Why is the exception clause “except it be for fornication” in Matthew 19:8 regarding the teaching of Jesus on divorce and remarriage not included in Mark’s account of this teaching (Mark 10:2-10) or in Luke’s account (Luke 16:18)?<\/p>\n\t
Each gospel account was written to different audiences with different purposes. None give a complete account of what Jesus did while on earth because as John points out, “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen<\/em>” (John 21:25). With such a wealth of information, each author with the guidance of the Holy Spirit selected the best subset for their target audience. Matthew appears to be aimed at the Jews. Mark was written for the Romans. Luke was also aimed at Gentiles, with the Greeks particularly in mind. John was written for Christians.<\/p>\n While there are overlaps, the repetition is minimal. If something is discussed in detail in one account, it may only be mentioned lightly in another. It appears that the Holy Spirit planned to keep each book as small as necessary by relying on the fact that you can get the details in at least one book.<\/p>\n So Matthew did mention the exception clause twice (Matthew 5:32 and Matthew 19:9). This was a subject being debated by the Jews and it was of particular importance to that audience. Mark and Luke mention the general rule because their audiences were not interested in parsing the Law of Moses. It was more important to get the main rule across to the Gentiles: Marriage is for life! You will notice that John doesn’t even bother mentioning the discussions about divorce because this ought to be less of an issue for Christians who already know Christ’s teachings about marriage.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Why is the exception clause “except it be for fornication” in Matthew 19:8 regarding the teaching of Jesus on divorce and remarriage not included in Mark’s account of this teaching (Mark 10:2-10) or in Luke’s account (Luke 16:18)? Answer: Each gospel account was written to different audiences with different purposes. None give a complete…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[167,606,690,121,708],"class_list":["post-32449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-divorce","tag-gospels","tag-luke","tag-mark","tag-matthew"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":54554,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-please-explain-why-mark-and-luke-dont-contradict-matthew-about-remarriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":32449,"position":0},"title":"Can you please explain why Mark and Luke don’t contradict Matthew about remarriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can you please explain why Mark and Luke don't contradict Matthew about remarriage? Matthew records the porneia exception, but Mark and Luke reject all exceptions. Answer: You are making an assumption that because something is not mentioned that it is a rejection. That is not true. All you can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53407,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/matthew-was-written-for-the-jews-so-the-law-on-marriage-and-divorce-only-applies-to-the-jews\/","url_meta":{"origin":32449,"position":1},"title":"Matthew was written for the Jews, so the law on marriage and divorce only applies to the Jews","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was taught that you have to look at who's talking and who they are talking to. In Matthew 19, Jesus was talking to the Jews, and the Law of Moses was given to the Jews and not the Gentiles, even though Matthew is a New Testament book, so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44034,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wasnt-luke-a-disciple-of-paul\/","url_meta":{"origin":32449,"position":2},"title":"Wasn’t Luke a disciple of Paul?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Wasn't Luke a disciple of Paul and not Jesus though he did follow Jesus. So were the other three gospels were written even later because Luke didn't come in the picture till 30-40 years after our Lord's death. Answer: Luke is never described as being a disciple of Paul.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54549,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/respecting-silence\/","url_meta":{"origin":32449,"position":3},"title":"Respecting Silence","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Mark 10:46-52 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What do you do when witnesses to an event give two different sets of details? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Matthew 28:1-7 mentions an angel rolling away the stone blocking the entrance and sitting upon the stone. The angel talks to the women when they get to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13300,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-it-take-35-40-years-to-write-the-gospels\/","url_meta":{"origin":32449,"position":4},"title":"Why did it take 35-40 years to write the Gospels?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 18, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What was the reason for John, Mark, Luke, and Matthew writing their gospels? Why did it take 35-40 years after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus to begin to write the gospels or the rest of the New Testament? Answer: As for the purpose of the gospel accounts, see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45631,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-no-proof-who-really-wrote-the-four-gospels\/","url_meta":{"origin":32449,"position":5},"title":"Is there no proof who really wrote the four gospels?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What evidence do we have that the four gospels were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? I hear a lot of people saying they were anonymous, and we have no proof they were written by the people whose names are given to them. Answer: To claim there is\u00a0no\u00a0evidence\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}