Another situation
Christians fall into. we read from the Bible, the supposed inspired words of
God, two different legal approach when divorcing one’s wife. Let’s us first
read the two rulings given in each book, i.e. the Old Testament and New
Testament, before we make any commentary.
"Suppose a man marries a woman but she does not please
him. Having discovered something wrong with her, he writes her a letter of
divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house. (Deuteronomy 24:1)
"It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must
give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say that a man who divorces
his wife, unless she has been unfaithful, causes her to commit adultery. And
anyone who marries a divorced woman also commits adultery. (Matthew 5:31-32)
Now reading
the above two rulings seems to contradict each other. It is clear from the Book
of Deuteronomy, if a man marries a woman who later doesn’t please him, then he
can give her a letter of divorce and send her away. Here’s a commentary found
in the Jewish oral Law :
Talmud
A
man may divorce his wife if she has merely spoiled a dish for him, He may also
divorce her even if he simply finds another woman more beautiful than she"
(Gittin
90a-b).
This is very interesting, if a wife
merely spoils the dish of her husband, then he can divorce her. For a Jew, this
is God’s command to his people. No Jew will reject or challenge such a command
from his Lord. Let’s move on to the New Testament, the supposed sayings of Jesus.
It is unclear why Jesus of the Bible would make such an abrogation to the Law
of Moses, since Christians don’t believe in abrogation. What’s worse the Jews
who favour the Tanach (Old Testament) would never take the words of Jesus over
Yahweh.
The Old Testament is clear the commands
of Yahweh must remain and never changed.
"Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all
the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the
left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and
night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will
be prosperous and successful. (Joshua 1:7-8)
And now, Israel,
what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk
in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your
heart and with all your soul, and to
observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your
own good? (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)
These
commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit
at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)
For I command you
today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his
commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will
bless you in the land you are entering to possess. (Deuteronomy 30:16)
As we can
read the God of the Old Testament made it explicit that his commandments must
be kept no matter what. Now here’s an
interesting command which really shatters the New Testament abrogation.
You
shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep
the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you. (Deuteronomy
4:2)
You shall not add anything to the commandment God has made
clear to the children of Israel. It is crystal clear Jesus of the Bible added
his own commandment to the Law of Moses. Notice how Jesus say’s
"It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must
give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say that a man who divorces
his wife, unless she has been unfaithful, causes her to commit adultery. And
anyone who marries a divorced woman also commits adultery. (Mark 5:31-32)
It seems like Jesus wasn’t to keen about
who gave that commandment in the first place. "It has been said” is not a respectable way to address the
Jews, who believe it was God Almighty who gave that specific command. Let’s dwell
a little deeper with the supposed saying of Jesus. If any man divorces his wife
unless she has been unfaithful, causes her to commit adultery. There are many problems
with this saying. What if the woman is under constant hardship from her
husband, he mistreats her, doesn’t show her love or care for her, is she not
allowed to leave such a man. What about if the man beats her every day, does
not fulfil her desires, is she not allowed to divorce such man.
There are hundreds if not thousands of
cases, where women are subjugated by their husband. They are abused and treated
worse than animals. Now if we were to take this ruling by Jesus then we would
have a severe problem with un-happy married couples. The oppression the women would
feel would led her to commit suicide, which the Bible is silent upon. Those supposed
teachings of Jesus have no room in a real marriage situation. What about is the women hits her husband and
does not love him anymore, what if she refuses to have intimacy with him is he
allowed to divorce or not. According to the saying of Jesus no the man must suffer
just like the woman.
Another crucial
point to touch upon is, what if the woman rejects Christianity and becomes a
pagan, Is the man still allowed to divorce her yes or no? can you live with a
woman who rejects you God and openly worships another. The Old Testament is
clear they should be killed.
