June 12, 2025 • 37 mins
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Matthew 5: 27-32 - 'If your right eye should cause you to sin, tear it out.'
Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:
- 2336 (in 'Male and Female he created them') - Jesus came to restore creation to the purity of its origins. In the Sermon on the Mount, he interprets God's plan strictly: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." What God has joined together, let not man put asunder. The tradition of the Church has understood the sixth commandment as encompassing the whole of human sexuality.
- 1456 (in 'The Confession of Sins') - Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of Penance: "All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self-examination are conscious must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most secret and have been committed against the last two precepts of the Decalogue; for these sins sometimes wound the soul more grievously and are more dangerous than those which are committed openly."
- 2528 (in 'The Ninth Commandment') - "Everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart"
- 226 (in 'The Implications of Faith in One God') - It means making good use of created things: faith in God, the only One, leads us to use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him, and to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away from him: My Lord and my God, take from me everything that distances me from you. My Lord and my God, give me everything that brings me closer to you My Lord and my God, detach me from myself to give my all to you.
- 1034 (in 'Hell') - Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire," and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"
- 2382 (in 'Divorce') - The Lord Jesus insisted on the original intention of the Creator who willed that marriage be indissoluble. He abrogates the accommodations that had slipped into the old Law. Between the baptized, "a ratified and consummated marriage cannot be dissolved by any human power or for any reason other than death."
Got a Bible question? Send an email to logicalbiblestudy@gmail.com, and it will be answered in an upcoming episode!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:11):
Hi everyone. Welcome back to logical bible
study. This is the podcast where we
take a Catholic, look at the scriptures in an academic
intellectual rigorous way. And we try to have a look at,
what the literal sense was. What's the original meaning of
the text? That should always be our
starting point. We've got another really, really
interesting passage today. So if you go to mass, you would
(00:32):
hear from this passage Matthew chapter 5 verses 27 to 32 Jesus
said to his disciples, you have learned how it was said, you
must not commit adultery. But I say this to you.
If a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already
(00:54):
committed adultery with her in his heart.
If you're right, I should cause you to sin, tear it out and
throw it away before it will. Do you less harm to lose, one
part of you than to have your whole body thrown into hell?
And if your right hand should cause you to sin, cut it off,
(01:15):
and throw it away for it, will do less harm to lose.
One part of you than to have your whole body.
Go to hell. It has also been said, anyone
who divorces his wife must give her a writ of dismissal.
But I say this to you, everyone who divorces his wife except for
(01:37):
the case of fornication, makes her an adulterous and anyone who
marries a divorced woman commitsadultery So we're in The Sermon
on the Mount here and this is The Sermon on the Mount.
Basically Jesus spends a lot of time, contrasting false exterior
righteousness which the Jewish leaders were doing with the
(02:00):
true, internal righteousness that he wants his followers to
have. Now, we're in the section, which
goes over quite a bit of chapter5 and chapter 6, where Jesus
makes a lot of statements, in the form of you have heard it
said, and then he follows it up with, but I say to you.
So he's going to pick a few examples of the law where he's
(02:21):
going to provide the definitive interpretation of the law, which
is quite different from the interpretation that the Jewish
leaders were teaching at the time.
So he's telling his followers, what God's will is Is true
release in the law, and as he's the son of God, he can reveal
that. So he's going to say that
external Conformity to the law is not enough.
(02:44):
He's going to say here, using a series of examples that in order
to follow the law, truly in the way that God wants people to
follow it, the law has to be interior rised, so that it
penetrates one's heart and leadsone to live, according to God's
ultimate intentions. So he's giving concrete examples
of how the law is to be. Followed in the New Covenant, or
(03:06):
another way of looking at it years in the kingdom of God.
And it's well worth reading the entire chapters 5 6 and 7 of
Matthew because they form one really important unit where
Jesus describes how the law still applies in the New
Covenant. And in what ways, it's going to
be modified. So we're going to break up our
commentary today into two parts.We have the first section here
(03:29):
is about lust. And then the second part is
about divorce. So we're starting at verse 27.
Jesus said to his disciples now that's not in the original.
If you look at your Bible that won't be in there.
It's just the lectionary has added that in to make it a bit
clearer. What the setting is probably
he's speaking to the crowds herefor The Sermon on the Mount is
(03:49):
deliberately gone up the mountain.
So a whole lot of people can hear him.
Presumably, lots of them, are his disciples but maybe not all
of them. You have learned how it was
said. So he's speaking to Jews here
and they know their Old Testament laws, very well.
So they would know the law that he's about to quote you must not
(04:10):
commit adultery. Now that's one of the Ten
Commandments Exodus 20:14 is theyou shall not commit adultery
commitment and adultery basically meant having sexual
relations with someone who is not, you are not married to.
Now, this was a binding law on the Jews.
It's one of the Ten Commandmentsand it's still remains binding
(04:30):
for Today, the Ten Commandments do remain binding on Christians
because they are part of God's ultimate moral law, which has
become expressed in the Ten Commandments.
Some of the laws in the Old Testament are not binding on
Christians, but the Ten Commandments are because they
correspond to an aspect of God'strue moral law.
(04:53):
The way Jesus is about to unpackthis, you shall not commit
adultery, it's going to be fairly similar to what he did in
the previous passage. In chapter 22 verses 20 to 26.
He talked about the you shall not kill commandment and he
talked about the need to fulfil out in an interior way as well
as externally. So verse 28, You have heard how
(05:16):
it was said, you must not commitadultery.
But I say to you, now, let's stop here.
The Greek here for the word, I is actually emphatically.
So Jesus is emphasizing that he has authority to provide the
fullest interpretation of the Mosaic law.
So it's a strong eye. But I say to you, now that would
(05:36):
be shocking for his hearers. His coming is someone who
clearly is saying, this is the definitive interpretation.
I am about to give it to you. And this, what Jesus is saying
is this is the interpretation that God has always willed.
This is the ultimate interpretation.
If a man looks at a woman. Lustfully so to walk it to look
(05:57):
at someone lustfully, most commentators would say that
that's not a passing glance. That's a kind of like a
deliberate second. Look where your eyes Linger on
the person. In this case, it says, if a man
looks at a woman lustfully now the law applies equally to women
looking at men as well. But the reality is in that time
and in this time it was a sin that men were more likely to
(06:20):
fall into and also it's possiblethat a lot of his disciples in
the crowd and men as well. If a man looks at a woman
lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in
his heart. Now, this would be shocking.
We've heard this many times as Christians, but for the original
audience, this is huge. Jesus says, if a man looks even
(06:43):
looks at a woman, lustfully Jesus Says by doing, so he has
broken. The Do Not lust commandment,
this is news for the Jews because they were taught that
you are fine as long as you didn't actually carry out the
action of committing adultery. So Jesus says, although one
might not have committed the outward action, it's possible to
(07:04):
commit that same sin, the sin ofadultery in one's heart.
Now, heart is not talking about emotions here.
Heart in the first century for Jews was like the seat of the
will and reason. So to look lustfully at someone
and commit adultery in one's heart, basically means
entertaining, sinful ideas, using the reason and the will to
(07:27):
engage lust, That's what Jesus is talking about.
It's possible to commit adulteryusing the reason and the wheel
without doing anything externally.
Now Jesus, it's important we saythis though.
Jesus does not teach that the two versions, the internal lust
and external luster equally sinful.
He hasn't said that they're equally bad.
(07:49):
Jesus does teach in other placesthat some scenes are worse than
others and presumably committingthe real external action of
adultery is more grave than doing the internal lust.
However, his is contrasting, theconventional wisdom at the time,
which said, that, if a person was Well, the person needed to
do to follow the law was to not externally, break it.
