From: Jeff Harrison [mailto:Jeff@totheends.com]
To: heb_roots_chr@hebroots.org
Subject: To The Ends Of The Earth--Teaching Letter #9
TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH--Teaching Letter #9
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MARRIAGE, DIVORCE, AND SINGLENESS
With its white marble columns against Mediterranean
blue skies, Corinth sat at a picture-perfect location
high above the modern Greek shoreline, with a beautiful
panoramic view over the back-to-back Gulfs of Corinth
and Saronikos. The narrow strip of land between the
two gulfs was a crucial transit point in Roman times.
Today there is a deep, rock-cut canal between them.
But in Paul's day, ships were hauled overland on rollers
from one side to the other. This guaranteed some shore
leave for the sailors which, as you can imagine, they
took full advantage of.
As a result Corinth, like other port cities of the
world, was renowned for its vices: to "act like a
Corinthian" meant to live a dissolute, immoral life.
One of the special attractions of the city was the
citadel-like mountain rising behind the city. Once
serving as an impregnable fortress, it was now better
known for its temple to the pagan goddess Aphrodite,
with her 1,000 priestesses that served essentially
as prostitutes. No wonder Paul had to talk so frequently
to the Corinthians about immorality.
The 1st century AD was the peak of prosperity in the
Roman Empire--a moment of greatness it would ever after
try to recapture. But as often happens in times of
prosperity, there was a steep decline in the Empire's
morality and a revolution against traditional ideas
about marriage. Originally, Roman marriage brought
the wife under the legal authority of her husband,
who ruled as the head of the household. But with increasing
wealth came increasing independence for women. Women
began to appear in roles once in the domain of men:
doctors, artists, musicians, atheletes, merchants.
Some became quite powerful, even holding government
offices. As a result, women were less willing to submit
to a man's authority, and a new form of marriage became
dominant: marriage based on mutual consent, in which
the wife remained legally a part of her father's family,
instead of the family of her husband. This made it
possible for a woman to divorce her husband, which
had been impossible under the older system (Mark 10:12).
Many moderns might assume these developments were good
for women: they certainly match the ideals of our
own secular age. But in fact, the overall position
of women in the Empire declined. One of the most appalling
examples of this was the practice of exposing female
babies. Parents preferred boys, since girls required
a costly dowry at the time of marriage. So baby girls
were set out to die. Sometimes slave traders would
rescue the baby to be raised in a life of prostitution.
The ease of divorce meant that a woman could suddenly
find herself abandoned or replaced--much as in the
modern epidemic of single parent families, through
which many women have been reduced to poverty. Even
if she remained married, the affections of her husband
might be taken by a homosexual relationship, which
became fashionable again as it had in Ancient Greece.
In Corinth, the open practice of these modern-sounding
vices tormented the apostle Paul. Romans 1:18-32,
probably written while he was staying in Corinth, condemns
lust and homosexuality among other sins. In the face
of this "new morality," Paul advocates a traditional,
Jewish and Biblical morality, based on a family structure
in which the father is the head of the family, and
has the ultimate responsibility over his wife and children:
"The husband is the head of [in authority over] a
wife" (1 Cor. 11:3).
Paul's view of male authority has been widely rejected
in the modern West. Yet it's based on a sublimely
spiritual insight into the nature of God himself.
For Paul's model for the headship of the husband over
the wife is the headship of God the Father over the
Messiah: "God is the head of the Christ" (11:3).
Yet since they are one God (echad in Hebrew, as Deut.
6:4), the authority of the Father doesn't diminish
the Son or reduce the Son's authority or power. Rather
through their unity, the authority of the Father enhances
the authority of the Son, and vice versa. In the same
way, the husband and wife are also one--one flesh (also
echad, as in Gen. 2:24). Through their unity, the
authority of the husband does not diminish, but enhances
the wife's authority, and vice versa.*
* The Biblical submission of a woman to a man in marriage
in no way implies a putting down of the woman--just
the opposite: a wife is a man's glory (1 Cor. 11:7).
The better he takes care of her and provides for her,
the better it reflects on him as a man (Eph. 5:28-33).
Paul bases this teaching on the Creation account:
man was created first, and woman was created to be
a "help" to him (1 Cor. 11:8-9, alluding to Gen. 2:18).
He, along with other Jewish scholars, understood that
the Bible does not teach a simplistic equality between
men and women.* Rather, being male or female are distinct
and separate callings reflected by our creation. There's
a reason why we are one or the other. And this is
a reflection of our purpose and destiny.
