Reviews Divorce and Remarriage by David Instone-Brewer

"Clarity of content (even when argued through much detail) as well as layout are hallmarks of this fine book… If Instone-Brewer's approach to the text is right - and this reader found him persuasive - those of us whose pastoral instincts have been more open to the possibility of divorce and remarriage may find freshly argued biblical support beyond the 'spirit of Jesus' or 'forgiveness and a fresh start' to which we may previously have appealed."     Regent's Reviews Spring 2003

Full review:
	The author of Divorce & Remarriage in the Bible is a research fellow at Tyndale House, Cambridge. This work is a model of a thorough exegctical treatment of its theme, beginning from a thoughtfully conservative ap-proach to the text and ending up with some (perhaps) surprising conclu-sions. Instone-Brewer's view is that both Jesus and Paul affirm the Old Testa-ment's ground for divorce (which include neglect or abuse), and allow remarriage after such a 'valid' divorce. This position, with other angles and perspectives which fill it out, is arrived at after painstaking work on texts from both testaments and a considerable amount of work also on parallel rabbinic and other traditions - one of the author's special interests. The wider Old Testament divorce provision, though radicalised at certain points by Jesus, is not explicitly referred to in the texts which record Je-sus' teaching because it would have been taken for granted by his listen-ers, it is argued. Instone-Brewer's careful work on the texts and traditions makes this case with some persuasive force. As well as rabbinic traditions, the author sets Israel's attitude to divorce in its ancient near eastern context in an illuminating way. He traces the Old Testament attitudes and regulations through the Pentateuch and the prophets - with some valuable insights about the way in which marriage is used as a metaphor for God's relationship to his covenant people. The intertestamental period and rabbinic teaching is examined in detail before we turn to Jesus and to Paul. There follows a further interesting examina-tion of the content and variety of marriage vows in biblical times (the wifely promise to 'obey', we are told, is not a biblical marriage vow), and a look at the 'history of divorce'. This comprehensive book then examines the way in which modern exegetes have interpreted and reinterpreted the text, with the author taking some trouble to identify at what points he agrees and disagrees with the writers under review. Clarity of content (even when argued through much detail) as well as layout are hallmarks of this fine book. The final chapter examines - though rather briefly - some pastoral issues. The implications of Instone-Brewer's conclusions may be quite radical. His own concluding paragraph makes this clear (p. 314): 'The Church should now be humble and admit that a great mistake has been made. Too many generations of husbands and wives have been forced to remain with their abusing or neglectful partners and have not been allowed to divorce even after suffering repeated unfaithfulness. The Church should not con-tinue in a false teaching because Church traditions should not be regarded as superior to the teaching of Jesus and Paul,' This book will appeal to all who enjoy detailed exegetical work, and who appreciate being given a sense of the Bible's larger context. How-ever, its conclusions are of much wider interest and need to be studied with care and concern, and perhaps hope. If Instone-Brewer's approach to the text is right - and this reader found him persuasive - those of us whose pastoral instincts have been more open to the possibility of divorce and remarriage may find freshly argued biblical support beyond the 'spirit of Jesus' or 'forgiveness and a fresh start' to which we may previously have appealed.
Read more reviews...