Mark 10:1–12

Discussion about Divorce and Marriage

Then Jesus left Capernaum and went down to the region of Judea and into the area east of the Jordan River. Once again crowds gathered around him, and as usual he was teaching them.

²Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife?”

³Jesus answered them with a question: “What did Moses say in the law about divorce?”

⁴“Well, he permitted it,” they replied. “He said a man can give his wife a written notice of divorce and send her away.”

⁵But Jesus responded, “He wrote this commandment only as a concession to your hard hearts. ⁶But ‘God made them male and female’^* from the beginning of creation. ⁷‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, ⁸and the two are united into one.’^* Since they are no longer two but one, ⁹let no one split apart what God has joined together.”

¹⁰Later, when he was alone with his disciples in the house, they brought up the subject again. ¹¹He told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery against her. ¹²And if a woman divorces her husband and marries someone else, she commits adultery.”