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The Gospel Prohibition of Divorce: Tradition History and Meaning

Trinity College, Stoke Hill, Bristol BS9 1JP

Each of the present Gospel forms of the tradition of Jesus' words prohibiting divorce (Mt. 5.32; Mk 10.11-12; Lk. 16.18) is a natural development of a single original form which (1) lacked the exception clause (which probably arose in a Jewish Christian context where adultery was understood as causing the total destruction of a marriage, and which in any case represents a re-formulation of the moral vision of Jesus for practical implementation as a rule of life); (2) included the man's remarriage as an essential part of the action being criticized (this is where the adultery against the former wife takes place); and (3) contained a form of the second clause about marrying a divorced women which is to be understood as referring to a woman who has deliberately precipitated a divorce from her husband in order to contract a more desirable liason. This original is traced to the historical Jesus.

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