Marriage, Divorce, Children

Marriage, Divorce, Children

Two readings for Sunday, October 7, 19th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 22, Lectionary Year B.

Genesis 2:18-24 King James Version (KJV)

18 And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

Mark 10:2-16 King James Version (KJV)

2 And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him.

3 And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command you?

4 And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away.

5 And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. 6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. 7 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; 8 And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. 9 What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

10 And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter.

11 And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her. 12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

13 And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. 14 But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. 15 Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. 16 And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Obviously, we are back to the lectionary arrangement in which the Old Testament reading sets us up for the Gospel reading. And sets us up it does indeed, anyone for a coffee break? Pardon, my phone is ringing. Excuse me, got to go to the bathroom. Uh oh, I'm late for an appointment, catch you later. So, we have the OT, the Psalm as our liturgical response to the OT lesson -- the second reading (Epistle) is free and independent, now starting through Hebrews -- and here comes the Gospel, thanks a lot. 

The temptation is to revert to our discussion of the Gospel according to Mark in Sunday School and our Bible Seminars. As we were saying, some scholars think Mark gets his overbearing use of καὶ (and) from his familiarity with the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint actually. Comparing Genesis and Mark, that certainly shows up here. For further diversion, the breathing mark over the iota (the Greek letter for “i” does not have a dot over it as our English “i” does) indicates that καὶ is to be pronounced “ka-hee.” Let’s see, what else can one say to avoid this gospel lesson ...

Part of what one looks at in historical criticism is whether scholars think Jesus actually said something, or whether the evangelist (Mark) put it on Jesus’ lips for reasons of his own agenda, or to reflect developing teachings of the new and unsettled Christian community the Church; or perhaps to accommodate culture in some way or avoid antagonizing the civil authorities as we see in some later, disputed, epistles attributed to Paul where some scholars may use the harsh word “forgery.” In the Gospel selection for Sunday, some scholars point out that verse 12 reflects Roman law of the day, not Jewish law where a woman could not divorce, only the man could divorce, and say that therefore Jesus didn’t actually say this. And that the exception added at Matthew 5:32 and 19:9 is not from Jesus. And that, indeed, the entire conversation about divorce in the gospels is up for grabs as to whether Jesus actually said any of it or not, and that the presentations in the gospels, although coming from at least two independent sources (Mark and Q), are so varied as to indicate the the early Church could not agree about what its own teaching was to be, much less agreeing about what Jesus really said. 

In fact, the only verse in Sunday’s gospel reading that all the scholars seem to agree truly came from the lips of Jesus is Mark 10:14b, “αφετε τα παιδια ερχεσθαι προς με μη κωλυετε αυτα των γαρ τοιουτων εστιν η βασιλεια του θεου” Permit the children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

I’m going with that.

TW+