Is it true that the Bible condemns divorce?

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Explore what the Bible actually says about divorce and how believers can navigate this sensitive topic with grace and compassion.Although divorces are condemned by the Catholic Church and frowned upon by some evangelical denominations, there are biblical passages that permit them, in specific cases.

Although divorces are condemned by the Catholic Church and, to varying degrees, frowned upon by most evangelical denominations, there are biblical passages that permit them, in specific cases.

And in the understanding of some religious people with a more contemporary mindset, the biblical justifications for the dissolution of marriage can be extended, given today’s context, to situations of domestic violence, vices of one of the spouses or any serious situation that makes it impossible to live fully and harmoniously under the same roof.

Full of norms and rules present in the ancient society of Israel, the book of Deuteronomy, probably from the 6th century BC, contains an emblematic passage on the subject. “If a man takes a woman and marries her and later finds something in her that makes him ashamed, he stops looking at her favorably, he shall write her a bill of divorce and give it to her, sending her away from his house,” says the passage.

Which goes on to say that if she marries another man and becomes a widow, her first husband cannot have anything to do with her again.

Although it is a passage that is frequently brought up when discussing divorce in the Bible, it is important to remember the context in which it was written and to whom it was addressed.

As Baptist pastor and theologian Yago Martins points out in his recently released book Churches that Silence Women , the text of Deuteronomy reflects the Jewish society of the time. In other words: “it does not speak to the woman about the man, but to the man about the woman.”

In the contemporary interpretation, therefore, it is legitimate to understand the passage as something valid even with the roles reversed, since today’s society is, at least in theory and principles, based on equality between men and women.

Permission

Martins also points out that the Old Testament law “neither commands nor admits divorce in general, but only regulates its practice for ancient Israel.” Thus, the passage is not an “order for divorce, only a permission.”

The theologian understands that the passage serves to protect women, as it creates an instrument that guarantees them distance from their first husband in these situations of separation and remarriage.

But this is not the only passage to mention the subject, of course. In the Gospel of Matthew, there is a passage that once again addresses the topic. In the passage, Jesus is questioned by the teachers of the law about whether or not it is right to dissolve a marriage. Although they cite the scripture found in Deuteronomy, Jesus seeks the answer in the book of Genesis, which narrates the creation of the world.

And he argues that God made man and woman to become “one flesh”. “What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate”, he warns.

In their reply, his interlocutors recall the Jewish custom that allows divorce. Jesus responds by saying that there are cases in which there is “hardness” in hearts. And he ends by saying that “if anyone divorces his wife, except in the case of an illegal union, and marries another, he is an adulterer.”

There is a parallel to this same story in the Gospel of Mark, as pointed out by theologian Tereza Maria Pompeia Cavalcanti, retired professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ).

“[In it,] Jesus states that Moses permitted divorce ‘because of the hardness of your hearts.’ But he adds that from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and the two will become one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate,'” she quotes BBC News Brasil.

Theologian Martins comments that this controversy originates in the fact that Jesus “wanted to address God’s standard for marriage” and not “the concession for divorce”. “Divorce was not a commandment, but a permission”, he points out.

To BBC News Brasil, theologian, philosopher and biblical scholar Zuleica Aparecida Silvano, a nun of the Congregation of the Daughters of Saint Paul, professor at the Jesuit Faculty of Philosophy and Theology and member of the Brazilian Association of Biblical Research, explains that, in Judaism, the expression one flesh is interpreted “as being the son or the daughter”, that is, the product of the union of the couple.

“[Thus,] parents can never separate from their children, given that something of the father and mother remains in the children. But [the expression] is not interpreted as being the couple,” she states.

Abandonment

Also in the Old Testament, the book of Exodus addresses divorce from another perspective.

In the passage, there is the example of a man who takes for himself a second slave — but the rule warns that if he reduces the food, clothing or cohabitation of the first, or even fails to provide her with these three things, “she may go out free of charge, without spending anything.”

Again, the patriarchal logic of that society needs to be taken into account in the interpretation. Therefore, the more contemporary view of Christianity applies the same idea to marriage today: if one of the spouses abandons the other in some way, emotionally or materially, or even promotes violence within the relationship, the victim could “get out of that situation for free.”