(08:13):
Even if their motives weren't lined up with the law, even if
they didn't internally want to follow the law, the conventional
Jewish wisdom was you are still holy and you're not breaking any
aspect of the law. If you don't break it externally
Jesus is saying that's not the case.
If your heart is not on board with the internal requirements
of the law, then you're breakingthe law that tells us how
(08:37):
important Jesus says the law, he's saying that the law is so
important that it needs to not just be external needs to be
internal. Verse 29.
So Jesus isn't it was still talking about the last here and
he's going to amplify it by discussing its seriousness and
the need to deal with the problem at its root.
If you're right, I should cause you to sin.
(09:00):
Now this is in reference to luststill.
Most likely Jesus is thinking oflust because that's what he was
just talking about. So if that's correct, he's
saying if you find yourself looking lustfully at people
using your eyes it says right? I hear.
And that's because probably because in that culture that had
an emphasis on using your right hand, your right eye that was
(09:20):
just sort of the way they did it.
With the right hand was considered the strong side or
the most important one, the dominant.
He says, if you're right, I should cause you to sin, tear it
out, and throw it away. Now, this is universally
recognized by Scholars as a hyperbole Jesus is exaggerating
to make a point. Pretty much all Scholars agree
(09:42):
on that. And thank goodness they do
because we wouldn't want this tobe a literal commandment.
So Jesus is exaggerating to makea point.
And that was a common Jewish wayof teaching at the time.
Jesus does a similar thing elsewhere.
In The Sermon on the Mount. When he says, do not let your
left hand, know what your right hand is doing clearly, that's
(10:03):
hyperbole because it's physically impossible for that
to happen. And the Jews listening would
have recognized that he is exaggerating.
And they would have understood that what he's saying here is
that they need to take drastic action to stop lust at its root.
Jesus is telling his disciples that they have to do everything
they can to avoid the near occasion of sin, particularly in
(10:25):
relation to lust. He says that they need to get
control of themselves and not entertain sinful ideas at all.
He says for it will. Do you less harm to lose one
part of you than to have your whole body thrown into hell?
So strong words here. Jesus teaches that, although
(10:45):
dealing with lustful thoughts inthis way, cutting it off at the
root might be painful and difficult for people, and it
probably would be to sort of mortify, the Flesh.
And to deal with our sinful Tendencies, he says that, as
difficult as that is, it's far better than ending up in hell,
and he's trying to put that in perspective for them.
(11:06):
Jesus, clearly is teaching here that lust of some form can
result in a person. Going to hell.
That does seem to be what he's saying sometimes.
And particularly our culture today doesn't see lust as
particularly bad. In fact, it might not see it as
a sin at all, but here, Jesus says that lust to some extent
can land a person in. Hell, it's not clear whether
(11:27):
he's saying that interior lust itself is enough to get a person
to go to hell or maybe his warning against if you don't
deal with the interior lust at its root than it, could develop
into external adultery and that's What could lead you into
hell? So one of those two would be the
correct interpretation. Now notice here he says your
(11:49):
whole body will be thrown into hell.
The Greek here is gehenna and that's the word Jesus uses to
describe the place of Eternal punishment.
This isn't just a general place of the Dead, like she ol or
Hades is gehenna, is the place of Eternal punishment.
Jesus does believe in hell. This is one of the verses where
he talks about it and notice that he says, the hell will, in
(12:12):
some sense, be a physical bodilyexperience, your whole body will
be thrown into hell. And that's what the Catholic
Church understands to on the last day when Jesus returns.
And we have the final judgment. Everybody will be resurrected in
some way and be given a body of some form.
So people will be suffering in some bodily sense, in hell.
(12:35):
So, Jesus metaphor about the eyes and the body is graphic and
it's exaggeration, but it is quite well matched.
Isn't it? When he says it's better to cut
your eye out than to have your whole body thrown into hell,
it's Exaggeration to an extent but it is getting it a truth
about the way scene works. And the way the afterlife works,
(12:56):
Verse 30, if your right hand should cause you to sin.
Now this is an interesting verseoften.
We kind of skim over this one but Scholars have pointed out
that if we say, what if we Grant, the Jesus was just
talking about lust, in terms of the right eye causes you to sin
if Jesus is continuing to discuss that sin, specifically
(13:17):
lust. And he says, if your right hand
should cause you to sin, Jesus, here is possibly thinking of
sexual self stimulation. Asian the sin that we could call
self pleasure. Now, this isn't universally,
agreed on. And in fact a lot of people
don't like to talk about it because it's a fairly sensitive
thing. But it does seem to be a
(13:38):
legitimate interpretation. Not necessarily the right
interpretation Jesus might just be.
Well, in fact, you might be thinking of the way hands are
used during the physical act of adultery and because he's
talking about lust, so maybe he's thinking of the role, the
hands play in adultery or he might just be talking about
About the role hands play in a general way and so he's telling
(14:00):
people to avoid sin in general, if there's things your hands
want to do that relate to sin, then he's talking about Sin and
a general way. Perhaps, it's not clear, it
could be any of those. He says that if your right hand
should cause you to sin, then cut it off and throw it away for
it will, do you less harm to lose one part of you than to
(14:22):
have your whole body? Go to hell?
So it's a similar teaching again.
Certainly the teaching here, even if we're not sure of the
specifics is that hands can in at least for some actions do
things that are mortally sinful.So we need to keep guard over
our hands as well as their eyes.So overall here, Jesus has
(14:42):
called her an interior ization of the adultery law that touches
ones, motives, thoughts and attitudes, but he's in no way.
Lessening the law, the law is literal force.
It still does apply in the New Covenant.
Inant. In fact, it applies in an even
stronger way. It has to be fulfilled in an
internal way as well as an external way.
(15:03):
So that would have been an incredibly confronting and
difficult teaching to Jesus. Original here is that committing
lust in the heart is equivalent to committing adultery and
that's confronting for us even today.
But it is part of Jesus teachings and it's one that's
worth reflecting on verse 31. We now get to the second part
which is about the divorce laws.It has also been said Now, the
(15:27):
next court that Jesus gives hereis not one of the Ten
Commandments unlike the two previous examples, but it is
still part of the Torah law. And this is what he quotes
anyone, who divorces his wife must give her a writ of
dismissal or some translations, have this as a certificate of
divorce. Now this is a quote, from
Deuteronomy 24:1. So the last book of the Torah
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And this is the section where Moses, discusses requirements
relating to marriage and divorce.
Basically this law required thatin order for a Jewish man to
divorce his wife, he couldn't just say she was divorced and
that's it. They actually have to go through
the legal process of getting a certificate and in context of
Deuteronomy it was done in orderto help the woman.
(16:14):
Actually the certificate played a role in ensuring that the
community had a record of who she was married to and if you're
reading Entire Deuteronomy, 24 it having the certificate
actually helps the woman to stopbeing abused in further
marriages. So it's actually protecting the
woman's legal right here. So Jesus quotes that and then he
(16:35):
says, this verse 32, the verse which is generated a lot of
controversy and discussion but Isay to you, everyone who
divorces his wife except for thecase of fornication, makes her
an adulteress and One who marries a divorced woman commits
adultery. There's lots to say about this
(16:57):
verse and so we'll break it downinto a few different sections.
The first thing to say about this is that unlike the previous
previous laws about murder and about lust, where Jesus says the
literal law still needs to be fulfilled.
Jesus seems to regard this particular provision of from
Deuteronomy 24 about divorce is not actually a good law.
