Gospel Decoded
HomeAll entries › Mark

“And if she divorces her husband”

Mark 10:11–12
Legal referenceSettledJesus
Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery. (Mark 10:11–12 BSB)

What it sounds like today

Symmetrical and unremarkable to modern ears.

The cultural key

Two differences from Matthew. First, Mark's saying has no exception clause; Matthew twice adds 'except for sexual immorality,' entering the Hillel-Shammai debate (see the Matthew entry), while Mark preserves the teaching absolute. Second, and startling for the original setting: 'if she divorces her husband.' Under Jewish law only the husband could issue a divorce certificate; a wife-initiated divorce was a Roman legal possibility, not a Galilean one. Mark, writing for Roman readers, extends the principle to their law, and his audience knew a notorious local case: Herodias had abandoned her husband to marry Antipas, the affair that cost John the Baptist his head for saying exactly this.

Recovered meaning

The same protection cuts both directions once the law allows both directions: no spouse, husband or wife, may discard the other and call it lawful. Mark's version shows the teaching being carried into a new legal world without losing its edge.

Parallels: Matthew 5:31–32; Matthew 19:3–9; Mark 6:17–18
Part of Gospel Decoded, 833 phrases from across the whole Bible decoded into their first-century meaning. Open this entry in the interactive explorer →
Browse all 833 entries →