If your
very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly
entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that
neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from
one end of the land to the other), do not yield to them or listen to them. Show them no
pity. Do not spare them or shield them. You must
certainly put them to death. (Deuteronomy
13:6-9)
As ive mentioned
the New Testament does not prohibit the man from beating his wife, rather it focuses
on the ruling of divorce. One may ask what is the ruling on, if ones wife turns
to a pagan, are we allowed to divorce them or still remain with them? Well to
be honest the Bible i.e. the New Testament is silent on this topic. Paul does
give his own opinion:
Now, I will speak to the rest of you, though I do not have
a direct command from the Lord. If a Christian man has a wife who is not a
believer and she is willing to continue living with him, he must not leave her. (1 Corinthians 7:12)
Notice how Paul made it clear that he
did not get any direct command from the lord, rather gave his own opinion on
this issue. To understand this further
let’s refer to Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible commentary :
if any brother hath a wife that
believeth not; that is, if any man who is now a brother, one called by the
grace of God, and is in church fellowship, has a wife to whom he was married
whilst in a state of unregeneracy and infidelity; who is as she was when he
married her, entirely destitute of faith in Christ; not one that is weak in the
faith, or only makes an outward profession, but that has no faith at all in
Christ, nor in his Gospel, not so much as an historical one; who disbelieves,
denies, and rejects, the truths of the Gospel:
from above commentary we read, that if
a man whilst an unbeliever was married and then converted to Christianity,
should remain with his wife. Not that he should marry a unbeliever. Nor does it
say what should happened if both were believers in Christ and one denounced their faith and became a pagan. Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges commentary
also understands it the same way. Well saying that there is something in the
Bible i.e. New Testament which does shed some light to what should be done to a
wife if she becomes a pagan.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that
are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your
minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you
have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is
yourlife appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Put to death therefore what is earthly
in you sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness,
which is idolatry. (Colossians 3:1-5)
After explaining
who Christ is to a believer, Paul doesn’t hesitate to preach with full force on
how to make yourself perfect for the sake of Christ. One of the condition Paul puts
to a believer is, to put death all that is earthy within yourself. Now one may
wonder how does this apply on a wife who is a pagan or unbeliever? It does. We read
from the Bible both Old and New Testament
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his
mother, and be joined to his wife; and
they shall become one flesh.
(Genesis 2:24)
“But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’‘For this
reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,and the two will become one flesh.’So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined
together, let no one separate.” (Mark 10:6-9)
As you can
see according to both Books of the Bible, husband and wife become but one
flesh. They are joined together, both dwelling inside each other. If this is to
be taken metaphorically in a spiritual way then Colossians 3:5 fit in perfectly
with it. Colossians tells us put to
death what is earthly in you sexual immorality, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Put to death anything earthy in you, your wife who is part
of you as one flesh is earthy. Your passions, sexual desires for her are
earthy. Your wife who is a pagan is also earthly which means you should kill
her.
So to sum it
all up we can conclude from the Old & New Testament, that if you have a
wife who rejects your faith i.e. Judaism or Christianity then you are allowed
to kill her. Gruesome as it may sound but law is law. Old Testament is clear on
killing you wife or any family member if they worship another God, as found in Deuteronomy
13, and the New Testament is clear if you have a wife who turns to a pagan and
rejects your faith then you are also allowed to kill her as found in Colossians
3.
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Divorce
Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it
lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?” “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and
female,’ 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’ ? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore
what God has joined together, let no one separate.” “Why then,” they
asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and
send her away?” Jesus replied, “Moses
permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not
this way from the beginning. I tell
you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and
marries another woman commits adultery.” (Matthew 19:3-9)
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The above Passage which abrogates a law from
the Old Testament has more to it than you may think. Interestingly, Jesus of
the New Testament clearly tells the Pharisees that one of the Mizvot which Jews
thought was part of the “613 laws” was actually a command by Moses.
In verse 8 we read Jesus saying “Moses
permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was
not this way from the beginning."
MOSES PERMITTED YOU TO DIVORCE YOUR WIVES? How could this be
when this command is part of the 613 laws commanded by Yahweh himself?
If
a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something
indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her
and sends her from his house, (Deuteronomy 24:1)
According
to Jesus, Moses himself permitted this law, which somehow became part of the
613 laws that was spoken by Yahweh. This seems to create a problem when it
comes to the law of God as he states all his statues and laws must be obeyed.
Jesus goes one to say it’s because of their hard hearts Moses commanded such a
ruling. One wonders what other laws of
Moses has blended in with the 613 laws? This shows the Torah laws are from Man
and God mixed
