Moses allowed divorce

[Augustine3]

Since this was not a command by the Lord but simply permission by Moses due to their hardness of hearts and in light of the “spark of God’s original plan in their hearts”, was divorce considered to be even a slight sin at that time e.g. venial sin?

God bless,

 

[SwissGuard25]

Since this was not a command by the Lord but simply permission by Moses due to their hardness of hearts and in light of the “spark of God’s original plan in their hearts”, was divorce considered to be even a slight sin at that time e.g. venial sin?

God bless,

Remember it was kinda of different back then for the Jews.
Jews were and still are a minority race, but back in the time of Moses they were the true religion. So in order to preserve the Jewish culture God allowed Jewish men to divorce non-Jewish wives.
They faced the same problem in later years when, in order to preserve Judaism, all Jewish men were ordered to divorce there non-Jewish wives and get married to Jews so that way the religion of God can spread.
However know a days it’s different. Jesus, knowing Christianity will spread, ordered that divorce would be unnecessary. Divorce was ordered by God to preserve the faith,
But Jesus changed it because he Christianity would grow into the largest religion, ab=nd that the odds were high in marrying a Christian.
Hope this helped
God Bless

 

[svid2]

They also had polygamy back then, didn’t they. And they (and we) don’t.

 

[DesertSister62]

Augustine3 said;
Since this was not a command by the Lord but simply permission by Moses due to their hardness of hearts and in light of the “spark of God’s original plan in their hearts”, was divorce considered to be even a slight sin at that time e.g. venial sin?

Hi Augustine3,

This is what Jesus said about divorce;

Matthew 19:3-9;

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause? He answered, “have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.” So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder."

They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery.”

You will notice that his disciples are not happy with what he has to say. Here are their words; "The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry.”

The problem is not with divorce as much as it is with not being able to remarry. One can divorce and remain in good fellowship with the Church, but, without an annulment, they cannot date or remarry, as in the eyes of the Church they are still considered to be married.

DesertSister62

 

[TimothyH]

Divorce was not permitted originally.

They said to him, “Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss [her]?” He said to them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so." (Matthew 19:7-8)

From the beginning of time, from Adam and Eve, up to the time when Moses first permitted divorce, marriage was permanent. The only way a marriage ended was if one of the spouses died. And so many men, out of the hardness of their heart, would simply kill their wives to get out of the marriage. The practice is still in existence in some places in the world, where husbands have the power of life and death over their wives.

In permitting divorce, Moses was granting mercy to many wives who would have otherwise been murdered by their husbands, as well as helping men obey God’s commandment not to kill. Divorce was a temporary solution to a bad problem, getting rid of a greater evil in return for a lesser one… Jesus was simply reinstating the discipline of God’s original plan which existed “From the beginning” when Adam and Eve were naked in the garden without shame.

-Tim-

 

[Augustine3]

getting rid of a greater evil in return for a lesser one

That’s exactly what led me to my question – if this is in the context of evil wouldn’t it be sinful even for the Israelites to some degree?

Brother in Christ,

 

[SwissGuard25]

They also had polygamy back then, didn’t they. And they (and we) don’t.

Yah but the Christian religion is the largest so we don’t have to deal with the small chance of marrying a polygamist.

 

[centurionguard]

Since this was not a command by the Lord but simply permission by Moses due to their hardness of hearts and in light of the “spark of God’s original plan in their hearts”, was divorce considered to be even a slight sin at that time e.g. venial sin?

God bless,

I’ve always understood that it was not Moses but his future priest’s wrote into laws about Divorce was written into old Mosaic Laws.

And it wasn’t so much that God gave permission as it was the God put up with it.
Jesus ratified it in the New testament by being against Divorce.

Mosaic Laws weren’t the actual part of the official Ten Commandments.

The Codification of Mosaic Laws in what we now know as the Torah as a whole, was neither miraculously communicated from heaven, nor was it laboriously thought out and put together by Moses independently of external influences. It is sometimes hazardously asserted that it antedated Moses by a thousand years or more, since much that is in the Torah is found also in the Code of Hammurabi. Indeed, certain decrees in the Babylonian code are more excellent than their Mosaic parallels; in more important ones, however, the Torah takes precedence.

It was the primitive condition of Hebrew society that dictated Israel’s first laws by leading to the establishment of family and tribal customs. Yet it would be wrong to maintain with too much assurance that the same or a similar collection of laws would have resulted spontaneously and independently from the same natural conditions in any other period or clime. There had been precedents of just such customs and practices as Israel adopted, among other races with which the founders of Israel’s laws had come in contact, and it seems an irresistible conclusion that, since Israel borrowed its language from its neighbours and could be so easily won over to heathen rites as to defy the vigilance of judges, priests, and prophets, it could not but be influenced by the social and political life of the neighbouring peoples.

 

[TimothyH]

TimothyH;8549191:

getting rid of a greater evil in return for a lesser one

That’s exactly what led me to my question – if this is in the context of evil wouldn’t it be sinful even for the Israelites to some degree?

Brother in Christ,

I don’t know. The question is a good one.

Maybe my choice of the word “Evil” wasn’t the best, or maybe it wasn’t correct. I don’t know. I know that the Church teaches that it is never permissible to commit a lesser evil to prevent a greater one. And I know that divoce was not permitted until Moses permitted it, and then it was only a temporary solution to a very real problem. At least that is what I have read or been told.

So your question is, if God, through Moses, permitted divorce, and if divorce is a sin, then did God not give, at a minimum, tacit approval of sin?

I don’t know. Maybe we should look in the Catechism. Or in JPII’s Theology of the Body. Clearly my statement about substitution of a greater evil for a lesser one is not correct, or in need of some magesterial guidance.

The question is interesting.

-Tim-

-Tim-

 

[Joe_Kelley]

The OT marriages were not sacramental. Even now a non-sacramental marriage may be dissolved in Favor of the Faith [Pauline and Petrine Privileges].