(17:20):
It's not an ideal law. Now, many Christian struggle
with this teaching that Jesus isseems to be rejecting and aspect
of the Old Testament law becauseit means that at least some
parts of the Old Testament. Laws are not really God's will
that seems to be what Jesus is getting out here and in other
places as well. How can we understand this?
(17:40):
If on the one hand, Jesus has just said that none of the law
can pass away until all is fulfilled.
He said that earlier and chapter5, but now he's kind of saying
that this particular law, Oh, isnot really God's will the key to
understanding this is to recognize that there are
different kinds of laws in the Torah.
Even in the five books of Moses.Some laws are more binding than
(18:04):
others. Some laws, correspond more
closely to God's will than others.
Do in particular, if you follow the Torah through and you do a
study of the five books, many ofthe laws which are given in
numbers and Deuteronomy are given somewhat reluctantly by
God as a way of dealing. With the level of sin, which the
(18:24):
Israelite people had accumulatedat that point in time.
A lot of the early laws, particularly The Ten
Commandments correspond closely to God's will, but then as the
people continue to sin more and more G, God has to put in these
extra laws, that he doesn't really want to give them, but he
gives them out of necessity in order to restrain their sin for
a time. So we can say that these are
(18:45):
provisional laws, which do not correspond to God's Ultimate
Wheel and this is developed morein parts of the catechism.
As well. So did the divorce law here that
Jesus is talking about in Deuteronomy 24.
This is given quite late in the Torah, and it appears to be one
of those laws that God gives that are not really his ideal
will. We know that later in the Old
(19:08):
Testament, God more clearly says, in fact, in Malachi
chapter 2 verse 6. God says, I hate divorce.
He actually says that in Malachito, so it's clear that God does
not want divorce, but he did allow it for a time because Of
the sinfulness of man. But now, Jesus comes along here
and he's come to reveal, what God's Ultimate Will is which
(19:30):
means the kingdom of God will involve overturning.
Some of these old provisional Old Testament laws, which are
only supposed to be temporary. Jesus actually makes this clear
elsewhere. If you look at Matthew in
Matthew 19, verse 8, Jesus says Moses allowed divorce because of
the hardness of your hearts. So, notice that Jesus actually
(19:53):
says that this particular law was not a law that God
particularly wanted to give the people but he had to at that
time. So Jesus teaches divorce is not
a good thing so Jesus is treating this law from
Deuteronomy a bit differently. So what does Jesus say?
It means if someone does get a legal divorce and that was quite
(20:13):
common in that culture, particularly amongst the Jews to
get divorces. Jesus teaching here is that if
someone gets a legal divorce, the woman is made an adulteress.
Here Jesus clearly teaches that a legal divorce does not affect
the status of the marriage. In the eyes of God Jesus, he is
says that if you divorce someoneand that woman gets married
(20:37):
again, which is quite likely. It's adultery because the
original marriage is still ongoing in the eyes of God.
And this is the basis of the Catholic teaching on the
indissolubility of marriage. Now, why does the woman
automatically become an adulterous here?
Let me just read that phrase. Again, everyone who divorces His
wife makes her an adulteress. Why would divorcing a wife make
(21:01):
her an adulterous automatically?Well, in that culture, women who
were divorced, would be highly likely to marry again, that was
just the way it worked because they needed a husband to
financially support them. So it's highly likely that she
would marry again if she became a divorced and that would make
her an adulteress. So that's the that's why Jesus
is phrased it that way focusing on the woman.
(21:24):
However Jesus is not being misogynistic or something here
because the last part of this phrase, says anyone who marries
a divorced woman commits adultery, so the man doesn't get
away with it either. Still, the language here in
Matthew 5 does sort of focus on the role of the woman that it,
that is certainly true. But if you look at the same
(21:45):
teaching, which is repeated in Matthew 19:9, this time, the
focus is on the man. And in Matthew 19, it says that
if a Man marries any woman, he commits adultery.
So the law here is equally applying to men and women of
what Jesus is about to say. Now, this was something that was
(22:06):
not taught in the Old Testament about marrying.
A divorced person is equivalent to adultery, this is new.
So Jesus has now revealed God's Ultimate Will for marriage which
is that it is indissoluble, thatwas God's intention, always for
marriage. It's just he had to put in some
temporary laws in order to deal with men's hardness of Hearts,
(22:28):
but he always intended marriage to be into soluble.
So Jesus says to remarry again after having a legal divorce,
This would be a grave sin, because your first marriage is
still intact. In the eyes of God, this
teaching is binding on all of Jesus followers, anyone who's in
the kingdom of God, even today, Jesus is telling us that divorce
(22:49):
and remarriage is not to happen.That makes sense.
Because divorce was said, to be given in the Old Testament, due
to the hardness of their hearts in the Old Testament, that the
Jews did not have the ability tolive up to God's perfect will
due to the effect of sins. So, God had to bring in these
temporary restriction measures. However, now it's a New
(23:11):
Covenant. Now, Jesus has come and he has
come to reveal the keys to living in God's perfect.
Will he's come to reveal the waythe kingdom works, and he's also
given them given his. Disciples, the power, and the
means to live, according to God's will.
So anyone who's in the kingdom of God has the means to live up
to Jesus high standards. So if Christians obey the
(23:33):
principles of the Kingdom, particularly the principles that
Jesus describes here in The Sermon on the Mount, well then
there's no not going to be a need for divorce anyway.
That's why all these things are kind of packaged together.
So that's Jesus motivation for saying divorce is wrong because
it's equivalent to adultery because marriage is binding
(23:56):
permanently until the partner dies.
But what about the exception Clause?
There's an exception clause in here which is generated a lot of
controversy. So the exception Clause says
this, everyone who divorces his wife except for the case of
fornication, makes her an adulteress.
Let's start with what it does. Not mean, Jesus is not saying if
(24:20):
someone in this marriage has relations with someone else,
then to divorce them would not be committing adultery.
That's what it might seem like on the face value, but that's
that doesn't make sense. It can't be the.
Jesus is saying that if you divorce your husband or wife,
who has been engaging in sexual activity, with someone else,
then it's okay to divorce them and it wouldn't count as a
(24:43):
divorce. Anyway that's not what Jesus is
saying, think about it, if that's what Jesus was saying, it
would actually be encouraging Christians to have affairs when
they no longer want their marriage anymore because they
could say, I don't want to be inthis marriage anymore.
I'll go have an affair, have a sexual relationship with someone
else and then they could separate from their original
(25:03):
marriage partner with the attic counting as divorce because
they've committed sexual immorality.
And therefore the marriage isn'tbinding anymore, doesn't make a
whole lot of sense because on the other hand a faithful Couple
would not be able to divorce forany reason at all.
So, Jesus would on this reading,be discouraging, Fidelity and
(25:24):
encouraging, unfaithfulness. So I don't think we want to say
that that's the correct interpretation.
Jesus is not saying that it's okay to do a divorce if your
partner has committed sexual immorality, that's probably not
the correct interpretation. So what is the best way to
interpret this exception Clause there are a number of different
(25:45):
ways to interpret it and those much discussion amongst
apologists amongst people of different denominations amongst
Bible scholars. I'll tell you what.
I think the best interpretation is this isn't held by a whole
lot of Scholars, but I think it makes the best sense out of the
English translation. So let me just read out what we
have here in the English version, everyone who divorces
(26:07):
his wife except for the case of fornication, Makes her an
adulteress. So I'm going to offer an
interpretation of this. Please keep in mind, this is
just my view on this is not necessarily the correct one.
In fact, there is no official Catholic teaching on how to best
understand the exception Clause,there's different theories.
