Some of the thoughts seem to make sense on one level, but does that invalidate the thought conveyed by the more "traditional" translation. Just because the bible (in the ESV) doesn't explicitly state that God hates divorce, isn't that the thrust of other passages?
Deuteronomy 24:1-4
“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.God sets out some of the laws the Israelites were to follow regarding this subject and this expresses the grave nature of such a decision. Were I eugene peterson, I might word it thusly:
You better be 100% sure that you don't want anything to do with this woman anymore. If you make up some excuse about her purity and she marries some other guy - forget about her! She's off limits. If you try and take her back, God detests that foolishness!Jesus takes things a step further (or back a few steps, as I prefer to regard it) in Matthew 19:3-9:
And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”Far too often, christians today get caught up in looking for an acceptable cause for divorce and remarriage and they totally miss the point of Jesus' answer in this passage. The question is - "Can a man get a divorce for any reason." Jesus answers - "No."
He goes further in saying that this law which was from the beginning is that one man and one woman are to leave the families they grew up with, become united in their new family and to not break this covenantal bond. It is only because of the hardness of the hearts of the Israelite nation that Moses (interestingly, not God - at least explicitly) allowed divorce, but God never intended to be this way!
Since I am not a Hebrew scholar (i'm stuck with contemporary languages like French, German, and some Italian and Gaelic) I can't comment on the technical and qualitative accuracy of the ESV translation over the others. I will say this in closing: That passage (in the ESV) still teaches God's disdain for divorce even though it isn't expressly stated. Further, it illustrates the type of heart one must have to participate in such an action.
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I realize that I have not addressed all areas of the typical MDR debate, but that wasn't my intention. I will add as an aside that Jesus does offer an exception in that when a spouse breaks their vows of fidelity the other would be approved to remarry, but Jesus still holds to the fact that God does NOT WANT divorce, period.
Fire away!
A M E N !!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou observations brought to mind the striking scene of Matt. 17, where Moses and Elijah are presented talking with Jesus. God makes clear that we are to hear Jesus vs. Moses or Elijah. Whatever "Moses gave" is no longer relevant and Jesus' conditions for divorce now stand alone as the only authority. Divorce is only authorized if porneia has been committed.
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