Ol’ Gene can’t imagine what it would be like not married to Cess, his beautiful bride of over half a century. But the disciples of Jesus in Matthew 19 actually said it would is better not to marry if certain conditions were true. Have you ever thought about what those conditions might be? It has to be important…no, more important than important. It has to be monumental since marriage is one of the things God ordained of humans in Genesis. So what was it that was so shocking?
Looking back in previous verses, Jesus was responding to religious leaders about marriage and divorce, and how God intended it to be. At first glance, his response appears straightforward. He mentioned that famous marriage escape clause so many have used over the centuries to divorce their spouses with, “anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality.” But that’s certainly not shocking or monumental. We have been taught (and generally accepted) that to be true. But wait, let’s remember we are not looking at what Jesus actually said, but rather someone’s translation of what he said. In the original Greek the word translated sexual immorality is porneia. And porneia is a word with several meanings, only one of which is sexual immorality. Translators of our Bibles had to pick one of the meanings so they choose sexual immorality. But another equally viable word they could have chosen is “incest,” marriage between close relatives. That choice would have been supported with Jesus’ listeners since in Leviticus (Torah) incest is considered to be an illegal marriage—a marriage not recognized by God as legitimate. It would have also been in-line with the trapping questions that were presented to Jesus by religious leaders. Remember that John the Baptist had been recently executed for speaking publically against King Herod’s incestuous marriage.
Hmmm. Now there’s a thought. So Jesus could have been saying “if a man divorces his wife for any reason other than discovering she is a relative,” that would surely shock the disciples. It would mean there are no biblical grounds for a divorce at all—and that “what God has joined together, let no one separate” is not a contradiction. Even if one’s spouse was out cheating on him, he could not divorce her and be in right-standing before God. That could easily have resulted in his disciples saying “if this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”
O dear! Do you realize the ramifications of the incest interpretation? It would mean the escape clause has not been an escape clause after all. And that all the divorces in the past 2,000 years are null and void. People are still married in God's eyes to their living first spouses. Maybe that is why Jesus went on to say “not everyone can accept this word.”
We had better stop dwelling on this subject else we end up as shocked as the disciples.
Until next time,
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