(26:28):
I would say that here when Jesussays, except for the case of
fornication or sometimes sometimes translated unchastity
that the technical meaning of fornication in that culture
involved, a married woman sleeping with Other man.
This exception Clause is attached to the prohibition on
(26:48):
divorce. It's not about Real Marriage,
it's about divorce, this particular exception Clause.
So it could mean that any man who divorces his wife makes her
an adulterous. Except for the case of
fornication, notice the language.
There anyone who divorces his wife makes makes her an
adulterous except for the case of fornication.
(27:10):
So in the case of fornication, meaning, the married woman has
slept with another man. That case the man does not make
her an adulteress. The woman has already made
herself. An adulteress in the prior Act
of fornication. So the man, if he wants to
divorce, her would not be makingher an adulteress.
(27:31):
So that actually deals with the language.
Quite, well, it tells us what the exception Clause means Jesus
is basically just saying that, in that case, you don't make her
an adulterous. She would be at one already, but
in every other case, If you wereto divorce her, you would make
her an adulteress. Note though that this
interpretation does not say it'srecommended for them to divorce
(27:53):
or even permissible for them to divorce.
It doesn't say that it's simply a recognition that the woman is
already an adulterous. That's all the text says,
according, to this interpretation, In fact, if you
look at Luke's version of this which is Luke 16:18 and marks
version, Mark chapter 10 verses 11 and 12, it doesn't include
this exception, the exception Clause is not in there and if
(28:17):
you look at Paul's later writings, 1 Corinthians 7 verses
10 to 11 and Romans chapter 7 verses 2 to 3.
He specifically teaches that married people should not
divorce and he doesn't attach any exception or condition to it
either. On top of that, based on the
disciples reaction, to this teaching later in Matthew
(28:37):
Chapter 19 Verse 10, it really does seem that Jesus is making a
total prohibition on divorce. He's not allowing for any
exceptions. Based on the way, the disciples
kind of throw their hands up in despair.
It does seem like he's making a total ban so that would be my
interpretation. But there are five other people
(28:57):
other possible interpretations and I want it just list them for
you briefly. As Catholics were free to look
into these and go with whatever we think the best interpretation
is because the church hasn't defined it.
So one interpretation and this was quite popular amongst the
church fathers. So it's considered to be the
traditional view is that Jesus is actually allowing divorce in
(29:21):
cases of sexual immorality, but not remarriage Jesus is not
allowing remarriage under any circumstances but he's saying
that divorce is okay. If there was some sort of Sexual
immorality involved and that does kind of make sense of the
phrase. Anyone who divorces his wife
except for the case of fornication, makes her an
(29:43):
adulterous that would seem to bebacked up by Paul's later,
teachings. That if spouses separate.
They either need to reconcile orremain single.
That's actually something he says.
Now, a bit earlier, I said that,I don't think that's the best
interpretation because in a sense it would mean that Jesus
(30:03):
is Kind of encouraging infidelity and in a certain way,
if one wants to get a divorce, they could just be unfaithful.
So perhaps that's not the best interpretation, but it is the
traditional one. There's another interpretation
and which focuses on the Greek word for fornication here, which
is poor neher, and it says it might refer to incestuous
(30:25):
marriages, which is stipulated in Leviticus 18.
If this is the right interpretation Jesus is saying
that there is an incestuous marriage.
So except for an incestuous marriage and in that case, the
marriage was not valid in the first place.
So, therefore the woman is not an adulterer because she wasn't
really married. It's this sounds fairly similar
(30:47):
to the Catholic church is current law about annulments.
So, in this case, there was no valid marriage, because it was
an incestuous relationship. We can find support for that.
If we look at 1, Corinthians, 5:1, Where Paul talks about a
man who married his stepmother. That's an incestuous
relationship and the same Greek word.
Porneia is used yet. Another interpretation says poor
(31:11):
Nia might be referring to an inappropriate marriage with a
gentile, which was not considered acceptable in the
eyes of God. If you look at Leviticus 17 and
18, that's the background. So, in this case again, the
marriage was not valid in the first place.
And therefore, the woman is not an adulterer because it was a
mixed marriage. The same word point, A is used
(31:31):
in Acts chapter 15 and 19 at theJerusalem Council, where it
appears that they are putting a ban on mixed marriages of some
sort. Now, that would explain why
Matthew includes this exception Clause because his audience is
Jewish and they would want to know about relationships between
Jews and Gentiles. Whereas Luke and Mark don't feel
(31:52):
the need to put it in there because their audiences may not
be primarily Jewish. There's another interpretation
which takes a different interpretation of the word
porneia. So, the word Point AR can mean
different things in different. Contexts.
This fourth or fifth interpretation says that sexual
activity with someone else before a marriage is consummated
(32:15):
that might be what's in view here with poor Nia.
As in someone is betrothed to someone else.
But then they go and have sexualrelations with someone else
before the marriage is officially consummated.
So in that case, the marriage was not yet a real marriage, it
wasn't yet into soluble and therefore it could be dissolved
if required. So what Jesus is saying here is
(32:36):
that you cannot do divorce and less sexual immorality before
the consummation has taken placein that case, divorce is okay
because the marriage was not yetconsummated.
So it wasn't yet a real marriage.
There's an interesting support for this because Matthew alone
mentions that Joseph had plannedto divorce.
(32:56):
Marry Re in Matthew chapter 1, verse 19.
Matthew says, Joseph had plannedto divorce marry for this very
reason because they were betrothed and he suspected that
she had been sexually Unfaithful, only Matthew
mentions that. So, maybe that would explain why
Matthew has included this Clauseas in.
It's a, it's talking about, unfaithfulness during the
(33:18):
betrothal period, the last interpretation focuses on a
known fact, about the time, which is that Amongst the Jewish
teachers at the time, there weredifferent interpretations about
the Deuteronomy law in terms of how unchastity affected the
marriage. So some schools of Jewish
(33:41):
thought said that the only reason you could have a divorce
is if there was sexual unfaithfulness or unchastity
other interpretations of the Jewish law said that you could
divorce your wife for pretty much any reason.
And there was actually a heated debate going on between
different So one way of interpreting, this exception
Clause would be if we translate it as something like this,
(34:05):
whoever divorces his wife and marries another.
I'm not going into the subject of unchastity, commits adultery,
as in it's a way of Jesus bracketing out the question of
unfaithfulness he says, I'm not going to touch that particular
subject. And again, that would explain
why Matthew would include the passage for his readers because
they would be interested in the Discussions, amongst the Jewish
(34:28):
leaders about the correct way tointerpret the law.
So, I've given you six interpretations, any one of
those could be right? And it's, it's one of those
really interesting discussions where we might get an answer
through future research. We might not get an answer.
Sorry, a fascinating passage. As I'm sure you'll agree.
(34:49):
It's been a long podcast today, so I won't spend a whole lot of
time going through catechism paragraphs, but there is a whole
lot of really, really interesting ones.
There, there's some discussion about the differences between
male and female and there's a discussion about how this
relates to the sixth commandment.
I want to read about paragraph, 1 4 5 6, which is about
(35:09):
confession. Confession to a priest is an
essential part of the sacrament of penance all. all sins of
which penitence after a diligentself-examination, our conscious
must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are,
most secret and have been committed against the last two
precepts of the decalogue for these sins, sometimes wounds,
(35:32):
the soul even more grievously and the more dangerous than
those, which are committed openly, so mentions their, the
last two Commandments from The Ten Commandments which includes
do not covet your neighbor's wife and the Catholic Church
teaches Is that that particular sin?
Amongst others can be more Grievous and dangerous than sins
(35:52):
which are committed openly. So that's interesting.
