Dake Bible Discussion BoardDivorce and Remarriage - is it Biblical!

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bibleman
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Divorce and Remarriage - is it Biblical!

Post by bibleman »

After reading another post on this board concerning the issue of divorce and remarriage I thought I would post a few thoughts from Dake.

Deuteronomy 24:1 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
2 And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife.
3 And if the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorcement, and giveth it in her hand, and sendeth her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, which took her to be his wife;
4 Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

Reason for Divorce

Hebrew: `erwah (HSN-<H6172>), translated "uncleanness" (Deut. 24:1); "shame" (Isa. 20:4); and "nakedness" (Gen. 9:22-23; 42:9,12; Ex. 20:26; 28:42; Lev. 18:6-19; 20:11-21; 1Sam. 20:30; Isa. 47:3; Lam. 1:8; Ezek. 16:8,36-37; 22:10; 23:10,18,29; Hos. 2:9). It comes from `arah (HSN-<H6168>), which means to make bare; empty; destitute; discover; make naked; uncover. The idea here is that of discovering or uncovering something in the wife that was not known before to the husband. Exactly what uncleanness included here is not known. Judging from how the word is translated it would be something of the nature of shame, disappointment, and extreme dislike. If the uncleanness refers to moral sin, as in Deut. 22:13-21, the earlier law demanded the death penalty. Perhaps Moses saw that by carrying out the letter of such a law there would be frequent executions due to extremely lax morals among Israelites. He thus modified the law by permitting a wife to clear herself with a solemn oath in some cases (Num. 5:11-31), and in other cases allowing the husband to divorce his wife privately without bringing her to trial (Deut. 24:1-4; Mt. 1:19).

The various translations are as follows: Young: "nakedness of anything"; Rotherham: "some matter of shame"; the Peshitta: "some evidence of open prostitution"; Berkeley: "something improper in her"; Moffatt: "found her immodest in some way"; the Septuagint: "found something unseemly in her"; Fenton: "found repulsive qualities in her." All this seems to indicate a serious moral sin.

Whatever the intended thought, it is clear that divorce was not commanded here, but permitted because of the hardness of hearts (Deut. 24:1; Mt. 19:8); that both divorced parties were free to remarry (Deut. 24:2); that the first husband could not take the wife a second time, for that was an abomination to God (Deut. 24:3-4).

Such things must be understood in the light of several factors: that a wife became the actual property of the husband and he became her lord and master (Ex. 21:7-11; 2Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:22-33; Col. 3:18; 1Pet. 3:5-7); that easy divorces were a common thing in those days among all nations; that Israel had been influenced greatly by such nations and was in the habit of getting divorces for the most frivolous excuses; and that Moses simply tolerated certain practices because of the hardness of the hearts of Israel. Hence, this law limiting divorce to "uncleanness" was needed.

The rival schools of Hillel and Shammai in the days of Christ interpreted this "uncleanness" different ways. Shammai held that it referred only to moral and criminal sins of adultery; but Hillel contended that it referred to anything disliked by the husband, even though it was something trivial (notes, Mt. 5:31-32; note, 19:3; notes, Mk. 10:1-9). Christ sanctioned the teaching of Shammai, interpreting the uncleanness as fornication, (porneia (GSN-<G0>), (Mt. 5:32; 19:9). See notes, Mt. 5:31-32 for definitions of divorce, fornication, etc. For wording of an ancient Jewish divorce decree, see note, Mk. 10:4.

According to the Gospels (Mt. 5:31-32; 19:1-9; Mk. 10:1-8; Lk. 16:18), Moses wrote the law on divorce because of "hardness of the heart" of the people. Except for fornication, one must not divorce his wife (Mt. 5:31; note, Mt. 19:9). Except for fornication, if one puts away his wife he causes her to commit adultry (Mt. 5:32; 19:9). Except for fornication dissolving a marriage, one who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. All hardness-of-heart divorces for any and every cause are wrong, and only those with a scriptural reason for divorce have the right to remarry. The man and woman who divorce without scriptural grounds cause sin by forcing each other to marry someone else. Paul gives one more scriptural reason for divorce -- willful desertion because of Christ and the gospel (2Cor. 7:12-15).

Finis Jennings Dake, Dake's Annotated Reference Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments of the Authorized or King James Version Text, (Lawrenceville, GA: Dake Bible Sales, Inc., 1997), WORDsearch CROSS e-book, Under: "Chapter 24".


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Leon Bible

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The fault in Bible complications is not with God or the Bible, but with men who refuse to believe what God says and think we have to interpret what He says in order to get the meaning. Dake Bible -Mark 11:17 note

frad70

Re: Divorce and Remarriage - is it Biblical!

Post by frad70 »

I would like to quote from Hagin but do not have an e-version of his book on Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage. :-)

Anyway, if anyone reads it I think s/he will see that the Bible teaches clearly that remarried people are not banned from ministry due to them being divorced and remarried.

Bibleman - does your ministry sell that book?



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Re: Divorce and Remarriage - is it Biblical!

Post by bibleman »

frad70 wrote:I would like to quote from Hagin but do not have an e-version of his book on Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage. :-)

Anyway, if anyone reads it I think s/he will see that the Bible teaches clearly that remarried people are not banned from ministry due to them being divorced and remarried.

