Mark 10:2-10

Jesus Firmly Establishes The Creation Ordinance of Marriage and Rejects Divorce As Contrary To God's Purpose (10:2-10).

As Jesus was conducting a teaching ministry it was inevitable that Pharisees would soon attach themselves to the crowd (although if we accept some manuscripts the questioners were unidentified). These may have been different Pharisees from those that He had previously encountered (they were spread all over Palestine), and while they came to test His quality we need not assume that they were particularly hostile, at least to begin with, although it is possible that the subject of their question was with the hope of getting Him to condemn Herod as John had done, in which case their hostility would be apparent.

What Jesus is questioned about is divorce, but as we read on in the narrative it becomes clear that, while the Pharisees are totally wrapped up in the question of divorce, Jesus wishes to turn their question round and make a solemn pronouncement on the sacredness and permanence of marriage under the Kingly Rule of God, while at the same time giving an authoritative answer to their question which sweeps aside the decisions on the subject which had been made by prominent Rabbis.

Analysis.

a And there came to Him Pharisees, and asked Him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? Testing Him And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?” And they said, “Moses allowed the writing of a certificate of divorce, and to put her away (Mark 10:2).

b But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment, but from the beginning of the creation, ‘Male and female made He them' ” (Mark 10:5).

c For this reason shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh, so that they are no more two, but one flesh (Mark 10:7).

b What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate (Mark 10:9).

a And in the house the disciples asked Him again of this matter, and He says to them, “Whoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, commits adultery against her, and if she herself shall put away her husband, and marry another, she commits adultery” (Mark 10:10).

Note that in ‘a' the Pharisees ask Him about putting away a wife, and in the parallel the disciples ask Him about it, and declares that a man shall not put away his wife. In ‘b' He reminds them that God made man as male and female, and in the parallel He says that what God has joined together man must not separate. Centrally in ‘c' He declares the basic creation ordinance concerning the unique oneness of a man and a woman who have been married, a oneness which must not be broken because it is of God.