Jesus: anti divorce; pro-women
2018년 10월 7일Divorce was the burning, controversial social issue in Jesus’ time, much as abortion and contraception are in our time. And Jews back then were as divided on the topic as we are now. The debate centered on the interpretation of one word in the Law of Moses, that allowed a man to divorce his wife by first writing out the decree of divorce but only for reasons of “pornea” (literally, “something dirty.”) But what constituted “something dirty”?
There were two competing theological schools among the Jews in Jesus’ time. The conservative school was led by Rabbi Shammai, who taught “something dirty” referred only to adultery. The liberal school was led by Rabbi Hillel, who insisted even burning the dinner was “something dirty” and grounds for divorce. So the scholars in today’s gospel asked Rabbi Jesus to weigh in on this issue. Now normally, Jesus’ teachings were closer to those of Hillel, but on this question, Jesus is even more conservative than Shammai. Jesus says, “No divorce. Period.”
To be clear, Jesus did not so much forbid divorce as he did remarriage. And the Catholic Church has defended this teaching and the insolubility of marriage for 2,000 years. To understand Jesus’ thinking, we must understand the role of women in his day. Before Moses, a man could divorce his wife simply by saying “I divorce you” three times in public. This practice is still used by Muslims, by the way. But Moses required a written certificate, presumably to give the man time to cool off. But Jesus takes even this right away. Why?
For one thing, women did not have the same right as a man to divorce. For another thing, since a divorced woman could not return to her father’s house, she only had two choices: become a beggar or a prostitute. Jesus forbidding divorce was his way of protecting women. Of course, nowadays divorced women have many options, so it remains to be seen how Jesus would rule on this question today. But the Church still faithfully holds to the original teaching of Jesus and wants Catholics to take the sanctity of marriage seriously.