Christian teaching

A. Is it lawful to divorce and remarry? ³And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?”

B. From the beginning: ⁴“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning

C. God’s command – they are one-flesh (Genesis 1 and 2)

– From two to one, the husband holds fast to the wife: made them male and female, ⁵and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

– Jesus’ explanation: ⁶So they are no longer two but one flesh.

D. Jesus’ pronouncement: What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

C¹. Moses’ command – the divorce certificate (Deuteronomy 24)

– From one to two, the husband sends away the wife:  ⁷They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?”

– Jesus’ explanation: ⁸He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives,

B¹. From the beginning: but from the beginning it was not so.

A¹. It is not lawful to separate a one-flesh union, with one exception: ⁹But I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”