You say, in essence, that I should acknowledge reality. By this you mean that if a husband divorces his wife, even unjustly, the wife is free to marry again. For, having been divorced, she is no longer married. And by not being married she is free to marry again. In other words, divorce, even unjust divorce, severs a marriage union, and enables those divorced to marry again.
I say that we should abide by the Messiah's words in Matthew 5:31-32 and 19:6, 8-9. And these words of the Messiah forbid human beings from severing unions that the Almighty has effected. They also say that a woman who is divorced and marries again commits adultery with the man who so marries her after her divorce. And seeing that human beings are not to commit adultery, it is implied that a woman divorced from a marriage union effected by the Almighty should not marry again. If her husband unjustly divorced her, she should attempt reconciliation with him. If her husband justly divorced her, on account of her sexual immorality, she should live the rest of her days as a righteous single woman. She may only marry again if her husband dies; at which point she is released from being under legal authority of her husband. In other words, even though her husband divorces her, justly or unjustly, she is still technically under the authority of her husband until such time as he dies, at which point she is free to marry again. In other words, even though human beings do not consider her as being under her husband's authority after her husband has divorced her, justly or unjustly, in reality, before the Almighty's eyes, she is not free from her husband's authority until such time as he dies.
[April 2000 View: The Author's Position
Matthew 5:31 and 19:9 have not been correctly translated in many English
language translations. Matthew 5:31-32 should read,
5:31"It was also said, 'Whoever shall put away [not
"divorce"] his wife, let him give her a writing of divorce,' 5:32but I tell you that
everyone who puts away [not "divorces"] his wife, except for the
cause of sexual immorality, makes her an adulteress; and whoever shall marry
her when she is put away [not "divorced"] commits adultery.
Matthew 19:8-9 reads,
19:8He
said to them, "Moshe, because of the hardness of
your hearts, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it has
not been so. 19:9I tell you that whoever will put away [not
"divorce"] his wife, except for sexual immorality, and will marry
another, commits adultery; and he who marries her when she is put away [not
"divorced"] commits adultery."
There is a distinction between "putting away" and
"divorce". Putting away does not always entail divorce, but divorce
always entails putting away. A divorce is a putting away accompanied by a bill
of divorce. A putting away need not be accompanied by a bill of divorce.
In light of the above I say that a woman validly divorced can indeed by
married by another man without violating Yahweh's word. But a woman simply put
away without being divorced is not allowed to be married by another man while
her husband who put her away is still alive, for this is adultery. For unless
and until a woman is validly divorced by her husband she is still his wife,
notwithstanding contrary human opinion.]
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