Sunday, December 29, 2013

"Against her" or "With Her" ?

      Mark tells us that the Pharisees "tested" Jesus by asking him a question which
was " 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?'  "He answered and said to them,
'What did Moses command you?' " (Mark 10:2-3) The Lord told them why Moses
allowed them to divorce their wives. He follows with a quote from Genesis 2:24,
and then he states, "Therefore what God joined together, let no person separate."
(verse 9) The Master's disciples inquired about this and he said to them, "Whoever
divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery epi auten." (verse 11) The
question is: should epi auten be interpreted to mean "against her" or "with her"?

     If it means "against her" the "her" is the wife he divorced. If it means "with her"
the "her" is the wife of the subsequent marriage. According to BDAG (Bauer-
Danker-Arndt-Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and
Other Early Christian Literature, pages 363-367), the Greek preposition epi
has at least 18 uses in the New Testament. This indicates a wide range of meaning
in New Testament literature. So, the key to the correct interpretation of the phrase
epi auten must be sought in the context.

     "With her" is a possible interpretation, (cf. Nigel Turner, A Grammar of New
Testament Greek,   vol.  3,   Syntax,   page   272;   The   R.S.V.  Interlinear 
Greek-English   New  Testament,   page  182;  The  New  Greek  English
Interlinear New Testament, page 159), but the more likely meaning is "against
her" for the following reasons. (1) The initial question posed to Jesus was, "Can a
man divorce his wife?" Matthew has the words, "for any cause/reason." (kata
pasan aitian) Initially, the second wife was not in view. (2) Matthew's record
shows the Lord's disciples understood the Lord's words to reflect adultery to be
committed against the former wife. When Jesus explained his teaching, the disciples
said, "If such is  the  case of  the  man  with  his  wife, it is  better  not  to  marry."
(Matthew 19:10) (3) In the context of Mark's record, Jesus speaks of the man
being "joined to his wife," he is not to be "separated" from his wife, and if he
"divorces his wife and marries another he commits adultery epi auten." (4) Verse
12 is also important as Jesus turns his attention to the woman. Which woman? The
wife of the verse 11. "And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she
commit adultery." This shows that both the man and his wife sin against each other
when they divorce and remarry without the right to do so. The focus is on the
husband  and  the  wife  of  the  first  marriage, so "against  her"  is  the  correct
interpretation of epi auten.

     It is true that a man commits adultery "with" a woman to whom he has no right
to be married, but contextually, in Mark 10 the Lord is addressing a question that
relates to a man's action toward his wife, whom he has no authority to divorce. He
sins "against her" when he divorces her and marries another. His moral and spiritual
hostility is directed toward or against her!   
                                                                                                            R. Daly

Copyright 2013

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