The Bible and Divorce

That divorce has become a common thread in the social fabric of western nations has been accepted for a while now. Figures range from the panic-stricken estimate of one in two marriages ending in divorce to a more realistic overall divorce rate of around 9/1000 in the United States, according to figures provided by the 2009 census, with a higher rate - 10.5/1000 - in the south as opposed to the north where it was around 7 out of 1000. This posits divorce in an interesting relationship with Christianity since the American South is believed to be more religious than a more cosmopolitan North. And yet Christians all over the western world worry about the spirally divorce rates and wonder what their holy book, the Bible has to say about it.

TIP: Read about how the manifestation miracle can help you fulfill your desires.

The problem with looking at a source like Bible for answers is that there are as many versions as the main sects and churches of Christianity. Each will thus offer its own account of what is ordained for Christians regarding divorce. Despite many efforts to standardize texts, even the common passages in different Biblical versions may be interpreted differently, according to prevalent ideologies of a particular time and place. Current attitudes towards the concept and practice of divorce as mentioned in the Scriptures take two widely diverging views:

God offers no provision for divorce in the Bible

The Biblical record shows that, unlike marriage, divorce was not instituted by God. There is no indication in the Bible suggesting that God introduced and institutionalized divorce after the Fall as part of His order for human society. Divorce is "man-made," not divinely ordained. One of the most relevant comments on divorce appears in the New Testament, when Jesus explained that divorce represents a change in God’s order - He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so" (Matt 19:8) To allow a practice is not the same as instituting it. When divorce first appears in the Bible, the practice is already assumed to be in existence. What God did through Moses was to regulate divorce in order to prevent its abuse.

This attitude to divorce can be better understood in the context of what divorce meant in pre-Moses times. During this period divorce was common among the heathen groups and A man could divorce his spouse for any reason simply by denying her before witnesses. This led to a great deal of abuse of the institution of marriage fuelled by absence of regulations restricting this form of easy divorce. It was this situation that occasioned the legislation found in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 which is taken as the main argument by those in favor of Biblical sanction to divorce.

The injunction on divorce in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 can be further divided into three elements: (1) the grounds for divorce (Deut 24:1a), (2) the process of divorce (Deut 24:1b), and (3) the result of divorce (Deut 24:2-4).

In case of the first, “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a bill of divorce . . ." (Deut 24:1a). Proponents of Biblical sanction against divorce point out that the law does not prescribe or encourage divorce. It simply assumes the course of action a husband would take if he found "some indecency in her."

Next is the passage in Deuteronomy concerning the process of Divorce. Deut 24:16 details the procedure required of a man intending to divorce his wife was for him to write out a bill of divorce and give it to her: "he writes her a bill of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house . . ." even though this may seem exceedingly unfair on the women by modern standards, the detailing of the process however served certain ends. For one the formalizing of the divorce deterred a hasty action on the part of the husband by restraining frivolous and rash dismissal. Apart from this testified to the woman’s freedom from marital obligations from the husband who sent her away. Finally in a manner, it protected the woman’s reputation, particularly if she married another man.

As far as the results of divorce is concerned, Deut 24:2-4 seems to suggest that the main purpose of the divorce procedure was to close the way forever for the man to remarry his former wife once she had remarried. Even if her second husband divorced her or died, she could not return to her first husband. To do so would be an "abomination before the Lord" (Deut 24:4)

Opponents to Biblical sanction for divorce point out that Moses did not require a man to divorce his wife if he found "some indecency" in her. He simply permitted it due to the hardness of the Israelites’ hearts (Matt 19:8; Mark 10:5) who had rejected God’s original plan for marriage (Mark 10:9; Gen 2:24). What Moses required was that a divorce document be written to discourage hasty divorces and to mitigate the hardship of divorce.

Divorce is allowed in the Bible

According to proponents of this Biblical sanction for divorce, the sundering of a marriage has been allowed in the Bible but the only scriptural reason that warrants God’s permission for divorce and remarriage is  “marital unfaithfulness”. They base their stance mainly on the passages from the Book of Matthew.  Matthew 5:32 states “But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery”. Then again Matthew 19:9 states,” I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

Here again the possibility of many different interpretations of the term “marital unfaithfulness"  makes the matter exceedingly complex. The Greek word for marital unfaithfulness found in Matthew 5:32 and Matthew 19:9 translates to mean any form of sexual immorality including adultery, prostitution, fornication, pornography, and incest. Since the sexual union is such a crucial part of the marriage covenant, breaking that bond seems to be a permissible, biblical ground for divorce.

Apart from sexual immorality as stated in the Matthew chapter, another Biblical ground for divorce is mentioned is abandonment by an unbeliever . According to 1 Corinthians 7:15, God said, “But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved. God has called you to peace”.

In the end though all tenets of Bible-based faiths agree that no matter what the grounds, divorce is not required or even encouraged. The most that can be said is that sexual immorality and abandonment are an allowance for divorce. Confession, forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration should always be the focus of resolving conflict in a marriage and Divorce should only be viewed as a last resort.