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Public-domain commentary
Matthew Henry
From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry comments on passages, not single verses — this entry covers Mark 10:1–12. His three-level outline is real structure in the source text, so it is rendered as structure.
Our Lord Jesus was an itinerant Preacher, did not continue long in a place, for the whole land of Canaan was his parish, or diocese, and therefore he would visit every part of it, and give instructions to those in the remotest corners of it. Here we have him in the coasts of Judea, by the further side of Jordan eastward, as we found him, not long since, in the utmost borders westward, near Tyre and Sidon. Thus was his circuit like that of the sun, from whose light and heat nothing is hid. Now here we have him,
I.Resorted to by the people, Mar 10:1.
Wherever he was, they flocked after him in crowds; they came to him again, as they had done when he had formerly been in these parts, and, as he was wont, he taught them again. Note, Preaching was Christ's constant practice; it was what he was used to, and, wherever he came, he did as he was wont. In Matthew it is said, He healed them; here it is said, He taught them: his cures were to confirm his doctrine, and to recommend it, and his doctrine was to explain his cures, and illustrate them. He taught them again. Note, Even those whom Christ hath taught, have need to be taught again. Such is the fulness of the Christian doctrine, that there is still more to be learned; and such our forgetfulness, that we need to be reminded of what we do know.
II.We have him disputed with by the Pharisees, who envied the progress of his spiritual arms, and did all they could to obstruct and oppose it; to divert him, to perplex him, and to prejudice the people against him.
Here is, 1. A question they started concerning divorce (Mar 10:2); Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? This was a good question, if it had been well put, and with a humble desire to know the mind of God in this matter; but they proposed it, tempting him, seeking an occasion against him, and an opportunity to expose him, which side soever he should take of the question. Ministers must stand upon their guard, lest, under pretence of being advised with, they be ensnared.
2.Christ's reply to them with a question (Mar 10:3); What did Moses command you? This he asked them, to testify his respect to the law of Moses, and to show that he came not to destroy it; and to engage them to a universal impartial respect for Moses's writings and to compare one part of them with another.
3.The fair account they gave of what they found in the law of Moses, expressly concerning divorce, Mar 10:4. Christ asked, What did Moses command you? They own that Moses only suffered, or permitted, a man to write his wife a bill of divorce, and to put her away, Deu 24:1. "If you will do it, you must do it in writing, delivered into her own hand, and so put her away, and never return to her again."
4.The answer that Christ gave to their question, in which he abides by the doctrine he had formerly laid down in this case (Mat 5:32), That whosoever puts away his wife, except for fornication, causeth her to commit adultery. And to clear this he here shows,
(1.)That the reason why Moses, in his law, permitted divorce, was such, as that they ought not to make use of that permission; for it was only for the hardness of their hearts (Mar 10:5), lest, if they were not permitted to divorce their wives, they should murder them; so that none must put away their wives but such as are willing to own that their hearts were so hard as to need this permission.
(2.)That the account which Moses, in this history, gives of the institution of marriage, affords such a reason against divorce, as amounts to a prohibition of it. So that if the question be, What did Moses command? (Mar 10:3), it must be answered, "Though by a temporary proviso he allowed divorce to the Jews, yet by an eternal reason he forbade it to all the children of Adam and Eve, and that is it which we must abide by."
Moses tells us, [1.] That God made man male and female, one male, and one female; so that Adam could not put away his wife and take another, for there was no other to take, which was an intimation to all his sons, that they must not. [2.] When this male and this female were, by the ordinance of God, joined together in holy marriage, the law was, That a man must leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife (Mar 10:7); which intimates not only the nearness of the relation, but the perpetuity of it; he shall so cleave to his wife as not to be separated from her. [3.] The result of the relation is, That, though they are two, yet they are one, they are one flesh, Mar 10:8. The union between them is the most intimate that can be, and, as Dr. Hammond expresses it, a sacred thing that must not be violated. [4.] God himself was joined them together; he has not only, as Creator, fitted them to be comforts and helps meet for each other, but he has, in wisdom and goodness, appointed them who are thus joined together, to live together in love till death parts them. Marriage is not an invention of men, but a divine institution, and therefore is to be religiously observed, and the more, because it is a figure of the mystical inseparable union between Christ and his church.
