Mark 10:1-12

Jesus' Teaching about Divorce

1 ¹Getting up, He went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan; crowds gathered around Him again, and, ²according to His custom, He once more began to teach them.

2 Some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing Him, and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife.

3 And He answered and said to them, "What did Moses command you?"

4 They said, "³Moses permitted a man TO WRITE A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY."

5 But Jesus said to them, "⁴Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.

6 "But ⁵from the beginning of creation, God ⁶MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE.

7 "⁷FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER,

8 ⁸AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME * ONE FLESH; so they are no longer two, but one flesh.

9 "What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."

10 In the house the disciples began questioning Him about this again.

11 And He said to them, "⁹Whoever * divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her;

12 and ¹⁰if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery."

Cross References

• 1. Mark 10:1-12: {Matthew 19:1-9}
• 2. Mark 4:23">Matt Mark 4:23; Matthew 26:55; Mark 1:21; Mark 2:13; Mark 4:2; Mark 6:2, 6, 34; Mark 12:35; Mark 14:49
• 3. Deuteronomy 24:1, 3; Matthew 5:31
• 4. Matthew 19:8
• 5. Mark 13:19; 2 Peter 3:4
• 6. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 5:2
• 7. Genesis 2:24
• 8. Genesis 2:24
• 9. Matthew 5:32
• 10. 1 Corinthians 7:11, 13

Footnotes

• [a] Or "send away"
• [b] Or "divorce" her
• [c] Or "With reference to"
• [d] Many late mss add "and shall cling to his wife"
• [e] Or "sends away"
• [f] Or "sends away"