Paragraph 2 to 6 it talks about the nurse the need for us to
follow. God completely interior Ali and
that's part of what it means to believe.
In one God, is we have to give ourselves to him fully.
There's a discussion of Jesus view of Hell in paragraph, 1, 0,
3 or 4. And then I'll just finish with
(36:14):
paragraph, 23 8, Two on divorce.The Lord Jesus insisted on the
original intention of the Creator, who willed that
marriage. Be into soluble.
He abrogates the accommodations that had slipped into the Old
Law between the baptized a ratified and consummated.
Marriage cannot be dissolved by any human power or by any reason
(36:37):
other than death So I hope this has been a helpful podcast for
you today if you think others would benefit from it.
Then please share this podcast with them as well.
Thanks, and we'll continue tomorrow.
Hi everyone. Welcome back to logical bible
study. This is the podcast where we
take a Catholic, look at the scriptures in an academic
intellectual rigorous way. And we try to have a look at,
what the literal sense was. What's the original meaning of
the text? That should always be our
starting point. We've got another really, really
interesting passage today. So if you go to mass, you would
(00:32):
hear from this passage Matthew chapter 5 verses 27 to 32 Jesus
said to his disciples, you have learned how it was said, you
must not commit adultery. But I say this to you.
If a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already
(00:54):
committed adultery with her in his heart.
If you're right, I should cause you to sin, tear it out and
throw it away before it will. Do you less harm to lose, one
part of you than to have your whole body thrown into hell?
And if your right hand should cause you to sin, cut it off,
(01:15):
and throw it away for it, will do less harm to lose.
One part of you than to have your whole body.
Go to hell. It has also been said, anyone
who divorces his wife must give her a writ of dismissal.
But I say this to you, everyone who divorces his wife except for
(01:37):
the case of fornication, makes her an adulterous and anyone who
marries a divorced woman commitsadultery So we're in The Sermon
on the Mount here and this is The Sermon on the Mount.
Basically Jesus spends a lot of time, contrasting false exterior
righteousness which the Jewish leaders were doing with the
(02:00):
true, internal righteousness that he wants his followers to
have. Now, we're in the section, which
goes over quite a bit of chapter5 and chapter 6, where Jesus
makes a lot of statements, in the form of you have heard it
said, and then he follows it up with, but I say to you.
So he's going to pick a few examples of the law where he's
(02:21):
going to provide the definitive interpretation of the law, which
is quite different from the interpretation that the Jewish
leaders were teaching at the time.
So he's telling his followers, what God's will is Is true
release in the law, and as he's the son of God, he can reveal
that. So he's going to say that
external Conformity to the law is not enough.
(02:44):
He's going to say here, using a series of examples that in order
to follow the law, truly in the way that God wants people to
follow it, the law has to be interior rised, so that it
penetrates one's heart and leadsone to live, according to God's
ultimate intentions. So he's giving concrete examples
of how the law is to be. Followed in the New Covenant, or
(03:06):
another way of looking at it years in the kingdom of God.
And it's well worth reading the entire chapters 5 6 and 7 of
Matthew because they form one really important unit where
Jesus describes how the law still applies in the New
Covenant. And in what ways, it's going to
be modified. So we're going to break up our
commentary today into two parts.We have the first section here
(03:29):
is about lust. And then the second part is
about divorce. So we're starting at verse 27.
Jesus said to his disciples now that's not in the original.
If you look at your Bible that won't be in there.
It's just the lectionary has added that in to make it a bit
clearer. What the setting is probably
he's speaking to the crowds herefor The Sermon on the Mount is
(03:49):
deliberately gone up the mountain.
So a whole lot of people can hear him.
Presumably, lots of them, are his disciples but maybe not all
of them. You have learned how it was
said. So he's speaking to Jews here
and they know their Old Testament laws, very well.
So they would know the law that he's about to quote you must not
(04:10):
commit adultery. Now that's one of the Ten
Commandments Exodus 20:14 is theyou shall not commit adultery
commitment and adultery basically meant having sexual
relations with someone who is not, you are not married to.
Now, this was a binding law on the Jews.
It's one of the Ten Commandmentsand it's still remains binding
(04:30):
for Today, the Ten Commandments do remain binding on Christians
because they are part of God's ultimate moral law, which has
become expressed in the Ten Commandments.
Some of the laws in the Old Testament are not binding on
Christians, but the Ten Commandments are because they
correspond to an aspect of God'strue moral law.
(04:53):
The way Jesus is about to unpackthis, you shall not commit
adultery, it's going to be fairly similar to what he did in
the previous passage. In chapter 22 verses 20 to 26.
He talked about the you shall not kill commandment and he
talked about the need to fulfil out in an interior way as well
as externally. So verse 28, You have heard how
(05:16):
it was said, you must not commitadultery.
But I say to you, now, let's stop here.
The Greek here for the word, I is actually emphatically.
So Jesus is emphasizing that he has authority to provide the
fullest interpretation of the Mosaic law.
So it's a strong eye. But I say to you, now that would
(05:36):
be shocking for his hearers. His coming is someone who
clearly is saying, this is the definitive interpretation.
I am about to give it to you. And this, what Jesus is saying
is this is the interpretation that God has always willed.
This is the ultimate interpretation.
If a man looks at a woman. Lustfully so to walk it to look
(05:57):
at someone lustfully, most commentators would say that
that's not a passing glance. That's a kind of like a
deliberate second. Look where your eyes Linger on
the person. In this case, it says, if a man
looks at a woman lustfully now the law applies equally to women
looking at men as well. But the reality is in that time
and in this time it was a sin that men were more likely to
(06:20):
fall into and also it's possiblethat a lot of his disciples in
the crowd and men as well. If a man looks at a woman
lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in
his heart. Now, this would be shocking.
We've heard this many times as Christians, but for the original
audience, this is huge. Jesus says, if a man looks even
(06:43):
looks at a woman, lustfully Jesus Says by doing, so he has
broken. The Do Not lust commandment,
this is news for the Jews because they were taught that
you are fine as long as you didn't actually carry out the
action of committing adultery. So Jesus says, although one
might not have committed the outward action, it's possible to
(07:04):
commit that same sin, the sin ofadultery in one's heart.
Now, heart is not talking about emotions here.
Heart in the first century for Jews was like the seat of the
will and reason. So to look lustfully at someone
and commit adultery in one's heart, basically means
entertaining, sinful ideas, using the reason and the will to
(07:27):
engage lust, That's what Jesus is talking about.
It's possible to commit adulteryusing the reason and the wheel
without doing anything externally.
Now Jesus, it's important we saythis though.
Jesus does not teach that the two versions, the internal lust
and external luster equally sinful.
He hasn't said that they're equally bad.
(07:49):
Jesus does teach in other placesthat some scenes are worse than
others and presumably committingthe real external action of
adultery is more grave than doing the internal lust.
However, his is contrasting, theconventional wisdom at the time,
which said, that, if a person was Well, the person needed to
do to follow the law was to not externally, break it.
(08:13):
Even if their motives weren't lined up with the law, even if
they didn't internally want to follow the law, the conventional
Jewish wisdom was you are still holy and you're not breaking any
aspect of the law. If you don't break it externally
Jesus is saying that's not the case.
If your heart is not on board with the internal requirements
of the law, then you're breakingthe law that tells us how
(08:37):
important Jesus says the law, he's saying that the law is so
important that it needs to not just be external needs to be
internal. Verse 29.
So Jesus isn't it was still talking about the last here and
he's going to amplify it by discussing its seriousness and
the need to deal with the problem at its root.
If you're right, I should cause you to sin.
(09:00):
Now this is in reference to luststill.
