Questions & Replies about Divorce and Remarriage by David Instone-Brewer
Read the book    Buy a copy	I read and reply to all emails though sometimes the reply is very brief, due to pressure of time. I like to get questions - especially if they are new. Many people ask questions which are already covered in these Questionas & Replies. Please take a moment to look at previous emails before you write. Pastoral support doesn't really work by email, so if you need this, I'd encourage you to find a local fellow Christian or minister. Their personal views on this subject don't matter too much if they are good at listening, both to you and to God. David Instone-Brewer	Read portions    Buy a copy

Emailed question/comment:
	Have you seen Tomson's review of your work? Unlike most reviewers, he is quite critical, and appears to have some serieious criticisms. [See the full review at LINK]
Reply:
	Thanks for the copy of Tomson's review, which I hadn't seen. It has some very telling points (as well as pointing out some spelling mistakes). His review points up a couple of important areas where I have been unclear. I wish I had spent more time dealing with Westbrook, whom I no longer think has the correct solution to Dt.24.1-4 – see Q22). And I wish I had dealt with the origin of the Any Cause divorce - the Hillelites clearly didn't invent it cos it was used in 5th C BCE Elephantine, but they invented the Scriptural justification for it (see Q19). I don't agree with his reading of the Qumran material, which seems to be a merging of the old view (that the phrase 'two wives in their lifetime' referred to remarriage) and the newer view (which might even be called a consensus) that it refered to polygamy. I don't think that I failed to justify my use of Matthew's additions to the divorce tradition, as he suggests. I argued that Matthew was writing some time after Mark when the Hillelite-Shammaite debate was no longer current, so he had to remind his readers about it. I am flattered that such a fine scholar has clearly read my work very carefully.
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