Already in the first of the letters sent by Paul to the Christian community in Corinth, there is a warning “to those who are married” that “the wife should not separate from her husband” and “if she is separated, she should not marry again or be reconciled to her husband”. And also that “the husband should not divorce his wife”.

The context of that situation, it is worth remembering, was that Christian women were having difficulties in maintaining their relationships with pagan husbands. And many were opting for divorce with the idea of ​​following a religious life.

“Paul speaks of the possibility of divorce if there are arguments between couples because of religion, that is, in the case where one of the spouses is of a Gentile or Jewish religious tradition and the other adheres to Jesus Christ,” explains Silvano.

“If it is not possible to live in peace, then it is better to separate. This is called, in the Code of Canon Law, the ‘Pauline privilege’, but only in cases when a person marries someone of another non-Christian religion.”

Historical machismo

In conversation with BBC News Brasil, Martins highlights that “the big point” that generates the lack of consensus is the fact that people tend to “choose pieces of the Bible”.

“Everyone likes some part of the Bible,” he emphasizes, defending an interpretation that considers the whole and the context.

“When we talk about marriage, there are little things that go into that structure. But the core of it is love, the giving of my life in love and care. That’s the basics of a relationship,” he says.

Silvano understands that there was a machismo that made the relationship between men and women unequal on this subject at the time of Jesus — and, according to her understanding, this would have motivated his position as being against the practice. The expert recalls that in Judaism, “a man could give a woman a letter of divorce” on some occasions.

“The great criticism that Jesus makes of divorce in the gospels was because of this disparity, that is, men had the right to give any reason for divorce and women did not,” she comments.

This is the main criticism made by feminist philosopher and theologian Ivone Gebara, an Augustinian nun and author of, among others, The Uncomfortable Daughters of Eve in the Church of Latin America .

“[The Bible] mentions that women found in adultery can be sent back by their husbands, but the opposite is not stated,” she points out to BBC News Brasil. “[In the sacred texts] the man is always protected, even if he is an adulterer.”

In the Gospel of Matthew, as theologian Cavalcanti points out, “divorce is permitted in cases of adultery.” The passage says that “whoever divorces his wife — except in cases of illicit union — exposes her to adultery,” which allows us to understand that in cases of adultery, divorce would be acceptable.

According to religious people who are more open to the current social organization, these passages should be interpreted in an egalitarian way between genders, leaving the supremacy between men and women as a question of the historical context of when such texts were written. This is what Martins, for example, argues in his book.

Catholics and Protestants

“The Bible does mention the issue of divorce. Jesus touches on this subject in the gospels and says that all of this is possible, [since] Moses allowed people to divorce because of ‘the hardness of their hearts’,” historian and theologian Gerson Leite de Moraes, a professor at Mackenzie Presbyterian University, told BBC News Brasil.

He points out, however, that this creates “a division between Catholics and Protestants” in terms of understanding. For Catholics, as marriage is a sacrament, “it is something indissoluble.”

“For Protestants, it is a blessing given in a service that seals the union between a man and a woman. So [divorce] is possible even if the justification is hardness of heart. It is possible for this alliance to be broken for N reasons, and this does not mean the end, it means the possibility of reconstituting a new family”, argues Moraes.

According to the professor, the dissolution of a marriage in non-Catholic churches is facilitated above all “when there is some element involving adultery”.

“So the victimized party would somehow be released from their vows because the other party was unfaithful,” he explains.

“The [non-Catholic] churches take advantage of this to run campaigns, to somehow indoctrinate people who are starting their lives over again and, in this sense, it seems that evangelicals are able to take a step forward in relation to Catholics,” he adds.

Moraes says that the Universal Church, for example, has already held meetings for divorced people that functioned as a kind of “love campaign”. “It was exactly for people who were in a situation where they needed to find a new partner.

In this sense, evangelical churches, heirs to a Protestant tradition, have adapted better to this idea [of divorce], including welcoming those who have divorced and thus re-establishing the ideal of a happy family”, he says.

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