Matthew And Luke contradiction

geomike

I know that one can divorce if his spouse has committed adultery, but in Luke 19 : 18 it says, "18Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery." Why is it that in the Book of Matthew it says you can divorce if adultery is committed by the other spouse and marry again without committing adultery, but in Luke it says that whoever divorces his wife and marries another is committing adultery? A person told me about this, and he said that this is why he isn't a Christian anymore. I told him that i will get him an answer. So your help is appreciated.

miskande

I'm sure someone else can give you a much better answer than mine, but I can give a quick response until someone else contributes. In Matthew, Jesus is talking about the only exception for divorce in the church, which is adultery. However, if it so happens that after the couple is divorced and a man wants to marry the woman who cheated, he is now the adulterer because he is "marrying her that is put away from her husband".

Obviously, the opposite if true (if the man cheats, gets a divorce, and a woman accepts to marry him knowing he cheated than she is commiting adultery). But you knew that ;)

Peace

ilovesaintmark

There's no contradiction at all.

I believe that St. Luke's scenario is different from that which is outlined in the Gospel of St. Matthew.

St. Luke was speaking about divorce at whim and not with the justified reason of adultery, eg, celebrity divorces, Henry VIII (of England), "irreconcilable differences".

St. Matthew was speaking of adultery being a causative factor to lead one to seek a divorce.

I think the person that said this to you was looking for a way out of Christianity.

geomike

Yes, it's the same thing i told him, but then he told me, "well, that is still contradicting because Luke was written to Theophilus, and they didn't have the book of Matthew, so Theophilus wouldn't know that they could divorce on the case of adultery." How do i answer him? btw, thanks for the very fast replies.

ilovesaintmark

St. Luke was writing with a particular approach to Theophilus, in essence to address the Gentile mentality.  There are certain aspects were there was a transfer by oral tradition.  Understanding that the concept of "divorce" was different for the gentiles relative to the Jews, St. Luke was being relative in his regard to the "audience" that he presented.

In regard to St. Matthew, he was being very explicit relative to the influence that was beginning to present itself to the Jews relative to the Romans and Greeks around them.

There is no contradiction.

Also keep in mind that St. Mark's Gospel was already around.  The three constitute the Synoptic Gospels.

St. Matthew had a different target "audience" and the deliberate aspects to the Law of Moses.

geomike

Wow, also same thing i told him, that Matthew was written to the Jews, Mark to the Romans, Luke to the Gentiles, and John to all. Ok, thanks guys, i guess i just wasn't confident enough in my answer. Thanks a lot for ur very fast help.

dfan8803

The first chapter of my new book (in a separate post in faith issues) actually discusses Jesus' sayings on divorce, and more importantly how such a stance weighs on the mosaic law, i.e. is Jesus against the law of Moses (since Moses allegedly allowed divorce)? Have a look and let me know what you think. Interestingly, the sayings on divorce are some of the most important of all of the sayings.

http://www.amazon.com/Taught-God-Making-Difficult-Sayings/dp/1933275502/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

Daniel

Ioannes

Its all about the context in which it was said. There is much of this throughout the NT that people point to as contradictions, when in reality it is clearly not. You cannot just divorce your wife because you feel like it, which was done in the OT. Like when a spouse lived out her usefulness so to speak, they divorced. So its no contradiction, the exception was just not mentioned in one of the verses, thats all.

geomike

Thanks omelnour, ilovesaintmark, dfan8803, and Ioannes for your very fast and informative replies. God with you all.