|
The author of this extensive study attempts to place the teaching
of Jesus about di-vorce and remarriage—and its pastoral
consequences—in the context of the entire Bible and its
understanding by Jesus and early Christianity. He argues that this
wider context is presupposed by the abbreviated reports of Jesus'
teaching in the New Testament and that of Paul. Jesus, in fact, was
not rigorously opposed to di-vorce or remarriage under any
circumstances. Instead, he opposed divorce without valid grounds and
discouraged it even for valid grounds. But based on Old Testa-ment
teaching which Jesus presupposed, divorce was possible in cases of
adultery or abuse. Remarriage after such a valid divorce was
permissible. The author, who is a scholar at Tyndale House in
Cambridge, makes his case in a serious manner but at times seems to
overwork in making the gospel passages fit his theory. When all is
said and done, Jesus' teaching on divorce may have been a radical
departure from most Jewish traditions.
|
|