Episode Details

Jesus corrects the practice of the Jews regarding divorce instituted by Moses during his time. Husbands were permitted to write a document of dismissal to bid away his wife. This was never done the other way around. Our Lord clarifies the marriage institution. Absolute divorce is repudiated and rejected as a possibility for validly married spouses. What is permitted in present Church practice in handling spouses endangered by their respective spouses in terms of bodily or spiritual harm or adultery, is separation with no possibility to marry again. Jesus cites an exception to this law. People could divorce whenever unchastity is involved, like fornication. The Greek term employed denotes sexual perversion. This was rampant in pagan environments that people married very close kin and siblings or first degree cousins. So, what our Lord was saying that such unions of impediment bearing spouses were not valid marriages. Therefore, they were not under the law Jesus was clarifying now. There was no marriage in the first place because of serious impediments.