Matthew 1:19

1:19 Because Joseph, her husband to be, 1  was a righteous man, and because he did not want to disgrace her, he intended to divorce her 2  privately.

Matthew 19:3

19:3 Then some Pharisees 3  came to him in order to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful 4  to divorce a wife for any cause?” 5 

Matthew 19:8

19:8 Jesus 6  said to them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hard hearts, 7  but from the beginning it was not this way.

1 tn Grk “husband.” See following note for discussion.

2 tn Or “send her away.”

sn In the Jewish context, “full betrothal was so binding that its breaking required a certificate of divorce, and the death of one party made the other a widow or widower (m. Ketub. 1:2; m. Sota 1:5; m. Git. passim…)” (R. H. Gundry, Matthew: A Commentary on his Literary and Theological Art, 21).

3 tn Grk “And Pharisees.”

sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

4 tc ‡ Most mss have either ἀνθρώπῳ (anqrwpw, “for a man” [so א2 C D W Θ 087 Ë1,13 33 Ï latt]) or ἀνδρί (andri, “for a husband” [1424c pc]) before the infinitive ἀπολῦσαι (apolusai, “to divorce”). The latter reading is an assimilation to the parallel in Mark; the former reading may have been motivated by the clarification needed (especially to give the following αὐτοῦ [autou, “his”] an antecedent). But a few significant mss (א* B L Γ 579 [700] 1424* pc) have neither noun. As the harder reading, it seems to best explain the rise of the others. NA27, however, reads ἀνθρώπῳ here.

5 sn The question of the Pharisees was anything but sincere; they were asking it to test him. Jesus was now in the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas (i.e., Judea and beyond the Jordan) and it is likely that the Pharisees were hoping he might answer the question of divorce in a way similar to John the Baptist and so suffer the same fate as John, i.e., death at the hands of Herod (cf. 14:1-12). Jesus answered the question not on the basis of rabbinic custom and the debate over Deut 24:1, but rather from the account of creation and God’s original design.

6 tc A few important mss (א Φ pc) have the name “Jesus” here, but it is probably not original. Nevertheless, this translation routinely specifies the referents of pronouns to improve clarity, so that has been done here.

tn Grk “He”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

7 tn Grk “heart” (a collective singular).