The Pharisees also came unto him, testing him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
All Commentaries on Matthew 19:3 Go To Matthew 19
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Note their craftiness from the very form of their questioning. They did not say to him, “You told him not to dismiss his wife,” for he had already spoken about this law. They did not mention those words but started off from that point. Thinking to make the ambush greater and wanting to trap him into saying something against the law, they did not say, “Why did you command such and such?” But, as if nothing had been said, they asked, “Is it lawful?” expecting that he would have forgotten what he had said. And they were ready if … he said, “It is lawful to put away,” to bring against him the things he himself had spoken and to say, “Why did you say the opposite?” And if he repeated what he had earlier said, they were ready to challenge him with the words of Moses. The Gospel of Matthew, Homily
