Last time, we discussed the significance of Exodus 21:9-11 on the discussion of a Biblical view of divorce. We noticed that the text provides the bare minimum standards for a marriage for the lowest level of citizenry in Israel. If those standards were not upheld, the woman had the right to end the marriage and go free. Today we take a look at the next text in our Old Testaments that deals with divorce. This time, we turn to Deuteronomy to look at an extremely important case law which Jesus was later questioned about specifically.
Deuteronomy 24:1-4
In Deuteronomy 24 we are presented with the unfortunate case of a woman who will be divorced multiple times, and a former husband that might seek to gain from this situation. To understand the complexity of this marriage, we need to abandon our cultural norms and embrace the norms of ancient the Ancient Near East (ANE for short), and ancient Israel in order to properly understand this text.
In most of the ANE, woman had no property rights at all. The famous Code of Hammurabi is a great example of the standard laws of the ANE, and shows pretty clearly that women in that culture were often considered as property of a man, with almost no discussion of them actually owning property themselves.
Now let’s consider the ramifications of such a worldview, setting aside for a moment the obvious lack of value this places on half of God’s image. Suppose a man goes away to war and isn’t seen again for quite a long time…years even. If his wife remarries another man, and later the original husband returns, his wife would still be considered his property. All the man would have to do is claim her back, claim any children she’s had in the meantime, and resume life as he sees fit. This is obviously a horrible situation for everyone involved to even have to consider, and yet it was the standard ANE situation when it came to marriage. Some unscrupulous men even manipulated this system for their advantage. This is why Deuteronomy 24 is so drastically different in ancient Israel. Let’s look at the text.
24:1 If a man marries a woman and she does not please him because he has found something offensive in her, then he may draw up a divorce document, give it to her, and evict her from his house. 24:2 When she has left him she may go and become someone else’s wife. 24:3 If the second husband rejects her and then divorces her, gives her the papers, and evicts her from his house, or if the second husband who married her dies, 24:4 her first husband who divorced her is not permitted to remarry her after she has become ritually impure, for that is offensive to the LORD. You must not bring guilt on the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
Dt 24:1–4, Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005).
The “why” and “How” of divorce and Remarriage
The first thing we need to consider here is the “why” of this divorce. This has often been interpreted as being some sort of adulterous situation, however that’s not directly what the text states. The punishment for adultery was death in Israel, so there would be no need to figure out a divorce as the death penalty would obviously end the marriage. The Hebrew phrase is ערות דבר (ʿervat davar), with a literal translation of “nakedness of a matter.” The phrase has caused much debate in Jewish circles, both in ancient times and today. What everyone seems to agree on, however, is this phrase would certainly describe some sort of sexual impropriety, without necessarily being adultery. This could be a situation like Jesus and the woman at the well, which was completely innocent but could have caused people to talk and make accusations (note the call for the husband in John 4:16). In other cases, it could be dressing in appropriately, or having non-sexual yet still emotional relationships with other men. The point is, there is something in the woman’s actions that a husband would have reasonable grounds to protest. If these actions persisted, the husband would have a legitimate reason to end the marriage.
Pay careful attention to verse 2, because it is clear that remarriage of divorced persons was perfectly acceptable in ancient Israel. The verse does not qualify this statement, nor does it put provisions on what caused the divorce, or who was at fault, or any of the other stipulations many Christians like to add to conversations about remarriage after divorce. The text simply says that once the divorce is complete (she has left him), then she is free to go and marry again. Even when the woman is at fault, she is free to marry again, plain and simple. So simple in fact that there’s the possibility/expectation of her to marry a third time after her second divorce or being widowed (24:4).
There’s also information to be gathered from the way the divorce is carried out. 24:3 above uses the phrase “gives her the papers”, but I much prefer NIV’s clear rendering of “certificate of divorce.” This practice was highly unusual in the ANE, so much so that it seems this practice of providing a certificate of divorce for a woman was unique to Israel. In every Israelite marriage, a certificate was part of the ceremony (much like today), but this certificate spelled out what was required in the marriage. Examples of these certificates were found along with the Scriptures known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, and they contained the language of Exodus 21. These stipulations were written on a certificate, and given to the bride who kept it safe because this was her freedom if the marriage should go poorly. If her husband mistreated her, she would petition the husband or the town elders and give witness to the neglect. If it was clear that the accusations were valid, and the woman wanted to leave the marriage, then she was issued a certificate of divorce, a right that very few women in the ancient world could claim. The language would read “you are free to marry any man you wish,” and provided safety for the woman and any future husband, knowing a former husband could not reclaim them at some point in the future after abandoning them.
Why Not Remarry Here?
So why can the first husband not remarry his former wife here? After all, the woman is “free to marry any man” she would wish, except for her first husband in the example. Wouldn’t we hope they could patch things up and get back together? It seems like the Lord has a different view of the situation, calling it “offensive” and citing that guilt will be brought on the land. Notice this is not said about remarriage in general, but only in reference to remarriage to the original spouse (something that a number of churches teach as exactly what should happen, but I digress).
