Mark 10:11-12 --- Why is the adultery seemingly (against her [wife]) / (she [wife] commits adultery)?

[GodHeals]

Hi,

Why is the adultery seemingly (against her [wife]) / (she [wife] commits adultery)? Assuming Jesus is always talking about the wife of the first marriage.

Is this related to Jesus - the Bridegoom and us - the bride? And our relationship to adultery somehow in our relationship with Him, assuming we are living and disobedient life to Him and His commandments?

Thank you,
Brian

Mark 10:11-12

Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE)

And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

 

[FrBryan]

In the Bible, both Old Testament and New Testament, talk about marriage and adultery can refer either literally to marriage or to our relationship with God or to both; let’s look at the entire passage to see what our Lord means.

Matthew 10:2-12 CPDV
{10:2}And approaching, the Pharisees questioned him, testing him: “Is it lawful for a man to dismiss his wife?”

Jesus is answering the specific question that the Pharisee asks him.

{10:3} But in response, he said to them, “What did Moses instruct you?”
{10:4} And they said, “Moses gave permission to write a bill of divorce and to dismiss her.”
{10:5} But Jesus responded by saying: “It was due to the hardness of your heart that he wrote that precept for you.

*Divorce was allowed because of the “hardness of your hearts.” Remember, the full dignity of marriage is not revealed yet. *

{10:6} But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
{10:7} Because of this, a man shall leave behind his father and mother, and he shall cling to his wife.
{10:8} And these two shall be one in flesh. And so, they are now, not two, but one flesh.

Jesus is the author of the Law of God, so here He is telling us what God intended marriage to be.

{10:9} Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate.”
{10:10} And again, in the house, his disciples questioned him about the same thing.
{10:11} And he said to them: “Whoever dismisses his wife, and marries another, commits adultery against her.
{10:12} And if a wife dismisses her husband, and is married to another, she commits adultery.”

Jesus is returning the marriage to the way that God intended it “from the beginning.” Divorce is not allowed because in marriage God unites husband and wife, and man cannot separate what God unites.

Therefore, if a person divorces their spouse and attempts to marry someone else, they are actually committing adultery against their actual (first) spouse.

Now, this passage can also be related to our relationship with God, which Blessed Pope John Paul II does in his Theology of the Body.
I hope this helps. God bless.