Mark 10:4 Commentary and Bible Study

He wants them to quote the passage and they do: ‘And they said, Moses suffered’. That word ‘suffered’ is very important. Even the Pharisees understood this, that this was not the law, the original law of God. This was what God permitted because of sin to protect the innocent. ‘They said, Moses suffered [permitted, allowed] to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away.’But they only quote part of this, and they kind of avoid his question. They quote the part that said what Moses allowed them to do, but not the grounds on which they were allowed to do it. Deuteronomy 24 was the great statement of the Mosaic law on the subject of divorce. There was a twofold statement, and it was along these lines: ‘When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes’, and then there is a second statement joined to it, ‘because he hath found some uncleanness in her’, that is to say, adultery – she has betrayed him; she has committed adultery – then a certificate of the divorce can be issued. Now that was Moses. That was the Mosaic law. But what Jewish tradition had done is they had picked on the first phrase – ‘and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes’ – and said, ‘There you are: divorce, for any reason’, and they ignored the second statement, ‘because he hath found some uncleanness in her’, because she has betrayed him, because she has committed adultery. They left that out, and they just took the opening statement without the qualifying statements, and they said you can divorce for any reason. Well, Christ refuted that: ‘No you can't. It must be on the grounds of betrayal and adultery.’