What is God’s covenant for you?

Society was changing rapidly in Jesus’ day, and this affected the interpretation of biblical law. Precepts that had made sense in an independent, agrarian and egalitarian Israel no longer functioned well under Roman rule. Jewish thinkers of the first century C.E. worked hard to apply the ancient law to their changed circumstances. These interpretations and adaptations were subject to great debate. Elsewhere, Mark preserves these interactions in his narratives regarding leprosy and purification before meals.

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus and the Pharisees take up the topic of divorce. Although the law of Moses allows it, the changed circumstances of the first century C.E. lead Jesus to argue that the usefulness of that custom had come to an end. In fact, the growing body of interpretation on the topic of divorce threatened to obscure the purpose for which God had created marriage.

We know little about the practice of divorce in Jesus’ day. The Dead Sea Scrolls rarely mention it and generally forbid it. The culture of the day was patriarchal, and the Torah was vague about grounds for divorce. Although some Jewish scholars insisted that a man could divorce his wife only if she were sexually unfaithful, others argued that he could do so for any reason, even “if she spoiled a dish,” or “if he found another more beautiful.” The one Jewish divorce contract that survives from this period speaks only of the division of assets and the freedom of both parties to remarry. With such thin evidence, it is not clear how divorce functioned in Jewish society in Jesus’ time.

By contrast, Greco-Roman sources mention divorce often and give abundant details regarding the grounds and process. One suspects that Hellenized Jews had adopted some of these attitudes. Changes in culture removed at least one significant obstacle to divorce. The requirement that a man return his wife’s dowry with interest in the event of a divorce would have been catastrophic in a land-based, agrarian economy. In a cash-based urban culture, however, this requirement would not have had the same sting. One can always make more money; it is much harder to acquire more land. One suspects that wealthier Jews of Jesus’ day hoped to justify these new freer attitudes in the eyes of the biblical law.

In Jesus’ mind, attention to such questions subverted the divine purpose of marriage. Prophets like Hosea spoke of marriage as the human institution that best symbolized the covenant of God and Israel. Malachi went even further to compare religious infidelity to adultery (Mal 2:10-16). When Jesus cites Gn 2:24, he pushes this identification even further: The creation of marriage was part of the heavens and the earth. One’s attitude toward marriage thus reflects one’s attitude toward creation; breaking faith with even one person has a negative effect on one’s relationship with humanity and with God.

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In Christ’s kingdom, divine wisdom is the foundation for human institutions. The legal questions over divorce, although compelling to some, failed completely to address the love of God and neighbor that marriage teaches. In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus reminds his disciples that God’s dream for humanity is bigger than the social realities of the day. This reminder continues to challenge Christ’s disciples in every age.