Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Matthew 19:1-15, Any and every reason, and the children
Pharisees ask whether a man may divorce his wife for any and every reason. Jesus answers from creation, the disciples wonder whether it is better not to marry, and children are brought for his blessing.
Matthew 19:1-15, in every translation this tool compares.
Pharisees test Jesus on a live debate: may a man divorce his wife for any reason at all? He goes back behind Moses to creation, where God made man and woman to be joined as one, and says Moses allowed divorce only as a concession, which Jesus permits only in the case of unfaithfulness. The disciples think that makes marriage too risky, and Jesus speaks of some who stay unmarried for the kingdom. Then he welcomes children his disciples tried to turn away, saying the kingdom belongs to people like them.
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The question names the live debate between the Pharisaic schools: Shammai allowed divorce only for unfaithfulness, Hillel for almost any cause, even burnt food, and a later rabbi added finding someone more attractive (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes; the ESV Study Bible). The sources differ on which school then had the upper hand: the cultural backgrounds notes say the Shammaites outnumbered the Hillelites, and Keener calls Shammai's school predominant in Jesus' day, with Hillel's winning out later. Josephus states the law as a man divorcing his wife "for any cause." Since only husbands could divorce at will, Jesus' stand also protected married women, and with parents arranging marriages, a marriage with no way out frightened the disciples (Keener). Eunuchs were excluded from the assembly (Deuteronomy 23:1) and mocked by Greeks, and most Jews treated marriage and children as a duty (the cultural backgrounds notes). Wilkins notes substantial evidence that some Essenes were celibate, a live example beside 19:12.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Matthew 19:1-3, 19:9, 19:10, 19:11-12 and 19:13-15
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Matthew 19:3, 19:10, 19:12 and 19:13
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Matthew 19:3
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 4.8.23, trans. William Whiston
- Michael J. Wilkins, Matthew, in Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary, ed. Clinton E. Arnold, on Matthew 19:12