Bibleman - does your ministry sell that book?
Yes they have it: http://www.ministryhelps.com/marriage-d ... p-448.html


God bless
Leon Bible

http://www.ministryhelps.com
http://www.dakebible.com
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https://www.facebook.com/groups/DakeBibleDiscussion/

The fault in Bible complications is not with God or the Bible, but with men who refuse to believe what God says and think we have to interpret what He says in order to get the meaning. Dake Bible -Mark 11:17 note

frad70

Re: Divorce and Remarriage - is it Biblical!

Post by frad70 »

I will encourage every poster to buy a copy then. Any special discount, Bibleman? :-)



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Justaned
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Re: Divorce and Remarriage - is it Biblical!

Post by Justaned »

I would imagine it would take a book to talk around Matthew 19:9 (NASB)

9 "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery."

I don't see a lot of wiggle room here. But then I'm the one that is always being accused of not taking the Bible literally.



frad70

Re: Divorce and Remarriage - is it Biblical!

Post by frad70 »

It does take more than one book to understand that passage correctly. It takes 65 more books plus the whole Gospel of Matthew.



titus213
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Re: Divorce and Remarriage - is it Biblical!

Post by titus213 »

That's ridiculous! Jesus was speaking to a group of people, and they heard his words and understood what he meant without having to consult anything else. If it takes books outside of the Bible to understand what the crowd understood Jesus to mean, Houston we have a problem!
There was no passage for them to have to try to figure out; it was just Christ's own clear and simple words, and from the reaction it's plain that the Pharisees understood what he meant, as well as his disciples.



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Justaned
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Re: Divorce and Remarriage - is it Biblical!

Post by Justaned »

titus213 wrote:That's ridiculous! Jesus was speaking to a group of people, and they heard his words and understood what he meant without having to consult anything else. If it takes books outside of the Bible to understand what the crowd understood Jesus to mean, Houston we have a problem!

Frad70
I have to agree with Titus213 on this. Jesus' words are clear, concise and to try to manipulate them into saying something else is just wrong.

titus213 Frad70 is suggesting that the rest of Bible gives a pass on divorce and remarriage. I don't believe it does. Paul talks of divorce but he rarely talks of remarriage and when he does it is to condemn divorce and remarriage.

I believe there may be some remote justification for divorce outside of adultery (such as abuse) but I can see no justification for remarriage of the divorced people. This is where most divorce discussions get lost when discussing divorce from Paul's perspective.



frad70

Re: Divorce and Remarriage - is it Biblical!

Post by frad70 »

As good as KJV is, Paul didn't write it. He used Greek. If you want to see his (God's actually) justification of remarriage of the divorced please check NASB or YLT. 1 Co 7:27-28 clearly shows he sees that as not recommended but not a sinful thing if one chooses to do so.

Also: if God was so much for people not getting remarried why would He forbid returning to the first spouse (an ex-spouse to be precise) after one's second divorce? He doesn't change - this is not to say we need to follow that rule in the New Covenant but that OT rule clearly proves He is NOT into 'til death do them part, no matter what, forever and ever' rubbish some ministers/denominations fell into.

Also your favourite denomination, Justaned, or second favourite perhaps, does allow remarriage - I had a Baptist friend, his wife left him, they got a divorce, she met another guy, the RC denomination married them. Do you want yo know their exact names and place?



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Justaned
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Re: Divorce and Remarriage - is it Biblical!

Post by Justaned »

frad70 wrote:As good as KJV is, Paul didn't write it. He used Greek. If you want to see his (God's actually) justification of remarriage of the divorced please check NASB or YLT. 1 Co 7:27-28 clearly shows he sees that as not recommended but not a sinful thing if one chooses to do so.

Also: if God was so much for people not getting remarried why would He forbid returning to the first spouse (an ex-spouse to be precise) after one's second divorce? He doesn't change - this is not to say we need to follow that rule in the New Covenant but that OT rule clearly proves He is NOT into 'til death do them part, no matter what, forever and ever' rubbish some ministers/denominations fell into.

Also your favourite denomination, Justaned, or second favourite perhaps, does allow remarriage - I had a Baptist friend, his wife left him, they got a divorce, she met another guy, the RC denomination married them. Do you want yo know their exact names and place?
I think you are reading into 1 Cor 7:27-28 something that is not there in the Greek. So let us not go there.
I think the real question is since you even admit it is not recommended. Are we to live our lives to please God or ourselves? Pharisees clearly proved they could live by the law and displease God. Isn't that what Jesus taught?

Jesus clearly said the only reason for divorced was adultery and Jesus never spoke on remarriage and no where in the scripture is it mentioned other than saying it is not recommended.

As for denominations they must do what they must do. However we find eternal salvation not in denominations but in living word of God.

I thank God I was blessed with a great wife and I have never had to deal with divorce. No one can say what they would do until confronted with the actual event but right now I do not believe I would ever remarry if we divorced. I would pray for God's help to be able to keep that position.

But if I did divorce and remarry I would step out of the ministry, that I know.



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