So why not remarry the first husband? A couple of suggestions have been put forward as to why, but in honesty the text isn’t clear on this matter. What is clear is this particular remarriage should not happen. One ANE law scholar, Raymond Westbrook, believed this situation has to do with the dowry, or bride-price. The theory is that if the original husband knew there was “something offensive” about this woman, remarrying her would be under false pretenses just to claim a second dowry from her before sending her away again. The point of Westbrook’s theory is that this law protects the rights of the woman.
Another scholar, Dr. David Instone-Brewer, cites the Shiite practice of mut’ah marriage. It does seem that there was at least some version of this practice carried out in the ANE, and seems to me to be a reasonable possibility of what Deuteronomy 24 seeks to forbid. If this is the case, once again this law would be designed to protect the rights of the woman. Here’s a description from the Wikipedia article linked above.
According to Shia Muslims, Muhammad sanctioned nikah mut’ah (fixed-term marriage, called muta’a in Iraq and sigheh in Iran), which has instead been used as a legitimizing cover for sex workers in a culture where prostitution is otherwise forbidden. Some Western writers have argued that mut’ah approximates prostitution.
Wikipedia entry for “nikah mut’ah,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikah_mut%27ah
Several other suggestions have been put forth, but what is clear in every theory is that this law that forbids remarrying the original husband seeks to protect the woman. In a sense, this law reminds Israel that marriage is a serious endeavor and to treat it flippantly as a possible on again/off again affair is an offense to the Lord.
Marriage is fine. Divorce is fine. Jumping back and forth between the two and degrading the value of marriage is not fine.
Jesus and Deuteronomy 24
For now I’d like to return to the debate over the phrase ערות דבר (ʿervat davar). The NIV’s translation of “something indecent” is helpful here to understand the debate among rabbi’s in Jesus’ day. Both those who followed Hillel and Shammai accepted Exodus 21:10, and taught their disciples exactly what an appropriate amount of clothing, food, and marital rights would constitute a legitimate marriage. When we come to Deuteronomy 24, however, these two famed teachers of Scripture disagreed greatly. The Shammaites believed that Deuteronomy 24 dealt with a case of sexual indiscretion on the part of the woman as discussed above.
The Hillelites viewed this passage differently, separating the phrase ‘ervat davar into two separate items. To borrow the NIV again, Hillelites believed the text provided two valid reasons for the divorce—”something indecent” was interpreted to allow divorce for “indecent” actions, and “something.” What this would mean was if the woman acted indecently, then you could divorce her. Additionally, if she did “something” you didn’t like, such as forgetting to add onions to your scrambled eggs, then you could divorce her. Essentially, the Hillelites championed the “any cause divorce” from this passage, and by the time of Jesus’ ministry, this was the most prevalent cause of divorce in Israel.
Matthew 19 as Commentary on Deuteronomy 24
We will cover Matthew 19 in depth in a later post, but it is important to note the context of a Jesus’ comments there as a discussion about what Deuteronomy 24 allows. Consider the question Jesus is asked by the Pharisees.
Then some Pharisees came to him in order to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful to divorce a wife for any cause?”
Mt 19:3, Biblical Studies Press, The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible (Biblical Studies Press, 2005).
The reason this discussion of “any cause” divorce would be interesting to the Pharisees is because it was the most common form of divorce in the Roman world of the first century. It was common among Gentiles, and even among the Hillelite followers in Judea. Because the question is a direct quote of the Hillelite interpretation of Deuteronomy 24, Jesus’ remarks need to be interpreted in light of his response to their question. In other words, Jesus is not offering commentary on Exodus 21, or Deuteronomy 21 or 22, or Malachi 2, or Jeremiah 3, or any other discussion of divorce in the Old Testament. He’s being asked about the Deuteronomy 24 interpretation of allowing divorce for “any cause”, and Jesus’ response is a resounding “no.” In Jesus’ interpretation, Deuteronomy 24 does not permit divorce for “any and every reason.”
Summary of Biblical Divorce in Deuteronomy 24
- Deuteronomy 24 assumes legitimate reasons for the divorces mentioned.
- Marriages in Israel could end based upon ערות דבר (ʿervat davar), with a literal translation of “nakedness of a matter.”
- Jesus interpreted this text to refer to sexual indecency, and not “any cause” like the Hillelite school. According to Jesus, Deuteronomy 24 does not provide grounds for “any and every reason” or “any cause” divorces. There are legitimate reasons for divorce, but a divorce is not valid unless one of these Biblical standards are met (more on this in future posts).
- In the case of divorce, the party at fault (in this case the woman) as well as the wronged party (in this case the man) could both marry again without qualification once the divorce was completed (24:2, 4).
- The woman must be given a certificate of divorce in order to protect her rights to marry again. This was a right that was unique to Israel. Even if the woman was at fault in the original marriage, she was free to remarry another man.
- Deuteronomy 24 places no limits on remarriage (three potential marriages are illustrated).
- The only restriction on remarriage is for the original husband remarrying his ex wife. This is strictly forbidden, and is done most likely to protect the rights of the woman.
Next time, we will look at Ezra/Nehemiah in light of Malachi 2.
Living in the Word 