Most likely Jesus is thinking oflust because that's what he was
just talking about. So if that's correct, he's
saying if you find yourself looking lustfully at people
using your eyes it says right? I hear.
And that's because probably because in that culture that had
an emphasis on using your right hand, your right eye that was
(09:20):
just sort of the way they did it.
With the right hand was considered the strong side or
the most important one, the dominant.
He says, if you're right, I should cause you to sin, tear it
out, and throw it away. Now, this is universally
recognized by Scholars as a hyperbole Jesus is exaggerating
to make a point. Pretty much all Scholars agree
(09:42):
on that. And thank goodness they do
because we wouldn't want this tobe a literal commandment.
So Jesus is exaggerating to makea point.
And that was a common Jewish wayof teaching at the time.
Jesus does a similar thing elsewhere.
In The Sermon on the Mount. When he says, do not let your
left hand, know what your right hand is doing clearly, that's
(10:03):
hyperbole because it's physically impossible for that
to happen. And the Jews listening would
have recognized that he is exaggerating.
And they would have understood that what he's saying here is
that they need to take drastic action to stop lust at its root.
Jesus is telling his disciples that they have to do everything
they can to avoid the near occasion of sin, particularly in
(10:25):
relation to lust. He says that they need to get
control of themselves and not entertain sinful ideas at all.
He says for it will. Do you less harm to lose one
part of you than to have your whole body thrown into hell?
So strong words here. Jesus teaches that, although
(10:45):
dealing with lustful thoughts inthis way, cutting it off at the
root might be painful and difficult for people, and it
probably would be to sort of mortify, the Flesh.
And to deal with our sinful Tendencies, he says that, as
difficult as that is, it's far better than ending up in hell,
and he's trying to put that in perspective for them.
(11:06):
Jesus, clearly is teaching here that lust of some form can
result in a person. Going to hell.
That does seem to be what he's saying sometimes.
And particularly our culture today doesn't see lust as
particularly bad. In fact, it might not see it as
a sin at all, but here, Jesus says that lust to some extent
can land a person in. Hell, it's not clear whether
(11:27):
he's saying that interior lust itself is enough to get a person
to go to hell or maybe his warning against if you don't
deal with the interior lust at its root than it, could develop
into external adultery and that's What could lead you into
hell? So one of those two would be the
correct interpretation. Now notice here he says your
(11:49):
whole body will be thrown into hell.
The Greek here is gehenna and that's the word Jesus uses to
describe the place of Eternal punishment.
This isn't just a general place of the Dead, like she ol or
Hades is gehenna, is the place of Eternal punishment.
Jesus does believe in hell. This is one of the verses where
he talks about it and notice that he says, the hell will, in
(12:12):
some sense, be a physical bodilyexperience, your whole body will
be thrown into hell. And that's what the Catholic
Church understands to on the last day when Jesus returns.
And we have the final judgment. Everybody will be resurrected in
some way and be given a body of some form.
So people will be suffering in some bodily sense, in hell.
(12:35):
So, Jesus metaphor about the eyes and the body is graphic and
it's exaggeration, but it is quite well matched.
Isn't it? When he says it's better to cut
your eye out than to have your whole body thrown into hell,
it's Exaggeration to an extent but it is getting it a truth
about the way scene works. And the way the afterlife works,
(12:56):
Verse 30, if your right hand should cause you to sin.
Now this is an interesting verseoften.
We kind of skim over this one but Scholars have pointed out
that if we say, what if we Grant, the Jesus was just
talking about lust, in terms of the right eye causes you to sin
if Jesus is continuing to discuss that sin, specifically
(13:17):
lust. And he says, if your right hand
should cause you to sin, Jesus, here is possibly thinking of
sexual self stimulation. Asian the sin that we could call
self pleasure. Now, this isn't universally,
agreed on. And in fact a lot of people
don't like to talk about it because it's a fairly sensitive
thing. But it does seem to be a
(13:38):
legitimate interpretation. Not necessarily the right
interpretation Jesus might just be.
Well, in fact, you might be thinking of the way hands are
used during the physical act of adultery and because he's
talking about lust, so maybe he's thinking of the role, the
hands play in adultery or he might just be talking about
About the role hands play in a general way and so he's telling
(14:00):
people to avoid sin in general, if there's things your hands
want to do that relate to sin, then he's talking about Sin and
a general way. Perhaps, it's not clear, it
could be any of those. He says that if your right hand
should cause you to sin, then cut it off and throw it away for
it will, do you less harm to lose one part of you than to
(14:22):
have your whole body? Go to hell?
So it's a similar teaching again.
Certainly the teaching here, even if we're not sure of the
specifics is that hands can in at least for some actions do
things that are mortally sinful.So we need to keep guard over
our hands as well as their eyes.So overall here, Jesus has
(14:42):
called her an interior ization of the adultery law that touches
ones, motives, thoughts and attitudes, but he's in no way.
Lessening the law, the law is literal force.
It still does apply in the New Covenant.
Inant. In fact, it applies in an even
stronger way. It has to be fulfilled in an
internal way as well as an external way.
(15:03):
So that would have been an incredibly confronting and
difficult teaching to Jesus. Original here is that committing
lust in the heart is equivalent to committing adultery and
that's confronting for us even today.
But it is part of Jesus teachings and it's one that's
worth reflecting on verse 31. We now get to the second part
which is about the divorce laws.It has also been said Now, the
(15:27):
next court that Jesus gives hereis not one of the Ten
Commandments unlike the two previous examples, but it is
still part of the Torah law. And this is what he quotes
anyone, who divorces his wife must give her a writ of
dismissal or some translations, have this as a certificate of
divorce. Now this is a quote, from
Deuteronomy 24:1. So the last book of the Torah
(15:52):
And this is the section where Moses, discusses requirements
relating to marriage and divorce.
Basically this law required thatin order for a Jewish man to
divorce his wife, he couldn't just say she was divorced and
that's it. They actually have to go through
the legal process of getting a certificate and in context of
Deuteronomy it was done in orderto help the woman.
(16:14):
Actually the certificate played a role in ensuring that the
community had a record of who she was married to and if you're
reading Entire Deuteronomy, 24 it having the certificate
actually helps the woman to stopbeing abused in further
marriages. So it's actually protecting the
woman's legal right here. So Jesus quotes that and then he
(16:35):
says, this verse 32, the verse which is generated a lot of
controversy and discussion but Isay to you, everyone who
divorces his wife except for thecase of fornication, makes her
an adulteress and One who marries a divorced woman commits
adultery. There's lots to say about this
(16:57):
verse and so we'll break it downinto a few different sections.
The first thing to say about this is that unlike the previous
previous laws about murder and about lust, where Jesus says the
literal law still needs to be fulfilled.
Jesus seems to regard this particular provision of from
Deuteronomy 24 about divorce is not actually a good law.
(17:20):
It's not an ideal law. Now, many Christian struggle
with this teaching that Jesus isseems to be rejecting and aspect
of the Old Testament law becauseit means that at least some
parts of the Old Testament. Laws are not really God's will
that seems to be what Jesus is getting out here and in other
places as well. How can we understand this?
(17:40):
If on the one hand, Jesus has just said that none of the law
can pass away until all is fulfilled.
He said that earlier and chapter5, but now he's kind of saying
that this particular law, Oh, isnot really God's will the key to
understanding this is to recognize that there are
different kinds of laws in the Torah.
Even in the five books of Moses.Some laws are more binding than
(18:04):
others. Some laws, correspond more
closely to God's will than others.
