Biblical Context: Marriage, Divorce, Ketubah

Pharisees came to [Jesus], testing him by asking, “Is it legal for a man to release his wife for any reason?”

“What did Moses command you?” he answered.

“Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and release her,” they reply.

“Moses wrote this command and let you release your wives because of your hard hearts,” he answers, “but it wasn’t this way from the beginning. Haven’t you read that the Creator made them male and female from the beginning, and said, ‘This is why a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one body’? So they aren’t two anymore, but one body. Therefore what God has joined, let no man separate.”

— The Story of Jesus 24.3 

[adapted from Mt 19:3-6; Mk 10:2-9]

MARRIAGE

Throughout the Bible, marriage is held in the highest esteem.

God created man in his image, and in the image of God he created them. He created them male and female. God blessed them and God told them, “Be fruitful and become many. Fill the earth and control it.” – Genesis 1:27-28

A helper wasn’t found for Adam, so the LORD God made him fall into a trance and he slept. Then he took one of his ribs and closed his body under it. The LORD God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “Now this is bone from my bones and body from my body. She’ll be called woman because she was taken from man.” This is why a man will leave his father and mother and join his wife. They’ll be one body. – Genesis 2:20-24

DIVORCE

In contrast, the Greek verb apolyo means “unbind” or “release” and is the term for the act of divorcing. The actual divorce itself is denoted by the Greek noun apostasion.

When a man takes and marries a wife, but she doesn’t please his eyes because he finds something indecent with her, he can write a divorce certificate, hand it to her, and send her out of his house. But if she leaves his house and becomes another man’s, and the subsequent husband hates her, writes a divorce certificate, hands it to her, and sends her out of his house, or if the subsequent husband who took her as his wife dies, then the initial husband who sent her away isn’t able to take her as his wife again, because she has become unclean. That would be revolting to the LORD. – Deuteronomy 24:1-4

“The LORD has witnessed regarding you and the wife of your youth, whom you’ve betrayed, even though she’s your partner and your wife by covenant.... Beware in your spirit and let no one betray the wife of his youth. Because I hate divorce,” says the LORD, the God of Israel. – Malachi 2:16

THE KETUBAH

In traditional Jewish marriages, the ketubah (Hebrew for “her writing”) was a marriage contract that outlined the responsibilities of the husband. This one-sided agreement was signed by the groom, witnessed by two wedding guests, and read aloud during the wedding ceremony before being given to the new bride. The woman wasn’t required to sign it, since she was the recipient of her husband’s commitment. The ketubah was designed for the protection of women, in case their means of support (their husbands) should cease to provide for them, either due to death or divorce. It included three basic provisions for the wife: clothing, food, and conjugal rights. It could also include a specified amount of money if the marriage ended in divorce. Thus the ketubah was cherished by every Jewish wife, being her security. It was richly decorated and often displayed prominently in the home. It replaced the bride price (mohar), which was due to the woman’s father at the time of marriage, and therefore enabled young prospective husbands to marry without fronting large sums of money. The Jewish ketubah, which awarded rights to married women, stood in stark contrast to many ancient civilizations’ practice of possessing wives as mere property.