Some Pharisees(A) came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

“What did Moses command you?” he replied.

They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”(B)

“It was because your hearts were hard(C) that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’[a](D) ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,[b] and the two will become one flesh.’[c](E) So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11 He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.(F) 12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”(G)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Mark 10:6 Gen. 1:27
  2. Mark 10:7 Some early manuscripts do not have and be united to his wife.
  3. Mark 10:8 Gen. 2:24

Some,[a] testing him, asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.”(A) But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’(B) ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,[b](C) and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.(D) Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

10 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her,(E) 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 10.2 Other ancient authorities add Pharisees came and
  2. 10.7 Other ancient authorities lack and be joined to his wife