Matthew 19:1-10
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
Teaching about Divorce
19 Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan; 2 and large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one’?[a] 6 So they are no longer two but one.[b] What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” 8 He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity,[c] and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery.”[d][e]
10 The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Matthew 19:5 Greek one flesh
- Matthew 19:6 Greek one flesh
- Matthew 19:9 Other ancient authorities, after unchastity, read makes her commit adultery
- Matthew 19:9 Other ancient authorities omit and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery
- 19.9 This appears to refer to the case in Mt 5.32, though the Greek word for “except” is different.
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.