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| D-I-V-O-R-C-E |
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How Many Divorces Did Jesus Allow? This subject is interesting when an aggressive Christian gets a little too politically 'wound up', whether on abortion, gay people, or giving money to lazy poor people. Why? Well, if you use Paul as a measure of 'Jesus-knowledge', divorce was one of only TWO messiah-policies that Paul thought important enough to mention (the other being money for Paul). So, why is that important? Divorce in the NT is AT BEST only for adultery (see below). So as the conservative Christians discuss the Supremes (Court), babies, and the nasty dems, what's their position on divorce? Where Jesus ignores the current political hot-topics in his short time on earth, he DIDN'T forget divorce. That would explain why today's Christians are marching out in front of the lawyers' divorce clinics, tossing random bombs at lawyer's homes, demanding lawyers explain to potential divorcees that divorce ends marriage(!), and demanding legislators and court justices be removed for supporting divorce (plus, of course the constitutional amendment in support of perminent marriage). Do you see (again) the curiousness of Christian behavior? I am enchanted with the sanctity of marriage vs 'gays', instead of the more obvious 'divorce'. My guess is that the broad majority of Christians ACCEPT divorce. Jesus was just kidding! While John McCain had ignomiously dumped Carol McCain, his first wife, the REAL question was his position on abortion. Right? Yes, but did Jesus REALLY ban divorce? The background was the jewish Torah, which allowed a husband to give his wife a 'writ of divorce' (Deu 24:1-4), effectively authorizing her re-marriage. Jesus demurred, saying that divorce was a compromise from Moses, and from the time of creation was 'not so' (Mar 10:4). The disciples were shocked, given the absolute prohibition. Luke (Luke 16:18) confirms that men can't dump their wives. And Paul and Mark (1 Cor 7:10; Mar 10:12) confirm that women can't dump their husbands either (darn it). Matthew worries about the husbands, but can't handle the all-or-nothing demand, qualifying it with an exception of a wife's adultery (Mat 5:31, and also 19:7). Whew. I don't know about you, but a baby by the wrong father IS bad! Now, if you read the Jesus quotes carefully, it is not altogether clear exactly what the problem REALLY is. The various manuscripts bounce around, seeming to suggest the issue is the hubby causing 'adultery' by the little wife. So, I'd assume if you can convince your wife not to have any more sex, you're safe to divorce? Paul does, though, seem to 'ok' dumping any non-believing spouses, using that critical non-Jesus-ian 'if' clause. But going back to the original point, the Bibical 'sanctity of marriage' quotes by Christians surrounds 'divorce'! Well now, WHO would have thought? The Christians? OK, but how many divorces DID Jesus allow (recognizing he was probably kidding about NO divorce)? Well, for that question, we must turn to John 4:18 and the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. This story has SO many great Jesus teachings in it, almost all carefully ignored by the Christians. One of the oddities is that the lady had married five husbands, and was working on her 6th (see NOTE below). Clearly the local village was not real happy about this, since she was ALONE at the well (but then, so was Jesus). Jesus doesn't seem to be uncomfortable with all those ex-husbands, mainly demonstrating his unusual knowledgeability (maybe those 5 wedding rings, plus an engagement ring?) . So, given the long Christian tradition of ignoring the obvious, I'd say women can have at least FIVE divorces. Why? Well, duh, he didn't explicitly condemn her, so at least five must be OK. Hello? NOTES: The text for the woman with five husbands is actually NOT clear on whether (a) she's a widow five times, (b) she married five men who didn't like her, (c) she didn't like them or (d) a combination of causes. Actually, having a series of dead husbands isn't that unbelievable. Bernice, jewish sister of Agrippa II in Acts, had two dead husbands before she was 20, and left her third one, eventually 'dating' Titus (roman general who destroyed Jerusalem). So, it's entirely possible Jesus was chatting with a very unlucky woman! You'd never guess that from the commentaries, though. Bad girl, bad girl!! Interestingly, Matthew's divorce exception for infidelity was similar to Rabbi Shammai, who centered in Jerusalem in that period. I'd really hate to think Rabbi Shammai over-ruled Rabbi Jesus! Rabbis Hillel and Akiba had no such limitation. Dump the dames, gosh darn it! Give 'em the writ! |
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