Do in particular, if you follow the Torah through and you do a
study of the five books, many ofthe laws which are given in
numbers and Deuteronomy are given somewhat reluctantly by
God as a way of dealing. With the level of sin, which the
(18:24):
Israelite people had accumulatedat that point in time.
A lot of the early laws, particularly The Ten
Commandments correspond closely to God's will, but then as the
people continue to sin more and more G, God has to put in these
extra laws, that he doesn't really want to give them, but he
gives them out of necessity in order to restrain their sin for
a time. So we can say that these are
(18:45):
provisional laws, which do not correspond to God's Ultimate
Wheel and this is developed morein parts of the catechism.
As well. So did the divorce law here that
Jesus is talking about in Deuteronomy 24.
This is given quite late in the Torah, and it appears to be one
of those laws that God gives that are not really his ideal
will. We know that later in the Old
(19:08):
Testament, God more clearly says, in fact, in Malachi
chapter 2 verse 6. God says, I hate divorce.
He actually says that in Malachito, so it's clear that God does
not want divorce, but he did allow it for a time because Of
the sinfulness of man. But now, Jesus comes along here
and he's come to reveal, what God's Ultimate Will is which
(19:30):
means the kingdom of God will involve overturning.
Some of these old provisional Old Testament laws, which are
only supposed to be temporary. Jesus actually makes this clear
elsewhere. If you look at Matthew in
Matthew 19, verse 8, Jesus says Moses allowed divorce because of
the hardness of your hearts. So, notice that Jesus actually
(19:53):
says that this particular law was not a law that God
particularly wanted to give the people but he had to at that
time. So Jesus teaches divorce is not
a good thing so Jesus is treating this law from
Deuteronomy a bit differently. So what does Jesus say?
It means if someone does get a legal divorce and that was quite
(20:13):
common in that culture, particularly amongst the Jews to
get divorces. Jesus teaching here is that if
someone gets a legal divorce, the woman is made an adulteress.
Here Jesus clearly teaches that a legal divorce does not affect
the status of the marriage. In the eyes of God Jesus, he is
says that if you divorce someoneand that woman gets married
(20:37):
again, which is quite likely. It's adultery because the
original marriage is still ongoing in the eyes of God.
And this is the basis of the Catholic teaching on the
indissolubility of marriage. Now, why does the woman
automatically become an adulterous here?
Let me just read that phrase. Again, everyone who divorces His
wife makes her an adulteress. Why would divorcing a wife make
(21:01):
her an adulterous automatically?Well, in that culture, women who
were divorced, would be highly likely to marry again, that was
just the way it worked because they needed a husband to
financially support them. So it's highly likely that she
would marry again if she became a divorced and that would make
her an adulteress. So that's the that's why Jesus
is phrased it that way focusing on the woman.
(21:24):
However Jesus is not being misogynistic or something here
because the last part of this phrase, says anyone who marries
a divorced woman commits adultery, so the man doesn't get
away with it either. Still, the language here in
Matthew 5 does sort of focus on the role of the woman that it,
that is certainly true. But if you look at the same
(21:45):
teaching, which is repeated in Matthew 19:9, this time, the
focus is on the man. And in Matthew 19, it says that
if a Man marries any woman, he commits adultery.
So the law here is equally applying to men and women of
what Jesus is about to say. Now, this was something that was
(22:06):
not taught in the Old Testament about marrying.
A divorced person is equivalent to adultery, this is new.
So Jesus has now revealed God's Ultimate Will for marriage which
is that it is indissoluble, thatwas God's intention, always for
marriage. It's just he had to put in some
temporary laws in order to deal with men's hardness of Hearts,
(22:28):
but he always intended marriage to be into soluble.
So Jesus says to remarry again after having a legal divorce,
This would be a grave sin, because your first marriage is
still intact. In the eyes of God, this
teaching is binding on all of Jesus followers, anyone who's in
the kingdom of God, even today, Jesus is telling us that divorce
(22:49):
and remarriage is not to happen.That makes sense.
Because divorce was said, to be given in the Old Testament, due
to the hardness of their hearts in the Old Testament, that the
Jews did not have the ability tolive up to God's perfect will
due to the effect of sins. So, God had to bring in these
temporary restriction measures. However, now it's a New
(23:11):
Covenant. Now, Jesus has come and he has
come to reveal the keys to living in God's perfect.
Will he's come to reveal the waythe kingdom works, and he's also
given them given his. Disciples, the power, and the
means to live, according to God's will.
So anyone who's in the kingdom of God has the means to live up
to Jesus high standards. So if Christians obey the
(23:33):
principles of the Kingdom, particularly the principles that
Jesus describes here in The Sermon on the Mount, well then
there's no not going to be a need for divorce anyway.
That's why all these things are kind of packaged together.
So that's Jesus motivation for saying divorce is wrong because
it's equivalent to adultery because marriage is binding
(23:56):
permanently until the partner dies.
But what about the exception Clause?
There's an exception clause in here which is generated a lot of
controversy. So the exception Clause says
this, everyone who divorces his wife except for the case of
fornication, makes her an adulteress.
Let's start with what it does. Not mean, Jesus is not saying if
(24:20):
someone in this marriage has relations with someone else,
then to divorce them would not be committing adultery.
That's what it might seem like on the face value, but that's
that doesn't make sense. It can't be the.
Jesus is saying that if you divorce your husband or wife,
who has been engaging in sexual activity, with someone else,
then it's okay to divorce them and it wouldn't count as a
(24:43):
divorce. Anyway that's not what Jesus is
saying, think about it, if that's what Jesus was saying, it
would actually be encouraging Christians to have affairs when
they no longer want their marriage anymore because they
could say, I don't want to be inthis marriage anymore.
I'll go have an affair, have a sexual relationship with someone
else and then they could separate from their original
(25:03):
marriage partner with the attic counting as divorce because
they've committed sexual immorality.
And therefore the marriage isn'tbinding anymore, doesn't make a
whole lot of sense because on the other hand a faithful Couple
would not be able to divorce forany reason at all.
So, Jesus would on this reading,be discouraging, Fidelity and
(25:24):
encouraging, unfaithfulness. So I don't think we want to say
that that's the correct interpretation.
Jesus is not saying that it's okay to do a divorce if your
partner has committed sexual immorality, that's probably not
the correct interpretation. So what is the best way to
interpret this exception Clause there are a number of different
(25:45):
ways to interpret it and those much discussion amongst
apologists amongst people of different denominations amongst
Bible scholars. I'll tell you what.
I think the best interpretation is this isn't held by a whole
lot of Scholars, but I think it makes the best sense out of the
English translation. So let me just read out what we
have here in the English version, everyone who divorces
(26:07):
his wife except for the case of fornication, Makes her an
adulteress. So I'm going to offer an
interpretation of this. Please keep in mind, this is
just my view on this is not necessarily the correct one.
In fact, there is no official Catholic teaching on how to best
understand the exception Clause,there's different theories.
(26:28):
I would say that here when Jesussays, except for the case of
fornication or sometimes sometimes translated unchastity
that the technical meaning of fornication in that culture
involved, a married woman sleeping with Other man.
This exception Clause is attached to the prohibition on
(26:48):
divorce. It's not about Real Marriage,
it's about divorce, this particular exception Clause.
So it could mean that any man who divorces his wife makes her
an adulterous. Except for the case of
fornication, notice the language.
There anyone who divorces his wife makes makes her an
adulterous except for the case of fornication.
(27:10):
So in the case of fornication, meaning, the married woman has
slept with another man. That case the man does not make
her an adulteress. The woman has already made
herself. An adulteress in the prior Act
of fornication. So the man, if he wants to
divorce, her would not be makingher an adulteress.
(27:31):
So that actually deals with the language.
