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Matthew 5:27-29
New Catholic Bible
Matthew 5:27-29
New Catholic Bible
27 Adultery.[a]“You have heard that it was said of old: ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that anyone who looks with lust at a woman has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is preferable for you to lose one part of your body than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.
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- Matthew 5:27 At this period, the laws on divorce were tolerant for husbands, intransigent for wives. Jesus rejects this inequality and confronts husbands with their responsibilities by radically condemning divorce. Matthew’s text contains the clause, “except if the marriage was unlawful,” which is lacking in the parallel passages of Luke and Mark, but occurs again in Mt 19:9. The Greek word porneia, “unchastity,” is generic and so has given rise to much discussion. The widely accepted opinion among scholars today is that it was a technical term used by the Jewish Christian community to signify a degree of relationship that constituted an impediment to marriage according to the Law (Lev 18:6-18; Acts 15:29).
