ris3n's Apologetics Codex

Passage

Matthew 19.4-6

Book: Matthew · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

2. and great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there. 3. And there came unto him Pharisees, trying him, and saying, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?

4. And he answered and said, Have ye not read, that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, 5. and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh? 6. So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

  1. They say unto him, Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorcement, and to put her away? 8. He saith unto them, Moses for your hardness of heart suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it hath not been so. (Matthew 19:2-8, ASV)
WEB

2. Great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there. 3. Pharisees came to him, testing him, and saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”

4. He answered, “Haven’t you read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, 5. and said, ‘For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall join to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh?’ 6. So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, don’t let man tear apart.”

  1. They asked him, “Why then did Moses command us to give her a bill of divorce, and divorce her?” 8. He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has not been so. (Matthew 19:2-8, WEB)
KJV

2. And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there. 3. The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?

4. And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5. And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6. Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

  1. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? 8. He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. (Matthew 19:2-8, KJV)
YLT

2. and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there. 3. And the Pharisees came near to him, tempting him, and saying to him, 'Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?'

4. And he answering said to them, 'Did ye not read, that He who made [them], from the beginning a male and a female made them, 5. and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they shall be, the two, for one flesh? 6. so that they are no more two, but one flesh; what therefore God did join together, let no man put asunder.'

  1. They say to him, 'Why then did Moses command to give a roll of divorce, and to put her away?' 8. He saith to them, 'Moses for your stiffness of heart did suffer you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it hath not been so. (Matthew 19:2-8, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Jesus, answering the Pharisees
  • Audience: the Pharisees testing him on divorce, with the disciples present
  • Location: the region of Judea beyond Jordan
  • Time period: during the final journey toward Jerusalem

Theological reading

Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female. Jesus is asked a question about the grounds for divorce and answers by going behind the Mosaic permission to the creation account, quoting Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24 together as a single argument.

The method is as significant as the conclusion. The Pharisees frame the issue in terms of what is lawful, which invites a debate between the stricter and looser rabbinic schools over the meaning of the ground for divorce in Deuteronomy 24. Jesus declines the frame. He treats the Mosaic provision as a concession to hardness of heart rather than as the definition of the institution, and locates the definition in the created order instead. That is a hermeneutical claim about how the Torah's parts relate to each other, and it is at least as striking as the ethical conclusion.

The two Genesis citations are doing different work. The first establishes that the pairing is part of how humanity was made, and the second, quoted as the narrator's comment rather than as a command, establishes the one-flesh union as the thing that divorce attempts to undo. The concluding clause, what therefore God hath joined together, adds a claim the Genesis texts do not state explicitly, that God is the agent in a particular union and not merely the designer of the pattern.

The Matthean form of the saying includes the exception clause, which the Markan parallel does not, and the relationship between the two forms and the meaning of porneia in the clause is a long-standing dispute across traditions. That dispute concerns the grounds for divorce; it does not touch the definitional argument made in these three verses.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

Lexicon:

Passages:

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.