Sunday, December 10, 2006

Instone-Brewer II

David Instone-Brewer asserts that the Jews and Christians allowed for a 'valid' divorce and that 'any matter' divorces were invalidated by Jesus. Among those are for 'porneia' which makes the ex-wife an adulteress. The radioactive woman in Mt 5:32 and Lk 16:18:

Mt 5:32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

Lk 16:18
Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.

My guess - is Jesus warning to stay away from that 'radioactive woman' ? Is that radioactive woman a validly divorced woman in the Judeo-Christian norms? Note that the mention of this other woman appears in Matthew and Luke which were written for the Jews and Christians respectively. Are
Matthew's 5:32 and Luke's 16:18 the same 'radioactive' woman?

What about the innocent woman in Mark 10:11?

11: And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.

Why does Mark not say she's 'radioactive'? Perhaps she was not a subject of a valid divorce. The Gospel of Mark was supposedly written for the Greco-Romans. In their law they have a divorce-by-separation tradition. Another insight offered by Instone-Brewer. This is a type of unilateral divorce where one party walks away from the marriage. Something that should ring very familiar with 21st century. Instone-Brewer asserts that Paul warned against this form of divorce as invalid in 1 Corinthians 7 in much the same way that Jesus warned against the Hillel form of divorce.

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