Now from all this he infers, that men ought not to put their wives asunder from them, whom God has put so near them. The bond which God himself has tied, is not to be lightly untied. They who are divorcing their wives for every offence, would do well to consider what would become of them, if God should in like manner deal with them. See Isa 50:1; Jer 3:1.
5.Christ's discourse with his disciples, in private, about this matter, Mar 10:10-12. It was an advantage to them, that they had opportunity of personal converse with Christ, not only about gospel mysteries, but about moral duties, for further satisfaction. No more is here related of this private conference, that the law Christ laid down in this case - That it is adultery for a man to put away his wife, and marry another; it is adultery against the wife he puts away, it is a wrong to her, a breach of his contract with her, Mar 10:11. He adds, If a woman shall put away her husband, that is, elope from him, leave him by consent, and be married to another, she commits adultery (Mar 10:12), and it will be no excuse at all for her to say that it was with the consent of her husband. Wisdom and grace, holiness and love, reigning in the heart, will make those commands easy which to the carnal mind may be as a heavy yoke.
Historical interpretation
Eleven Centuries of Reception
8 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.
Select a marker to jump to its quote. Markers stagger vertically where authors wrote within a few decades of each other.
This second question is said to be asked again by the Apostles, because it is on the subject of which the Pharisees had asked Him, that is, concerning the state of marriage; and this is said by Mark in his own person.
There are some who say outright that marriage is fornication and teach that it was introduced by the devil. They proudly say that they are imitating the Lord who neither married nor had any possession in this world, boasting that they understand the gospel better than anyone else. The Scripture says to them: "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble." Further, they do not know the reason why the Lord did not marry. In the first place he had his own bride, the Church; and in the next place he was no ordinary man that he should also be in need of some helpmeet after the flesh. Nor was it necessary for him to beget children since he abides eternally and was born the only Son of God. It is the Lord himself who says: "That which God has joined together, let no man put asunder."
(Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc. et v. Chrys. Hom. 62) For being asked, whether it is lawful, he does not immediately reply, it is not lawful, lest they should raise an outcry, but He first wished them to answer Him as to the sentence of the law, that they by their answer might furnish Him with what it was right to say. Wherefore it goes on, And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you? And afterwards, And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away. They put forward indeed this that Moses had said either on account of the question of our Saviour, or wishing to excite against Him a multitude of men. For divorce was an indifferent thing among the Jews, and all practised it, as though it were permitted by the law.
(ubi sup.) If however he had wished one wife to be put away and another to be brought in, He would have created several women. Nor did God only join one woman to one man, but He also bade a man quit his parents and cleave to his wife. Wherefore it goes on: And he said, (that is, God said by Adam,) For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife. From the very mode of speech, showing the impossibility of severing marriage, because He said, He shall cleave.
(ubi sup.) Being framed out of one root, they will join into one body. It goes on: So then they are no more twain, but one flesh.
(ubi sup.) After this, bringing forward an awful argument, He said not, do not divide, but He concluded, What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
(non occ.) But if two persons, whom God has joined together, are not to be separated; much more is it wrong to separate from Christ, the Church, which God has joined to Him.
(Cat. in Marc. Oxon.) Or else, it is said, For the hardness of your hearts, because it is possible for a soul purged from desires and from anger to bear the worst of women; but if those passions have a redoubled force over the mind, many evils will arise from hatred in marriage. (Chrys. ubi sup.). Thus then, He saves Moses, who had given the law, from their accusation, and turns the whole upon their head. But since what He had said was grievous to them, He at once brings back the discourse to the old law, saying, But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female.
(Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.) The Lord calls by the name of adultery cohabitation with her who is not a man's wife; she is not, however, a wife, whom a man has taken to him, after quitting his first; and for this reason he commits adultery upon her, that is, upon the second, whom he brings in. And the same thing is true in the case of the woman; wherefore it goes on, And if a woman shall put away her husband, and marry another, she committeth adultery; for she cannot be joined to another as her own husband, if she leave him who is really her own husband. The law indeed forbade what was plainly adultery; but the Saviour forbids this, which was neither plain, nor known to all, though it was contrary to nature.
(Vict. Ant. e Cat. in Marc.) There is no contrariety in Matthew's relating that He spoke these words to the Pharisees, though Mark says that they were spoken to the disciples; for it is possible that He may have spoken them to both.
What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. What God has joined, making one flesh out of man and woman, man cannot separate, except perhaps God alone. Man separates when, due to the desire for a second wife, he dismisses the first. God separates whom He has joined, when by mutual consent, for the service of God, because the time is short, thus we have wives as though we had none.
(in Marc. 3, 40) Up to this time Mark hath related what our Lord said and did in Galilee; here he begins to relate what He did, taught, or suffered in Judæa, and first indeed across the Jordan on the east; and this is what is said in these words: And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Jadœa, by the farther side of Jordan; then also on this side Jordan, when He came to Jericho, Bethany, and Jerusalem. And though all the province of the Jews is generally called Judæa, to distinguish it from other nations, more especially, however, its southern portion was called Judæa, to distinguish it from Samaria, Galilee, Decapolis, and the other regions in the same province.
(ubi sup.) Mark the difference of temper in the multitude and in the Pharisees. The former meet together, in order to be taught, and that their sick may be healed, as Matthew relates; the latter come to Him, to try to deceive their Saviour by tempting Him. Wherefore there follows, And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting Him. (Matt. 19:2)
(ubi sup.) He says not male and females, which the sense would have required had it referred to the divorce of former wives, but male and female, so that they might be bound by the tie of one wife.
(ubi sup.) And in like manner, because He says, he shall cleave to his wife, not wives. It goes on: And they twain shall be one flesh.
(ubi sup.) The reward then of marriage is of two to become one flesh. Virginity being joined to the Spirit, becomes of one spirit.
(ubi sup.) What therefore God hath conjoined by making one flesh of a man and a woman, that man cannot separate, but God alone. Man separates, when we dismiss the first wife because we desire a second; but it is God who separates, when by common consent, for the sake of serving God, we so have wives as though we had none.n
(ubi sup.) In Matthew it is more fully expressed, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication. (Matt. 19:9.) The only carnal cause then is fornication; the only spiritual cause is the fear of God, that a man should put away his wife to enter into religiono, as we read that many have done. But there is no cause allowed by the law of God for marrying another, during the lifetime of her who is quitted.
But He enters the region of Judæa, which the envy of the Jews had often caused Him to leave, because His Passion was to take place there. He did not, however, then go up to Jerusalem, but to the confines of Judæa, that He might do good to the multitudes, who were not evil; for Jerusalem was, from the malice of the Jews, the worker of all the wickedness. Wherefore it goes on: And the people resort unto him again, and, as he was wont, he taught them again.
They come to Him indeed, and do not quit Him, lest the multitudes should believe on Him; and by continually coming to Him, they thought to bring Him into difficulty, and to confuse Him by their questions. For they proposed to Him a question, which had on either side a precipice, so that whether He said that it was lawful for a man to put away his wife, or that it was not lawful, they might accuse Him, and contradict what He said, out of the doctrines of Moses. Christ, therefore, being Very Wisdom, in answering their question, avoids their snares.
But the disciples were offended, as not being fully satisfied with what had been said; for this reason they again question Him, wherefore there follows, And in the house, his disciples asked him again of the same matter.
