{"id":37394,"date":"2013-02-27T20:15:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-28T02:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=37394"},"modified":"2021-08-24T20:18:38","modified_gmt":"2021-08-25T01:18:38","slug":"is-divorce-only-allowed-during-the-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-divorce-only-allowed-during-the-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Is divorce only allowed during the engagement?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

Regarding\u00a0How could a woman in an adulterous marriage have the right to remarry after a divorce?<\/a>\u00a0I believe there is something very important you are missing. Matthew was written to a\u00a0Jewish<\/em>\u00a0readership, Mark and Luke were written for a\u00a0Gentile<\/em> readership. As you know from the nativity story, Joseph was betrothed to Mary. Their marriage had not yet been consummated. The word fornication means sex before marriage, adultery is a different word. All Jesus is saying in Matthew is that if you find out after betrothal but before consummation that the other party is cheating, then you can break it off and marry someone else. Gentiles didn’t do betrothal like the Jews (the Jews needed a divorce to get out of the betrothal) that is why Mark and Luke do not mention this get-out clause in their gospel, it did not apply to the Gentile situation. In other words, once you consummate a marriage –\u00a0that’s it<\/em>\u00a0– you are in it for life, together or separated – but never remarried.<\/p>\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n\n

God is clear that in the New Testament Law, there are no separate laws for Jews and Greeks. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus<\/em>” (Galatians 3:28). An argument based on a claim that rules for Gentiles are different from Jews is false.<\/p>\n

Fornication means sex outside of marriage. It is not always limited to sex before marriage.\u00a0 For example, the man having sex with his stepmother in I Corinthians 5:1 is called fornication, but since she was a married woman it would also be adultery. For definitions of words related to sex from legitimate sources, see Notes on Sex<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The context of Matthew 19:4-6 shows that marriage is under discussion, not engagement.<\/p>\n

Evidence that divorce can take place during a marriage is shown in Paul’s quote of the Lord: “Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife<\/em>” (I Corinthians 7:10-11), though the divorce being discussed here does not allow for remarriage.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: Regarding\u00a0How could a woman in an adulterous marriage have the right to remarry after a divorce?\u00a0I believe there is something very important you are missing. Matthew was written to a\u00a0Jewish\u00a0readership, Mark and Luke were written for a\u00a0Gentile readership. As you know from the nativity story, Joseph was betrothed to Mary. Their marriage had not…<\/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":[167,662],"class_list":["post-37394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-divorce","tag-engagement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":43526,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-matthew-199-only-refer-to-fornication-prior-to-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":37394,"position":0},"title":"Does Matthew 19:9 only refer to fornication prior to marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I am confused about your definition of porneia in Mathew 5:32 and Matthew 19:9. In your answer to the question \"My wife is leaving me after only seven months of marriage. Where does this leave me?\" you said that: \"One of the reasons for the divorce has to\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":32449,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-does-matthew-mention-the-exception-to-divorce-but-mark-and-luke-dont\/","url_meta":{"origin":37394,"position":1},"title":"Why does Matthew mention the exception to divorce but Mark and Luke don’t?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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":37394,"position":2},"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":31147,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-fornication-include-adultery-or-are-people-only-looking-for-another-way-out-of-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":37394,"position":3},"title":"Does fornication include adultery, or are people only looking for another way out of marriage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 22, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I emailed you before regarding marriage and divorce and remarriage. I must admit I emailed hastily before reading your entire view on this. After reading more, I agree with most of what you said on this highly debated topic of the Bible. As a new Christian and one that\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":4181,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-only-reason-polygamy-is-condemned-is-because-the-church-condemns-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":37394,"position":4},"title":"The only reason polygamy is condemned is because the church condemns it.","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I believe that every word in Scripture is there for a reason. I don't think God plays around with the words in Scripture unless there's a good reason to do so. With that said, have you ever wondered why Matthew 19 is the only quotation of Jesus that includes\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":38902,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-a-jew-had-divorced-and-married-another-prior-to-jesus-death-would-he-have-to-put-away-his-new-wife-before-being-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":37394,"position":5},"title":"If a Jew had divorced and married another prior to Jesus’ death, would he have to put away his new wife before being baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you for taking my question. If there had been Jewish men on the day of Pentecost who had previously given their original wives a Bill of Divorcement and were now married to other women, would they have to put away the new wives before they were baptized? Thank\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\/37394","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=37394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}