They said unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?
All Commentaries on Matthew 19:7 Go To Matthew 19
John Chrysostom
AD 407
They ought not to have brought this up to him but rather he to them. Nevertheless he does not take advantage of them, nor does he say, “I am not now bound by this,” but he explained this, too. In fact, if he had been alien from the old law, he would not have argued on Moses’ side, nor would he have argued from the original events in the beginning; nor would he have striven to show that his views agreed with the old ones. In fact, Moses gave many other commandments, about foods to eat, about the sabbath. Why do they not challenge Jesus with Moses anywhere else, as they do here? The motive of his detractors was that they wanted the crowd of husbands to be stirred up against him. For divorce was viewed as a matter of considerable indifference among the Jews. Yet when so many things had been said on the mount, they remembered this commandment only now. The Gospel of Matthew, Homily