Quite, well, it tells us what the exception Clause means Jesus
is basically just saying that, in that case, you don't make her
an adulterous. She would be at one already, but
in every other case, If you wereto divorce her, you would make
her an adulteress. Note though that this
interpretation does not say it'srecommended for them to divorce
(27:53):
or even permissible for them to divorce.
It doesn't say that it's simply a recognition that the woman is
already an adulterous. That's all the text says,
according, to this interpretation, In fact, if you
look at Luke's version of this which is Luke 16:18 and marks
version, Mark chapter 10 verses 11 and 12, it doesn't include
this exception, the exception Clause is not in there and if
(28:17):
you look at Paul's later writings, 1 Corinthians 7 verses
10 to 11 and Romans chapter 7 verses 2 to 3.
He specifically teaches that married people should not
divorce and he doesn't attach any exception or condition to it
either. On top of that, based on the
disciples reaction, to this teaching later in Matthew
(28:37):
Chapter 19 Verse 10, it really does seem that Jesus is making a
total prohibition on divorce. He's not allowing for any
exceptions. Based on the way, the disciples
kind of throw their hands up in despair.
It does seem like he's making a total ban so that would be my
interpretation. But there are five other people
(28:57):
other possible interpretations and I want it just list them for
you briefly. As Catholics were free to look
into these and go with whatever we think the best interpretation
is because the church hasn't defined it.
So one interpretation and this was quite popular amongst the
church fathers. So it's considered to be the
traditional view is that Jesus is actually allowing divorce in
(29:21):
cases of sexual immorality, but not remarriage Jesus is not
allowing remarriage under any circumstances but he's saying
that divorce is okay. If there was some sort of Sexual
immorality involved and that does kind of make sense of the
phrase. Anyone who divorces his wife
except for the case of fornication, makes her an
(29:43):
adulterous that would seem to bebacked up by Paul's later,
teachings. That if spouses separate.
They either need to reconcile orremain single.
That's actually something he says.
Now, a bit earlier, I said that,I don't think that's the best
interpretation because in a sense it would mean that Jesus
(30:03):
is Kind of encouraging infidelity and in a certain way,
if one wants to get a divorce, they could just be unfaithful.
So perhaps that's not the best interpretation, but it is the
traditional one. There's another interpretation
and which focuses on the Greek word for fornication here, which
is poor neher, and it says it might refer to incestuous
(30:25):
marriages, which is stipulated in Leviticus 18.
If this is the right interpretation Jesus is saying
that there is an incestuous marriage.
So except for an incestuous marriage and in that case, the
marriage was not valid in the first place.
So, therefore the woman is not an adulterer because she wasn't
really married. It's this sounds fairly similar
(30:47):
to the Catholic church is current law about annulments.
So, in this case, there was no valid marriage, because it was
an incestuous relationship. We can find support for that.
If we look at 1, Corinthians, 5:1, Where Paul talks about a
man who married his stepmother. That's an incestuous
relationship and the same Greek word.
Porneia is used yet. Another interpretation says poor
(31:11):
Nia might be referring to an inappropriate marriage with a
gentile, which was not considered acceptable in the
eyes of God. If you look at Leviticus 17 and
18, that's the background. So, in this case again, the
marriage was not valid in the first place.
And therefore, the woman is not an adulterer because it was a
mixed marriage. The same word point, A is used
(31:31):
in Acts chapter 15 and 19 at theJerusalem Council, where it
appears that they are putting a ban on mixed marriages of some
sort. Now, that would explain why
Matthew includes this exception Clause because his audience is
Jewish and they would want to know about relationships between
Jews and Gentiles. Whereas Luke and Mark don't feel
(31:52):
the need to put it in there because their audiences may not
be primarily Jewish. There's another interpretation
which takes a different interpretation of the word
porneia. So, the word Point AR can mean
different things in different. Contexts.
This fourth or fifth interpretation says that sexual
activity with someone else before a marriage is consummated
(32:15):
that might be what's in view here with poor Nia.
As in someone is betrothed to someone else.
But then they go and have sexualrelations with someone else
before the marriage is officially consummated.
So in that case, the marriage was not yet a real marriage, it
wasn't yet into soluble and therefore it could be dissolved
if required. So what Jesus is saying here is
(32:36):
that you cannot do divorce and less sexual immorality before
the consummation has taken placein that case, divorce is okay
because the marriage was not yetconsummated.
So it wasn't yet a real marriage.
There's an interesting support for this because Matthew alone
mentions that Joseph had plannedto divorce.
(32:56):
Marry Re in Matthew chapter 1, verse 19.
Matthew says, Joseph had plannedto divorce marry for this very
reason because they were betrothed and he suspected that
she had been sexually Unfaithful, only Matthew
mentions that. So, maybe that would explain why
Matthew has included this Clauseas in.
It's a, it's talking about, unfaithfulness during the
(33:18):
betrothal period, the last interpretation focuses on a
known fact, about the time, which is that Amongst the Jewish
teachers at the time, there weredifferent interpretations about
the Deuteronomy law in terms of how unchastity affected the
marriage. So some schools of Jewish
(33:41):
thought said that the only reason you could have a divorce
is if there was sexual unfaithfulness or unchastity
other interpretations of the Jewish law said that you could
divorce your wife for pretty much any reason.
And there was actually a heated debate going on between
different So one way of interpreting, this exception
Clause would be if we translate it as something like this,
(34:05):
whoever divorces his wife and marries another.
I'm not going into the subject of unchastity, commits adultery,
as in it's a way of Jesus bracketing out the question of
unfaithfulness he says, I'm not going to touch that particular
subject. And again, that would explain
why Matthew would include the passage for his readers because
they would be interested in the Discussions, amongst the Jewish
(34:28):
leaders about the correct way tointerpret the law.
So, I've given you six interpretations, any one of
those could be right? And it's, it's one of those
really interesting discussions where we might get an answer
through future research. We might not get an answer.
Sorry, a fascinating passage. As I'm sure you'll agree.
(34:49):
It's been a long podcast today, so I won't spend a whole lot of
time going through catechism paragraphs, but there is a whole
lot of really, really interesting ones.
There, there's some discussion about the differences between
male and female and there's a discussion about how this
relates to the sixth commandment.
I want to read about paragraph, 1 4 5 6, which is about
(35:09):
confession. Confession to a priest is an
essential part of the sacrament of penance all. all sins of
which penitence after a diligentself-examination, our conscious
must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are,
most secret and have been committed against the last two
precepts of the decalogue for these sins, sometimes wounds,
(35:32):
the soul even more grievously and the more dangerous than
those, which are committed openly, so mentions their, the
last two Commandments from The Ten Commandments which includes
do not covet your neighbor's wife and the Catholic Church
teaches Is that that particular sin?
Amongst others can be more Grievous and dangerous than sins
(35:52):
which are committed openly. So that's interesting.
Paragraph 2 to 6 it talks about the nurse the need for us to
follow. God completely interior Ali and
that's part of what it means to believe.
In one God, is we have to give ourselves to him fully.
There's a discussion of Jesus view of Hell in paragraph, 1, 0,
3 or 4. And then I'll just finish with
(36:14):
paragraph, 23 8, Two on divorce.The Lord Jesus insisted on the
original intention of the Creator, who willed that
marriage. Be into soluble.
He abrogates the accommodations that had slipped into the Old
Law between the baptized a ratified and consummated.
Marriage cannot be dissolved by any human power or by any reason
(36:37):
other than death So I hope this has been a helpful podcast for
you today if you think others would benefit from it.
Then please share this podcast with them as well.
Thanks, and we'll continue tomorrow.
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