* Paul retains the essential Biblical and Rabbinic
asymmetry between man and woman in his discussion of
special cases arising out of marriage: a man abandoned
by a non-believing wife (1 Cor. 7:15) is permitted
to remarry (7:27,28; as is the man who divorces an
adulterous wife), but a woman in the same situation
cannot remarry (until her spouse dies, 7:11,39; Jesus
specifically excluded marriage to a divorced woman,
Matt. 5:32). This asymmetry between men and women
reflects the permissibility of polygamy in Jewish law
and society (though apparently already rare, and in
modern times discontinued). But even here, these ideas,
which run so counter to modern sensibilities, reflect
the nature of God who as a singular husband can be
married to a plural bride (the nation of Israel /the
Church), yet we, his bride, can have no other.
Jesus also bases his teaching on marriage on the Creation
account (Matt. 19:4,5). The context in which this
teaching is given was a debate between two groups of
Pharisees: the followers of Hillel and the followers
of Shammai. The followers of Hillel taught that a
man can divorce his wife for any reason at all--even
if he doesn't like a meal she prepared, or if he finds
a more beautiful woman.* This is the reason for the
question: "Is it permissible for a man to divorce
his wife for any reason?" (Matt. 19:3). Jesus' appeal
to Genesis highlights the phrase "and the two will
become one flesh" (Matt. 19:5, Gen. 2:24). His conclusion:
"What therefore God has joined together, let not man
separate" (Matt. 19:6). Jesus considers the union
of a man and a woman to be permanent, which mankind
has no right to separate!
* According to Jewish law (here comes that asymmetry
again) only the man, and not the woman, has the right
of divorce.
In response, the Pharisees appeal to Deut. 24, and
its instructions about divorce: "Why then did Moses
command to 'give her a certificate of divorce and send
her away?'" (Matt. 19:7 quoting Deut. 24:1).* If Moses
permitted divorce, how can you, Jesus, forbid it?
"Because of your hardness of heart," Jesus says, it
was permitted, "but from the beginning it has not been
this way"--another allusion to Genesis as a picture
of God's original plan (Matt. 19:8).
* This certificate of divorce, called a "get" in Hebrew,
may have been intended to discourage hasty divorce.
Since few knew how to read and write in those days,
the services of a scribe were required, which lengthened
the procedure and brought it into the public domain.
By contrast, the procedure among Muslims is simply
for the man to say "I divorce you" three times.
Then Jesus renders the legal decision (halacha): "the
one who divorces his wife, not because of (any) unfaithfulness,
and marries another commits adultery" (Matt. 19:9).
This is not simply a pronouncement out of the blue,
but a legal ruling on the correct interpretation of
Deut. 24:1, the verse that served as the basis for
Mosaic divorce. The grounds given for divorce in that
verse are "because he has found some indecency in her."
In Hebrew, this is literally, "because he has found
some nakedness of a thing in her." Hillel and his
followers (including those questioning Jesus) interpreted
these words to mean "any shameful thing," which led
them to rule that a man could divorce his wife for
any reason. This became the view of main-stream Judaism.
But Jesus agreed with the opposition--the Jewish rabbi
Shammai, and others, including the Dead Sea Community--that
"nakedness of a thing" referred only to unfaithfulness
(Mishnah, Git. 9:10; Zadokite doc. iv.21-v.6).
According to Jesus and the opposition, even Moses had
only permitted divorce if there was unfaithfulness!
Therefore, anyone who puts away his wife for any other
reason, and marries another, commits adultery--according
to the Law of Moses! This is yet another example of
Jesus as a defender of the Law of Moses against the
doctrines of men, a major theme of his teaching ministry,
and quite unlike the typical and incorrect view that
he was some kind of renegade in opposition to the Law.
Jesus' ruling was a shock to his disciples (Matt. 19:10).
Divorce for any reason was common, such that his disciples
couldn't imagine it any other way. But it was a right
reserved exclusively to men. Women were not permitted
to divorce according to Jewish law (even today). Although
remarriage was permitted, a divorced woman was often
considered "damaged goods" and could have great difficulty
finding a partner, especially if she was older. By
limiting divorce in this way, Jesus effectively equalized
the "playing field" between men and women, a privilege
envied by women without such rights in the Middle East
today.*
* Especially Muslim women. Later rabbis had a tendency
to discourage divorce, although the man's basic right
remains, and is even insisted on in such sad situations
as the disability of the wife (where it affects her
ability to cohabit), certain types of disease, or her
failure to conceive after 10 years.
