Mark 10:4

4 They answered, “Moses permitted a man to write his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away.” ^[a]

Mark 10:4 Meaning and Commentary

Mark 10:4

And they said
By way of reply,

Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement, and to put her away,
Moses did not command them to divorce their wives, only suffered them to do so: and gave orders that if they could not bear that they should live with them, but would divorce them, that they should give them a bill, which should certify, they were so divorced, and then send them out of their houses, free to marry other men; this law, or permission, is in ( Deuteronomy 24:1 ) , of the form of a bill of divorcement, (See Gill on Matthew 5:31).

Mark 10:4 In-Context

2 Some Pharisees came to test Him. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” they inquired.

3 “What did Moses command you?” He replied.

4 They answered, “Moses permitted a man to write his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away.”

5 But Jesus told them, “Moses wrote this commandment for you because of your hardness of heart.

6 However, from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’

Footnotes

• [a] See Deuteronomy 24:1.