The Life of Jesus in Harmony |
Index
divorce
DIVORCE (Heb. keritut; Gk. apostasion, "cutting," "separating").
According to Jewish Law divorce can be defined as a legal separation between
man and wife by means of a formal process of some sort. As the ordinances
respecting
marriage have in view the hallowing of that relationship, so also was the Mosaic
regulation in respect of divorce (Deut 24:1-4). From this we learn that a man,
finding in his wife something shameful or offensive, dismissed her from his house
with a
certificate of divorce.
Divorce, giving a certificate, and causes of divorce seem to have been
accepted by Moses and allowed because of the people's hardness of heart. The question
of divorce was entirely at the will of the husband; the wife, not possessing
equal privileges with the husband, had no right of divorce.