They said unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?
Read Chapter 19
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
The Pharisees, not satisfied, again attack our Saviour. To this second attack he replies: Moses indeed permitted you to put away your wives on account of the hardness of your hearts, and to prevent a greater evil, lest through your cruelty you should poison them, or put them to violent death; but in the natural law, signified by the beginning, it was not so. (Denis the Carthusian)
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
But if you put forward Moses, I tell you of Moses' Lord, and together with this, I rely upon the time also. For God at the beginning made them male and female; and this law is older (though it seem to have been now introduced by me), and with much earnestness established. For not merely did He bring the woman to the man, but also commanded to leave father and mother. And neither did He make it a law for him merely to come to the woman, but also to cleave to her, by the form of the language intimating that they might not be severed. And not even with this was He satisfied, but sought also for another greater union, for the two, He says, shall be one flesh.
Then after He had recited the ancient law, which was brought in both by deeds and by words, and shown it to be worthy of respect because of the giver, with authority after that He Himself too interprets and gives the law, saying, So that they are no more two, but one flesh. Like then as to sever flesh is a horrible thing, so also t...
