Is It Lawful to Divorce? Matthew 19:3-8; 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 Ps Paw Liang What are some stories of divorce have you encountered? What do you think? Should the couples restore their marriages? Should they dissolve? Why? To understand Jesus’ teaching, first we need to understand the context. In the ancient Jewish culture only the husband could divorce their wives. But in the Hellenistic culture both parties could call off their marriages. Divorces were very common. There were two school of thoughts in the Jewish communities: 1. Conservative’s View –Shimmai was a bit more cautious. They taught a husband could divorce the wife if there was a sexual infidelity. 2. Liberal’s View—Hillel; husbands could divorce their wives for some simple reasons eg the wife burnt the bread, etc. Jesus is much stricter than the Jewish’s customs. He refers to God’s ideal of marriage. Marriage is a covenant relationship. God’s ideal for this covenant is for life. But, because of humans
Paw Liang's Blog