(non occ.) For a repetition of a saying of the Word, produces not weariness, but thirst and hunger; (Ecclus. 24:29) wherefore it is said, They that eat me shall yet be hungry, and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty; for the tasting of the honied words of wisdom yields all manner of savour to them who love her. Wherefore the Lord instructs His disciples over again; for it goes on, And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery upon her.
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Summary
Mark 10:9 encapsulates Jesus' profound teaching on the sanctity and permanence of marriage, asserting that the marital union is not merely a human contract but a divine institution. In response to the Pharisees' questions about divorce, Jesus redirects their focus from legalistic interpretations of Mosaic law back to God's original creation design, emphasizing that what God has intimately joined together, humanity must not separate. This verse serves as a foundational declaration of the sacred, indissoluble nature of the covenant of marriage.
Context
Literary Context
This verse is situated within a broader discourse in Mark 10 where Jesus addresses various aspects of discipleship and kingdom values. Specifically, Mark 10:1-12 records Jesus' encounter with the Pharisees who test Him by asking about the lawfulness of divorce. Their question stems from differing interpretations of Deuteronomy 24:1-4, which permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce. Jesus, however, bypasses these legalistic debates by appealing to the original intent of creation as found in Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24, thereby elevating marriage to a sacred covenant established by God Himself, rather than merely a societal arrangement.
Historical & Cultural Context
In first-century Jewish society, the practice of divorce was common, particularly among men, and was largely governed by the interpretations of Deuteronomy 24:1. Two prominent rabbinic schools, Hillel and Shammai, held opposing views. The school of Hillel allowed divorce for virtually any reason, even trivial ones like a burnt meal, while the school of Shammai held a much stricter view, permitting divorce only for serious sexual immorality. Jesus' response in Mark 10:2-9 directly challenges the prevailing cultural norms and the more lenient interpretations, asserting a higher, divine standard for marriage that stood in stark contrast to the ease with which divorce was often pursued. This teaching would have been radical and counter-cultural, particularly for men who held most of the legal power in such matters.
Key Themes
The central theme illuminated by Mark 10:9 is the divine institution and indissolubility of marriage. Jesus underscores that marriage is not a human invention but a sacred covenant initiated and blessed by God. This theme is intricately linked to the holiness of creation, as Jesus grounds His teaching in the primordial act of God creating humanity as male and female and uniting them as "one flesh" (as referenced in Mark 10:6-8). Furthermore, the verse highlights the authority of God over human tradition and law, asserting that divine design takes precedence over human interpretations or cultural practices that might undermine the sanctity of the marital bond. This challenges the human tendency to redefine or dismantle what God has established.
Exposition and Analysis
Key Word Analysis
Refers to the supreme Divinity, the Creator and Sustainer of all things. In this context, it emphasizes the divine origin and authority behind the institution of marriage, highlighting that it is not merely a human arrangement but a sacred bond established by the ultimate divine power.
Literally meaning "to yoke together" or "to bind together." This powerful imagery evokes the joining of two oxen under a single yoke, signifying a shared burden, unified purpose, and inseparable partnership. Applied to marriage, it illustrates a profound, intimate union where two individuals are brought into a singular, divinely ordained bond.
Means "to place room between," "to separate," or "to divide." The use of this verb in the negative imperative ("let not man put asunder") serves as a strong prohibition against any human action that would break apart or dissolve the divinely established unity of marriage. It underscores the sacredness and permanence of the bond.
Verse Breakdown
"What therefore God hath joined together"
This clause establishes the divine agency and authority in marriage. The "what" (G3739, hós) refers to the marital union itself, emphasizing that it is God who actively performs the joining. The perfect tense "hath joined together" (G4801, syzeúgnymi) indicates a completed action with ongoing results, signifying that once God has united a couple, that union remains.
