The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Paul writes this in order to make it clear that a woman who has been rejected by her husband is not free to marry again. If he should die, then she may remarry, but only in the Lord, which means without any suspicion of wrongdoing and within the bounds of the church. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
The death referred to here is clearly the death of the body, not of the soul. Forgiveness and attempts at reconciliation of the offending person are offered as better solutions than divorce. .
Et rursus: "Mulletest alligata, quandiu vivit vir ejus; sin autem mortuus fuerit, libera est ut nub at, modo in Domino. Beata est autem si sic permanserit, mea quidem sententia.".
Sed in priore quidem particula, "mortificati estis "inquit, "legi "non matrimonio, "ut efficiamini vos alteri, qui excitatus est ex mortuis"
Also in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: "The woman is bound so long as her husband liveth; but if he die, she is freed to marry whom she will, only in the Lord. But she will be happier if she abide thus."
And I said, "If a wife or husband die, and the widower or widow marry, does he or she commit sin? ""There is no sin in marrying again "said he; "but if they remain unmarried, they gain greater honour and glory with the Lord; but if they marry, they do not sin.
You have the law from the patriarchs indeed; you have the apostle enjoining people to marry in the Lord.
You degrade your god, O Marcion, when you make him circumscribed at all by the Creator's time. Assuredly also, when (the apostle) rules that marriage should be "only in the Lord".
Further, if we set down in order the higher and happier grades of bodily patience, (we find that)it is she who is entrusted by holiness with the care of continence of the flesh: she keeps the widow.
Let us now turn our attention to the next best advice, in regard of human infirmity; admonished hereto by the examples of certain, who, when an opportunity for the practice of Continence has been offered them, by divorce, or by the decease of the husband, have not only thrown away the opportunity of attaining so great a good, but not even in their remarriage have chosen to be mindful of the rule that "above all.
.
.".
Again, the woman, if intending to marry, has to marry "in the Lord; ".
You ought to take more ...
