The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
Parallel translations
- WEB Pharisees came to him, testing him, and saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”
- BSB Then some Pharisees came and tested Him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”
- NKJV The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”
- NASB Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?”
- NLT Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife for just any reason?”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The Pharisees test Jesus by asking whether divorce is lawful for any reason. They hope to trap him in a divisive contemporary debate.
Overview
Rabbinic schools disagreed sharply: followers of Hillel permitted divorce for almost any cause, while followers of Shammai allowed it only for marital unfaithfulness. The Pharisees pose the question to ensnare Jesus, not to learn. His answer will go behind the controversy to God's original design for marriage.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Mark 10:2And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him.
- Heb 3:9When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
- Luke 11:53–54And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things:
- Mark 12:15Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it.
- Matt 22:35Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
- Matt 22:16–18And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.
- Matt 16:1The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
- Matt 5:31–32It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
- John 8:6This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.
- Mark 12:13And they send unto him certain of the Pharisees and of the Herodians, to catch him in his words.
- Mal 2:14–16Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
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Original language
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