1
When Jesus had finished these discourses, He removed from Galilee and came into that part of Judaea which lay beyond the Jordan.
2
And a vast multitude followed him, and He cured them there.
3
Then came some of the Pharisees to Him to put Him to the proof by the question, "Has a man a right to divorce his wife whenever he chooses?"
4
"Have you not read," He replied, "that He who made them `made them' from the beginning `male and female,
5
and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two shall be one'?
6
Thus they are no longer two, but `one'! What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."
7
"Why then," said they, "did Moses command the husband to give her `a written notice of divorce,' and so put her away?"
8
"Moses," He replied, "in consideration of the hardness of your nature permitted you to put away your wives, but it has not been so from the beginning.