The disciples responded to Jesus' ruling, in what could
be interpreted as an almost adolescent peeve, that
then it would be "better not to marry" (Matt. 19:10).
Surprisingly, Jesus accepts this statement, and goes
on to introduce the idea of remaining single "for the
kingdom of heaven" (19:11,12). But the word he uses
for this single lifestyle is "eunuch." This is a harsh
term, implying the castration of the male member.
This saying is of a piece with those in Matthew 18
about it being better to cut off hands or feet, or
pluck out an eye, than to be thrown into the "Gehenna
of fire" (18:8-9).*
* Gehenna was the term used by Jesus and the Rabbis
for eternal physical punishment, equivalent to the
Lake of Fire in the book of Revelation (20:14,15).
Since Jesus was himself a "eunuch" for the kingdom,
we have here an insight into his own motivation for
remaining single. It does not reflect a weak and effeminate
kind of celibacy, as is often imagined, but that of
the kind of rough-hewn adventurer that amputates his
own leg to save his life: a total victory of the will
and the spirit over the flesh; a total renunciation
of physical pleasure of a kind that fell out of favor
in Christianity a long time ago. This is the dead
opposite of the passive "let go and let God" type of
spirituality so popular today. Rather, it is an awesome
fusion of the human will with the will and power of
the Almighty to completely subdue the flesh and eliminate
its opposition.
Fortunately, Jesus does not require this choice of
everyone, only those that can accept it (19:12). Whew!
After that, divorceless marriage looks just fine by
comparison.
Jesus' advocacy of celibacy in word and deed was a
radical teaching. Especially in a Judaism that taught,
"the unmarried person lives without joy, without blessing,
and without good" (bTalmud, Jeb. 62b). To this day,
Jesus' advocacy of singleness is seen by many Jews
as so strange and foreign, it puts him ideologically
outside of Judaism.*
* Yet it is another example of Jesus turning the traditional
understanding of his day upside down in favor of those
who were despised and rejected--in this case the unmarried,
the widow, and the childless.
But in his day, he wasn't alone. The Dead Sea Community
living at Qumran also advocated celibacy for its members,
in the context of their expectancy of the coming of
the Messianic kingdom. Similarly for Jesus, singleness
was associated with the coming earthly reign of the
Messiah: "Those considered worthy to attain to that
age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry
nor are given in marriage. For neither are they able
to die any more, for they are like angels and are sons
of God, being sons of the resurrection" (Luke 20:34,35).*
* Far from teaching that we become angels when we die,
as this section is popularly misunderstood, it provides
a stark vision of the age of the resurrection of the
righteous (raised out "from" the other dead prior to
the general resurrection; cmp. Luke 14:4). The Hebrew
idiom here is rich: "those considered worthy to attain"
is reminiscent of the blessing spoken at Jewish feasts
even today: "Blessed are you, Lord...who has kept us
alive, and preserved us, and enabled us to attain to
this season." Even the simple phrase, "that age" ("yom
ha-hu" in Hebrew) was the common Jewish designation
of the endtimes, evoking a whole series of prophetic
pronouncements introduced by this phrase in the Bible.
This age of righteousness preceding the general resurrection
is commonly known today as the Millennium (Rev. 20).
But unlike much popular teaching on the subject, Jesus
says it will be an age in which only those who are
found worthy will be included. Fleshly unbelievers
and the bearing of children are specifically excluded
from that age by his statement (Luke 20:34,35).
The approaching end of the age is also Paul's reason
for advocating the single lifestyle: "The time is
short," he says, until the coming of the Lord, and
"the form of this world is passing away" (1 Cor. 7:29-34).
Even "those who have wives should be as though they
had none." The goal, whether married or single, is
to be completely focused on the Lord (1 Cor. 7:35),
a radical and holy witness to his coming in the midst
of a perverse generation.
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Copyright c 2000 by Jeffrey J. Harrison. All rights
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To The Ends Of The Earth Ministries is sponsoring a
study tour to Israel in June 2001! Pastor Jeff Harrison,
who will be leading the tour, has studied with some
of the top Israeli archeologists and Christian scholars
in Jerusalem and led study tours full time while living
in Jerusalem. He now continues to lead tours to Israel
about every other year. This will be a rich time of
study of the Jewish roots of Christianity and the life
of Jesus/Yeshua as a Jew in the Land of Israel. For
more information, visit the Tours page on our web site
at www.totheends.com, or e-mail us at Jeff@totheends.com
To The Ends Of The Earth is a Messianic/Christian teaching
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