"let not man put asunder"
This is a strong negative imperative, a command forbidding human intervention to dissolve the divine union. "Man" (G444, ánthrōpos) refers to humanity in general, implying that no human being—whether the spouses themselves, legal authorities, or any other party—has the right or authority to break apart a bond that God Himself has established. The verb "put asunder" (G5563, chōrízō) reinforces the idea of separation or division, which is strictly prohibited.
Literary Devices
Mark 10:9 employs several potent literary devices to convey its profound message. Metaphor is central, particularly in the Greek word for "joined together" (syzeúgnymi), which literally means "yoked together." This evokes the image of oxen sharing a yoke, powerfully symbolizing the shared life, labor, and inseparable partnership within marriage. The phrase "what therefore God hath joined together" also functions as a synecdoche, where "what" stands for the entire institution and sacred bond of marriage. Furthermore, the verse utilizes antithesis by contrasting divine action ("God hath joined together") with human prohibition ("let not man put asunder"), highlighting the tension between God's design and humanity's potential to disregard it. The imperative mood ("let not man put asunder") serves as a direct, authoritative command, underscoring the non-negotiable nature of this divine injunction.
Theological and Thematic Connections
Mark 10:9 is a cornerstone of Christian theology concerning marriage, asserting its divine origin and covenantal nature. It moves beyond mere legalistic discussions about divorce to establish a foundational principle: marriage is a sacred union initiated and sanctioned by God, intended to be permanent and indissoluble. This perspective elevates marriage from a social contract to a spiritual covenant, reflecting God's own faithfulness and the unity of the Trinity. It underscores that human beings are not merely entering into an agreement with each other, but are participating in a divine act of joining, making the union subject to God's will and protection.
Reflection and Application
This verse calls us to a profound reverence for the institution of marriage, recognizing it as a sacred covenant established by God Himself. For those who are married, it serves as a powerful reminder of the divine hand in their union, encouraging them to view their spouse not merely as a partner, but as one with whom they have been divinely "yoked together." This perspective fosters resilience in challenges, promotes forgiveness, and cultivates a deep commitment to unity and faithfulness. For the church community, it underscores the importance of upholding biblical principles of marriage, providing support for married couples, and offering compassionate care for those facing marital difficulties, always pointing back to God's original design. It challenges us to reflect on how our actions, attitudes, and cultural norms align with God's perfect will for this foundational human relationship.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Does "let not man put asunder" mean divorce is never permissible under any circumstances?
While Mark 10:9 strongly emphasizes the permanence and indissolubility of marriage as God's ideal, other biblical passages, particularly in Matthew's Gospel, provide limited exceptions. In Matthew 19:9, Jesus speaks of "sexual immorality" (Greek: porneia) as a potential ground for divorce, and 1 Corinthians 7:15 addresses the issue of desertion by an unbelieving spouse. These passages are widely debated among scholars, but generally indicate that while God's ideal is lifelong union, there are tragic circumstances where the covenant has been fundamentally broken by one party, making divorce a sorrowful, yet sometimes permissible, last resort. The core message of Mark 10:9 remains a powerful affirmation of God's original, perfect design for marriage as a lifelong, unbreakable bond.
Christ-Centered Fulfillment
Mark 10:9, though speaking directly to human marriage, finds its ultimate Christ-centered fulfillment in the unbreakable covenant between Christ and His Church. Just as God joins a man and a woman in an inseparable bond, so too has Christ, the divine Bridegroom, eternally "joined together" Himself with His Bride, the Church, through His atoning sacrifice and the new covenant in His blood. This spiritual union is foreshadowed in passages like Ephesians 5:25-32, where Paul explicitly likens the husband-wife relationship to Christ's love for the Church. No human power or earthly tribulation can "put asunder" this divine bond, for Christ's faithfulness is eternal, as promised in Romans 8:38-39. The permanence and sanctity of human marriage, therefore, serve as a profound earthly reflection of the unbreakable, everlasting union between Christ and His redeemed people, culminating in the joyous imagery of the marriage supper of the Lamb in eternity.