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They said to him, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?”[a] Jesus[b] said to them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hard hearts,[c] but from the beginning it was not this way. Now I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another commits adultery.”

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Footnotes

  1. Matthew 19:7 tc ‡ Although the majority of witnesses (B C N W Γ Δ 078 087 ƒ13 33 565 1241 1424 M syp,h) have αὐτήν (autēn, “her”) after the infinitive ἀπολῦσαι (apolusai, “to divorce”), several authorities lack the αὐτήν. This shorter reading may be due to assimilation to the Markan parallel, but since it is attested in early and diverse witnesses (א D L Z Θ ƒ1 579 700 lat) and since the parallel verse (Mark 10:4) already departs at many points, the shorter reading seems more likely to be initial text’s wording here. The pronoun has been included in the translation, however, for clarity. NA28 includes the word in brackets, indicating reservations about its authenticity.sn A quotation from Deut 24:1. The Pharisees were all in agreement that the OT permitted a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce his wife (not vice-versa) and that remarriage was therefore sanctioned. But the two rabbinic schools of Shammai and Hillel differed on the grounds for divorce. Shammai was much stricter than Hillel and permitted divorce only in the case of sexual immorality. Hillel permitted divorce for almost any reason (cf. the Mishnah, m. Gittin 9.10).
  2. Matthew 19:8 tc A few significant witnesses (א Φ a b c mae) have the name “Jesus” here, but it is almost certainly not original. Nevertheless, for clarity’s sake, “Jesus” is added in the translation.tn Grk “He”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  3. Matthew 19:8 tn Grk “heart” (a collective singular).